Good ole' awkward moments in a new city

So I've been in DC for over a month now and yet, I have no blogs to show for it. I'd like to lead you all to believe that I've been having tea parties with Michelle and Barack or dating some cute human rights lawyer, but unfortunately my life is not that exciting. As I've been trying to settle into every area where life exists- home, work, community, church, friends, etc., some parts feel comfortable, but I'm still trying to figure most of them out.
I'll start with the job. I have World Vision stories. A plethora of them really. Some of them involve classic awkward moments with "famous" people in this field. Others are more boring. My favorite awkward moment occurred during my second week. So my desk is near a corner with high cube walls. On the other side sits a man named Jai. He's rarely there because he's always traveling to some corner of the globe. He's kind of a big deal- the VP of Transformational Development and good buddies with Bryant Myers. Jai was also on the selection committee for the apprenticeship program that I was chosen to be a part of. Anyways, I'm tucked away pretty well back there in my isolated, cold cell, I mean cube. In fact, when my co-workers from the other side of the office skype me (lazy fools), sometimes I tell them that I'm not wearing any pants at my desk...no one would know the difference. But I digress. So you get the picture...my desk is isolated. I am setting up my webcam and to make sure the still photo feature works, I decided to test it out. What ridiculous thing did I do you ask? Well it just so happens that I have these awesome Jesus pencil toppers from another seminiarian (thanks Mike!):
I decided to take a few of these holy and transformed writing devices and take a picture with them...I may or may not have been kissing them...I cannot deny or confirm that. Just as this was all going down, Jai walks behind me and sees it all- the pencil toppers, the kissing, the ridiculousness of it all. I was mortified and if you know me well, you know that I do not get embarrassed easily. I started backpaddling and trying to play it off. Jai's a pretty reserved guy and I'm sure he thought, I can't believe I helped select this sacreligious, Jesus-kissing, weirdo! Two days later his assistant moved all of his belongings to another cube on the other side of the floor. She had it had been planned for weeks, but I think that Jesus and I may have scared him away.
Now I move onto an awkward story about getting to know this new city. People here on bikes look like it's their first day off the farm. It's painful to look at. These people wear suits when they ride, role up their jeans, and the most appauling- they don't wear brain buckets! Well, I went for a ride around the city a couple weeks ago in full biking armor- padded spandex, bike shirt, gloves, helmet- the whole nine yards. That is how we role in Seattle. I rode around for awhile and made a stop at the Lincoln Memorial to whisper sweet nothings into Mr. Lincoln's ears. I thought the DC biking culture was bad enough to witness, but boy was I wrong. As I was approaching Lincoln, I was run off the road several times by a swarm of these:
These segway tours are everywhere and they are always made up of tourists that are more fascinated by the function of using a segway than they are about the historical sights they are seeing. Their use of these things cause them to abandon all common sense and totally disregard their surroundings. Plus they just look stupid. Like any responsible biking citizen, I had read up on the DC biking road rules posted online and yet somehow, I got caught behind a whole slew of these idiots with absolutely no way out. Every time I tried to pass them, their guide perceived it as a challenge and sped up. To top it off, one of the guys yelled to his wife, I knew spandex was back in...how come you won't let me where 'em outside of the house...she is? So awkward. I can't judge DC for that one. These people are probably from Kentucky or something.
So there you go. A couple random stories of awkwardness from my time in DC thus far. Stay tuned for more...