Some more awesome writing assignments, one heck of a lot of traffic, a couple friends, and a few historic landmarks.

Today was an exciting day. I slept in just a tad this morning (about 10 minutes longer than usual), so I got to the office about, well, 10-ish minutes later than I usually get in. Lucky for me, my internship isn't paying me a dime and I was actually still in the office before the rest of the editors. And I left after them today as well, and I let almost an hour earlier than I usually do... Much of the usual went on today at the magazine. I worked on one of my new assignments and gave it back to the editor, who was thoroughly stunned because she had given me the project with the idea that it will take me the larger part of this week and next. Goodness, do they think I'm retarded or do they just not understand how fast college students can get work done? In my world, the faster I can get my work done, the more free time I have. I'm not exactly sure that same principle always applies in the business world, at least not from what I've seen. They are expected to fill 9-5 and they don't feel much of a fire to get things done quickly. I had a similar experience last week when the managing editor gave me an assignment and it took me less than half the time she thought it would. The only problem with my efficiency is that I keep running out of things to do... I'm literally begging all 3 of the editors for more assignments on an almost daily basis. If I didn't keep bugging them constantly, I'd be stuck twiddling my thumbs all day. Today I even took my time and got distracted a bit, but I still finished more than what I'd been assigned.

I also continued to work on some of the pieces that I got to choose the topic. However, this story ends sort of tragically. I finished the one article I was working on and since I'm waiting for more feedback on that one, I started a second. I finished this one near the end of the day, but part way through writing it I realized I'd saved it in the wrong spot, so I dragged a copy from its current location to my desktop, and then finished writing. Afterward, I saved the document and then deleted the one that I had accidentally saved to the server. The trash bin said that the action would permanently delete my file, but I clicked OK feeling I was safe because of the copy on my desktop. I was wrong. It turns out that my finished copy saved only to the location on the server, and the one on my desktop was the partially finished draft that I had when I dragged a copy to my desktop. I lost 2/3 of my article. I almost cried. So tomorrow, I get to go back and rewrite the majority of my article that I accidentally deleted—not looking forward to that.

I left the office about 45 minutes earlier than usual because I went to meet my friend Jamie and his sister Laura in DC for the evening. I knew it would take me a while to get into the city because of the ridiculous traffic in this area, but I must admit that I was pretty unaware that you could take what should be a 37-minute drive according to Google Maps and turn it into a nail-biting, hair-wrenching, 75 minute ordeal—turns out, you can! But I have to admit that once my car was successfully parked in a beautiful, end parking spot on Jefferson Ave that was completely FREE so long as I kept it there under 3 hours and stepped out onto the National Mall with the 70-degree weather and sunny blue skies, I think the drive was almost worth it. It was supposed to rain this afternoon, but it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day with the most perfect temperature. It was pretty much like heaven. When I met up with Jamie and Laura, we headed over to the Natural History Museum where I discovered what I would have looked like as a Neanderthal. And for your viewing pleasure, I've provided the picture below.

It's pretty spectacular. Let's just say, I'm glad I was born about 3 million years after some of our early ancestors, because I just don't think that the receding hairline would have been a very flattering look for me.

After I got this horrifying picture made up, I saw a giant squid that was not completely submerged in its preservation juices (why he wasn't completely im-

mersed, I don't know), a few dinosaurs, and lot of really big, really expensive diamonds and rare gems. When the Natural History Museum kicked us out, we took a nice stroll to the Washington Monument and contemplated the best escape route should the monument start to fall over or crumble to the ground. All in all, it was a pretty great day, and it was nice to get out of Gaithersburg and see some of the amazing places around me. Even though the traffic stinks, it is so beautiful around here. This is a picture I took when I stopped at a "scenic overlook" on my drive home two weeks ago. All in all, this has been an amazing experience and a pretty fun week. And tomorrow, it's back home again for a relaxing weekend.