Incas of Emergency

TSOTC: Photoblah.

I finally got my pictures back from CVS and discovered, a week and $14.28 later, that they’re horrible prints of terrible pictures. So much for an update about my gorgeous nighttime monument tour, for waxing rhapsodic about the daunting beauty of the Library of Congress, or for remembering what the heck else I did that’s supposedly captured in these pictures.

It may help you to appreciate the following if I stress that these represent the MOST worthwhile and decipherable pictures on the roll.

I got a halfway OK picture of the Washington Monument surrounded by kites. This was last weekend, when I was desperately sick, and went to the cherry blossom festival/ kite-flying competition with a couple of friends.

Then I got tired and had them point me toward the nearest Metro station so I could head back to the Center and sleep. On the way I apparently encountered a group of nuclear refugees – perhaps appropriate for a cherry blossom festival celebrating the history of “friendship” between the US and Japan.

The next night we went out for a nighttime tour of monuments. The White House is a lot smaller than I would have expected from the movies, but you’ll have to take my word for it because the beautiful set of size-comparison shots I thought I took of the little White House and its neighbor the enormous Treasury building didn’t come out at all. But that night wasn’t a total loss – I managed to capture evidence of the supernatural. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Ghost of the Lincoln Memorial!

This next one took me quite a long time to figure out, because it appears to be a shot of a taxicab. I know I live in a smallish town back in California, but it’s not like I’ve never seen a cab before, so what the fuck? I had to stare at the picture for a really long time before I finally realized why I took it, which, because it was from before I had a camera with zoom, you won’t be able to see. Inside the building behind the cab, there’s a sign that reads “United States Mint.” The sign on the outside of the window is offering the building for lease. I’m taking this as a bad sign, folks – you might not want to lag on converting those dollars into Euros.

However, lastly, there’s this one. Even with my cold, even with my shitty disposable camera, I managed to take an absolutely lovely, jigsaw-puzzle, picture-postcard photograph of the Washington Monument framed by cherry blossoms.

No, really, go back and take a long look, because I want you to get $14.28 worth of enjoyment out of that picture.

From now on, it’s OK, it’s all digital.