Sunday, July 9, 2023
By:
Sometimes, irony comes at unexpected times.
It's become a trend, for me, for my blog titles (which follow the Dewey decimal system, with each week matching a span of numbers) to inadvertently fit the happenings of that week. So when this Monday rolled around, I found myself checking my calendar to see what could possibly be technological about it.
Monday we went to the Nationals vs. Reds game and watched the Reds just narrowly beat the Nats. Nationals Stadium is the first baseball field I've ever been to that sold arepas and fried yucca, which has set a new standard for ballpark food for me (sorry, hot dogs, you've been one-upped). It was a ton of fun getting to hang out with the other interns to watch the game, and it was my first in-person game since the MLB changed the rules for this season!
Tuesday I got to work on my next teaching guide, covering atomic theory from antiquity until now. It's taken me all week to get to the 1800s, as I waded through Ancient Greek theories about how everything was made up. Thanks, Democritus, for your truly wild ideas, and especially for the ones that turned out to be (mostly) correct.
Wednesday was one of the highlights of my week, as I travelled to Arlington to have some fantastic pizza from Stellina Pizzeria before heading to the Signature Theatre. There, I attended the tale of Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street. The show was as amazing--and chilling--as always, and has left me humming the soundtrack even as I write this blog. It's a little strange to explain the plot of the musical, but suffice it to say you'll never look at meat pies the same way once you've seen it.
Thursday morning, irony came for me. At 12:02 AM, my phone shut off and wouldn't turn back on. The weekend before, it had gotten rained on, and I'd assumed there was no damage except for to the cameras. I was wrong.
Technology.
Thursday didn't leave much time to stress about it, though, as Jenna gave a fantastic seminar on science misinformation and discussion to all of the interns at ACP. Attending her seminar meant another day of working from my beloved NBL reading room before heading home, still working through the 1800s' approach to atoms. That night, Ruthie, Tiffany, and I headed out for another highlight of my week: Kura, where we ate sushi delivered by conveyor belt and had drinks delivered by the cutest singing robot ever. Unfortunately, you'll have to check out their blogs for pictures, as my phone was chilling in a bag of rice by this time, never to wake up again.
Friday was full of end-of-week meetings, covering everything from the Oppenheimer movie and Niels Bohr in media to places to get KBBQ in the DMV. Then, I went to the Apple store to replace my dead phone (shout-out to Ainissa S.!), and irony no longer had its claws in me.
Last night, Emily and I started planning a surprise for some of the other interns--I'll keep that a secret for now.
Until next week, when hopefully I'll be up to date on all of the developments of atomic theory in history!
MJ Keller