Sometimes I like to pretend like I am important. I live in DC (which makes me awesome), I work for the government/military (which also sounds cool), I work with high-ranking international military officers (even cooler), and I have this awesome government id that lets me into all military bases and government buildings.
Yeah. I'm pretty cool.
But things always happen to remind me that really I am not as important as I would like to think.
Like yesterday.
The new class of international officers (67 of them) just came in this past week and Monday was their first day of briefings at NDU. Many of them have never been to the US before and some of them are still struggling with English. So as a staff, this first week they are here we have the opportunity to orient them to how we do things in the US.
I was assigned a group of 9 officers, and after taking them around to get id cards, etc all day, I took them on the NDU (actually the Coast Guard) shuttle to the metro to show them how to use both the shuttle and the metro.
The Coast Guard building, where the shuttle stops to pick us up, is right next to NDU and about a 4-5 minute walk from the building I work in. I walked 6 of the officers (the other 3 didn't need metro orientation) to the shuttle, but right before we got to the stop, I realized that I had forgotten my metro card. Panicked and feeling like an idiot in front of these officers, I told them to wait right there and I literally ran back to my office to get my metro card. And then I ran back.
Don't worry, I only ran out of my heels twice. And it wasn't even awkward to be running along in heels and then lose one of them and have to run back for it.
Anyway, I ran back to the officers and, just my luck, the shuttlewas still there, just 100 feet in front of us. However, when we were about 20 feet away, the shuttle closed its doors and drove away!
Still panting from my run, I just chuckled when one of the officers said, "He did that on purpose." He must have seen me running and thought it would be funny if he just left me!
Anyway, I was trying not to be frustrated as I waited for the next shuttle while explaining the metro map to the officers. It was such a hot day (probably in the 90's) and I thought I was going to die of heat. The black pants and heels were just not cutting it for me, and I seriously thought I would pass out from the extreme temperature.
And then, as I was riding the shuttle to the metro, I realized that I didn't even need my metro card because I wasn't riding the metro! I was just taking the officers there and then riding the shuttle back to work!
Yes, friends. Sometimes I act first and think later. And for this, I win the prize of fool of the day!
I just love that the officers were sticking up for you.
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