...And Loving It

No but really folks, I'm loving it.  First off, DC was awesome!! I'm not a huge fan of humidity, but it was super nice (made my skin super soft and my hair really fuzzy).  First day there we spent it on the Mall.  I saw the Lincoln Memorial first and it was really impressive.  I loved the quotes on the walls.  There was lots of lightning and we got drenched pretty hardcore but it was super fun.  Next day we woke up bright and early and headed to Gettysburg.  K, I loved how it literally took about thirty minutes to drive state to state.  We landed in Maryland, drove to DC, saw the Mall, then drove back to our hotel in Virginia, then went to Pennsylvania the next day.  #bestdayever.  So we went to Gettysburg which was very cool and super intimidating.  We had an awesome tour guide who really loved what he was talking about and we just had a grand old time.  So... We have this great guy, Mr. Baldwin (history teacher, i.e. Coach T), and I'm pretty sure he's DL mafia.  He's a huge guy (think Brother Dan Balls, then times it by two), but he's super sweet and kind and amazing.  Somehow he got us all tickets to the Red Sox Orioles game which was so cool! I wasn't a fan of baseball but now it's kinda fun.  We were up in the nose bleed section of the Orioles stadium but we could see and hear just fine, except for the fact that there were a whole bunch of swearing drunk college students behind us... We're not in Utah anymore, kids.  Fun times.
        The next day (Saturday) we competed.  Our judges were pretty weird and they chose our Search and Seizure paper which was lame because we were banking on expression.  Oh well.  We did pretty well the first day and we all felt really good about it.  We toured some more but I can't remember what we did... Something great! Next day we competed again, this time with different judges (two attorneys and a retired supreme court justice), and did our Warren Court paper.  I felt better about that day but the rest of the team didn't feel the same way unfortunately.  Also, Emma Z, the other girl in my unit, got kinda sick on Saturday and couldn't really talk, and basically lost her voice Sunday, so that was lame.  But we made it through presenting so that's good.  Then there was a dance Sunday night (again, we ain't in Utah), then they announced the top ten.  We didn't make it in which didn't really surprise anyone but it was still a little disappointing.  Monday we watched a couple of the top ten teams perform (they really weren't that impressive), then Emma actually got pretty sick so I ended up staying in the hotel with her the rest of the day.  Gratefully I woke her up in time to go to the awards ceremony later that night.  Also, took an Uber to awards and it was so sketchy.  The guy was super middle eastern and he couldn't freaking speak English!!!! I mean what?? It's fine.  He missed his turn, then missed his U-turn, and Emma and I were convinced we were gonna get kidnapped.  Good news, I'm still here.  Anyway, we got to the awards ceremony, and it took forever to get to the actual awards.  And here's the deal: top ten teams can't get any special awards, they can only get in the top ten, nothing else.  However, they hand out Unit awards (1 team, 6 mini Units in the team) to the best Unit in the nation.  If we got a Unit award, it would go to Unit 1 or Unit 5 (my unit).  Mr. Rigby told us straight up we weren't gonna get it.  Sad day.  But the announcer announced the Unit's in order, and my heart was beating so fast when he got to the Unit 5 award.  He said "and for the Unit 5 award *opened envelope* U-" he didn't get past the U and our team flew out of our seats and my unit just kinda screamed and looked at each other like....OH MY FREAKING HECK WE DID THAT!!!!!! Yeah.  I mean, I was a straight up wreck the whole time.  We got a trophy (also, Unit 5 unit award is the most coveted of all the unit awards), and took lots of pictures.  I was just astounded because I didn't think we'd get it.  When mom said we put thousands of hours in it....We put thousands of hours in it.  Every weekend, every spare minute.  When I got in the car I'd say my papers and ask myself questions so I'd know.  Literally I was drowning in Government.  It was awesome and I'd never trade it in a million years.  So it was the best thing that's ever happened to me.  It was so amazing.  Hard work (I mean hard work) really pays off.
        The next few days we were in Washington I was just floating on a cloud.  We saw the African American museum, the Holocaust museum (only go if you're mentally and emotionally stable.  I wasn't.).  All the sights were just so cool.  We got an after hours tour of the Capitol by Rob Bishop (Utah District 1 rep) which was cool.  We also went to Arlington which was awesome.  My favorite part was seeing the place where my favorite Supreme Court Justice, William J Brennan, was buried.  We also got to see the changing of the guard which was phenomenal.  It was just a super cool experience and I could talk about it all day long.  We saw the Iwo Jima monument, the Natural History museum, the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial, George Mason memorial, the Archives, Library of Congress (the original BOM is there, pretty cool), and so much more I can't even remember.  All in all, it was just super great.  We treated that trophy like it was solid gold.  It was the best thing ever.
         I'm sure you all are thinking this post is way too long, and I totally agree, but I wanted to ask my sisters and sisters in law a favor.  So, you all will be here on May 27 which is awesome, and it's actually senior ball that night.  I was wondering if you guys would be willing to do my makeup and hair?... I have lots of ideas and I thought it would be fun for my last dance to have a girls date with makeup and hair... Just let me know what you guys think! I'll be doing another post with pictures for you all! Hope you have a great week.  And um, if you ever want to talk about DC... I'll be more than happy to discuss that with you ;)