How Things Can Change in a Moment

Regarding life, I think...

It is a funny thing how many experiences turn out differently from how we envision they will be.  It's amazing how things can change.  Let me elaborate:

On Dec. 3, 2011, I took a one-day trip to Washington because I wanted to do something different; in fact, I needed a change of scenery. I envisioned that this trip would be ordinary, that nothing different would happen.  Well, here is how it happened --

I spent part of the day in the Museum of American History as well as the National Gallery of Art.  I then went to Arlington National Cemetery to see the Changing of the Guard.  Here is part of the video I shot:




Pretty cool, isn't it?   Anyway, as I was walking back to the Metro, a strange thing happened.   I reached the entrance and heard a man calling "Ma'am, ma'am, are you going to the metro?"   At first, I thought he was calling out to someone else; but then, I realized that he was calling me.  There were four other men with him who were looking at him and smiling at the way he seemed to pursue me; but I stood back.  I must admit that the first thought that went through my mind was "Am I being set up for something?"  I am from New York City, after all.  Anyway, he was holding out an all-day pass for the Metro that he wanted to give me.  He said he couldn't get his money's worth.

Well, I realized that these guys (I should probably call them men; I'm not sure if they were soldiers) were not going to harm me because Arlington being a military installation probably has a lot of security cameras that we don't see which would make it a pretty stupid place for anyone to assault a person, so I went over to take the ticket. (Now there's a run-on sentence for you!  I had to get my thought out.  I'm a woman, you guys know we talk a lot, or at least you say we do.  Just like me to write a run-on sentence.  Now, back to my post.)  After I took the ticket, the guy (man, he's a MAN, probably thirty years younger than I am, but he's still a man.) holding it gave me a wink.  One thing, he was wearing a black, wool hat, which was strange because it wasn't cold out.  None of the others were wearing hats; even I wasn't wearing a hat, and I tend to feel the cold all the time.  I wonder what he was hiding under there???  I don't know who they were, I never remember meeting any of them before, but it was a nice, unexpected and different experience.  It was as if they were waiting for me to arrive because they were standing at the side of the Metro entrance.  Other people went in before me, but he didn't call out to them.  It was certainly different.

Anyway, whenever I return to DC, I'll probably visit Arlington again.  I also want to go to the Twilight Tattoo at Fort McNair, which is put on by the Army.  I don't know if I'll go to the Marine Barracks parade again; actually, I don't think I will.  Oh, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it immensely, it was very good; and I somehow wound up sitting in the VIP seats with the Military brass (I still don't know how that happened, it's another thing that changed from how I envisioned the evening would be), but I just don't think I'll go back.  We'll see.

It has been fun remembering and writing about this; so, until next time...

Thank you for reading!

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Comments

  1. Cha ChaWednesday, January 25, 2012 at 3:08:00 PM EST

    Nice blogpost. Your story illustrates yet another example of how we can encounter "angels" in unexpected places.

    ReplyDelete

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