Memorial Day

Well, there's never a shortage of things to do in DC, and that certainly applies to Memorial Day weekend as well. I was on-call Saturday night (as I said yesterday), but was recovered by yesterday evening, to go to the National Memorial Day Concert at the Capitol. It started at 8, so we got there at 5 so we could get a patch of grass to sit on. Anyway, to say that it was an amazing concert would be an understatement. In addition to the music, they had short scenes (I don't know what the correct drama term would be... not really scenes, not dialogs... more like interweaving monologs) of real stories, by famous actors (such as Gary Sinise, who was one of the hosts; the guy from The Unit who also does the All-State commercials; some people from Criminal Minds, etc)--and the real people of these stories (the ones who were still alive) were sitting in the audience, with the camera panning to them at the end. Very emotional stuff.

This was the view from where we sat:

And of course, the Capitol itself.

The U.S. Army Drum and Bugle Corps was there as well. I have some pictures of the buglers, too, but here are some drummers:

That was yesterday, and today, I met up with Melanie and her friends (who better to spend Memorial Day with than someone with a Master's in Military History?) at the WWII Memorial for the ceremony at 0900. There was a brass quintet from the Army Field Band, in addition to the color guard and wreath-laying ceremonies, and it ended with elementary school students around the memorial with pictures of service members who had died in the war, one from each state and territory, in front of the pillar for that state (I guess that sentence only makes sense if you have seen the memorial).

After that, we wandered around, killing time in the oppressive heat before the Vietnam Memorial ceremony at 1300, so we went through the Korean War memorial to read the wreaths. Here's one from the 25th Infantry Division:

For those of you who watch Criminal Minds, this guy should look familiar. Joe Mantegna hosted the concert last night with Gary Sinise (aka Det. Mac Taylor, aka Lt. Dan), then was one of the keynote speakers at the WWII ceremony this morning (his father and four uncles all served in WWII; he brought one of those uncles to the ceremony), he was at the Vietnam ceremony (and that's quite the ceremony, by the way), and he was in the parade. It's nice to see that kind of support for veterans and fallen service members.

My DC housing search

Well, I realized the other night that I hadn't been writing about my DC condo search, so I figured I should fill you in.

My parents and I arrived in DC on Tuesday night. Dad had his meetings with various people on Capitol Hill, and Mom and I had an appointment to meet with the realtor on Wednesday morning. So we hopped on the Metro and headed out to Bethesda and met with the realtor. On Wednesday, she took us to various places in Rockville, Bethesda, and Chevy Chase, all fairly close to National Naval Medical Center (Bethesda), the future site of Walter Reed National Medical Center at Bethesda (combination of Walter Reed Army Medical Center and National Naval Medical Center, scheduled to occur in 2011). There were a few that looked really good on the inside, but looked like old apartments on the outside, so I wasn't too thrilled with those. Then there were a couple of high-rises, which I liked a lot better.

Anyway, on day two, we saw some more places in Silver Spring (closer to Walter Reed), and while the units themselves were nice, they were all in the same community, which was a children-and-dog type area--not really what I'm looking for. So we made plans to go back to one of the highrises in Rockville (2 metro stops from NNMC and USUHS, where I'll be spending my second year of residency). Friday I made an offer and filled out all sorts of contracts, so hopefully we'll be finding out soon if the offer was accepted.

Yesterday we met up with Melanie and went on a tour of the new Visitor's Center at the Capitol, then went on to the Newseum and spent some time wandering around there. Quite an interesting place. I'd recommend it if you're in DC with a few hours that you can dedicate to museum walking.

Anyway, here's a picture of the building where I made an offer. Sorry, I don't have any pictures of the unit (which would probably be entertaining, considering the bright gold that is currently on the walls).

End of DC and beginning of ER

Since I out-processed on Thursday, I had Friday free to sight-see around DC. Of course, it was cloudy and rainy, and I had already seen everything in the Mall, but I took pictures anyway.

The Washington Monument, with the Capitol in the background.

The White House.

A closer view of the Capitol. I'm not sure what's in the tent in the foreground, but when I got closer to investigate, there was a sign that said "Children's Library of Congress", whatever that's supposed to mean.
And here's the Lincoln Memorial, with the World War II Memorial in the foreground. For those of you who haven't seen the WWII Memorial, they have panels along the walls with images from the war and in the States during the war. I liked the ones with military doctors.

Vaccines and stethoscopes... yeah, that seems familiar.

Okay, these are probably medics, not doctors, but I liked it anyway.

And the Korean War Memorial. These guys have really creepy expressions on their faces up close.

They had images in the granite here as well, and I found one of a scene from a MASH (yes, like the TV show).

So that was DC... I flew back to Columbus on Saturday and spent the weekend running errands, and then I had orientation for my ER rotation this morning. It was mostly really dull lectures, followed by a suturing workshop, where they gave us ham hocks and acted as if we've never held sutures before. Great fun. My first shift is tomorrow at 2pm, and I think it's a ten hour shift, and then an hour drive back to Columbus, because I have my EMS ride-along at 8am on Wednesday. It'll be a busy first few days, but it's only three days a week for four weeks, so I think I'll be able to handle that.