A Surprising Day

So I began my weekend looking for a good place to get breakfast in DC. Some place well-reviewed that had a unique or special something to it. And it had to be close to the Metro because otherwise I have to walk further than I would like.After doing a few minutes of research I discovered a place called the Waffle Shop, across the street from Ford's Theater. It was described as a greasy spoon diner and I am here to tell you that description was dead on. Very few tables but a long, snaking counter where you just walked up to and sat down. Everything on the menu was pretty standard except for something called "scrapple". I asked my waitress what it was and she told me it was "the last part of the pig that was used. Sort of like mushy sausage." YUCK! Needless to say I did not partake. The food was acceptable, and filling, but nothing to really go back for, so with a full stomach I began to walk down to the National Mall again.

When I got to the back side of the Natural History Museum I turned left and headed for the National Gallery to go look at some art. Not just any art though, I wanted to spend time looking at the works of Rodin, Degas, and that of other sculptors whose names I can't remember. Rodin's work just moves me. His attention to detail, to form, and to emotion simply floor me. While I'm not a huge fan of the busts that he did, his other sculptures are very moving. Similarly with Degas. The detail he put into most of his work was not the same as Rodin, but Degas captures movement and life, particularly in his different dancers and horses.  After spending time being awed and humbled by such greatness I wandered upstairs to the portrait galleries where I sauntered past the Rembrandts and made my way to this painting.
 

 

This is "Moonlit Landscape With Bridge" by Aert Van Der Neer, and the first time I saw it, in January, I was struck by how strong the light shown out of the sky and illuminated the picture. There are obviously other great works of art in the Gallery, but this one jumped out at me, and on second viewing, had just as much impact. With that goal accomplished, I set off through the museum again and found another amazing exhibit, this one of etchings done by John Taylor Arms. I am always amazed at the talent that artists show, their ability to create so much emotion on different media, the fact that I can barely draw a stick figure in comparison. What Arms does though, is brings to life a scene, in many cases quite real, and etches it BACKWARDS on his plates. Thik about that for a second. Look at whatever is in front of you and imagine drawing the mirror image it. On metal. Apparently, according to his children, Arms would work with a pin that had been attached to a wooden handle, and etch lines while looking through a stack of three magnifying glasses. What might that create? 

After dreaming for 30 seconds about what it might feel like to have this kind of talent in art, I walked out the front door of the Gallery into a sea of white tents set up across half the Mall. 

What was this?!

This, was the National Book Fest, put on by the Library of Congress. There were tents for most genres of books: fiction, poetry, teen, children, contemporary, etc. They had the Magic School Bus there, a whole section from PBS Kids, a trailer set up to download digital library books, and at the far end of the field, a row of 20 small tents for book signings. Yes, that's right, 20 rows of people waiting to have a book signed by their favorite author. It looked like this:

I walked up to the tent for fiction just as they were announcing the next author to speak. I didn't recognize the name at first but heard something about Oz, so I stayed a bit longer, only to discover that it was Gregory McGuire, the author of Wicked. So I stayed longer. He read the first few pages of the fourth book in the Wicked series, which comes out shortly, and then began talking about how he came to write Wicked and then the subsequent books. Who would have thought that his muse was the first Gulf War and Hitler? Or that his second book was based on the incidents at Abu Ghraib? He was an engaging speaker and this discovery seemed to be the surprise of the day. Little did I know.

I left the Mall and headed off to look for a store, only to find that it had moved. So I jumped on the train to the next location where I could find the store I was looking for and when I walked out of the Clarendon Station I stepped square in the middle of a street fair. It was Clarendon Day! What? You have never heard of Clarendon Day? Good, because neither had I. Basically they closed off the center of town, in a two block radius from the Metro station, and filled it with food, games, activities, demonstrations, and vendors of all sorts. After getting turned around looking for the store I was seeking (stupid map program) I returned to the fair and had a look. The food was good, the entertainment was good, and I was able to walk around without everyone trying to sell me something and just take in the sights and sounds. 

This may not sound like much to some of you, but the point is that you just never know what you are going to find when you head off looking for breakfast. It was a very surprising day and I am so very glad that I went looking for waffles.

Reflections

The reason I started this blog was to chronicle my adventures as I began a new job and new life in the Foreign Service. The funny experiences, the different sights, sounds, and foods, sharing these things with friends, family, and strangers who might be interested. Today is not going to be one of those funny days. Today I went to the National Holocaust Museum.

On my last trip to DC I visited several museums and had a wonderful time. Now that I am living here I intend to go to them all, and for some reason I chose the Holocaust Museum. Maybe it was because I am feeling down and missing my family, maybe because I wanted to get it out of the way, and maybe because I had heard how moving an experience it was for others. Regardless, I chose to visit it today. To say that I was overwhelmed is a serious understatement. The weight of the exhibits was far more than I ever thought possible. I have seen video of the concentration camps, pictures of the liberation, and different examples of what Hitler did, but NEVER in such breadth or depth. Even typing this in the comfort of my room I am overcome with emotion when I think of the section regarding the mental hospitals and what was done to children. Horrifying! Seeing the tower of photos from the city of Ejszyszki, and learning that so many were killed was another moment that will live with me forever. But the most striking thing of all, as strange as it may seem, was the part of the exhibit that was nothing but shoes taken from victims when they arrived at the camps. Mstly old and decaying leather, many of the shoes still had dye on them and you could see that they had been bright red at some point. 
There were parts of the exhibit that I found to be intensely graphic and thought that I will never bring my children there. But another part of me is saying that at a certain age, they need to see this and understand that it is necessary to stand up to evil. 


I knew I would be moved by this experience, I just had no idea I would be moved this much. If those of you that read this have never been to this museum, I encourage you to do so. If you have, encourage others that have not. 


If you have gotten this far, thank you for reading all of this, and I promise such occurrences will be rare.

Be well my friends
 

Adventures in Roadtripping or, How I survived West Virginia

So after all of the initial drama with my poor old Saturn, and another 2200 miles of driving, I made it safe and sound to Falls Church, VA, my new home for the foreseeable future. Along the way, I stopped in a smallish town in CO to see my old friend, the dog trainer, where we had a wonderfully greasy lunch at 5 Guys Burgers. The detour to do this extra jaunt generated Rule #2 of Road Trips:

When road tripping, and you have a little extra time, it is ALWAYS appropriate to detour to see an old friend.

From there I continued on my merry way and headed for what I thought was going to be Nebraska. I didn't end up there. I ended up in Kansas. Let me explain. When you have been reading maps on your iPhone you tend to just look at little colored lines and not pay really close attention to the bigger details. Like what state you are going towards. Soooo, I ended up driving across Kansas and I am here to tell you that I have never seen a place so utterly devoid of geographic landmarks. Frightening! Now, it is possible that eastern KS has terrain, but it was very dark when I zoomed through that part of the state so I can't say for sure. I spent the night in KC after deciding that 1150 miles of driving in one day was enough, then a short drive the next morning to see the in-laws.

The next morning I was off again with the target of Louisville, KY to see the Preacher and her family. That was a wonderful reunion with two of my best friends in the world and the next day the Preacher and I went off to tour some distilleries! That's right, the Preacher likes her some Kentucky sipping bourbon, and we were not disappointed. We went to Woodford Reserve and Four Roses that day, then headed back to get the kiddies off the bus and go to wine and cheese night at the Seminary. Boy, those Presbyterians can pour it back!

Saturday dawned rather dreary as I packed up and started the last leg of my trans-continental adventure. From KY I went into West Virginia and all started off pretty well. The roads were nice, there were lots of trees, and I didn't have to stop for awhile. But when you follow Google Maps, you sometimes go some interesting places. What that link does NOT tell you, is that you end up on a lot of 2 lane highways going down some scary-steep hills (10%) that wind every which way, then suddenly burst into a gorgeous valley that lasts a few miles, then back up the hills you go. This went on for about 150 miles or so, and some of the towns looked rather nice and well cared for, and others made me hear banjos.

Eventually I made it back onto the Interstate, and rolled into VA on-time as planned. In another post I will describe my marvelous living quarters and my first days as a Foreign Service Officer.

Of Road Trips and Sheepdogs

There is something about a road trip that requires a breakdown of some sort. Call it fate, call it the law of narrative causality, call it "just plain weird", but whenever a road trip is embarked upon it is inevitable that your vehicle will have trouble. In my case it came early, 350 miles into my 750 mile day. Climbing over the last pass out of Oregon on I-84 my check engine light started flashing and I lost a major portion of my power. Power. That is a relative term when talking about a 15 year old Saturn with 150K miles and in desperate need of a ring-job, but none-the-less, power is still the right word.

I was close to Ontario, Oregon so I didn't stop or pull over, and just kept going. I broke several driving rules, both real and of the common sense variety, and started checking the interwebs on my phone to see what the possible causes could be. Low oil pressure? Cylinder mis-fire? I was spoiled for choice. Either way, I located an auto parts store in Ontario that was open and limped in to get the code checked on the engine. Lo and behold, it was a mis-fire. #3 to be exact.

Turns out I had a bad spark plug wire but the Auto Zone didn't have any in stock. Did my helpful clerk send me on my way to fend for myself? NO! He called the O'Reilly just up the street, found they had the parts, and got them to price match! This was fantastic service and I highly recommend these folks if you need parts. I then limped my ailing car a few more blocks and went into the O'Reilly's to get my wires. Again I was greeted with fantastic service! Not only did they already have the parts on the counter, they didn't question a thing and rang me up at the lower price with a smile and an offer to help if I needed it.

Let me be clear folks, that is two competing businesses that were willing to work closely together for no other reason than I needed a part to hopefully be able to keep going on my way to D.C.! The staff at both stores were amazing and I have nothing but high praise for their work.

Oh yeah, the part worked and I was able to keep going.

Unfortunately I lost all faith in my old Saturn to make it further than Salt Lake City. I planned ahead though, and had brought the pink slip with me to donate the car when I got to D.C. Turns out I will be donating it, or selling it for salvage, 2000 miles earlier than planned. I will be getting a rental car to take me the rest of the way and my mileage and per diem should cover most of that. Good thing I am staying with friends and family for the whole way. :)

Sheepdogs!

I am staying in SLC an extra night to spend time with my mother and brother, and I was asked if I would like to spend part of the day at the Sheepdog Trials in Soldier Hollow, UT. With no other responsibilities than getting to D.C. I said yes and we drove up this morning to see what was going on. I tell you what, I was not expecting to see that many people out to watch dogs herd sheep, but the stands were packed and it was really quite amazing to watch. These dogs are very well trained and their owners send whistle signals to them to tell them which way to go, when to stop, and when to run. The field of play is several acres of hillside that were part of the Cross Country skiing course in the 2002 Winter Olympics and the dogs have to find two separate herds of sheep, bring them through a set of fences, then run both herds together through two more fences, followed by separating them out and getting five into a corral. Truly amazing work. On top of that there was great food and dogs that were competing in dock diving, so a great time was had by all. Additionally, there was a documentary being filmed about sheepdogs so I may just be in the movie!

Tomorrow begins the longest stretch of my trip, 1200 miles, so we will have to see how that goes.

And then there were none

My last day in Portland has come to an end and all that's left is one more night in my home then I drive off into the sunrise. Tomorrow is the beginning of a new dream, a new adventure, a new life, and I intend to enjoy every minute of it. 

After four years leading a wonderful crew of people at MAC I am now back to being an entry level employer with no seniority, few acquaintances, and no direct experience for the job I am starting. My responsibilities will change every couple of years along with my address, the language I speak, and the food I eat. At this point I only know that in nine days I start my first six weeks if training with no idea what happens after that.   

This is going to be FUN!!!!

3 Days and a Wake-up

until I drive off into the sunrise, on my way to D.C.! This is exciting stuff, but it also means that my time at MAC is coming to an end in the morning. After 13 years, many friendships, and countless interactions with wonderful people, I am leaving. This is equal parts sad and joyous for me since it means that I get to start my new career with the State Department but at the cost of leaving all these fantastic people.

Last night was my farewell party with my fellow managers, my boss, a couple of my staff, and a random stranger we picked up half-way through the evening. Duvy, the party planner, was tasked with finding something "uniquely Portland" for us to do and boy did he come through! We spent the evening on this! What fun! and we got to burn off the calories that we drank along the way. Seriously, this was the best outing we have had and I was thrilled to spend the evening with my friends.

My last three days in Portland will be spent tying up loose ends, getting to doctor appointments, and packing my car to the gills. I'm not sure if I will be able to pack everything I am planning on, but I will get close who needs to see out the back window anyways?