Did You Have A "DC Moment?"
On a recent Saturday night I was talking to an acquaintance who is a self-admitted, laid-back stoner. That is, except for the eight hours a day when he dons glasses and a button-up shirt and goes to his job at a law firm. This guy, an avid cyclist, shamefully admitted that he frequently has to take cabs to work and sometimes even hassles the driver for taking the wrong route. He said this is the toll living in DC has taken on him, even thought its only expressed at these moments.
Since then, I've been paying attention to my own "DC Moments," those times when my easygoing, Midwestern nature succumbs to the rhythms and stresses of living in a city whose downtown is overflowing with governmental Type As. Usually this is manifested by outright ignoring a homeless person's solicitations or caring about lame political gossip, but yesterday evening I did something much worse.
I got out of work a little early and thought that it was a great opportunity to check out the cherry blossoms. I hoped, correctly, that the cold, gloomy weeknight would keep all but the most stalwart tourists away from the national mall. Walking down 16th Street toward the tidal basin, I reached a small cluster of people walking unbelievably slowly.
Anyone who knows me can tell you that I walk at a fast clip (my legs are too long for any other pace) and my greatest pet peeve is getting caught behind slow moving people. This only exacerbated after 18 months of standing on the left side of the Metro escalator behind that tourist with the suitcase. I never got so bothered by stuff like this at home in Chicago, but as a District resident I've started to feel like I perpetually have somewhere to be. And fast.
But I digress: I'm walking down 18th street and have to stop behind a large group of people who are standing on the sidewalk in front of the WWII memorial. I roll my eyes. I clench and unclench my fists. I finally find a small gap in their ranks and plowed through, only to almost trip over the cause of the traffic jam: a ten year-old boy in a wheel chair. I think that was my greatest asshole moment in a while, and I've had some bad ones.
I always saw myself as living in San Francisco after college, but the only good friend I had there moved to DC and I followed, for lack of any better ideas. My life has fallen into place perfectly since then, but I still see this city as a very bizarre place. I find the area between M St. and the Mall to be virtually unlivable. Every boxy high rise and look-alike intersection seems a poster child of beautiful anonymity. It's no wonder people can be so rude here— in an area so impersonal, why should anyone treat you personally?
However, a pleasant surprise for me in exploring the city has been how appealing the northern and southern ends are. Admo, Mt. Pleasant and the northern neighborhoods of "upper caucasia" feel like a whole separate country from K St. Yesterday's gray walk through the blossoms made me feel like, pardon the cliché, a whole new person. Or at least a person that doesn't get annoyed at disabled children.
I'm going to be living in this city much longer than I first thought. Is it inevitable that I'm going to succumb to that all-encompassing "DC attitude?" Or will I continue to have access to my own inner tidal basin?
3 comments:
I don't know if there is a specific "DC attitude" persay, but I do know how you feel. As a life-long DC-er (with a 4+ year collegiate hiatus in Williamsburg, VA, another town with a tourist problem), one does learn that March and April are school trip season, and that its harder to get around Capitol Hill because of the tour busses and slow, lost tourists. But remember, and this is why I love this city, that DC is a place where there are actually a lot of important things going on, and that there are a lot of fairly important people trying to get places (so that they may continue to be fairly important). I like the fast-moving pace of Washington (which is something my friends in Chi-town and LA can't comprehend), and I like the idea that, at my job not too far from K street, I can run into someone newsworthy (like, news, not gossip rag) in starbucks/caribou/whatever organic coffee place is en vogue at the moment.
Also, call me crazy, but I think DC is a very pretty town. I'm not one for skyscrapers, and although DC has its fair share of "boxy high-rises", when I drive home to Alexandria after work each day, down 17th and across the Mall, I am always awed by the sight of the Lincoln Memorial through the fountains at the WWII memorial. No other city in this country (that I've been to, at least) has that sense of gravitas like DC, and I can't live without it.
Zack, I’m rooting for you to hold onto your inner tidal basin, but is DC really full of Type A personalities? I guess that people here have the low self-esteem part down, but multi-taskers? Over achievers? I disagree.
DC is a one industry town where people feel the need to seem busy, but in reality, the pace is so slow it’s painful. While the rest of the country drives the economy, DC is full of people who generally work for non-profit organizations or the government, both of which are infamous for their ridiculously high overhead costs and frivolous spending which is coupled by their inability to get anything done in a timely manner. People spend more time playing on their crackberries and talking about their “to do lists” than they spend doing actual work. In the rest of America, getting to work at 9 AM would be a Godsend. The fact that DCists have to take a cab to make it to their respective offices on time is a testament to the sad nature of this town. Think about it…the mainstream gay culture in this town perfectly reflects the whole DC lifestyle. That’s why it sucks.
what an exceptionally insightful comment. I haven't heard that one before.
Post a Comment