Day 2

I shaved some time off of my commute this morning by walking directly to the FSI shuttle in Crystal City.  The mile walk at 6:30am is a good way to start the day.  It isn't too hot, plenty of people are about, and I feel virtuous for not taking a bus.  From the shuttle I saw the Washington Monument, Arlington Cemetery, The Marine Corps War Memorial which is also referred to as the Iwo Jima Memorial.  It is a quick 15 minute ride that passes very quickly.  I was able to get onto the computers and continue reading the required material that we can't bring home.

Adding a Whole Foods stop on the way home, however, adds an hour plus.  Especially when one isn't paying attention to the metro trains and gets onto the blue line instead of the orange and has to backtrack.  That aside, I found the market easily enough and managed to limit myself to 2 bags. That was hard.  The fruit was beautiful, take-out offerings plentiful for a vegetarian and the bread fresh.  I kept picking things up and putting them back because they weren't necessary items.  It is a bit of an undertaking to carry the bags the 5 blocks back up the hill, switch trains, and catch the shuttle back to the hotel.  Doing all that when it is 90 and humid isn't the most fun, but being able to eat fresh bread with hummus, carrots and grapes all in the privacy of my own room makes it worth while.

The next to-do items are getting a guide book and getting a smart pass that works for both buses and the metro.  It is supposed to be even hotter tomorrow, so I might not add on more outside adventures after work.  I still haven't done a tour of the pool or the gym.

Tomorrow will be the 1/2 way point for the first week.  I miss my guys.  This is really hard.  I'm trying to keep the bigger goal in mind.  Some moments are easier than others.