My weekend in DC.....

Hi Steve,

Here is a photo of the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial statue...isn't it awesome?!  I LOVE IT.  There are quotes all around it, with the "mountain top" behind him....it was a gorgeous day in DC today.

Here's a close-up of the statue....how amazingly accurate...very poignant and somber...

This is the side of the statue, the "rock" of hope...with the "mountain of despair" behind it.

And here you can see the mountain statues behind him....he was carved out of despair into a stand-alone figure of hope for all the world...at least, that is the symbolism of it.

And to show you just how huge the statue is, this is Pete and I standing in front of it.

And here is one of the quotes that surrounds the memorial statues. *(I took a photo of every quote, but I won't put them all here...you can just get into that rich-man jet of yours and go see it yourself)!!

Then, we walked over to the FDR Memorial, which is right near the MLK Memorial...(Pete had never seen this one before, so we figured we'd take him, it was worth a short walk).

And here we are, standing in the bread line....(my Museum friend wrote, "hey! you're in the wrong line! that's the line to the men's bathroom!" hehehehe)

This statue is fairly new, actually.  The big statue of FDR has a cloak around his wheelchair, because he didn't want anybody to know he was IN a wheelchair.  However, that really upset the handicapped community a lot....politically correct crap....so they made THIS statue to appease them, with the wheelchair showing.  I find that to be really dumb that they had to do this, but okay whatever.  If FDR were alive and had HIS say-so in the matter, he would NOT have approved of this at all.  Why not respect the guy, I mean isn't that the whole reason why the memorial was built in the first place??

Pete also wanted to see the Korean Memorial while we were there, in the same vicinity.

He overheard an Asian 20-something ask an older Asian man, "What was the Korean War? Was it between North and South? Who won?" And Pete cringed and said that was one of the saddest things he'd ever heard in his whole life.  He said he wanted to yell, "GO WATCH M*A*S*H!" But I said, "Nah, she wouldn't know what THAT was either...just tell her to GOOGLE IT."

Here's a close-up of one of the soldiers. They are quite large, and the whole scene is quite haunting at night when it's all lit up around it....the whole wall of Korean service-people seems ghostly too. You can see the wall behind this statue, but the faces embedded in it are very haunting to see, even in daylight.

And finally, I was dropped off at my Museum, so that I could deliver a sympathy card for my friend Mike who passed away last week.  I had hoped to see him this weekend, which breaks my heart.

He was only 64 years old.

NOW do you wanna hurry up with that new album of yours PLEASE?!!  It worries me!!

In the next photo below, there I am, in the center, with my friend Rachel on the left, one of her coworkers that I don't know, and on my right is "Buff Daddy" Arthur, and his son.  I used to wear one of those burgundy blazers every day too.  Rachel told me that "things are pretty much the same here, but NOW they actually WANT to hire creative people---they have spoken highly of you since you left. WHY did you leave?" and Art said, "Yeah, what the hell happened?"  So I had to tell them about 9/11 and how my mom was flying to Florida that day and nobody could find her, so I panicked and drove home to Michigan planning her funeral.  One of the (then) supervisors whom I loathe with a red-hot-fiery passion told me over the phone that I had to choose between my family or my job.

They were stunned.  "They can't do that!" Rachel said.  "Oh but they did," I said.

Pete and our friends Ed and Stephen sat in the car, driving around DC while I was at the Museum.

When I walked through the door, the alarm went off as I walked through security.  The guard took out his wand, and I spread my arms open, and said, "I worked here with Stephen T. Johns years ago," and he stopped wanding me and said, "I started here 5 months after he was shot."  I said, "He was a good guy and I miss this place very much."  (You may recall a security guard was shot and killed a few years back, as the killer walked through the door with a rifle hidden under his overcoat).

Then I walked over to the information desk, to find my friend Ted standing there. I said hello, and he was shocked to see me.  He then whipped out photos of his 3 year old son.  (He loves to brag about him and it was nice to chit-chat with him for a few minutes).  Then he called Rachel and told her she had a visitor, and she came up to see me right away.  

She said, "I am so glad you're here, come down to the green room with me, Mike's son and daughter-in-law are here, and they just gave Art the coin necklace that Mike wore every day..."  now, I very nearly burst into tears when I heard that...Mike wore this necklace every day to work, with a new coin inside the holder all the time...he had an awesome coin collection and liked to show it off. 

He loved that necklace, and he loved to tell us the history behind each coin.

That necklace very nearly made Art cry too.  

Mike was his very best friend for many years. They were really like brothers, the two of them.  I was always in the middle of the two of them, goofin' and jokin' and laughin'.....we were in an "old man sammich," they used to say...(I was the MEAT don'tchaknow). hehehehe

Then, as they were talking about how much of a flirt Mike was, I took off my coat, and my sweater, to reveal this V-neck, low-cut blouse with the shoulders cut out, and said, 

"I wore this especially in honor of Mike, the horn-dog..." and they all laughed, 

because it's true, he was always flirting and lusting after me all the time.  

Arthur walked up to me and said, "and you know what, if Mike was here, he would walk right up to you like this, and say, "HELLO BECKY," (then he looked straight down my blouse at my boobs the whole time he spoke it).  IT IS SO TRUE!!  He would have done that.

Rachel said, "Ya know what, Mike is still here...I just keep telling myself he's on his day off and will be back soon...but his memory is still here with us now, in this room, and always will be."

So I spent about 20 minutes there, with them all, talking and laughing about fun stories of Mike, and it was great to meet his son.  I handed him the sympathy card.  He opened it and read it, then he teared up and hugged me close and said "thank you so much."

I told him that Mike was well-loved by EVERYBODY in that Museum, including the head honcho's.  I said, "I came all the way here from Pittsburgh to see him, I wish I had better timing...but I loved him, and I wouldn't miss being here for anything in the world."

He said, "It's so great to meet the people I have heard so much about.  

I know my dad loved you all very much too."

Here's Art with me, right after he showed me Mike's necklace.

I was trying not to cry...and so was he.

Anyway.......all in all, it was a good weekend but I am really tired.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend too.

Love you lots, my favorite troubadour.  Now get busy with that new album...

and GET IT DONE SOON WILL YA?!!

Love, Rebecca