I climbed mountains to get here.

Mt. Helvellyn, Lark and the Great Valley, photo courtesy Craig Linton, Sept. 2003.


Suddenly,

I miss England.

I miss water crackers, unsweetened peanut butter, Euro Food & Wine, internet cafes, the Royal Nasty, the Royal National Theatre, Russell Square, Dickens, Buddy, AP Mendenhall, Craiger, RCL, Franklin and his iPod, baked beans, hot tea, and Rice Krispies w/sugar for breakfast, the Tate Modern, the London Film Festival, tour buses, Seamus, EuRail, Rome, Barcelona, London...

But I think I really miss home.

Walk among strangers...

"...how can I not know I am momentarily part of the most spectacular phenomenon in the unnatural world? [...] For all the wariness or indifference with which we negotiate our public spaces, we rely on the masses around us to delineate ourselves. The city may begin from a marketplace, a trading post, the confluence of waters, but it secretly depends on the human need to walk among strangers." -E.L. Doctorow, City of God

That's one point of view...today I think I prefer to walk alone if my other option is among strangers. I don't need all these pesky people in my way clogging up the path to my destination.

However, random people can be good for entertainment value, at least. I saw many interesting people on the metro the other night after I left Blocktoberfest (yes, it was in September, still not sure why I was at Blocktoberfest) the day I went to the protest.

There was the scruffy bearded guy intently reading 100 Bullets with his even scriffier bearded friend who was carrying a large messenger bag full of ...? This was only mildly alarming to me because I was also at the time enthralled two other male passengers. One was a leftover protestor who looked like Dave Navarro, complete with tattoos on his arms and back--he was also shirtless, wearing cut off camo pants, and carrying his sweatshirt and a camelback. His tattoos consisted of a rose with a dagger stuck through it on his arm and a large celtic cross on his back. Despite these strange markings that may act as warnings to other animals, I still thought he looked like a nice guy...I'm always a victim of distorted first impressions. I probably wouldn't last long in the wild.

The other boy who caught my attention was much more clothed but I wished he wasn't because I wanted his shirt. He was wearing the most beautifully striped shirt I've ever seen on a boy that didn't look gay (the shirt, or the boy, I mean). The stripes were eggplant purple, navy, 3 different greens, a light blue and a medium blue, and a khaki. I love colors and these were awesome together. I often imagine stopping people as we walk off the metro to say to them what I've been thinking on the whole ride home. I wonder what kind of responses I'd get...

There were two girls on the train that I noticed, as well. They both had crazy hair styles (dreadlocks and something that looked vaguely rooster-esque) and wore sunglasses. Even though we were on the train at 11 pm.

I wish I could describe actions more than appearances, but that's really about all you get on the metro. People don't really do much other than read a paper, talk on a cell phone, or try to avoid my eyes as I watch them. Haha! Maybe one day I'll have a story about the random person I pick out to talk to as we disembark...

Italics

Picture: Lark Wells, Mt. Helvellyn, England, September 2003


I roll the window down and then begin to breathe in
the darkest country road and the strong scent of evergreen
from the passenger seat as you are driving me home
Then looking upwards I strain my eyes and try
to tell the difference between shooting stars and satellites
from the passenger seat as you are driving me home
Do they collide? I ask and you smile
With my feet on the dash the world doesn't matter

Words: Death Cab for Cutie, "Passenger Seat"

All we are saying is give peace a chance

I went to the peace rally/march/demonstration in downtown DC on Saturday. I've never been to anything like it before. There were thousands of people, costumes, signs...it was amazing. There were also chants, songs, speeches and a unicyclist. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the unicyle man, but here are some others:


I liked this sign with the flower a lot. It said "war is not healthy for children and other living things." Haha. That's the back of the White House in the background. Apparently, this was one of the first marches in a while that was allowed to go down Pennsylvania Avenue.


That's the Capitol in the background. It was very dreary so it kind of fades into gray, but you get the idea.


If the guy in the middle of this picture hadn't gotten in the way, you could see my favorite group costume: Bush and Cheney on puppet strings attached to the devil.

I thought it was really cool that I witnessed "history in the making" as everyone so glamourously puts it. It didn't feel much different than every other day besides the fact that I was in a HUGE group of people all walking in the same direction chanting and screaming. Okay, so I guess it was a little different than most days.

But even though I would say that I am not a fan of the war and I dislike the idea of such violence, too, it was kind of weird to be there with all these people who are trying so passionately to make one statement for all the world to see. I don't know if I believe in anything enough right now to protest it...oh dear, I think that's the definition of apathy. I don't mean to be apathetic... Oh, well.

I never saw blue like that before...

At least there's one pretty thing in DC that isn't covered in marble or concrete. As I got off the metro tonight after happy hour w/the coworkers, I looked up into the most beautiful blueness I think I may have ever seen. The sky was a wash of deep dark royal blue with electric blue tinges on the edges. More than the color, what struck me was the complete smoothness of it--not a cloud anywhere...the most high-resolution, highly saturated sky ever. It was one of those things you wish you could take with you in a little box and open it up when you feel numb so you can breathe in the wonder of it again.

Don't it make you sad to know that life, is more than who we are...

It's too late for this (probably in many ways) and I don't even know why I think putting this online is acceptable, considering I hate it when people allude to something mysterious and you might think you know what they're talking about but it could really be taken in about a million different ways, but I just want to say that I'm thinking of lost people and lost things and feeling kind of sad. I think that's broad enough. Wonder it up.

Ok, it was actually kind of fun being mysterious for about half a second. Maybe now I will sleep.

Second verse, same as the first...

Yes, my second day was also excellent. I was given several real tasks to complete (albeit elementary ones) and became a little more familiar with some of the other employees over lunch. Happy hour with ERG is tomorrow after work, woohoo!

I had blueberry-flavored Middlebury beer from Middlebury, VT (MICHELLE!) with my roommates Samantha and Patrick when I got home and I bought some striped rain boots and a new purse from Target (in the opposite order). I love Target.

This weekend there's a green festival of some sort in DC and my Uncle Jim is here to help out with some other big DC event so I have many entertainment options for my near future. I love it! I know it's only the second real day, but I'm feeling good and I'd really like to hold on to that.

The world is my oyster.

That was the fastest first day of work ever. (As though I've ever had more than one work and one internship first day.) Time flew by--I had so much paperwork to fill out, so many new people to meet, and so many office supplies to secure, that I didn't get bored once. Well, maybe once while I was reading the information manual for how to answer the phones... But other than that, I had a really great first day!

I'm sharing an office with Rachel E. Rosenberg (cool name, I think), who was hired the same time I was but started work last week because she is going on vacation in Prague next week (which was planned before she got her job). She is REALLY nice, as is everyone at ERG, and we have already planned how we're rearranging our office so we can fit in a napping couch and how she's going to take me to New York with her when she goes to visit her brother since I've never been. :-) Yay for exciting trip possibilities!

I am also excited my orientation packet (below). In it are treasures such as health/life/dental insurance, flexible spending and retirement plans, vacation information and other wonderful prizes that I get to enjoy at some point after I work for 30 days.



Exciting, huh?

And here is a picture of my room...everything's kinda short right now without furniture or the box springs for my bed that they couldn't fit up the stairs. But the walls match my bedspread perfectly!

So yay for bedspreads and future paychecks!

I'll take more pictures of the house and my roommates soon!

It's all over, blast!

Only a few more hours of freedom from the real world... In less than 12 hours I'll be at my first real job, wowing my new employers at the Eastern Research Group with my amazing skills (bow-hunting, computer-hacking) and incredible talent (tap dancing, tuba-playing). It's gonna be great!! I am quite excited for everything but the commute, which I'm still not sure about yet. My roommate Patrick and I might carpool to the metro sometimes but his schedule is pretty crazy so I don't know how often that'll happen. But maybe it won't be as bad as I think. Surely it won't. I can some up with some pretty bad things.

Oh and let me give you a quick list and description of my awesome roommates, since I haven't done that so far.

Tracy--26, is a graphic designer with her own business. She grew up on a beef farm in Kansas (go farm girls!), has two kitties--Napoleon and Mel--and just got engaged to...

Brian--28, who works for some consulting/accounting firm or something, from Minnesota. He's been in DC for 3 years and loves to watch (and once played) football. He is also a computer geek who randomly decided to "fix" my ancient laptop the day after I moved in (lol). It's nowhere near like-new, but it's the thought that counts.

Sam--22, short for Samantha, works as an environmental planner, is an organic vegetarian, and worked on a CSA farm this summer (yay for green people!). She's the second of 5 children and had a really cool environmental/literature/policy-type major in college at UVA after transferring from FSU after her freshman year.

Patrick--25? works for a (the?) West Virginia senator on Capitol Hill. He majored in biology but randomly got an internship in DC during his undergrad and decided to go into politics. He's a very witty guy and reminds me of a cross between Iceman and Shawn Plunkett, if you know those guys.

Everyone is really cool so far and I've had a good time getting to know them. It's still kinda weird, though, because everyone is usually so busy it's hard to have a very in-depth conversation to get a real grasp on who they are (so far). But I'm sure with time everything will become clearer.

I'm not worried (about some things). But I am going to go take a shower and go to bed and hopefully to sleep now.

My brain is melting...

I hate MTV.

Proof...?

While I was making plans to move here, someone told me that DC is a cool place to live and that there are lots of young people, but "people don't go out of their way to help you." I would just like to say that, for the record, I have not found this to be the case. If they don't want to go out of their way to help, how would one account for:

1. The man in the turning lane on Nutley St. who honked his horn at me while I was standing at the crosswalk to tell me to hold down the crosswalk button longer so the little green man would pop up and give me the right of way?

2. The woman at the first mattress store I went to who, even after realizing that I wasn't buying one of her $3000 mattresses, proceeded to give me advice on what kinds of mattresses to buy and what kinds to stay away from as I shopped?

3. The man at the third mattress store who gave me a free frame AND delivery for my new mattress before assuring me that "we love Southern girls here in Virginia."

I mean, these are prime examples of human kindness at work, right?

Well...except for the mattress guy who I'm pretty sure just wanted to go out with me even though he looked about 40 and sells mattresses. In fact, I'm absolutely sure of this, considering he gave me his cell phone number and told me he'd love to show me around the town sometime and to call him if I needed ANYTHING.

But the other two people were definitely going out of their way to give me advice...right? Maybe people just like me cause I'm nice. Or else I just have this look of wide-eyed fear that they interpret as innocence.

In any case, the first few days here haven't been so bad and I've run lots of errands and gotten lots of things situated without help from anyone. But I'm definitely missing my family and the less crazy traffic of Clover. You can't go wrong with just one stoplight.

Hello friends,

So I finally broke down and decided to create one of these new-fangled internet journal thingys. I want all my friends and family members (that's you, hopefully) to know what I'm up to in the big city at my new job without having to use ALL of my cell phone minutes and more filling each of you in individually. Of course, I still want to talk to all of you, but maybe this will help keep the bills down to a minimum.

I guess I should start by filling everyone in who may not know exactly what I've been up to lately. I applied for a position at an environmental consulting firm this summer because it looked like a really awesome job and one that I might actually get because I had experience in the right areas (unlike almost every other job I had been searching for up til then). I had no idea where the job was located (the company I'd work for--http://www.erg.com--has offices all over) but I didn't really have a preference so I just applied anyway. Turns out, the environmental consulting headquarters is in Arlington, VA, right outside of Washington, DC.

Now, I've traveled all over Europe, to Dublin, London, Paris, Edinburg, Vienna, Rome, Madrid--but I have never traveled to the capital of my own country! How sad is that? But, hey, there's no time like the present! After two trips up to DC and the surrounding areas to interview for my job and look for apartments, I just moved into my new townhouse in Fairfax, VA two days ago.

So far, I'm just trying to get settled in, buy a bed and a new laptop, and figure out if I made the correct housing decision. I did a test run of my commute to work today. According to www.wmata.com, from my metro stop (Vienna/Fairfax-GMU) to where I work (Courthouse) is a 20 minute ride. According to my roommates' post on craigslist, the walk to the metro = 10 min. I'm not sure that my roommates have ever walked to the metro.

I left here at 8:12 a.m. About 1 minute later I realized that the overcast sky and incredibly muggy conditions could possibly mean rain, so I turned back to get my umbrella. So it's 8:14 and I'm officially on my way. To make a REALLY long story short, it took me 25 minutes to walk to the metro, about 3 minutes to purchase my new handy-dandy SmarTrip metro card, and another 20 minutes on the train. Which made me late for work. If I had been going to work today.

Now we all know that I am not a morning person (if you didn't, welcome to my confession). It is all I can do to communicate in the mornings, much less ambulate. Not to mention, most of the walk to the metro is UPHILL. In the SNOW. BOTH WAYS. Or, will be when Nov? Dec? rolls around. Until then, it's just kind of like walking in a swamp but on pavement and with car fumes instead of swamp gas.

So you are probably wondering to yourself..."why doesn't she just drive to the metro? There's a parking lot there." Well. I don't know. It might have something to do with the $3.75 it costs to park there all day. Add that to the metro fare to work and back, I could be spending around $300 a month just going to work! Plus, traffic here is INSANE and I feel that I would not like to contribute to that insanity (or mine) by placing myself in a motorized vehicle at any hour in the morning if I don't have to. Last but certainly not least, I am an environmentally-aware citizen of this insane place, so I do not want to release any more toxic fumes into the air than I have to driving 1 mile when I really could just walk. Except for the whole swamp uphill toxic fumes in my lungs thing.

My other option is...the bus. There is a very convenient bus stop right outside of the little townhouse row where I live. Conveniently located across four lanes of rush hour traffic. I'm sure there are other people who cross the street there. I'd just like to know how the heck they do it. Because unless I finally grow some wings or do a double-back flip cartwheel over the cars, I can just hear the sickening sounds of screeching tires and blaring horns every morning as I try to cross the street where there's no crosswalk or traffic light.

Do wish me luck. I'm going to need it. I just moved from a place where the highest volume of traffic on the road outside my house was bovine in nature and very slow moving. They still emit harmful fumes but at least they also provide fertilizer... Looks like the moral to my story so far is, no matter where you go, or what kind of shortages there are, there's always gonna be some kind of gas.

Ha. Ha?