Hey, it's Orange. I'll begin with my flight to Boston on which I discovered in the seat pocket in front of me a celebrity gossip magazine, I learned that Sarah Palin's daughter-with-baby stole her best friend's boyfriend (former bestfriend says baby's father always wore a condom with her!), Britney's Spears has reuninited with family after being angry with mom for writing a tell all book about Britney's life, and Angelina/Brad have the messiest multimillion dollar mansion ever (old food crusted everywhere!). Quinn picked me up in Boston and we spent the next 3 days walking around, eating fancy pastries and observing Hempfest from afar blasting death metal in downtown Boston with Quinn's girlfriend Yevonne (sp?). Quinn says she misses everyone and is awaiting more visits from Snac Lodge and friends. Then I took the Chinatown bus to NYC and to Ben Haber's house. Ben was applying for radio jobs and then headed down to the Radical Fairies Gathering in Tennesee in a few days and he took me out to his favorite gay bar where we met Aimee Jennings and failed to sing kareoke because we were too busy chatting. I took another Chinatown bus to DC the next day. I stayed at Sydney and Rainer's house (my aunt and uncle.) They were moving the shorter (6'7") of their two sons into a townhouse nearby with his 5' tall girlfriend. I visited grandmother Margie the next day down in Richmond at her retirement home. She had been waiting for me all morning and was quite delighted to have visiters but didn't really remember who I was. We went to a performance of old songs by two men playing the fiddle and guitar. Margie and the other elder ladies in attendence, most of whom cannot remember what happened an hour ago, knew all the words to the songs and happily sang along for an hour or two. Sydney and I dozed off in the back. Meanwhile a tropical storm had blown in and was fiercely raining and blowing outside. On the two hour drive back to Sydneys house we saw 4 cars that had driven off the road. I met Mike in DC the next day to begin the wedding festivities of his fraternity brother. We attended a walking tour of Georgetown with a guide who showed us famous people's houses including where Julia Child once lived when she worked for the organization that preceeded the FBI, before becoming Americas's favorite housewife chef. Her kitchen can now be viewed at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. We ate lots of excellent food at the rehersal dinner, then more the next day at the noon sandwhich and football party and again at the actual wedding reception interspersed with dancing and speeches. The reception was conducted like a celebrity awards show complete with obnoxious overbearing DJ and grandly announced entrances. There was a candy bar out front so guest's could fill up take out boxes with an assortment of m&ms, jellybeans, taffy, butterfingers, toffee and mints for futher enjoyment on the way home. After a wedding brunch the next day, Mike and I toured about the sights including the Natural History Museum, the American Indian Musuem and a host of monuments my favorite being FDR's who had a surprising lot of great things to say, which were etched in stone amongst water features. The following day we went to Maria Cantwell's office to request a tour of the Capitol building. I've got to go now, more to follow...