What a day!

I had a very full day today.  I went to work at NSF this morning.  I walk about a half mile to the metro and then ride another 30 minutes to get there.  At noon, I rode the metro and walked to deliver some papers to Triangle Coalition (they are the agency that manages the Einstein Fellowship).

Then it was back on the metro to Capitol Hill where I sat in on a hearing in the Senate Building of a group of young people that were or had been homeless and still trying to go to school and get good grades.  Their stories were so potent and heartbreaking.  No matter how dysfunctional their families were, or how hard their lives were just to survive each day, they still went to school, because they knew that an education was the only way they could have control over their lives and make a change.  Everyone in the room had tears in their eyes and hearts in their throats and these young people told their stories.

Then I rushed home (on the metro again) showered and got dressed up so that I could go to the ExploraVision Science Awards and Banquet.  Back on the metro to downtown DC.  Exploravision gives awards to student teams from K-12 grades for innovative ideas in science.  Each student on the winning teams gets $10,000, a video camera, and a laptop computer, from Toshiba.  Bill Nye the Science Guy was the keynote speaker along with the president of Toshiba.  4300 teams entered, only 8 teams won on the national level.  Everyone was dressed up.  They served us a four course dinner.  It was all very exciting.

My camera's batteries died before I could get more than a couple of pictures.

Then it was back on the metro, and walk a half mile home.  It is about midnight now, but I have been so busy and it has been so exciting that I am still not ready to go to sleep.  I cannot believe how wonderful it is for me to be here working at the National Science Foundation and living in Washington DC and having all of these experiences.