Nation's Capital pt. 2

Plus

+ The AFL-CIO held a free cookout last week around lunchtime to celebrate the return of their “Bush Legacy Tour” bus. The inside of the bus basically has documented all the ways in which Bush has blown it via Iraq war, Katrina, environment, etc. The cookout was yummy, free and two blocks from the White House.

+ People read! On the metro or the bus, morning or night, people are reading. In addition, the books seem relatively edifying and not romance novels or US Weekly (not that there is anything wrong with US weekly). I’ve met and know people who use their 40 hour work week as an excuse for why they don’t read very much. I say “boo” to you. If reading isn’t your pastime then fine but don’t blame your work week on it. D.C. proves that one can work a 9-5 and still fit in some literature or non-fic.

+ Madeline is here!

+ Monday happy hour with David Halperin and some other kids from the staff. Good times.

+ Watching the Angels destroy the Nationals on Tuesday

+ Interviewing Maria Teresa Petersen and CNN correspondent Rick Sanchez

+ Going to the SilverDocs festival for work and seeing a great documentary called Forbidden Lies

+ The Raven. Um… am I in Portland? For my Portland friends this bar is like a mix of The Nest and Beulahland but smaller than both. Cheap beer, variety of different kids, a bit seedy, good jukebox of old punk, rock and indie…my kid of place.

Minus

- Fashion: ouch. This may be apart of the down side to their being very few hipsters in town. After a few drinks, I told one of my friends that, “People in D.C. were just way more okay with looking dumpy than in Los Angeles, or even San Francisco.”

Last weekend, I went to dance at three different clubs and people weren’t even trying. I’m not talking thrift store style because that can work sometimes. I’m talking sales rack at Ross.

Having said that I commend the guy wearing the white wedding dress at Black Cat’s 80’s prom night two weeks ago. At least you’re mixing it up, dude. In addition, yesterday on my way to the metro, there were thousands of people out on the street. Most of them were black and killing it style-wise. So I give it up to them as well.

- Dulles Airport. Can anyone tell me why this place still exists? It’s not near anything and once you are there, it is the most convoluted, difficult and unaccommodating airport I have ever been too. Imagine a trailer park in the form of an airport.

- Noise. Yeah yeah…it’s a big city and it gets noisy. However, I cannot walk the streets for longer than five minutes without an ambulance, cop or high-profile brigade of security surrounding black escalades blasting by me.

Neutral

= Weather. So the down side is that it is humid as all hell. However, the interesting/good side is that you get some pretty crazy lightning storms that randomly arrive and then disappear within hours. Plus, when it does finally rain, it is such a different rain that Portland. It is like the world is relieving its stress. It seems like a natural development that the earth and all of us suffering underneath it need. Can I say the strange developments of the weather are a seemingly fitting necessity for the earth and the people on it well? Sure. And to continue being corny and a bit of a hippy, the weather and my body seem to have a relationship that seems to coincide and understand each other. (<--I think my two days in Santa Cruz a couple weeks ago rubbed off on me)

= Softball game. Our organization plays in a pretty competitive softball league. On Thursday we played against The Heritage Foundation. Unfortunately, we lost in the last inning and I didn't get to play which were both down sides. However, the upside was that afterwards we played a "Intern vs. Staff" game in which I was able to prove that I got some skills and shouldn't be riding the pine. Next game is against the Defense Department on Monday.

(image: Lafayette Park)