I’m back and recovering from a very busy week in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC.

I was in Philadelphia for a conference for my job. The conference called “SungardHE Summit” is a 5 day event with about 7,000 attendees, from all 50 states, and 13 countries. The conference consists of 1 hour long sessions on a wide variety of topics all surrounding technology in a higher education environment.

This year’s kick-off speaker was Dr. Maya Angelo. It was the first time I heard her speak and it was, in one word, unforgettable! She is an amazing speaker and very funny which surprised me. I feel very lucky to have heard such an amazing person share stories of her life. I’ve place a quotation she wrote for the United Nations called “A Brave and Startling Truth” and read for us at the end of the lecture. I found it very powerful and thought you might like it too.

The closing key-note speaker was Jeffery Zaslow, co-author of “The Last Lecture.” Mr. Zaslow has experience writing about life transitions in his column for The Wall Street Journal. I expected this to be another great public speaker, but I wasn’t prepared for the emotion of the moment. He detailed his experience of working with Randy Pausch to write the book. There were many tiny stories that he shared with us. I’ll share just one. Jeffery was on the phone with Randy one day as Randy was at the grocery store checking out. As Randy scanned his card to check out the machine seemed to have an error and he scanned his card again. When the receipt came out, he realized that he had been charged twice for the groceries. Jeffery asked Randy if he was able to get it straightened out, Randy responded by saying, “By the time I find a manager and he removes the $38 from my credit card I will have wasted 15 minutes of my time. That’s 15 minutes I would loose with my family and it’s just not worth it.” We know and often talk about how precious life is, but few of us can appreciate the magnitude of this truth. When Mr. Zaslow finished his portion of the closing session, the Chief Marketing Officer with Sungard Higher Education found it difficult to continue and instead of “ruining the moment” decided to wrap up the closing session and then wished everyone a great last day at conference and safe travels home.

After the conference was over I headed to Washington DC with some friends for a few days. I had not been to Washington DC since I was about 6 or 7 years old. I did some pre-planning so I had an idea of what to expect. However, having done the trip I can tell you this; Two and one-half days is not enough time! I didn’t think there would be that much to do but I was sorely mistaken. I believe a week would a realistic time frame in which to see the most popular sites.

With that said, we did see quite a bit including:
An evening, four hour, walking tour of-
The Washington Monument
The World War II Memorial
The Lincoln Memorial

A day time walking tour of-
Arlington National Cemetery with the changing of the guard
The White House from Pennsylvania Ave.
The Department of Commerce
The Internal Revenue Service
The Federal Bureau of Investigations
The Department of Justice
The Department of Education

Smithsonian Museum’s:
Natural History
American History
Air and Space

There is no fee for any of the sights above! You need only pay for your hotel, food, and rides on the Metro rail. That makes DC a rather cheap vacation in my opinion.

All three museums had an overwhelming amount of “stuff” to take in. It could take a week just to visit one of these museums if you spent the time to read about the exhibits. A trip to DC is definitely about time management to get the most of your time and money.

We did not have enough time to make it to the National Archives to see the Charters of Freedom (Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.) The line was really long to get in and we were running out of time.

We stayed at the Ronald Reagan Radisson in Arlington, Virginia very near the Crystal City Metro rail station. If anything, for my first time planning a DC visit, I think I picked a good hotel location. The secret is get close enough to a Metro station while not paying though the nose for a room. It was only a 13 minute ride from our Metro station to the Smithsonian station which drops you off literally in the middle of The Mall. Here are some things we learned about the Metro system:
Don’t trust the signage for the cost of a one way trip, it seems to usually be lower than advertised. As a result, watch your tickets which are stamped with the balance on the card. When there is a balance on a card, say $0.25, you can put this back into the ticket machines and you’ll get that credited for your next ticket. I left about $2.00 in DC because I didn’t learn this until the end of the 2nd day.

I was trying to think of a “highlight” of the DC trip, but everything was really great. Well except for walking about 12 miles each day. You MUST bring your most comfortable walking shoes! I would also suggest you plan your meals and your daily activities. On our first full day we really messed up our lunch and super because the museum’s closed up before we could eat. They don’t all have the same hours of operation and that really got us on our first day. That much walking on an empty stomach is highly discouraged!

I’ve place some photos that I considered a highlight of the trip below my boring blog. I would encourage you to plan a trip to our Nation’s capital!

A Letter left at the Vietnam Memorial
The letter, written by a child, reads:
Dear Grandpa,
Hello, how are you?
I wish I could have met you. Thank You for giving your life for freedom and democracy.
Sincerely,
Aidan

A Brave and Startling Truth
Maya Angelou
American Poet, Author and Actress

We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth

And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms

When we come to it
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass
To lie in identical plots in foreign soil

When the rapacious storming of the churches
The screaming racket in the temples have ceased
When the pennants are waving gaily
When the banners of the world tremble
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze

When we come to it
When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce
When land mines of death have been removed
And the aged can walk into evenings of peace
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse

When we come to it
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones set in mysterious perfection
Nor the Gardens of Babylon
Hanging as eternal beauty
In our collective memory
Not the Grand Canyon
Kindled into delicious color
By Western sunsets

Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the Rising Sun
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world

When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace
We, this people on this mote of matter
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the body is quieted into awe

We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines

When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear

When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.

This poem was written and delivered in honor of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.

© Maya Angelou, from A Brave And Startling Truth
Published by Random House