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Seems fitting to start with the good, because chronologically that is the way it occurred. My week started out spectacularly and then progressively got worse.

Saturday I spent a nice day with Max Pettis down in Washington D.C. We had to visit the National Gallery of Art for a project for his Art History class, and spent a few hours perusing the art exhibits, paying careful attention to French impressionists and famous sculptors.

We also visited the Navy Memorial. We both picked out our favorite raised bronze sculptures for pictures. Mine was the one on the left because of the drama and emotion in the picture, and all of the intricate detailing in the waves.

We had a lovely dinner at Marrakesh. It was his first time there. I was quite pleased with the belly dancer; she had the right body type and knew how to work it, unlike some of the previous ones that have been there. All in all Saturday was a fun day running around the district, figuring out the metro system (as pictured on the right), hanging out at the ice-skating rink in the center of the Sculpture Garden and all around being crazy college kids.

Sunday, of course, Mom Dad and I spent decorating the house for Christmas, singing Christmas carols and drinking hot chocolate. No Crabs for Christmas, unfortunately, due to the absence of Devi’s laptop, but I attempted to faithfully hum the old tune without much success.

Back on Sunday night I returned to college, vacation over (and all too soon!) to finally get my room back together in the aftermath of my floor’s flood. Erica and I (with two gentlemanly helpers) tackled the pretty intense project of getting the carpet back into the room. We were happy with the condition of our carpet upon retrieving it from the basement; nothing wrong with it a thorough cleaning could not fix. So, my weekend was enjoyable and accomplished!

Monday was fairly normal; I woke up early, went to classes, met my new tutoring client (who would like to hire my services for both French and Spanish, I told him we should probably do them one at a time), took a nap, went out to dinner, hung out with friends, figured out my schedule for next semester, and had an all around college-y day.

Tuesday, however, was pretty awful. I woke up feeling queasy and sick, but continued on with my day, as a true warrior does. My plan: go to my morning classes, check on my parking ticket at the Department of Transportation Services, get some Christmas shopping done at the Columbia Mall and stop by home to drop of some money to pay the bills, go to my government class, have dinner with my roommate, get my homework done and then get a much needed good night’s sleep!

The result: I woke up late, quickly got dressed feeling frazzled, tossed my bill envelope in my purse (complete with 250$ in cash) along with my wallet and 50$, stopped by the bathroom before running hurriedly to class, leave my purse accidentally, come back…all the money, and even the gift cards in my wallet, are gone. Fortunately, my cell phone, car keys, ID card, and everything else were still there, just anything with direct monetary value was taken. I think all added up together I lost about 500$.

At the Department of Transportation I was informed the appeal that I had filed for my parking tickets back in September was thrown out because it was one day late. I hadn’t even realized the parking tickets were on my car for a few days before I received them. This meant that with the late fees added on to them they were worth about 200$, and there was nothing I could do but pay them! Already in a bad mood, I stayed there arguing for about an hour, considering that the parking tickets themselves were unjust to begin with, and the person I was dealing with was very rude and flippant.

I ran to my government class feeling even queasier. I sat through the discussion getting progressively sicker, planning on leaving during break, then finally just threw up. It was quite embarassing trying to clean myself off and get out of there pronto. I walked back to my dorm and just collapsed until this morning!

Fortunately, I’m feeling a lot better now, and I feel that from this point, there’s no place to go but up!