"Push-Ups and Plays" by Brin

Pushups aren’t a nice way to start off the day, particularly if you woke up late because the alarm didn’t work and the wakeup call didn’t come through. And your breakfast had to be eaten on the run. And it’s 90°F outside at 8:00 in the morning. Which is why I myself didn’t want to do nonstop pushups for a minute and a half even if it meant possibly getting on national TV. Lemme explain: when we arrived at the Lincoln Memorial, we noticed a large group of people with filming equipment and the same shirts. When we inspected the situation, we found that it was an organization called Pushups for Charity. It’s pretty cool. I didn’t get the whole deal with it, but I heard enough to know that if people participating in the program throughout the day totaled 5,000 pushups, a large sum of money would be donated. I don’t remember quite how many the Freedom Tour pooled together, but it was over a thousand- meaning that just our group got them more than a fifth of the way toward their goal in about twenty minutes, maybe less! Oh, and Megan and I won a bet with one of the trainers for a hundred dollars (she’s writing about it in detail in another post). After we finished up there, we moved on to the Vietnam Memorial- we didn’t get to see it because we were looking for one of our group members, but we spent a good part of the day going around and looking at the various war memorials stationed in the area, such as the Korean War and World War II, and some that were just dedicated to people like Theodore Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr. We also paid a visit to the Holocaust Museum. There didn’t seem to be nearly as many tears as there were for the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial the night before, but a number of people were noticeably upset. There was also a large domed room in which burned what I think was an eternal flame, surrounded on all sides by candles, both unlit and burning. Some students seemed very fire-happy and went around lighting candles willy-nilly, but I limited myself to five, one for each wall, all of which were inscribed with the names of various concentration camps. Once we returned to the hotel, we had almost two hours to prepare for the Dinner Theater later, and for the sake of your sanity I’m just going to skip right to the theater itself. First off- seating was a mess, because it was so full tonight that one group barely got seats at all. Second- the food was good, not fantastic, but still good. And then we got to see the actual play. I understand it was a musical, but I’ll say this now: too much singing, way too much singing. And it was also extremely loud, so many of us had to sacrifice our eardrums to appreciate the play. It was slightly disorienting because it was basically all over the place- instead of a typical play, this was taking place right in the middle of the room. It also, uh, well… Didn’t have much of a plot. Not terribly well-written. The actors were great, and it was a good play, but not the best I’ve ever seen in my entire existence on this planet.