On Monday it was snowing and I was wearing boots.
On Saturday it was 73 degrees and I was wearing flip flops.
No wonder this place drives people insane.

Via The Economist:

I am an idiot. When I was a student at LSE, my friends who were studying finance kept telling me that I should work in finance. I told them that finance sounded really boring and that I actually knew nothing about finance. They told me that it didn’t matter if I knew nothing about finance, I should just apply. But I didn’t, because I wanted to work in the oil & gas industry. After reading this article, however, it is apparent that I made the wrong choice. Instead of working for an industry that actually, you know, provides the energy that runs the world while managing to turn a profit and not completely fuck up the world economy, I should have gone to work for Goldman Sachs or Deutsche Bank or whatev, and then received a pink slip so I could travel the world and fulfill my dream of climbing Mt. Everest:

When Deutsche Bank determined that strategist Rod Manalo was, in the merciless language of hard times, “redundant,” it was an abrupt and humbling end to a seven-year career in finance.
But Manalo, 30, has not been trudging the gray streets of London where he was based looking for work. This week, he was in the sun-drenched Brazilian resort city of Florianopolis, taking surfing lessons and dancing in throbbing nightclubs amid Carnival revelers. That was after he had snowboarded in the Alps, golfed in Florida and prepared for a year-long world journey that he expects will take him to the Amazon, Antarctica, Australia and beyond.

[...]

Among such Type A tourists, there is often more going on than daiquiri-sipping or hammock-swinging. Take Alex Iscoe, a 28-year-old Toronto native who resigned from Goldman Sachs last May as the financial storm clouds were gathering. Recently, he was in London, hooked up to a machine that simulates the depleted oxygen conditions of high-altitude peaks, part of his training regimen to climb the highest mountain on each of the world’s seven continents, something only about 230 people have done.

Well, that sounds like fun. I’ll be daydreaming of climbing Mt. Everest while sitting in my cubicle tomorrow, wondering how I can manage to scrounge up the $65,000 to actually do so.

A few photos from Inauguration weekend (yes, I realize this was over a month ago). Most of these photos are actually from Annie and Cheryl.

My mom and I with the Patino side of the family from LA. They were in town because Tom was doing some shots for Leno’s Tonight Show.

We took a tour of Lincoln’s summer cottage in NW DC.

Checking out Lincoln’s top hat at the newly renovated Smithsonian American History Museum.

Waiting to pick up our tickets from Mary Bono’s office.

Yeah, these were pretty much everywhere.

The Obama store…INSANE.

I LOVE YOU ANDERSON COOPER!

Annie and I

Cheryl, Annie, my mom, myself, and Katherine in front of the Capitol a few days before the Inauguration. All of the tourists were so happy they would say “Happy Inauguration!” to each other. It was a giant love fest.

Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House

Obama’s viewing stand

The morning of the Inauguration, a little after 5am. We stepped out of the Courthouse and there were already thousands of people pouring out of the Judiciary Square metro station chanting “O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA!”.

It was really, really cold that morning.

Waiting at the blue gate.

Did I mention it was really, really cold? Thank god for those instant hand warmers. I stuck them in my boots, back pockets, hat, and uh, basically anywhere I could.

Annie, our professional photographer. She was using a metal barricade to boost herself up and the dude in front of her was nice enough to allow her to use his head as a tripod for her camera.

Obama, as seen through her zoom lens.

I-395 was shutdown to traffic so that pedestrians could use it to get to the other side of the National Mall.

Goodbye, Bush!