(dc) god bless america

this is the mall at crystal city. i was filled with an inexplicable patriotic inspiration while shopping tonight to prepare for tomorrow's premier in NYC. here's a rundown:

makeup: 60 scratch
coat: 110 scratch
scarf: 13 scratch
train ticket: 140 scratch
hotel: 50 scratch

that's a lot of scratch for this shindig. hope it's fun. it would have been a lot worse if my boss hadn't loaned me a great black dress, shoes, and jewelry. she's fabulous. we had our first group meeting today (on my first day at my new job), and all 5 of us were women(!): two engineers, two scientists, and an administrative assistant. apparently, there are a couple guys in our group, but they are out of town. in addition to normal NASA business, the meeting turned naturally at times to things like childrearing and shopping. it was excellent and refreshing. i think i'm going to like working with women. we discovered that we all wear the same size shoe and i had plenty of help figuring out how to outfit myself for tomorrow's red carpet.