Washington, D.C.

Percy Jackson was just in D.C., I watched some Bones the other day, it's starting to feel like summer, I'm trying to plan a trip home, and I miss my friends.  All together, it's making me sappy for D.C., but I'm having trouble being articulate about it.  Instead:

• Museums on the mall are free and you can take field trips there, which always was fun as a kid and camp counselor and sounds like a fantastic opportunity as a teacher.
• It gets stupid hot in the summer.  And humid.  You aren't sure if you are wet because you're sweaty or if there's just that much moisture in the air.  And there are fucking mosquitoes everywhere.
• The Potomac River is baller.
• Arlington and Alexandria are baller and places I could work as a teacher without jumping through a million hoops (fuck you California).
• I have wonderful friends in A-ton.
• I have wonderful parents in Loudoun.
• The Silver Line.  They are extending the metro out past Tysons.
• The metro goes all kinds of places and is worth riding on, but it charges by distance and doesn't have a monthly pass.
• The Orange Line.
• Dulles international airport is shaped like the Wright Bros. airplane and is all shiny and new looking with the tramway.
• Bus Boys and Poets
• I've never seen the Cherry Blossoms in person, and I really want to.
• Snow.  Walking through the city.  In the snow.  Awesome.  And slushy.  And then less awesome.  And it's hateful cold.  And your nose hurts and then you say "fuck it" and tie a scarf around it, but the skin around your eyes still hurts so do your ears and you wish you had picked a "functional" hat instead of a stylish one.
• It's liberal and shit.
• They like the gays.
• Acting was easier there.  Theatre in Arlington is funded by the county, so there's a ton, and there's a bunch of stuff in the city, equity houses all over the place.  Also, Synetic and that other dance/theatre exist.
• VSF. Christopher L. Owens. WM Alums.
• People have both heard of William and Mary and know what it means.
• New York is very close.  Just a bus ride away.
• The Kennedy Center.

I go back and forth on whether I think I can go back.  After writing this whole post, I'm not sure I can.  Not yet at least.  There were tons of things that felt wrong about D.C., and a lot of ways I never really got to know the city too.  I've always been under the impression that I would bounce around the U.S. staying in different cities for 2-3 years at a time until I finally decided that it was time to settle in VA.  That's why I got a teaching degree, they need teachers everywhere.  I never really believed I'd do it, though.  I thought I'd get to SF and love it and settle in.  That doesn't seem as likely as it did 4 months ago.  But I'm certainly not ready to move back and settle in D.C. though.  Maybe Chicago.  Or New York.  Somewhere with seasons.  No more of this sunshine and 65 all the time nonsense.  Time doesn't make sense here.  I've got another year and half (ish) in San Francisco at least, we'll see how I feel after that.  And we'll see what kind of bullets I make for SF if I do decide to leave.

Also, if you know the origin of my name, you'll agree with me when I tell you that it's always felt kind of ironic.

~ <3 ~

P.S.  I know it's easy to think about leaving the Bay Area right now because I don't have any anchors to the place.  I also know a year and a half is a long time and shit changes.  I also know Abigail is coming and my tune may change the moment she gets here.  But this is where I am right now.  And I wanted to document that.