Adventures in DC

I've complained often enough about my job, so let me say something positive about it this time. This past week, as a reward for good results the last two quarters, the company I work for gave our entire department the day off and took us on a trip to Washington, DC at their expense. Not every company would do something like that.

We started out with a continental breakfast and the actual bus trip to DC, where we boarded a large boat for an extended lunch buffet and boat ride. The boat had four decks, and we had lunch on the bottom deck. Afterward, most of us went to the top deck, which was open and allowed us to enjoy the sun and the sights. We had a beautiful day for the trip and took full advantage of that fact.

The boat also had on-board entertainment, which is worth discussing in more detail. The entertainment was three singer/dancers (one white woman and two black men) and a DJ, who provided pre-recorded tracks for the performances of the others. The choice of material was largely 70's era Cheesy Lounge Act Rhythm and Blues. Yes, it was as bad as it sounds. As a former musician myself, I have to give them credit for professionalism. They were trying incredibly hard to keep the energy level up and keep the audience engaged. On the downside, they were musically competent at best. I'll give them credit for knowing their limitations and being smart enough to work within them, unlike many performers I've seen elsewhere. I'm not qualified to judge dancing skill; I'll just say I wasn't overly impressed. They were ignored by their intended audience for the most part, but managed to get about two dozen people up to dance with them for the last two or three songs as we were pulling back into port.

In all fairness, it was a very tough audience. About a third of the audience was our group, which was far more interested in catching some nice weather topside than in paying attention to singer/dancers. Another third was an organization of elderly folks, many using wheelchairs or walkers and not likely to be hitting the dance floor any time soon. The remaining third was a birthday party for a woman who appeared to be in her late 20's or early 30's, but most of her group seemed to be elderly women who, again, weren't likely to be doing any dancing.

I found myself wondering what it would be like making a living singing/dancing to largely indifferent audiences. Yes, you're making a living doing what you love, but I know from personal experience that indifferent audiences are no fun at all. Performing for an indifferent audience is damn hard work. And I had no way to know if they genuinely enjoyed the musical material (which helps a lot), or if someone else chose it and they were just hired to do the show someone else paid them to do. Making a living in show biz ain't all it's cracked up to be.

After the boat ride, we were dropped off at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and given about 2 1/2 hours of free time. We broke off into groups, depending on what people wanted to see, and soon we were all over Washington. I personally stayed at the Air and Space Museum with a group of women I'm friendly with at work. We initially went to a display that was only temporarily in this museum, which included various culturally significant objects from another museum that was presently under construction. We saw the hat Abe Lincoln had been wearing the night he was shot, the actual R2D2 and C3PO used in the Star Wars movies (a true moment of geek ecstasy), one of Prince's custom guitars, and the famous signpost from the M*A*S*H TV series showing how far the camp was from a number of different places.

At that point, the ladies had had enough museum experience for them and went outside to enjoy the weather, leaving me to cover the rest of the Air and Space Museum myself. This was a Good Thing in my book, since it allowed me to focus on what I wanted to see without worrying about anyone else. I was able to see most of the rest of the museum, though I'd love to see everything else another time.

The courage and stupidity that human beings are capable of often amazes me. I saw some of the spacecraft used in the 70's, and can't believe that anyone would stake their lives on absolutely everything going right with those spacecraft so far away from anyone being able to help them. You have to wonder why someone would be willing to risk their life for what amounts to intellectual curiosity, and yet I find it admirable that human beings would go so far simply to learn. I visited a display of World War I items, and was horrified by the realities of the trench warfare of the time. What could possibly be worth that price in human lives and misery?

Everyone reassembled in front of the Air and Space Museum for a trip to a superb sea food restaurant for dinner, then we went home. The trip home put a damper on what had been a wonderful day, as there had been a number of car accidents and heavy traffic that added an hour and a half to an already long trip home. I had this hilarious vision of one of the accidents involving someone insured with us, and this entire busload of people with various specialties pulling over and handling every aspect of the claim on the spot ten minutes after it had happened. We didn't get back until 11:30 PM on a weeknight, and virtually all of us had to be at work at about 8 AM the following day. Some of us lived as far as an hour's drive from home; I was fortunately far luckier than that, only living about a ten minute drive away.

Things were quiet the following day at work, but I've got to put credit where it's due and say that, as far as I know, everybody had a great time and would do it again in a heartbeat. Hopefully the next couple of quarters will go as well and we'll get to do something else as good.