Into the Weekend

The weather in DC has become much better over the past two days. The temperature has noticeably dropped since and Thursday and yesterday was a cool California-like fall day. :)

I spent a good portion of my time Friday finishing up my project on immigration research. The people who oversee the assignment gave me several complements for finding so much information on so many candidates over the past week. Now all I gotta do is format the information in a particular way and make sure to find my spelling and grammar mistakes and correct them.

One thing I noticed about the workplace on Friday is how things are much more casual, especially dressing up for work. Even though it is not technically considered "casual friday" it is not uncommon for someone to come to work without a tie or come in jeans and a nice polo shirt.

Yesterday myself, my roommates, and friends from our floor originally decided to visit Chinatown in downtown DC. However, we made a last minute change and decided to head for Eastern Market. Eastern Market is located in the Southeastern section of DC (about 1/3 of a mile Southeast of the Capitol and is surrounded by restaurants and shopping stores. On Saturday's flea markets and farmers markets are abound in Eastern Market and that is where we spent most of our time during the early afternoon. Some of the cool things I found in Eastern Market were old issues of Life Magazine from the 1940s thru the 1970s, maps there were as old as 200 years old, a wide variety of apples, especially West Virginia apples that tasted delicious, and a metal flamingo.

Once we finished going to Eastern Market half of us decided to check out the "On Nation Working Together" rally at the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool. Many of the people who attended were members of various unions including: UAW, SEIU, AFL-CIO, NEA, AFSCME, and others. In addition to union workers, were various anti-war activists, and various other liberals. The message focused on producing jobs at home, making education affordable, and focusing on helping the bottom 99% instead of the top 1%. By the time we made it to the Reflecting Pool many people had already left but several of them had gone to visit the World War 2 Memorials, the Washington Monument, or other tourist attractions. We decided to make one lap around the reflecting pool and tried to get as close as we could to the speaker's podium, just as Jesse Jackson was giving his speech. My own personal estimate as to how many people i think attended the rally is about 30,000 but who knows how accurate that really is.

Some things I have to look forward to include listening to journalist and MSNBC contributor Richard Wolffe on Monday night and finding out my new assignment when I arrive to work.