w-a-s-h-i-n-g-t-o-n baby DC!
It's weird, being trapped outside of your normal life and patterns. It makes you feel apart. But today, I realized, I am feeling more connected to DC, specifically my neighborhood, than ever. Part is the free food thing. People stop to get food, but I try to leave them alone. Even more people just say really nice things to me. Today a woman asked if I could help ID people for a kinda specific grant she needs to spend this month. When I told her my work email, she was like, DC JWJ, I helped bring JWJ to DC.
A few days ago, a man stopped and ate a clementine while talking to me. I had a hard time understanding his Spanish, but he was clearly sad, and I think was telling me about people he'd lost recently. I wished I could connect better, but I just listened. I had a similarly hard time with the women I'm dropping the milk off with. The milk delivery is fine, but I tried to make small talk for like an hour on mother's day while we waited for people to come by. And between the masks and the spanish, I wasn't doing great. But then someone delivered a series of things to someone else from a very inefficient rope/window situation and we all had a good laugh. I'm now buds with more people at my local Safeway cuz of buying bulk milk, I see my two chatty neighbors more. And I walk my neighborhood pretty much constantly. I realized I keep between the quiet streets. I zig zag 13th to 14th till I hit the rec center and then the deadend at Walter Reed. I walk to the golf course. Through the community garden pulling up stray mint that I replant in my garden. I walked the roads between there and military, which I've never done. I almost never leave Brightwood. A few times I've gone into the office or up to the Aldi by 495.
So today, I biked through the city. I wanted to go down the Metro Branch Trail. It was a great ride. I followed an expected path, over to Fort Totten, down the hill by the transfer station, the long stretch by Catholic, where I saw three people in graduation robe drinking Champaign in front of the school. (I cheered them, but they seemed unenthused). Down the MBT, which at a certain point, in fact that point where the turn is really sharp, like 90 degrees or more, you know, by the Lincoln statue mural, it wasn't the same. Surprisingly, yet totally unsurprisingly, development has continued (thru the pandemic or just since I've last been? I don't know.) The path now opens up and on the right there's some new development and outdoorsy area, that honestly seems like it's going to be a mess when there's bikes and kids and stuff there. And a lot is the same. There's still Fuck Trump tagged everywhere. Someone is tagging political covid statements, black block lettering, looks like painted with a paintbrush, not spraypaint. I hope it's a high schooler. I imagine a new BORF.
Under the underpass where they put in the offensive "light instalation" to disrupt the people living in tents, I notice two people stopping as they pass the tents. I then see that they're leaving bottles of water at each tent. I bike through northeast, past some great murals, including a Harriet Tubman 20 dollar bill, I'd never seen. And the Planned Parenthood is open. I'm in a part of town I don't normally see, and it all just has me wondering what happened when.
Then my ride turns rural. Once I cross the Anacostia by Benning Road, I am basically on trails till Takoma Park. I accidently rode like 20 miles today. And it felt amazing. I wanted to see DC, and I wanted to get away.
Some people have asked if I would leave DC for my parents or somewhere else for this. But I can't really imagine it. My work is here, and even if most of the day that's just some corner of my room where I stare at a screen, I feel really grounded here. I know I am super privileged to have a home with an amazing yard. And I'm spending so much time in my own outdoor space. I keep a blanket for laying in the grass handy on the clothesline or in my car. When I can get away from work for lunch I'll sometimes eat it sitting next to the basement stairwell, it's really sunny there then. And I thin my mustard greens while on the phone. I planted lots of pots of plants, and hope to do more, feeling like there won't really be anything getting in the way of me keeping them alive.
A few days ago, a man stopped and ate a clementine while talking to me. I had a hard time understanding his Spanish, but he was clearly sad, and I think was telling me about people he'd lost recently. I wished I could connect better, but I just listened. I had a similarly hard time with the women I'm dropping the milk off with. The milk delivery is fine, but I tried to make small talk for like an hour on mother's day while we waited for people to come by. And between the masks and the spanish, I wasn't doing great. But then someone delivered a series of things to someone else from a very inefficient rope/window situation and we all had a good laugh. I'm now buds with more people at my local Safeway cuz of buying bulk milk, I see my two chatty neighbors more. And I walk my neighborhood pretty much constantly. I realized I keep between the quiet streets. I zig zag 13th to 14th till I hit the rec center and then the deadend at Walter Reed. I walk to the golf course. Through the community garden pulling up stray mint that I replant in my garden. I walked the roads between there and military, which I've never done. I almost never leave Brightwood. A few times I've gone into the office or up to the Aldi by 495.
So today, I biked through the city. I wanted to go down the Metro Branch Trail. It was a great ride. I followed an expected path, over to Fort Totten, down the hill by the transfer station, the long stretch by Catholic, where I saw three people in graduation robe drinking Champaign in front of the school. (I cheered them, but they seemed unenthused). Down the MBT, which at a certain point, in fact that point where the turn is really sharp, like 90 degrees or more, you know, by the Lincoln statue mural, it wasn't the same. Surprisingly, yet totally unsurprisingly, development has continued (thru the pandemic or just since I've last been? I don't know.) The path now opens up and on the right there's some new development and outdoorsy area, that honestly seems like it's going to be a mess when there's bikes and kids and stuff there. And a lot is the same. There's still Fuck Trump tagged everywhere. Someone is tagging political covid statements, black block lettering, looks like painted with a paintbrush, not spraypaint. I hope it's a high schooler. I imagine a new BORF.
Under the underpass where they put in the offensive "light instalation" to disrupt the people living in tents, I notice two people stopping as they pass the tents. I then see that they're leaving bottles of water at each tent. I bike through northeast, past some great murals, including a Harriet Tubman 20 dollar bill, I'd never seen. And the Planned Parenthood is open. I'm in a part of town I don't normally see, and it all just has me wondering what happened when.
Then my ride turns rural. Once I cross the Anacostia by Benning Road, I am basically on trails till Takoma Park. I accidently rode like 20 miles today. And it felt amazing. I wanted to see DC, and I wanted to get away.
Some people have asked if I would leave DC for my parents or somewhere else for this. But I can't really imagine it. My work is here, and even if most of the day that's just some corner of my room where I stare at a screen, I feel really grounded here. I know I am super privileged to have a home with an amazing yard. And I'm spending so much time in my own outdoor space. I keep a blanket for laying in the grass handy on the clothesline or in my car. When I can get away from work for lunch I'll sometimes eat it sitting next to the basement stairwell, it's really sunny there then. And I thin my mustard greens while on the phone. I planted lots of pots of plants, and hope to do more, feeling like there won't really be anything getting in the way of me keeping them alive.
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