I am blogging to you from Washington D.C. this evening after a looooong day of traveling. Today actually started around 9 a.m. yesterday. That’s right, short of attempted naps on the plane and the two hours I crashed between 5 and 7 p.m. tonight, I haven’t slept at all.

I’m really not much of a procrastinator, but when it comes to packing, I’m always pushing getting finished before I have to leave for wherever I happen to be going. Of course, I’ve never had to pack for longer than 15 days before, so I should have given myself more than a couple of days to get everything together for three months. But, I didn’t. I started packing at 2 a.m. Friday and finished about 3 a.m. Sunday. And since I needed to get to the airport by 5 a.m., I just didn’t bother sleeping.

By the time I got to the apartment, excitement and adrenaline were the only things keeping me going. My roommates were out when I finally made it in, so I decided to do a little exploring on my own. I walked over to Adams Morgan for Adams Morgan Day Festival, which is just a big festival in the street with vendors lined up between eclectic historic buildings peddling everything from Chinese food to Pashmina scarves. (I almost bought a scarf today, but knowing my tendency for impulse buys at festivals, I didn’t bring much cash with me.)

Of course, because I didn’t have much cash meant I ended up eating at Chipotle instead of getting something unique to DC. But between running to make my connection and trying to get from BWI to the apartment, I hadn’t eaten anything since the croissant I had at home around 3 this morning. I wasn’t complaining about the burrito I practically inhaled.

The exhaustion of today was worth being able to have a very intimate cookout yesterday so my friends and family could say good riddance to me for a few months.

Since I was too tired to even bother taking pictures of anything today, I posted some photos from the cookout yesterday below. Enjoy! 🙂

My dad designed this cake from scratch.

Close up of my favorite part: Stone Tribune: Cassie Departs for DC. Says See you on Christmas!

Meanness, a.k.a. Ella, slightly unfocused because I haven’t mastered the flash on my new camera.

This was maybe one-fourth of the kids who were there.

We crammed around 30 people under that tiny shelter when rain tried to ruin the day.

This is the best and worst playground invention ever. Best because it’s always fun to spin around in circles. Worst because you get sick and, if you’re not careful, you go flying.