In fear of the frat mosquitos

Monday was working from ACP; I am getting towards a complete draft of my report and unsurprisingly defeated Jaden in another game: scrabble. After work, Charles and Jaden taught me how to play chess. I don’t think I have good enough forethought to be any good at chess yet. The game took over 2 hours, with a break in the middle for dinner. I do not think I have the attention span for chess, either. I also made a peach cake with Maia and Kai.

Tuesday was working from NIST. Brad returned from vacation bearing gifts (beer for Jenna and I). We did a practice walking tour of NIST in preparation for our upcoming intern NIST tour. No one had faith in my ability to give directions, so I took copious notes. Tuesday night was the bachelorette again, this time with the peach cake.

Wednesday, Jenna and I worked from ACP for the Lunch and Learn with the FYI writers. Johnny, Charles, and I created an excellent plan to make a bunch of money: we will pool every intern’s stipend, lease our housing, and franchise a TacoBell. Surprisingly, if we combine our stipend and lease GW housing at the going rate, we have just enough for a TacoBell. We are sitting on a goldmine. I also convinced Maia to play Scrabble with me. Charles, Kaden, and I went for a 4-mile run in the rain after work. I passed out shortly after showering.

Thursday was the NIST tour: a very eventful and stressful day. After successfully getting all the interns to NIST via metro (I was unable to nap out of fear of never arriving at NIST), we spent the day running from presentations to tours to pizza and ice cream potlucks. I never once got lost and I believe that’s a win on the day. After the tours and commute home (I was able to metro nap), we played lawn games at Jaden’s frat house (Jaden is like so frat). I did incredibly poorly at the die game, but Kaden and Jaden kindled a growing romance, so I guess something good came out of the game. Unfortunately, the frat house lawn brought an onslaught of mosquitos. I made the worst mistake and did not put bug spray on my legs. Friday morning, I awoke to a concerning number of mosquito bites on my legs (Jenna thought I had chicken pox). Between Friday at 12 pm and Saturday at 8 pm, I took one Benadryl every four hours to prevent me from ripping my legs off. I am in agony.

Friday, I finished the first draft of my report and started my slides. More importantly, I had a chili dog for the first time. If you have been keeping up with my blogs, you are already aware of my love for hot dogs. However, I have yet to mention my love for chili (I wouldn’t go as far as to say I like chili more than hot dogs, but it’s definitely up there in the food rankings). Unsurprisingly, I very much enjoyed the chili dog. So did Kaden. We have big plans to make chili dogs before the summer is over. The night ended with Catan, I won despite trade embargos levied against my nation by Charles and an attempted filibuster by Kaden.

On Saturday, Charles, Kaden, and I went for a 6-mile run. This is the farthest I have ever run. We then had post-run breakfast sammies and croissants from Tatte. Jenna and I went to the Post Office Museum in the early afternoon. Jenna rates the museum a 9/10 in museum stars. It may not be the most interesting content-wise, but the building itself is beautiful (high ceiling and natural light), and the exhibits are thoughtfully designed (lots of colors and such). We ended the night with my second-ever baseball. At my first baseball game, I brought a hat I was knitting to keep me entertained. Unfortunately, the interns (by interns I mean Jaden) banned me from bringing my crafts, but I got away with destroying in online scrabble.

On Sunday, Jenna and I invaded Jaden’s pool. Jenna made us her grandma’s secret pasta recipe, and we ate dinner as a family. We played spike ball and then watched the sunset over the Potomac (I thoroughly bug-sprayed my legs). We then watched The Princess Bride.

I think The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies we’ve watched this summer.