Some of you will be pleased to know that today’s update has no heavy emotional stuff in it (or at least I’m not planning on it but I guess one never knows where writing will take you…). Anyhooo. Mostly I just wanted to touch base and keep my promise to blog once a week. Let’s do this.
D.C. Likes
I’m not a big D.C. fan. There’s just not enough human connection here for my liking. You should see how excited I get on the rare instance that someone actually makes eye contact, smiles or holds a door for me! I’d much prefer that to be the norm instead of the exception. Instead, everyone seems caught up in their own, important lives, which makes everything feel a bit cold and impersonal. It’s so bad that I’ve actually befriended the homeless people outside the stores I frequent regularly because they’re the only ones I can count on to consistently talk to me (even if it’s just to inquire about some spare change). Oh, well. I’ll just continue my daily “smile campaign” and see if I can make a small difference in my immediate neighborhood.
That being said, D.C. does have a lot of good aspects that I’d be remiss not to mention. The diversity of cultures and the plethora of cuisines are both huge pluses. There’s also the well-connected metro and bus lines that can get you anywhere you’d like to be. Here’s a shot of us on the Rosslyn metro escalator, the longest escalator I’ve ever been on. If I had to guess, I’d say it probably covers 6 floors or so. Nia is such a fan that she’s requested we ‘ride the metro for hours’ as one of her birthday activities. We’re actively trying to talk her out of it.
There’s also a whole host of great FREE stuff, like museums, monuments and the zoo. I am a big fan of free stuff to begin with, and given how dang expensive everything has become lately, indulging in high quality free activities has proven to be a solid way to minimize my money woes while still getting out on the town.
One of our recent free adventures was to the National Zoo. We’d visited several times before but this was the first time we noticed that there was a 50-foot-high suspended cable track that gave the Orangutans the freedom to move between to different enclosures. The sign we stumbled upon told us that the O-line debuted in 1995 and was the only one of it’s kind, allowing the apes to travel and spend time in the air, just as they would in the wild.
The sign indicated that they typically traversed the O-line between 11 AM and 11:30 A.M. That struck me as funny, as I wouldn’t think of Orangutans being particularly regimented. We were determined to see this craziness and lingered nearby, just in case. Well, wouldn’t you know it, at 11:20 sharp we saw two of them travel the line, passing right over our heads as we stood on the sidewalk! It was so stinking cool. Definitely make it a priority if you’re coming to D.C. for a visit!
The other thing I love is the breadth of cultural experiences and festivals available. For example, Nia and I went to see Hamilton at the Kennedy Center around Labor Day. She absolutely loved it and got upset when we went to our second show–an Arlington Community Theatre production of Newsies–and discovered it wasn’t at the Kennedy Center again. She apparently thought everything we went to see in D.C. would be held there. The girl’s got good taste, I’ll give her that.
Perhaps the biggest plus-side of DC is all the reunions we get to have with people we’ve served with over the years. Because, as we like to jokingly say, all paths lead through D.C. :) In just one month, I managed visits with 2 high school friends, 1 College friend, 2 relatives, 1 DC friend, 3 Lima friends, and 8 India friends. Not too shabby, huh?
In summation, we’ve crossed the 1 month mark, are finding our rhythm, and having more good days than bad. I’d say we’re doing okay on the whole.
