2002-10-30 - 10:12 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: "Right Turn", Alice in Chains

I went out to a few stores today, looking for birthday presents for my dad. I was hoping to find some joke gifts, but I didn't really find anything suitable. Not too big a deal, though. The "real" present, aside from a few small material gifts, is the card I'm going to make. I have a tradition of making Father's Day cards, poking gentle fun and him and myself, using stick figure illustrations, which induce laughter to the point of tears in his eyes at times, and this year I'll do a super-big one for his birthday. Probably a series of milestones, humorously illustrated. I've already doodled a few ideas.

So, I was out wandering around in the dreadful rain and wind, with my umbrella turning itself inside out. Stupid winter. We skipped straight from summer to winter with no real autumn, and I'm not happy about it. October is ordinarily my favorite month.

(Note to self: Do NOT go buy four pounds of Halloween candy, a pound of pasta, and a couple pounds of broccoli a half-mile from home when it is raining, unless you have your bag-lady cart. You cannot handle the heavy bags AND the umbrella, and it will make you cranky.)

While I was out, I saw:

- The Liberty Bell. It's right there. You can see it through the glass. I considered going in, but they've got a complicated security thing going on there now and I didn't want to deal with it.

- The former site of the President's home, when the president was George Washington and Philadelphia was the temporary capital of the U.S.

- The former site of a home where James Madison lived for a while.

When I used to daydream about moving to Philadelphia, it was all about the proximity to family and the walkability thing. I never stopped to think about the history. Now that I'm here, it's one of my favorite things about it. It's pretty amazing to be walking the same streets as the Founding Fathers. This is where they hashed out the Constitution. It's where Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. It happened RIGHT HERE. And somehow, with the way so many of the oldest homes and buildings are still around, it feels like it happened just last week.

I never liked history in school. In fact, I hated it. But this kind of history-next-door is just amazing to experience.

Other random sightings of the day:

- A short, fat Dalmatian in a yellow raincoat (for real!), who went utterly ballistic barking when he passed in front of a store. When I passed the store myself, I saw a little poufy Pomeranian, looking prissy and pleased with itself, nose to glass. Cracked me up.

- A deli guy with long hair and multiple ear piercings, wearing an X-files cap on backwards. The back of it said, "The Truth Is Out There". I wanted to strike up a conversation about the X-Files, but I couldn't figure what the hell to say.

When I first got here, every time I went out, I had an "Eek! I'm in the CITY!" feeling. It was an exciting, but extremely unfamiliar place. "The City", all my life, has been a sort of Other Place. Suburbs and rural areas I was familiar with, but The City was something else entirely. Almost like being on another planet. Not to mention dangerous.

But now that I've been living here for seven months, I realized that that feeling is gone. Now, the city just feels familiar. It feels normal. It's still exciting, because I love it so much, but it is beginning to feel like home. It's not "The City" anymore, it's just a place like any other, except it's the one that I like the best.

Another thing I'm surprised to find is that I don't see the dirty crappiness as much as I used to. It's still there, but I seem to have adjusted my focus so that I don't notice it so much anymore. I haven't really been able to figure that out.

I remember going through Northeast DC back when I first moved to the area. I would look at the boarded up houses and feel horrified that it was so run-down. Now when I go through there, it isn't Dupont Circle, but it isn't half as bad as I remember it from college, either. Maybe I just learn to focus on the good stuff and ignore the bad. I don't know.

Other random bits:

- We have a security system now. Sensors on all the doors, plus an infrared sensor for the bottom floor. I keep it armed when I'm in the house, and when we're sleeping. Mainly I wanted this so that if someone comes into the house when I'm working or sleeping, I have enough warning so I can lock myself in the bedroom and call the police while holding on tight to my firearm. Of course, hopefully this will never happen.

- I am utterly smitten with Darren Baker. That kid is impossibly cute. I could watch that home-plate rescue endlessly and never get tired of it. And man, I felt awful for the kid when he was crying after Game 7. He's probably scarred for life now -- he thought he was the good-luck charm, but they lost.

- Watching the World Series made me want to go play catch outside, but it's too freakin' cold for that.

- On Saturday we "babysat" for my brother while my parents were at a wedding. He's not allowed to go up the stairs without a "spotter". He's in amazingly good spirits considering he must be pretty sick of my parents' family room by now. Also, he had a follow-up on Monday and everything is healing nicely. Big sigh of relief!

previous index next