A DC Day in the Life

It's officially my half-way point in DC. And I have done a terrible job of blogging. To compensate for this failed attempt at blogging regularly for friends and family, I'm trying to redeem myself for the second half of my stay in DC. Starting...now.

I thought I'd start by giving everyone a little "day in the life of" my DC experience. The days here, like most places in a fast-paced city, are far too short. It really does feel like a time warp to realize my time is already half-up. So here's a little taste of what my typical days look like:

-Wake up by 6:00am and leave by 6:45. Being in a house with 16 people, I find this time of day incredibly peaceful because I'm usually the first one up, and typically out the door before the majority of my house is awake yet.
-Commute to work- 45 minutes...usually get to office by 7:30. Our offices are in Arlington, near the Pentagon so it's a longer commute than most. I also usually stop for Dunkin Donuts coffee too...it has fast become my favorite.
-From 8:30-9am in our office is "Stillness" time. It truly is a peaceful start to the day...the calm before the storm where we all prepare ourselves spiritually for the day. I really praise Jesus for this.
-11am is staff prayer everyday. Also something I praise Jesus for. I will eventually write a blog about all these things because it has truly influenced me in more ways than I could have ever imagined.
-On Mondays and Wednesdays I leave the office by about 4/4:30 to make it to class at the Archer Center. Class typically runs until about 8/8:30 on those nights, making for pretty long days.
-Weekends are a mix of things...this past weekend I took a day trip with some friends to Baltimore. One weekend a month we have Dr. Daly's class. Other times we'll have things for Dr. Swerdlow's class. The rest are really free and up to us. I usually like to spend my Saturday's at Eastern Market...which is one of the most fabulous parts of living in a city. I also like to go for runs around the Main Mall. Every time I make it to the stairs in front of the Lincoln Memorial (my half-way point), I just stop and look out on the mall...it never gets old. I'm hoping to do a much better job of exploring museums this last half of my stay, particularly the National Portrait and Art Galleries.

That pretty much sums up my daily "schedule." It is quite the busy city and I think people in DC really have a hard time with the concept of "rest." One of our class guest speakers was telling us a story about a Catholic nun he met on a bus one time. As they were talking, she would mention at every person she saw running past "look at all these people running...look at all these people running." He finally stopped and asked her why she kept saying that, and she said she always noticed how many people exercise their bodies in this city, but wondered how often they exercised their souls. Looking over my own daily schedule, it is incredible how lost we get in the business of life...the materialism of time. Grateful for the ways in which I do get to exercise my soul here amidst the clutter...and that is for another post :).