Thoughts on DC

Okay so then. Here's a somewhat skewed update. Haven't really been able to get online recently, so I have to do that at work sparingly when I get the time to do so. Basically this is what has been happening.

I left NC last Saturday and headed for DC in a twist of plans because my parents decided they couldn't come up due to other circumstances, so instead they made me buy a train ticket and come up myself, which I did. After that, I got here and the weather was just turning bad. Supposedly it had been nice but when I arrived, everything starting getting cold and dreary. I should've seen the signs coming then. I met up with Didi and she proceeded to take me to the house that I'm staying at right now.

The house is nice but old. And that's an understatement. It's like the house that my grandfather on my mom's side would've had. It's old and smells as such but the area itself is pretty nice. It's got a nice kitchen two bathrooms, two floors with three bedrooms turned into two bedrooms and a bonus room where I'm sleeping at the moment. The whole scheme of the place looks kinda sketch, but it's a nice place considering. However, the area itself is not. Located in a rather seedy part of town, there are commonly drug deals, illegal activities and scarsely any cops around. Put it this way. Pizza Hut doesn't deliver to my house. As a matter of fact, NOBODY does! I called the first night I was there because I didn't want to leave the house unattended and found out the hard way.

So after that, I left on Sunday after Willie (Didi's friend) decided to drop me off at the Deanwood Metro station and went to find the place I'd be working at. Turns out the DOL office is right in the center of downtown and it takes a cute minute to get there via two different metro lines. But it's not that bad really. You start out taking the orange line towards Vienna, get off at Metro Center switch to Glenmont and get off at Jucidiary Square (or as I prefer to think of it, the Resident Evil stop because the place where the elevator comes out at looks like the center of the S.T.A.R.S. office). Once from there, you go down a block and go over to your left, go up past all the vendors and the Jucidiary building on the right, cross over two streets in front, go down to your left to the corner, cross over another street at the light and go up half a block to the DOL building that's on the left. I've been doing this almost a week now and I think I'm starting to get the hang of the situation.

But it's been far from peaches and cream. On Sunday when I went out to find the place, I had just located DOL when suddenly out of nowhere the rain started. It was a light sprinkling not bad, and so I kept looking around for a place to figure out where I was supposed to go since I was looking for a mall (having left my power cord and AV cables for the 360 at home). I abandoned the idea as the rain continued coming down harder and harder, so I left that place and went to get a jacket from Macy's spending something I shouldn't have to get it and some other things, and went to Greenbelt in an attempt to have dinner at Cluck U. Unforetunately though I called for a cab five times, nothing ever arrived, and by then the rain had come full force, bringing torrential downpours of ice water and stinging winds with it. It was like a mini hurricane standing at that bus stop waiting for the cab. When he didn't show for an hour, I left and decided to head back home where Willie picked me up and took me back. When I did get back home, the rain and cold took over and I started having a rather severe asthma attack. Having all my medicine in NC, and no doctor here I called 911 for the first time and they came I learned about how the paramedics commonly pimp out patients before they reach the hospital to the other guys from a female paramedic that was highly disgruntal but nice. So then.

About Willie. She's a nice enough lady. She seems really laid back and tries not to let things get to her. Her exact opposite is Didi, who revels in being loud and is easily angered by small things. But Willie is just calm and colllected and she truly is very helpful. She's paid for my dinner three times now just because I was so tired from work that I didn't feel like cooking in the least bit so she would go and buy me dinner. Last night was good though because I got home by seven and was able to cook some hamburger helper and watch three episodes of Dexter before I decided to call it a night at 10:30. May sound stupid going to bed like that when I'm used to not getting up until 9 am and going to bed at 2 and 3 in morning but when you have to wake up at 6 to be at work by 8 and work till 5, your sleeping schedule gets altered pretty drastically.

Work is...interesting. I like the work because it's varied and interesting and I met a lot of cool people that last few days. Everyone that I've met has a disability with the exception of a few of the big heads and my supervisor Maggie.

Patrick: this cool ass black dude who I believe has a degree of blindness with his tied back dreads always secretly talking of a revolution at his desk.

Andrea: who apparently has something wrong with the nerves in her left hand and her right leg but who's been my kind of mentor throughout this process. She seems a bit high strung at times but she's witty and very intelligent, and a complete Republican.

Randy: a blind guy who works in the back who's name I can never seem to remember and who's also kinda hot in that Chris Evans (mmmmmm) kinda way.

Pam: the office computer girl who I think either has a crush on me or wants to hook me up with someone else....(shudder)

Jill: the totally typical black woman who ends all her sentences with ummhmmm and a proverbial head snap

Chuck: who appears to have just stepped in off the set of Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood

Charlie who having been in his wheelchair for 40 years due to a gunwound back in Vietnam looks like he secretly harbors hatred for the very government he works for

Sandra: the hispanic office clerk who tries desperately hard to please everyone

Carol (the short one): A firecracker of a woman who doesn't care what anyone thinks of her.

Carol (the tall one): A quiet soft-spoken lady that looks like she's got more going on behind her eyes than she cares to admit.

Erica: The office secretary to the mother of all bigwigs, Neil Romano who looks like she secretly harbors dissent towards having to work for the Man directly.

Mr. Romano: The Assistant Secretary to Disability Affairs appointed directly by George Bush, he looks and sounds incredibly formidable but is really just a loveable kinda guy.

Loretta: A grandmotherly-looking kind of woman who looks loveable but completely isn't. She's a carbon-copy of James from Nip/Tuck without the prosititution.

Betsy: She's one of my supervisors but doesn't act like it or want to be called that. She's probably the chillest supervisor I've ever had, without losing her edge to do business. She reminds of a Greek Signorney Weaver (in the nicest sense) with the face, hair and hands to match. Add to the mix that's she bi-polar talks like she's always stoned on her lithium medicine and that makes for an interesting boss to have, right?

and finally,

Gary: Probably the youngest of all the employees that work here, Gary and I formed a friendship really quickly relatively soon due to our ages. He's witty, funny, sharply dressed, cute, and knows how to get business done and to boot, he's a Democrat. Works for me. Personally he's the only one in the office I actually have a crush on, but he doesn't need to know that.....haha.

So yeah these are a few of the co-workers that I work with and they are all pretty good. But now I probably should get back to do what I'm getting paid to. So then, later! Oh and for all of you who want to reach me at work, (meaning don't call my cell phone) the number is 202-693-7932 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              202-693-7932      end_of_the_skype_highlighting.