Where I take a long weekend break

Happy belated birthday, 'Murica! (or happy best gift from England ever day) 

So much America.

I hope everyone had a great long weekend! Thanks to the *strict 100% no leave, mandatory attendance policy, any federal holiday is anticipated, embraced, and oh so wonderful. Despite how overly abused my credit cards have been over the last two months, I booked a nice flight back to the land of beaches, palm trees, and cheap milk tea over our patriotic weekend.

I've missed you so much baby '^'

I miss good cheap food so much. And it's not like DC doesn't have good places to eat, but the venn diagram of delicious and inexpensive seems to have a rather thin sliver of intersection when overlaid on the map of "conveniently located."

Although I'm always open to trying new places...and DC does have great brunch spots if you don't mind the crowds so feel free to shoot me some recommendations. Having no car is nice because I don't have to worry about maintenance, parking, etc. but it also means when you wake up at 10PM because you got in at 6:30AM on a red eye and then went straight to work after a 5 minute shower, you probably are rather limited on healthy dining options. Contrary to some of my friends' popular belief, you can not survive on alcohol alone.

I'm not as widely traveled as some of my classmates but after experiencing a few rounds of "get in the kennel...please?" with the puppy, I've come to really appreciate the airports that have some kind of pet relief area. (Yes, LAX, I am judging your failure.) Usually a small area in the departure section, it is a nice place to just take your pet to stretch their legs out before they're forced to stay in a tiny flying box lodged inside of another tiny flying box. Think of how uncomfortable your chair with its immovable armrest, recycled air, and let's-not-think-when-was-the-last-time-they-washed-your-headrest can be and think of your poor pet. Airports should use some of that pet transport fee charged to travelers by airlines to invest in even a small relief area.

DCA (Reagan National) and IAD (Dulles) both have relief areas and they've been a real perk to travel. Additionally, foreign service officers now have the added perk of TSA precheck, something that had been previously offered to military personnel in late 2013. It seemed kind of silly that we hold top secret clearances, are expected to be representatives of the U.S. government abroad,  but can't be trusted to keep our sneakers on in the TSA line. Thanks to rather recent changes though, we can now enjoy the domestic perk of precheck. Here's hoping it'll extend to Global Entry, where the international bulk of our travel will be able to benefit.

So yea, here's to the rest of July, ya'll. Stay cool, America. (But not stormy. Coffee is bemoaning the flash thunderstorms and their attempt to obliverate the new house he just bought. )

*barring extenuating circumstances. Like you giving birth. Or an alien invasion.