So today is technically D.C. Day 1, but it won’t make nearly as much sense if you don’t know Day 0. So here we go and I’ll try to be succient but powerful. I am in Washington D.C. for the Mobilization to End Poverty.

I really wanted to arrive in time on Sunday to attend the 4:30 meet and greet with Jim Wallis. I am attending on very generous joint scholarship from Sojourners, Convoy of Hope, and Continuum Church. That event was specifically for scholarship recipients. (And I found out today that there was a little program with bios of all the scholarship recipients so today I’ve actually had several people say, “Oh I saw your bio and I’ve been wanting to meet you.” Ego stoke.)

However, I left the house a little late. I had the <ahem> “trusty” Tom Tom, generously loaned to me by Jill. However, Tom can’t find the Penn House where I’m staying, so Jill spent a lot of time programming in the exact latitude and longitude of the House so that I could use Tom for directions. However, just to be safe, I had a Google map and directions from Penn House. With all this, I believed I could still be on time.

The drive itself was harder than I thought. Within the first couple hours, a deer tried to commit suicide in front of my car. I literally yelled out asking for help from Heaven, and managed to narrowly avoid the deer. When I entered Maryland, there were signs reminding you to watch out for Maryland wildlife, with the typical graphic of a leaping deer … and a bear. A BEAR?! I could hit A BEAR?!?! What kind of place is this?

Maryland is mountainous! (Who knew? Not me!) And while I enjoy road trips in solitude, I don’t enjoy driving 75 mph … down a 6% grade … for 13 miles straight … surrounded by semis. There are actually “runaway truck ramps” on this road!

Finally when I arrived in D.C., I tried to reconcile all my different directions. At one point I would up in the wrong lane, but in my defense there were no less than NINE choices! So instead of a nice direct, mostly highway route, I wound up driving all the way through the city. I barely missed being part of a four-car pile-up in a roundabout. And then when I finally arrived, I could not for the life of me find the hostel. Again, in my defense, there is NO SIGN in front of the place! And the address is hard to see.

So I park, come inside, and check in. At the end I asked where I could park my car, because I wasn’t sure I could leave it on the street for the next three days. “Oh” says Intern Ben, “there’s nowhere to park.”

“Nowhere?! At all?”

“Well,” says the ever helpful Ben, “you could park it at the garage at Union Station. It’s about $18 per day.”

Now, because I am a hard-core Midwesterner, this comes as a total shock to me. Really. There’s a whole section about what to know before you make your reservation and there is not one word about parking! Not one! But, I’m here now. So the options are 1: go home (which I seriously considered) or 2: figure it out later. I took option 2.

When I got upstairs, and I got unpacked I discovered I had left my cell phone charger at home. This was basically the last straw. I have to find where to park. I’m missing my first session. And now I am about to be without communication. Unacceptable. The only thing I can think at this point is that I cannot think anymore until I’ve had a shower.

But I forgot my shower shoes. And there’s no hot water. I’m not kidding.

And then, I think because I have some wonderful friends praying for me, things turned around.

The hot water started working.

I met some of my lovely roommates: members of Womens’s International League for Peace and Freedom who are here to lobby for nuclear disarmament. None of them are under 65. Some of them are also members of the Raging Grannies (which would be an exceptional name for my garage band, but it’s already taken. Right now I can hear them talking about a 90 year old woman who periodically gets arrested, and hopes that the next time it happens, they take her to jail on a motorcycle.)

Darling Margaret invited me downstairs to their dinner where they were going to eat Thai food and strategize. At the dinner, I met Linda, who is also here for the Mobilization.

I found my cell phone charger.

I decided to drive to the convention center today and then figure out the parking from there.

Linda and I took an amazing walk to the Capitol in the twilight. I really love this city.

So, although my bunk bed creaks and sways like a cheap cruise ship, I went to bed happy. Until the Raging Grannie on the bottom bunk started snoring.