The title of this post has a dual meaning: it refers to the memories one leaves behind in Washington, D.C., as well as the junk he can't either ship or pack when he

If you go read the other student blogs here at The Washington Center's website, you'll notice there's more of an excitement to their writings, as though their treks are like unwrapping the Christmas presents that the Beltway has to offer. Compare that to me, where I've got more of a vexed tone about Washington, D.C.

If The Washington Center decides to put you up in the Meridian Towers at Braddock Station in Alexandria, Virgina, as opposed to the RAF in Washington, D.C., you'll be within a mile of "Old Town" Alexandria which has tons of shops and restaurants as photographically documented below:    I love the colors of the shops there.

I was going to write a blog post on Sunday night, as I try to consistently do, but something quaint happened. The "p," "?/," and carrier return on my Macbook's keyboard wouldn't work. I wasn't about to write The Washington Center blog equivalent to Gadsby, so I called it a night and looked at lolcats and watched a Deep Space Nine episode before going to bed. It stunk too. I took this picture of the Beltway right before sunset and had every intention of posting it last night.

I believe it was Socrates who said it is good to live in interesting times. Although Wikipedia says it's a Chinese curse, I can't that seriously because I've seen them run some misinformation on Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones for three years, notably that his oil and natural gas lease business was based in Oklahoma instead of Arkansas. Regardless of who said it, this past week was a very interesting time in our nation's capital, and if you get to be a Washington Center intern, then certainly you may experience such interesting times.

I know; I know. It has been two weeks since my last blog post. And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I'm not that committed to this thing anymore or that I'm running out of ideas or that I'm not fascinated by my blogging opportunity anymore.

You know, things are getting pretty hectic around here. As you know, I am a senior in college and this is my final semester. So, all of my projects are starting to bottleneck. I really wonder how I'm going to make it through this semester. You know, I think the uncertainty surrounding the conclusion of this semester is incredibly stressful.

The alarm clock on my phone buzzes. It's 7:45 AM. I don't want to get out of bed. I'd rather lie there and listen to the rest of the world diligently toil in their vain endeavors on this mortal coil as I drift off into a dream about a two-headed wildebeest that speaks Latin out of one head and Greek out of the other. You ever noticed that? You ever noticed how you have weird dreams after you go back to sleep in the morning? I like those dreams. They're actually quite inspirational.

I don't live in the TWC residential housing complex that's on the website. I live in some luxury apartments in Alexandria, Virginia, just right across the river. This is actually how it used to be, I'm told. In the old days -- I feel like I should look more wizened and have a shabby, white beard when I tell you this. Anyway, in the olden days, the students here at The Washington Center used to live in apartments spread across the Beltway as far as north as Bethesda and as far austral as Alexandria.

As I told you, I will be writing three blogs these week because I neglected to update my blog on Sunday night. It's sort of my penance. I'm sure you like it when I sin like this because you get more content.