The Lab

As previously mentioned, I had a work trip to Washington DC for a viral clearance (VC) study.  Before you get any ideas about me gleefully tossing vials of rabies around and starting the next zombie apocalypse, I should probably tell you it’s not that kinda trip (sad, I know).

As far as background geekiness goes, a VC study is to prove our purification process used in drug production can clean up any viruses that might be in the drug.  These viruses aren’t contagious to people, they are found in critters (specifically found in little mammals like hamsters, mice, etc).  Since we use critter cells to make our drugs, those cells can come with viruses.  We have to make sure the drug is free of viruses because they can do bad things to the drug during storage (chew it up and that sorta stuff), and possibly even give people cold-like symptoms.  These VC studies are part of an FDA approval thing.  I guess they want to make sure our drugs are safe and effective.  Weird.

The first day of frolic began with an early AM flight from Boston to DC.  I was excited to finally be bringing my hubby, Pookie, along with me on one of these work trips.  We haven’t had a vacation in a while due to time / money constraints of him being in law school.  Now that he’s graduated we are still poor but at least he has more free time.  With this trip looming, I was anticipating lots of play time and yummy dinners after work hours were done.

Things went pretty smoothly on the flight down.  In fact, the TSA at Logan Airport let up on security restrictions.  We were allowed to keep laptops and liquids in our bags, as well as keep on shoes and belts.  Yay!

Upon landing, we hopped into a cab and were on our way to DC.  I’d like to make a few side notes about transportation here:

1)      Rent a car if you plan on traveling between DC and the suburbs!!  The cab fares are expensive.  A cab ride from the airport to DC will cost ~70$ (~40 min ride), and between the suburbs like Gaithersberg to the city will be ~ 40-50$.

2)      The cabs in Washington have only recently been outfitted to accept credit cards.  The cabbie’s aren’t used to using credit card readers, and expect you to pay cash when they mess up using the readers.  This is illegal btw – if they can’t accept your credit card, you are not obligated to pay.  It’s posted on the rules under the card reader.  Good luck explaining that to a feisty cabbie.  Luckily my husband is a lawyer and he deals with such nonsense for me.

3)      Cab drivers in DC only know the areas immediately around DC, and drivers at the airport only know how to drive to the airport.  Our cab ride was about 50 minutes; 10 of which were spent turning around and around thanks to our cabbie’s lack of directional sense (yes, he had a GPS), and another 10 where the cabbie was trying to figure out how to use his credit card reader.  All this fun cost $71.00.  The same thing happened (with more disastrous results) going from DC to Gaithersburg.

4)      Another option of transportation is the metro.  We chose not to deal with this option, as we were staying farther out in the suburbs where the metro wasn’t nearby.  Further, being used to the Boston T system, we didn’t adjust well to the subtle sign system used in the metro.  We didn’t see many directories or line postings.  The one and only time we took the metro was when we were with friends from the area.  We didn’t get lost, but I feel I’d still be wandering around down there if we were traveling by ourselves.  I can get lost on the way to the bathroom.  It’s tragic.  Especially when I really have to pee.

Sooooo, anyway!  Our first stop was to visit my younger cousin (my surrogate little brother) and his new Wifey.  The four of us ran amok in DC with them playing tour guides.

We had a phenomenal steak n burger cookout on the rooftop that night, complete with fairy lights and wine.  My cousin is an amazing grill master.  I think I ate three cows.  But I lost count with all the wine.

Aaaaaannn speaking of wine, just before the trip my mom was giving me a lecture about not getting soused in front of my cousin and his new wife.  She claimed they don’t drink.

HA!

Well, as she found out that night via drunk-dial, said cousin and wifey most certainly DO drink!  At some point while I was on the phone with my mom, Wifey and I were happily singing into her ear that ‘we won’.  I’m not sure what we won, but I have a feeling it had to do with correctly guessing my uncle’s age (which was the reason we called my mom in the first place).  I’m pretty sure I also gave Mumsey a 10 minute drunken monolog of how brilliant a grill master my cousin is, and how they TOTALLY do drink!  Lots!

Now mum can brag to all her friends (both of them) that her daughter drunk-dials her.  She’s secretly happy about this, though she pretends long suffering and failure as a mother.

Pookie and I stayed with my cousin and Wifey for the night in their gorgeous new condo, which is outfitted with all modern, pretty, shiney things.  Our hosts patiently indulged me as I ran around pushing buttons, flicking switches, poking stuff, and squealing like an idiot.

I need to mention that the bathtub had jets.

Jets!!

So much awesome!

I stood in front of the refrigerator as it lit up and gave me water.  I waited for it to talk, but it never did.  Even when I poked it.  It gave me more water though.  Nice fridgie.  Just shy I guess.

The super comfy guest bed also merits mention.  I miss that bed.  Even now… *sigh* I’m going to dream of that bed of cloudy heaven goodness.

So yeah Day 1 was a rocking good time!