Well, it's happened again folks. Another year has come and gone. I have spent more time than I care to admit over the past few days writing up this year's "obligatory New Year's post" full of retrospective analysis and other useless drivel, but after reading my uncle's elegantly simple New Year's "top ten" blog post I decided to throw it out and go with this instead, not that this is any improvement...
The Top Points:
Bus Driving - I loved being a bus driver in Vail; well maybe not when I had to deal with unruly drunks, but the rest of the time it was great. In fact, in recent days I have been struggling with some profound nostalgia for the bus driving, but that's another blog post.
Europe with Dad - Europe was better than I anticipated, and it was great to have so much quality time with Dad for the first time in a long time.
DC or Bust - This was kind of a big move for me psychologically and I think I've been learning a lot about myself along the way (I'm not sure exactly WHAT I've learned, but I know that I've learned a lot). While it has been mostly all positive for me, it has also not always been easy or smooth.
The Less-Good stuff (and general ideas for 2008 resolutions):
Not enough exercise. Not enough healthy eating.
Not enough movies. Not enough musical discoveries.
Not enough socializing. Not enough friends. Not enough fun.
Not enough personal enrichment. Not enough foreign languages.
Too much dependence and freeloading.
Too much time wasted on the internet.
Hmm, I realize that based on the bullet points it looks like I had more bad than good this year, but that's not true. In fact, I would say that 2007 was a pretty good year for me, probably a 7.5 or 8 out of 10. Thanks to everyone who helped in your own way to make 2007 a great year for me. Special thanks to Mom, Lisa, and William for subsidizing my life through their gracious and generous hospitality, without which I would not have been able to go to Europe or move here to DC. Here's to an even better 2008! Happy New Year!
Before I get to my recent vehicular sighting I want to talk about how very excited I was yesterday to receive my fixed-gear bike in the mail after Mom had it packed up and sent off last week. It was almost like Christmas morning, opening that big box, removing all the parts and laying them out on the floor, finding the necessary tools for assembly, etc... Of course, I have owned this bike for some time now and I knew it was coming in the mail, so there wasn't that same Christmas-morning element of surprise. Anyhow, I am so happy to have this bike back, I missed it! Last night after I finished putting it back together I was so excited about getting to ride it around DC today, but naturally it is wet and drizzly today. I guess it is supposed to be windy too. Not the best bike-riding weather.
Ok, now for the cool vehicular sighting. I knew these existed because I had seen them in TV shows or movies or whatnot, but until a few weeks ago I had never actually seen one in real life and I must say that I was in awe. This awe-inspiring vehicular entity was what I would probably call (perhaps wrongly) a "hook-n-ladder" firetruck. After doing a little bit of internet research I have learned that they are actually called "tiller" trucks. These are the long fire trucks that tow a ladder trailer-style and have a separate cab at the rear end for another driver to steer the rear wheels independently of the front, allowing the truck to better negotiate crowded and narrow city streets. Now, I've seen plenty of firetrucks in my lifetime, even plenty of big firetrucks, but when I saw this "tiller" truck approaching I knew there was something different about it. As it went past me and around the corner I could not help but be amazed by the grace and beauty of the whole thing. I then thought of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer drives the rear end of one of these fire trucks. I think it might be one of those life-altering experiences. I think it would be strange to be responsible for making sure that the rear end doesn't run over anything but not really be able to control the speed or the front end in any way. Anyhow, since my first sighting I have seen these trucks at least two other times and each time I have to stop walking to sit and watch in awe as it goes by, gliding around the corner like a truck half its length.
My second major vehicular sighting was a hybrid taxi cab (it was a hybrid Camry), the only one I've seen here in DC. Since moving here I've been wondering why taxi companies still use big gas-guzzling American V8 sedans like Ford Crown Vic's for their fleets. It seems to me like they would have a lot of incentive to phase those out in favor of more efficient cars like the Prius or something. I'm sure that the Prius costs more initially, but with all of the time spent sitting around idling and with the stop-and-go, high-mileage nature of Taxi cab driving patterns, I have a suspicion that the huge gasoline savings alone would pay for the difference pretty quickly. Plus I would be that the Prius is equally (if not more) spacious than the big Crown Vics, and it is probably a lot easier to maneuver through city traffic as well. I suspect that it is just a culture of resistance to change that keeps the Prius out of taxi fleets, which is unfortunate. Maybe one of these days I'll run some numbers to see how the Prius actually stacks up economically to a Crown Victoria...
Those are the two biggest vehicular sightings of late, although I did also see two Bentley's and a stunningly beautiful Maserati yesterday in swanky Georgetown. OH! And I also saw a beautiful, huge, brand-new bus perform one of the most expertly-executed turns I have ever seen. Like the "tiller" trucks, it was an awe-inspiring sight to behold. I'm sure you wish you were there.
As much as I was hoping I wouldn't, I have actually found myself missing being a bus driver the past few days. Only two months away from it and I already look back fondly on that job. I really did like driving those buses. I wonder if I could get a very part-time job driving one of the fancy double-decker tourist sight-seeing buses around DC. That would probably be fun! hahaha
Here is a short video of a "tiller" truck rounding a corner. Beautiful, isn't it?
I have recently become kind of self-conscious about blogs, blogging, and the stigma of being "a blogger" and as a result have had some difficulty thinking of good topics to blog about. Almost everything that I think of to potentially blog about seems too... well too SOMETHING. Too political. Too whiny. Too boring. Too cliché. Too polarizing. Too hard to articulate clearly. Too egocentric. Too, etc...
So that's why my blog entries have been kind of sparse lately. Sorry.
DC is great. I am so glad I moved here (although I do miss driving the bus too). My job is fairly interesting and I haven't really messed anything up yet, I don't think. I have been enjoying living with Lisa and William in their beautiful new freshly-renovated home and I am very gracious for the sacrifices they have had to make in order to accommodate me, but I have also been looking for somewhere else to live so I don't have to continue mooching off relatives. Unfortunately, that housing search has not been going very well yet. I'm not worried about it; I'm sure I'll find somewhere eventually.
In honor of me having a 9-to-5 job now, today I'm putting up videos of two different versions of the same song (9-to-5) by everyone's favorite punky British gal, Lady Sovereign. The first video is a cover by the Ordinary Boys featuring Lady Sovereign, then the second one is Lady Sovereign's original version (as I understand it). I like the Ordinary Boys cover version of the song a little better, but I think I like Lady Sovereign's video better because I'm a sucker for voice-overs and double-decker buses. There is actually a third, more home-movie-quality video also (the first version of the Ordinary Boys' cover before they made this video which I posted here) but I thought it would just be too overkill for me to post three videos of the same song, so you can see that video at this link:
It "snowed" today in DC. I tried not to be too cynical towards the people who were freaking out about it though. I knew it was going to be tough though when I woke up this morning, saw a few flakes of snow floating in the air, and then heard on the radio that some schools in Virginia were going to be closing early today to to the snow (in my entire school career the only times I remember missing school due to snow was when there was over a foot of snow on the ground). Then, after I got to work I learned that several of my co-workers (including my supervisor) had a pretty tough time getting to work this morning due to the "snow," and thus they arrived a few hours late. I still couldn't actually see any visible snow accumulated on the ground at this time, so I was honestly pretty perplexed as to why this would have caused them to be late, but nonetheless, I was able to bite my tongue and curb my cynicism. Later in the evening, as the snow slowly began to "accumulate," (in SOME places, there must have been 1/4 - 1/2 an inch of snow) I was amazed by how slowly some people seemed to be driving, and how nobody seemed to know how to properly clear their car windshield of snow.
So, in summary, I knew that people in DC don't generally take well to "snow," but even so I was still rather surprised by the response to even this seemingly minor "snow." That is all.
In other news, today was my second day of working at the Alliance to Save Energy, and I think I am going to like it there. I still don't know exactly what I will be doing there, but I think it will be all-around a good thing for me.
It's official, I managed to convince someone to actually pay me to come work in their office as a barely-paid intern. Due to funding issues, I will technically be working for two organizations; The Alliance to Save Energy will be sharing me with The International Emissions Trading Association so that I can get a full-time schedule. As I understand it, I will spend half of my time working on the Alliance's International Team helping to establish an "energy efficiency center of excellence" in Beijing (whatever that is), and then for the IETA I will mostly just be doing random administrative stuff, but I'm sure I will learn a lot just by osmosis there too. At a mere $9/hour, it is among the lowest-paying jobs I have ever had (I made more babysitting when I was in high-school), and I will probably have to get a supplementary job and/or live on rice and beans for the next few months, nonetheless I am excited about the position. In the past few months of undoubtedly tireless job-searching, this was one of the most interesting positions I found. I am also pretty pleased that it only took me about a month here in DC to get hired somewhere. I was kind of expecting it to take quite a bit longer. Also, this was the only interview I had, which is good because I hate interviews.
So I guess the next step is to find somewhere else to live so my kind hosts can have their house back. I have been waiting to look for housing until after I knew more about my job/income situation, but last night I went to look at a room for the first time. The house was on a beautiful street in a beautiful neighborhood, but the guy who lives there is probably at least 60 and was all depressed about his dog dying a few days before; not exactly the kind of housemate I am looking for. I've emailed a few more people about rooms though too, so hopefully it won't take me too long to find a place.
Actually, I will be spening the next two nights in a hostel because Lisa and William are having the floors finished today and tomorrow and we have to be out of the house. I don't really feel like having to get dressed up for work when I'm staying in a hostel (I don't know why), so I told the temp agency that I don't want to work tomorrow and I have decided to go for a short road trip instead.
About a week ago I signed up for a car-sharing network they have here in DC, called Zipcar. It is like a car rental, except that they have cooler cars which are located all over the city and you can reserve them by the hour online. It is pretty cool. In order to mitigate some of the guilt that I will feel for this unnecessary driving excursion, I decided to spend a few more dollars and spring for a Prius. I haven't decided where to go yet, but I'm thinking of maybe Annapolis, MD and Frederick, MD. I have 180 miles to blow; beyond that costs extra. Hopefully it will be fun...
Today was a good day, though not quite as good as I had been hoping for. I had been hoping to hear back about an internship that I interviewed for and am really excited about, but alas, I didn't not hear from them. I did, however, start my first day as a 4-day temp at the World Wildlife Fund. I am just subbing for an assistant because she is taking next week off for Thanksgiving. Normally she would be able to just take time off and not need anyone to replace her, but several of her superiors are about to go to the Democratic Republic of Congo for a few weeks for a conference or something, so they need someone in the office.
I didn't really do very much today. My two big tasks were to design some certificates that will be given out at a ceremony in the D.R.C., and to make sure that some expense reports were turned in to the accounting department by 3:00 today. Oh, and I also had to coordinate with a visa service and return some passports to people who are going on this trip. I must say, these four passports were by far the most impressive passports I have ever seen. They all had lots of stamps from lots of exotic places and most of them had lots of extra pages to accommodate all of the stamps. Overall it was a fairly easy job, but it seems like a great place to work, full of interesting people. One of the guys who I am helping to coordinate with on this trip is Bruce Babbitt, former governor of Arizona. I will be meeting him on Monday I think. Hopefully I will hear back about that other internship on Monday too. But then I will have to think about how much I really want that internship, which pays a lot less than even this temp gig, or if I would maybe rather try to get a job here at the WWF... gosh, who knows...
On an unrelated note, here is proof that some people have way too much time on their hands. I saw this story online about an old photo which allegedly MIGHT contain an image of Abraham Lincoln. You can then click on a link which takes you to increasingly zoomed-in images of the photo in question, eventually trying to convince you that a specific tiny blob in the photo must be good ol' Honest Abe himself. It's pretty ridiculous...
And finally, here is a YouTube video of the latest cheesy yet catchy Puerto Rican reggaeton song that I have become addicted to, "Sexy Movimiento" by Wisin & Yandel. I'm not going to lie; there are a lot of annoying things about this video (mostly the mild objectification of women and annoying displays of "bling" and machismo), but you might like it anyway.
Since I have mostly been using the metro and not riding on buses, I have had to make most of my observations of DC bus drivers from the pedestrian perspective. This past weekend, however, I finally rode on a few buses. Last Thursday I rode the bus to Georgetown and back. I was impressed by the skill with which the drivers deftly maneuvered the buses in and out of traffic and around all the parked cars and everything.
Then on Saturday I took Greyhound from DC to Baltimore to have dinner with Dwight and Jennifer for their anniversary. Before leaving DC, the bus driver got up and gave a speech about the rules on the bus, keeping cellphone conversations quiet, picking up the trash, no lewd behavior or inappropriate conversations. He then proceeded to offer sort of a short sermon, or a long blessing/prayer for the bus, the passengers, and the voyage before us. He ended by saying something about how he loves each and every one of us like his own family and that we will all have failures in our lives, but that failure makes us stronger human beings. Here I thought I was just taking a simple 45-minute bus ride up the highway, but this guy made me start to wonder if perhaps I was getting myself into something much more than that.
The bus ride ended up being pretty uneventful. The driver did run over one curb as we were heading out of town, however. He also was listening to his iPod the whole time and talking on his cellphone a fair bit as well, which seemed pretty inappropriate to me.
In other news, I had my first interview yesterday. I think it went well, but it's always hard to know for sure how it really went. They said that they won't be making any decisions for about 2 weeks. Yesterday I also saw a fairly important international figure. I was about to cross a street downtown when some motorcycle cops came and blocked off the intersection for a motorcade. I looked down the block to see if the motorcade was coming and I saw that they were just parked on the other side of the street and there was a crowd of people there. So I moseyed over there to take a look just in case it happened to be someone REALLY famous. When people started getting in their cars I couldn't recognize anyone, and then a cameraman standing nearby said it was the Turkish Prime Minister, so no wonder I didn't recognize him. This morning he was in the news though, here's a BBC article about his meeting with Bush. Anyway, it was still kind of cool.
Suit shopping didn't go as perfectly as I had been imagining as almost all of the stores I went to had little or nothing in my size (I need to bulk up), but I did end up purchasing something late in the afternoon. It's nothing fancy; just a black three-button suit from Men's Wearhouse (the only place that had any suits small enough for me). It won't be ready to pick up until Monday evening, and naturally the place that I am really excited to have an interview with called me today wanting to schedule an interview on Monday. At first I told them I would prefer to come in later in the week so I could wear my suit, but then I changed my mind and asked if they don't really mind that I don't wear a suit if I could go ahead and come in on Monday. So I won't get to wear my new suit to the big interview that I am really excited about... Oh well, I still think it will be good to have a suit, and maybe I won't get this job anyway and I'll still need a suit for more interviews later.
