Well, It's Almost Hump Day,

I can't believe it! Tuesday is already over! It's really interesting to compare the speed of time here in DC to the speed of time in Texas. Here I can wake up and suddenly it's Saturday. Last week in Texas felt like at least three or four weeks worth of DC time. I wonder why that is? Hmm...

Maybe it's because it's all a dream, or at least feels like a dream. It was so strange to go back to my house in College Station. I felt like I had never left. As I was sprinting through the rain to the front door I felt like I had just been there! Everything was so vivid and real. It was as if I went to sleep in College Station and during my dream somehow managed to get an internship in DC and lived there for a few months, then I woke up at home in Texas. Even though I've been here in DC for two months it definitely still maintains very surreal qualities. I can't quite put my finger on it, but maybe one day I'll figure it out, so that I can blog about it.

Today at work I did more boat research. Amazingly enough I am not tired of it yet. In fact, with every new boat that I research the more interesting it all becomes. Like this afternoon for example: I was researching a chromolithograph by a famous marine artist done in the 1880's of a yacht race. This is the second yachting piece that I have researched, so as I was going through information about the second one, I could incorporate the knowledge I had gained from the first one. I was so excited! I know this probably sounds ridiculous. Of course you can incorporate things you've learned in the past into things you're doing in the present, but this was different.

The paintings that I'm researching were part of the collections of another museum before they were donated to the Smithsonian. When they were donated, the previous museum also gave us all of the information that they had on file about each one. For many of the more obscure ships the first museum sent a picture of the painting, along with whatever information they had about the ship, to nautical history expert, the late Thomas Hornsby, who would then research the ship and send his research back to the museum. This was all back between the 40's and the 70's, so I have gone through countless brittle, yellowed, hand-typed letters written by this man. I don't know why, but I imagine him in my head as an endearing, stooped little man with thick glasses and neatly combed white hair rummaging through ancient books and charts. He has become my 'historical hero' so to speak. His letters are so polite and knowledgeable. Each letter is hand-signed. I wish I could have met him.

Anyway, today, when I was able to knowledgeably talk about historical yacht racing, something that two months ago I knew absolutely nothing about, I felt like I had a little Thomas Hornsby in me. I really do feel like I have accomplished something!

So, on to my escalator theory. When I first began to talk to people about moving to DC, I had several warn me about the rude Washingtonians. According to these people they are an ill-tempered lot, who grumpily stalk the streets of our nation's capitol. So, needless to say, when I moved up here I was prepared to battle my way through the rude denizens of DC, but aside from the occasional bout of umbrella dueling, I have not found that to be the case. I have had some lovely talks on the Metro with complete strangers. Clearly the people who warned me about the rudeness were wrong. Or were they?

It was all made clear to me one morning when I was on my way to work. I ride the Metro (subway train) to get to my job every day. Since the Metro is underground there are always large banks of escalators for commuters to go from street-level to the trains. All Washingtonians know that proper escalator etiquette requires that anyone who wants to stand, does so on the right side of the escalator, and those who want to walk, use the left side. Everyone knows this! It's obvious if you stand and look at an escalator full of people that all the walking people are on the left and all the standing people are on the right. It's obviously not a random phenomena. All the people in a hurry didn't just happen to pick the left side of the escalator!

Problems arise when people are unaware of this law of the land. It's really quite maddening when someone in front of you decides to stop on the left side of the escalator. And of course the right side is full of standing people, so it's impossible to go around them.

What does all this have to do with my revelation, you ask? Well, one morning I was running late because my train had taken forever to get to my stop, so I was trying to get to the office as quickly as I could. I hopped on the escalator and made it only a few steps before I was halted by a group of tourists practically lounging all over the left side of the escalator. If you have ever ridden an underground train system, then you know how long these escalators can be. Within seconds I had an angry line of my fellow commuters stacking up behind me on the blocked escalator. No amount of tapping your fingers can release the sudden stress brought on by these awful escalator loungers.

After what felt like an absolute eternity we reached the end of the escalator. By the time we got to the top I was so fed up with these completely uncordial tourists that as quickly as I could I shot past them to make sure that I wasn't stuck behind them for another eternity on the next escalator, and of course it had to be obvious to the disgruntled people behind me that I was not a part of the blockade.

To the untrained eye (i.e. the tourist's), by quickly passing them it may have looked like I was rudely flaunting my non-tourist-ness, when, in reality, I was just trying to get to work, something that they had impeded.

If you ask a person standing on the left side to let you by, no matter how politely, then you've really crossed the line. After doing this only a few times and receiving affronted glares from the not-so-polite escalumps, I decided to just wait them out. To them it seems less rude to fly past them than it does to kindly ask them to move aside. Therefore, I will be forever stuck behind escalumps on escalators.

Have a wonderful day, and watch out for escalator blockages!