Sick. Again.

DC Day 2.Feb. 22
I don't have very much luck being healthy in Washington. When I came last year I only had two days and those two days were two of the sickest of my life. Somehow I had managed to obtain an eye infection in both eyes, the worst head cold I'd ever had and these nosebleeds that wouldn't just bleed but would pour with no warning. So I couldn't see very well, I couldn't breath very well and when I breathed too hard, I bled. It was also my first time crossing the border at an airport and, with the whites in my eyes completely gone and replaced by veiny, glowing redness, I was sure I going to experience a gushing nosebleed whilst conversing with the customs officer. "I don't do drugs, honestly, look into my eyes."

This time I was sick again with some kind of flu, but I had almost a whole week to fight it off and make the most of the time I had.

. . . sleep was feverish last night. I woke up several times either shivering and freezing cold or sweating like I'd just trekked through the Amazon. My head is throbbing, I'm weak, tired, joints feel swollen. I'm hungry but as soon as I eat I feel sick. Woke up at 10 today, put my clothes on, fell back asleep until noon. Forced myself to get up, popped some aspirin, and hit the National Mall . . .

Got some pictures that day of the Washington Monument, the WWII Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Korean War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol building. Washington is not like other world capitals. It doesn't really belong anywhere, it doesn't have it's own state, but rather something called a district and nobody's really sure what to make of it. The number of people actually living in the DC populus is actually about the same as Winnipeg, just over half a million. The pictures you'll must likely see of the place are of it's monuments, which it has a lot of. The city can be very beautiful. It also has it's share of problems as it has a reputation of being rampant with theft and murders, it's own mayor being ousted in the early nineties for doing crack, and the first thing you notice about DC is the paranoia. There's police and security everywhere.

I find the Lincoln Memorial powerful. I sat on the steps and thought Martin Luther King giving his "I Have a Dream" speech to the masses below.

I like the Vietnam War Memorial as well. Instead of towering and white, the memorial is black and dug into the earth like a trench, somber, sobering, sickening.