Well, DC was awesome. I headed up Friday night, arriving around 10pm, and hung out waiting for Matt to return from his dinner. I brought up a tape of Fast Show episodes to introduce Matt to the show, which I think I can say he enjoyed immensely. We now have a new battery of catch phrases to throw at each other, like “Suits you sir, oh!”, “Twasn’t chese at all”, and “Little bit waayyyyyy, little wuuhhhhh”. We stayed up early to adjust our bodies for the coming night out, so we got up late.

Then we headed into the city and visited the Spy Museum, which was quite excellent. It was really neat to see all of the advances in intelligence technology, bugs, lock-picks, disguise, etc. We grabbed some food from California Pizza Kitchen, and then we went to see Lost in Translation, which I thouroughly enjoyed.

We headed out to Adam’s Morgan, a nightlife area of town. Had a rather unpleasant experience on the street when some dickhead seemingly hooked his foot behind Matt’s foot and gave him a shove. He went spilling backwards, but I think no physical harm was done. I’m thankful that they weren’t looking for a fight, I wouldn’t have known what to do and it was two against three. We met up with some Coast Guard friends of Matt’s, at a bar aptly named Madam’s Organ. Then we headed off to Club Insomnia, for some kickass trance.

In a way, there were many things to complain about: the sound system was so loud that it was distorting, it was an 18+ venue, so there were skanky little kiddies crawling all over the place, and Armin draws a crowd, so there were so many people that dancing mostly consisted of jumping up and down in time. But the music was great, and Armin had his trademark grin and infectious personality — he obviously loves his job.

Leaving the club I realized how freaking loud it was in there, as my hearing was quite diminished. It felt like I had water in my left ear until yesterday, but now I’m just left with a more pronounced ringing that I’ve ever have before. I’ve always had a very slight ringing, but it was easily masked by quiet noises. *shit* I’m trying to be hopeful and think that time will fix this, but I don’t know. I normally take ear plugs to events like this, even if I don’t end up using them. I forgot this time, and I may have permanently damaged myself

To top it all off, staying up so late several nights in a row caught up with me this morning as I woke up feeling sick. I didn’t feel so horrible in the early morning, so I went in to work anyway. But as the day progressed, the body aches kicked in and I felt like crap. So I came home after a half day, and slept until now. I have a sinking feeling that this will keep me home tomorrow as well, although I’m trying to think positively. Thanks to Corinne for the Echinachea.

I head off to Scotland a week from tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to that, I’m hoping this bug is long gone by then. Dammit, being sick sucks. Being sick without someone to take care of you sucks even more.