Time to set the record straight!

Probably one of the most common things that I get asked by friends and family is “how do you like D.C.?” Admittedly, I usually give some non-descript ambiguous answer to the effect of “uh its great! I am having a lot of fun!” I don’t do this on purpose but mostly because I just haven’t given it much thought yet… I mean how often to do we really stop for a second and remove ourselves from the craziness around us to figure out how we really feel about a place? My personal answer is “not enough” but I guess that is why I am writing this. So let’s try this again…

Hey Darren, tell me about your life in D.C. Do you like it? Are you having fun?

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again… D.C. is a crazy place, no doubt about it. There is more to it than that. This is a city in a small geographic area filled with people from all walks of life. The district is cohabitated by politicians and war profiteers as well as families that are just trying to get by in some of the most poor and dangerous neighborhoods in the country. There is a veritable army of lawyers and lobbyists to represent anyone with a bankroll as well as tons of non-profits and NGOs to represent the rest. For such a small city, this place really does encompass the entire spectrum of human experience for this part of the country.

This disparity of wealth in such a small area creates an exciting dynamic to be a part of. Most of the fun and interesting areas to go out in are not really in the best parts of town. Dupont and Georgetown are definitely nice areas with plenty of nightlife but my friends and I tend to avoid these areas mostly because of the high prices but also because of the homogenous nature of the crowd. Adams Morgan, U street and H street NE are all bordered on at least one side by neighborhoods in which walking alone at night can be (but often isn’t) a risky prospect but more about that later. Whether you want to experience a frat party all over again in Georgetown or more of an alternative scene in H street NE, this city despite its size, really has something for everyone in terms of night life.

Somewhere in the middle of these extremes lies the transient (but vibrant) twenty-something crowd of which I am a part of. Most of us live in the nicer or “up and coming” parts of D.C. These are neighborhoods where one could practically sit on a bench and watch gentrification happen right before their very eyes. Places like U street, Chinatown, Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights to name a few. This phenomenon was something I really wasn’t aware of before moving here but you really can’t help but notice once you are a resident. This city seems to be moving in the same direction as Manhattan did many years ago. Chinatown, being the prime example, is an area where a great number of the original Chinese inhabitants have been priced out of the neighborhood. Most moved to north Virginia to escape the exorbitant rent and real estate prices. Like them many others, including myself, take shelter from the excessive rents (which my demographic is partially responsible for) out in the suburbs. Where ever you live, though, all parts of the city are within a pretty close reach making this city is a great place to live.

This is a city where seeing a monument or some other object of national significance is so common that they quickly lose their appeal. I did most of the touristy stuff when I got here. I have lived here long enough that for the most part the wow! factor has worn off and accidentally ending up on the street with a great view of the Whitehouse means nothing more than losing 15 minutes because of the traffic and perpetual construction. I along with many of my fellow residents are annoyed at times by the monument’s presence because, although the 8th grade D.C. trip season has just about wrapped up, the summer tourist season is about to get in full swing. That said, I still do appreciate the presence of these landmarks. Driving/walking passed the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Whitehouse, Capital, etc… can be mundane or exciting depending on my mindset. It’s just like anywhere else… one has to constantly remind them self to look past the familiarity and appreciate the qualities of their home. The real story however, is not the familiar façade of these buildings but what they stand for and the business which takes place inside them.

After living here for awhile now, one thing has become abundantly clear. Disillusionment is a rite of passage in Washington, D.C. For some this comes gradually over the course of months while for others there is a single moment when it hits them. I never really gave this much thought until recently but then it had occurred to me that many people told me all about how they came out here to live to learn how they system really works. I don’t want to send the impression that this a bad thing either, I mean its sad that we seem to have some sort of idyllic conception about how this country is actually run but in my opinion, to become disillusioned is to become empowered. One must understand the system before they can effectively support (or undermine) it. I haven’t figured out my place in all this but I’m hoping it will eventually come clear.

D.C. is a place where you have to take the good with the bad. I really am enjoying myself here but there is the occasional frustration. It’s great to able to experience the typical east coast absurdity while still being able to drive only 30 minutes to some pretty good whitewater. Knowing that all the important national news in this country is coming from somewhere within a couple miles of me is exciting while at the same time depressing (depending on the news). I may not have painted a romantic picture of this city but I thought it would make more sense to describe this place as I perceive it. There is so much more that I could talk about both good and bad but I think that is better left for another time. Thanks for reading!

What a long strange trip its been... so far

Well it has been a few months since I last updated this, so I felt it was time. I promised at the end of my last post that I would share some thoughts on the Metro system... so without further ado...

Darren's Adventures in Public Transportation

When I came to visit this city last July, my very first impression of D.C. was from its Metro system. When I first showed up at the end of the Green line, I asked one of the Metro Employees "how long would it take to get to Union station?" He gave me this really drawn out explanation about how I could transfer to the red line at Ft. Totten or Gallery Place/Chinatown and the timing would all come down to whether or not I made a "good transfer." So I was pretty much thrust into this unknown environment consisting of colored rail lines with weirdly named stops all with the expressed purpose of making a "good transfer." With the way that guy talked about it, I was convinced that there was skill involved and with enough practice one could be a much more efficient Metro rider than others. After spending 6 months trying to figure out exactly where to get on the train so that it drops me off closest to where I want to go as well as other riding strategies, I have come to the conclusion that the assumption that skill is involved, was completely wrong. Predicting transit time is a complete crapshoot. For each new train that someone has to get on during any trip, you could end up waiting up to 20 minutes... or 1. Some would say that 20 minutes really isn't that long, especially if thats the worst case scenario, but you cant leave the station so you just have to stand there and think about how much earlier you could have gotten to your destination.

The Metro does other wacky stuff as well... for instance, 2 days ago I was waiting on the platform after work and for some reason a blue line train wasn't going to arrive for another 15 minutes during the afternoon rush (they usually come packed full every 4 minutes during rush hour). I waited as the platform quickly filled up with people and started dreading the ride home packed in like a sardine kind of like this picture:

Anyways, the blue line train finally starts speeding into the station and much to our collective dismay, it speeds right out without stopping. This odd phenomena happens often enough that last weekend I was intending to take a video of a train pulling into the station and stopping but, well, see for yourself...

Just for the record, every train on a given line is 'supposed' to stop at every station along the way (there are no express trains). Well, that is all I have to say on that subject. Expect a post soon on this winters first snow here... I'll leave you with a picture of the fantastically long escalators in this city. I call it "Journey to the Center of the Earth"

Republicans and Lobbyists and Democrats Oh My!

It is October now and I am finally getting settled. First a quick disclaimer: Pay no attention to the mindless ramblings of this post because I intentionally chose not to spend the time to make it coherent in any way. If you imagine that these are the types of things running through my head as I walk to work every morning, you would be right unfortunately.

The weather here has been beautiful for the last month which is weird because in Texas, fall only lasts for about 2 weeks. Washington, D.C. is an interesting place for a number of reasons. Its election season and an especially scandalous one at that! People have been asking me if I have noticed anything crazy going on around here because of all this. I can definitely see why someone would ask this but c'mon, its not like I can just go watch the scandal...
"Hey Darren what are you doing today?"
"Oh I don't know, I was thinking of going to watch the scandal. I heard (insert scandalous politician here) is going to check himself into an alcohol rehab center and then check out as soon as all this blows over... Should be exciting."

As October starts to come to a close, seasons change, the leaves change color and everyone braces for winter. Fall is a big deal here... People go apple picking, find the need to display various gourds for decoration and all things pumpkin related (beer, pie, cookies, whatever) are the rage. The rain and cold however, highlight other differences between this city (or the east rather) and CO or TX. I honestly have been surprised at the amount of men that I have seen wearing scarves... I believe you could get your ass kicked for wearing something like that out west. Also, in Boulder when it rains you don't see very many umbrellas at all, everyone has "rain gear." I don't think people in the big cities out here have ever heard of rain gear. They just wear what ever they normally wear and carry and umbrella... perfectly content to battle changing and gusty wind directions and getting soaked from the waist down. Then when I get to work and take off my rain pants and coat, they look at me weird! I just don't understand it I guess.

D.C. is a great town! There really is so much going on here. Government is everywhere you look, there is no avoiding it. I have realized that it takes A LOT of buildings to run this government in all of its bureaucratic absurdity. I just cant imagine the amount of forms (in triplicate mind you) that are filled out here on any given day. Quick side note: even to get a book in the Library of Congress, one has to submit a form in triplicate. Another odd thing that I have noticed about wildlife around all these buildings is that the squirrels all have this salt-and-pepper hair coloration that oddly enough matches many of our past president's... Coincidence? Of course! No conspiracy theorist could tie in the color of the squirrels into their hair brained ideas without sounding crazy right?

That last picture was for you dad.

I have been following two websites religiously these days... www.woot.com and www.steepandcheap.com are both websites that post 1 item at a time at a discount of %50 or more. Normally woot.com only has 1 item a day but every now and then they launch what is called a Woot Off where they only change item after the previous item sells out which can take anywhere from 10 seconds to 3 hours. People get so excited to see what the next item will be that it is not unheard of for some Wooters, as they are sometimes called, to buy items they don't need just to keep the Woot Off moving along. This special event usually last 2-3 days or so. Why am I telling you this? Because at some point over the course of the Woot Off a very very special item appears. Woot offers up to 3 "Random Craps" for $1 each + $5 shipping and they usually have around 1500 of these packages in stock before it sells out. The thing is though, that demand for all this random crap is so high that to get it, you have to submit your order within 10 seconds or the server crashes (and it always crashes as a result of thousands of people trying to make orders at the same time) and its all sold out by the time it comes back online. So again, why am I telling you this? Because I was lucky enough to successfully order a Bag O Crap! I am sure you are thinking "what could possibly be in this bag o crap that worth all the effort?" Well I'll tell you; people have gotten all kinds of, well, random crap. Crap like old PDAs, a sequined american flag vest, a wooden duck, random cheap robot toys from China with very badly translated instruction books, CD-Rs, etc... The only thing you can count on is that it will all come with some bag that is probably useless. So after this long winded description that I strategically placed in the middle of this post so that you would read it, I present to you the contents of my Bag O' Crap!!!

So the first picture is my Box o Crap (the bag is inside). If nothing else, the box will get used as a temporary trash can until it gets filled. The second picture shows:
1 Samsonite video/camera bag/backpack
50 Blank Cd's (which would be great if I didn't already have 75)
2 USB Drive locks (I can't think of any use for these)
2 bags of air (no, its not special air... just air)
1 temporary trash can
And 1 "Tricky Squirt Disappearing Knife" whatever that means. I chock the name up to a bad chinese translation
So thats it, the anticipation was much much more fun than the actual items, but hey thats the point. If anyone needs any of this crap just let me know!



Don't worry, this type of crap isn't the most exciting thing to happen to me since I've moved here. Some things from my last life have not changed. I still take to the streets (and bars) on weekends with friends and succeed in having a great time as well as inadvertently drinking to excess. Its nice to know that there are some things in life that you can count on to stay the same no matter where you are.

So I submitted my first expense report last week which means that I finally get all of my own money back that I had to spend on cab fares too and from the District Court and the FCC. As I look at the extra money (although I know its really not extra) I feel really really, well, corporate.

I feel like I could just go on and on and on, but we all have lives to that we need to back to and I will just have to write down everything else that goes on in mine in my next post! Thanks for reading and post a comment if you feel like it.
-Darren

P.S. Stay tuned for my next post entitled "Darren's Adventures in Public Transportation"