Character Building and Risk Taking

What is exciting in my life? Hhmm not much. I was fighting a cold/allergies (I can’t really tell which) earlier this week which among other things made me dead tired. Sleep is my cure for any sort of feeling under the weather, so I have slept a lot and feel a lot better today. Ballet last night was great. We had the sub again, and I just find her teaching style to be so much better. I can’t really articulate the differences, but she is just a better teacher. I learn more in her class. Oh, I am paying off my car this morning. That is exciting. 4 years later and I finally own the Hondie.

I saw something interesting on HBO last night. It was a round-table discussion (I think it was a few years old) with Sam Donaldson, Burt Reynolds, Bob Woodward, the presidents of Stanford and U of Penn and various PhDs. The topics varied but the section I watched was on character. I think it might have been after the Clinton scandal because there was some talk about public figure heads and character etc. It was encouraging to see something link that on TV. When in our society do we have a discourse about character? It was enlightening really. Sam Donaldson talked about how he felt that those who have a lot of character in life have been taught that you simply don’t always get what you want and that you must work hard. Others talked about the fallacy that people think the world owes them something. Later on—I am not sure if this in the character section or not—one of the professors talked about our society and our generation specifically is afraid to take risks. He said we are the brightest, most-endowed generation with more access and ability than any other previous generation, but we are afraid. We are afraid to fulfill our true destiny and do anything out of a societal-imposed view that you must go to college, get the “good job” (who cares if you really like it), buy the house, get married and have the kids. He was astonished at the power that this model of life had on people and how so many young people he encountered were afraid to take risks. I always think of people our age as risk takers, but may it is not the case. Though a lot of it was his opinion, it was very thought provoking.

Weekend Recap

9/25/05

Did everyone see the Safeway pics below? I felt really good, though, because we went to a Giant that is about 10 minutes away that I totally had forgotten about it. It is still in DC, and we used to go there a lot when Ed lived on the other side of Capitol Hill. Anyway, it is just a couple of years old and we went Sunday at like 5 and it was fully stocked—including sales items. The produce was wonderful. Oh I had forgotten how it nice it can be to go grocery shopping. Anyway, we are on an official Safeway boycott.

We had a nice weekend. Friday we went to a happy hour and Saturday, Ed fingerprinted for this volunteer group all day. I helped as his assistant by checking people in. Ed’s family owns a fingerprinting business in Boston, so he knows how to do it. There is a new law in DC that anyone who works with children must be fingerprinted. It went well—with the exception of one guy who kept filling his card out wrong because he wasn’t following directions or looking at the samples—and was an absolute asshole about it.

Anyway, we went out for Tapas at Jaleo to celebrate a hard day’s work. A lot of the protesters from the anti-war march were walking around.

Last night I made an apple crisp because it was feeling very fall for the first time. I had to take the bus again today because something was wrong with the Metro when I got there (no clear communication as to what exactly). I guess it is good to have a 2nd option, but I much prefer the Metro.

Photos from Safeway

Spellbound and Ballet

Has anyone seen the movie spellbound? Ed and I watched it last weekend. It’s so cute. It is a documentary of these 8 or so kids who make it to the national spelling bee. Very interesting/funny/cute.

I keep forgetting to blog that I am taking a ballet class. Tonight is my 3rd class. We had a sub last week who I really liked (maybe even better than the teacher), but I think we are back to the original teacher this week. It feels so good to go. I love having something to look forward to in the week, and it is great to just be taking a “class” again.

damn it

I wrote this long entry about taking the bus this morning and when I went to publish it there was an error and I lost it.

Anyway, Cliff's notes:

I thought the bus would be fun and faster to take. It was for a while. Then I got sick of it. I am not taking the bus again.

Safeway is disgusting

So we live in a great neighborhood, and I have commented before on how much I love it. Probably a few years ago though, it would have been considered sketchy and you can tell that it had been a rougher area evidenced by the fact that it is completely underserved. We are fortunate because it just so happens that all services are within blocks of us, but as a whole, the area is really underserved. Namely, we have 1 grocery store—the not-so-Safeway—for all of Capitol Hill.

Ed and I often will go to Northern Virginia to avoid the chaos and calamity of this Safeway. On Sunday, though, after a weekend of camping, we decided to go the grocery store that is just 2 blocks away. Highlights include the Safeway staff member we saw steal a pregnancy test (it was a guy and he took it into the back stock room and didn’t reappear with it), rotting cucumbers, literal bare shelves in the water/soda aisle, expired salad and dishwashing soap opened and dripping down. Ed went back to take digital pictures to send to corporate headquarters. I will get to post some--gr-ooosss.

Danny goes to Europe

My own life is boring, so I thought I would just post Danny's adventures in Europe. Much more exciting than my own life:

http://www.dcvivaspain.blogspot.com/

Hold all comments about this being a cheap way out.

Weekend Recap

Ed and I had a good weekend. He met me near my office and had dinner on Friday night at this Thai place. We came back to my office and Ed helped me do some web-updates, which is a new job that I have been assigned for one of my clients. It took almost 2 hours and I cringe to think how long it would have taken if it were just me trying—interuption there is a spider crawling on the wall in front of me, gross—anyway, he knew how to do a few things that I didn’t, but overall, I help my own. Sat. a.m. we went to Eastern Market and the gym. The gym has been missing me.

We said so-long (I never say good-bye) to our great friends Brad and Cynthia this weekend. Mad shout out to them on their adventure to London!!! Also, congrats to them getting married—I can’t believe I didn’t post that?!? Or did I—I am out of it. Anyway, we had a great time in our private shi-shi room at Felix (good work, Judes) on Sat. night and stayed out way past our bedtimes and then C and B joined us for dinner outside on Sunday night. The only other thing exciting for the weekend was that Ed and I took fly fishing classes through the LL Bean store at Tyson’s Corner. It was just a little over an hour and only $12. We want to do the kayaking one next!

Oh did anyone see the 9/11 special on Discovery last night? It was a renactment with real recordings from the air traffic control or left on people's answering machines and also interviews with friends/parents/spouces. I was paralyzed watching--it was so scary. Let me know if anyone saw it--i would like to debrief.

Labor Day & The Banana Relay

Something kinda funny happened this a.m. on the way to the work. I had a banana in the mesh pocket of my tote bag (which I think is really designed for a water bottle). Anyway, I was all out running down an escalator to catch my train whose doors were about to close. My banana fell out of my bag onto the escalator. I quickly noticed it and turned around to see my banana resting leisurely on of the stairs. I made a split decision to not run up (which a difficult feat as it is anyway) and I really couldn’t reach it—so the only think I mustered to do was to yell out “my banana”. The time frame here is about 3 seconds—during that same period a guy appears and in one fell swoop he scoops up my banana and I reach back with my arm stretched behind me and grab—it was a perfect blind hand off. He commented on it being a relay as I took the next leg right into my train just before the door closes.

In other news, we had a great time in MA for Labor Day. The weather was perfect and we made it to the beach; I am still amazed that Ed grew up in such close proximity to the beach. For a girl from the most landlocked state in North America, the idea of waking up in the morning thinking “hhmm today, I will walk a block down to the beach” is very foreign.

We jumped off the pier on Saturday a.m. and met Willie, a local boy about age 12 who was fishing. I actually only jumped once—Ed several times. (I am putting this clarification in so that Ed doesn’t correct it in the comments) Anyway, Ed was chatting it up with Willie about his fishing. As we were walking of the pier—straight out of Mayberry comes this boy other boy a couple of years younger tottering on this bike while balancing a net with a container of bait in one hand and fishing pole twice his size in other. He called out “Willie….I got the net!” Willie called back “I’ve been catching bait fish”. For a brief second, the world was very innocent.

I was so relaxed from the weekend that it was hard to get back into work!