D.C. Day 1
Character-building moments while traveling.
(1) Realizing that getting into an empty metro train at the airport and spreading my luggage out meant that I would have to end up holding my little rolling backpack on my lap once people started pouring in. So wheels on my lap. Wheels that had rolled through two airports, multiple airport bathrooms, and a metro station. On my jeans. One leg of which has a small hole in it through which the plastic wheel was touching my skin. I tried to be brave and un-germophobic like Robyn (seriously -- I am in awe) but it was really hard. I felt myself about to burst into tears. I held this bag on my lap to make room for a soldier of some kind to perch himself next to me while balanced on one buttcheek because my other bag was also in the way but my lap is only so big. I thought to myself, "At least I am making room for a soldier." I felt, not unlike Sharon Cooper and Louis DiMucci, that I was doing it for my country.
(2) Realizing I would have to veer from my sister's explicit instructions and switch trains because it's rush hour. This makes me itchy and frantic because I don't know what in the hell I'm doing. I remind myself that I have navigated subway stations in Paris, Rome, and New York, albeit unsuccessfully sometimes, and to get a goddammed grip. I finally figured out what other train to ride and found the Starbucks at which I'm supposed to be waiting for her.
(3) As I'm standing at the counter ordering my grapefruit spritzer in a bottle or whatever the hell it is, I ask for a cup of ice. One barista calls out to another that I need a cup of ice. She ignores her. She ignores her time and again. Finally I say: CAN I PLEASE HAVE A CUP OF ICE? She wiped her paw all over her face including her nose and then got me my cup of ice, mauling the lid with her hand in the process by pressing it on way more times than it needed to be. I sighed and told myself that this is a part of food and beverage service and that the ice itself is probably dirty and to chill out. (The germophobia spirals ... it starts with a dirty bag on the lap and snowballs into further irrationality from there.)
(4) As I'm settling in at Starbucks preparing to plug in my laptop whose battery ran out on the plane while watching the special features of In Bruges (more on that later, wow), a man makes a dive for the plug at the same time, coughing tubercularly without covering his mouth and pulling an actual jambox out of his large duffel bag to plug in. By this point I'd had it, so I said, "EXCUSE ME," and plugged in my laptop first. I wasn't trying to be rude but I think I might have been, a little. Of course there are two sockets, one on top of the other, so we could share, but for some reason I felt like I had to go first if he was going to kneel down there and cough wetly on my brand new running shoes. I have no idea what he needed to hear so badly on the radio but all he could get was loud, jarring static so he left, thankfully. I was not feeling like the nicest version of myself.
(5) In keeping with my seat-hogging tradition, a little girl asks if she can have my other chair so I move one of my bags off of it. She proceeds to stand on the chair, not sit, peering over the counter and yelling hello to the ignoring, face wiping barista, and then she knocks over my bottle of grapefruit spritzer! And it spills on the table, millimeters from this very laptop. I was so aghast that I just blinked in shock while her mom or caregiver or whoever she was cleaned it up and told the girl not to stand on the chair again which the girl proceeded immediately to do. Which only leads me to ask as I sit here: WHAT KIND OF STARBUCKS IS THIS?
My mom thinks that putting up with other people in the world teaches us virtue. And I think that I am a normally pretty tolerant person. I really cannot stand when people act completely put out that other people live in the world … stand in line in front of them, stop at red lights in front of them, etc. After all, other people DO live in the world and we must all try to live in harmony. I really do believe that, and I think that people who get mad at kids in restaurants and grocery stores are giant assholes. But when people start coughing and spilling on me, that is where I draw the line. Is that wrong?
Okay – In Bruges! This movie is so fantastic! I read Heavy Liquid and V for Vendetta and Serenity: Those Left Behind for the first few hours of travel, all of which were good, but I needed a break from the freaking comics so I put a movie in on the way here, and In Bruges … like I said, wow. Okay, I won't give anything away. So I'll just say that I have a deep appreciation for Colin Farrell that heretofore I never imagined possible. He was brilliant. Brilliant, I am telling you. He gave one of those performances where you can see a million different tiny emotions from his heart and thoughts from his head all over his face at any moment, in all the right places. I thought it was a relevatory and incredible performance. The rest of the cast was great, too, but he made my jaw drop. I am trying to think of someone his charisma and nuance reminded me of, and all I can come up with was Robert Downey, Jr. at his best. He was funny and heartbreaking. I was laughing out loud on the plane. Even though it's not always easy to watch. I will say that. But wow! I liked it so much.
And …. now the girl at the next table is taking off her nailpolish and re-painting her nails with reckless abandon. What kind of a person opens a bottle of nail polish remover in a crowded, small, hot coffee shop in June? I can never return to this Starbucks. Ever.
---
It's now later and I'm showered and calm. We went to eat at Rice, which was delicious even though my basil, tofu, and vegetable concoction over purple rice set my lips aflame and made me sweat profusely. She bought red and yellow gerber daisies and is taking great care of me. I love the look of the buildings in her neighborhood. We're about to watch the results show of So You Think You Can Dance (we think Comfort & Chris should go), and life is good.
(1) Realizing that getting into an empty metro train at the airport and spreading my luggage out meant that I would have to end up holding my little rolling backpack on my lap once people started pouring in. So wheels on my lap. Wheels that had rolled through two airports, multiple airport bathrooms, and a metro station. On my jeans. One leg of which has a small hole in it through which the plastic wheel was touching my skin. I tried to be brave and un-germophobic like Robyn (seriously -- I am in awe) but it was really hard. I felt myself about to burst into tears. I held this bag on my lap to make room for a soldier of some kind to perch himself next to me while balanced on one buttcheek because my other bag was also in the way but my lap is only so big. I thought to myself, "At least I am making room for a soldier." I felt, not unlike Sharon Cooper and Louis DiMucci, that I was doing it for my country.
(2) Realizing I would have to veer from my sister's explicit instructions and switch trains because it's rush hour. This makes me itchy and frantic because I don't know what in the hell I'm doing. I remind myself that I have navigated subway stations in Paris, Rome, and New York, albeit unsuccessfully sometimes, and to get a goddammed grip. I finally figured out what other train to ride and found the Starbucks at which I'm supposed to be waiting for her.
(3) As I'm standing at the counter ordering my grapefruit spritzer in a bottle or whatever the hell it is, I ask for a cup of ice. One barista calls out to another that I need a cup of ice. She ignores her. She ignores her time and again. Finally I say: CAN I PLEASE HAVE A CUP OF ICE? She wiped her paw all over her face including her nose and then got me my cup of ice, mauling the lid with her hand in the process by pressing it on way more times than it needed to be. I sighed and told myself that this is a part of food and beverage service and that the ice itself is probably dirty and to chill out. (The germophobia spirals ... it starts with a dirty bag on the lap and snowballs into further irrationality from there.)
(4) As I'm settling in at Starbucks preparing to plug in my laptop whose battery ran out on the plane while watching the special features of In Bruges (more on that later, wow), a man makes a dive for the plug at the same time, coughing tubercularly without covering his mouth and pulling an actual jambox out of his large duffel bag to plug in. By this point I'd had it, so I said, "EXCUSE ME," and plugged in my laptop first. I wasn't trying to be rude but I think I might have been, a little. Of course there are two sockets, one on top of the other, so we could share, but for some reason I felt like I had to go first if he was going to kneel down there and cough wetly on my brand new running shoes. I have no idea what he needed to hear so badly on the radio but all he could get was loud, jarring static so he left, thankfully. I was not feeling like the nicest version of myself.
(5) In keeping with my seat-hogging tradition, a little girl asks if she can have my other chair so I move one of my bags off of it. She proceeds to stand on the chair, not sit, peering over the counter and yelling hello to the ignoring, face wiping barista, and then she knocks over my bottle of grapefruit spritzer! And it spills on the table, millimeters from this very laptop. I was so aghast that I just blinked in shock while her mom or caregiver or whoever she was cleaned it up and told the girl not to stand on the chair again which the girl proceeded immediately to do. Which only leads me to ask as I sit here: WHAT KIND OF STARBUCKS IS THIS?
My mom thinks that putting up with other people in the world teaches us virtue. And I think that I am a normally pretty tolerant person. I really cannot stand when people act completely put out that other people live in the world … stand in line in front of them, stop at red lights in front of them, etc. After all, other people DO live in the world and we must all try to live in harmony. I really do believe that, and I think that people who get mad at kids in restaurants and grocery stores are giant assholes. But when people start coughing and spilling on me, that is where I draw the line. Is that wrong?
Okay – In Bruges! This movie is so fantastic! I read Heavy Liquid and V for Vendetta and Serenity: Those Left Behind for the first few hours of travel, all of which were good, but I needed a break from the freaking comics so I put a movie in on the way here, and In Bruges … like I said, wow. Okay, I won't give anything away. So I'll just say that I have a deep appreciation for Colin Farrell that heretofore I never imagined possible. He was brilliant. Brilliant, I am telling you. He gave one of those performances where you can see a million different tiny emotions from his heart and thoughts from his head all over his face at any moment, in all the right places. I thought it was a relevatory and incredible performance. The rest of the cast was great, too, but he made my jaw drop. I am trying to think of someone his charisma and nuance reminded me of, and all I can come up with was Robert Downey, Jr. at his best. He was funny and heartbreaking. I was laughing out loud on the plane. Even though it's not always easy to watch. I will say that. But wow! I liked it so much.
And …. now the girl at the next table is taking off her nailpolish and re-painting her nails with reckless abandon. What kind of a person opens a bottle of nail polish remover in a crowded, small, hot coffee shop in June? I can never return to this Starbucks. Ever.
---
It's now later and I'm showered and calm. We went to eat at Rice, which was delicious even though my basil, tofu, and vegetable concoction over purple rice set my lips aflame and made me sweat profusely. She bought red and yellow gerber daisies and is taking great care of me. I love the look of the buildings in her neighborhood. We're about to watch the results show of So You Think You Can Dance (we think Comfort & Chris should go), and life is good.
posted by eliza @ 7:19 PM
5 Comments:
Looks Dupont Circle-ish. I do miss DC sometimes. yeah it is a zoo though.
"Louis DeMucci!! How could you?!" Do it for our country. Indeed. :) I can actually recite probably 90% of the movie off the top of my head. Scary thought.
Sartre said, "Hell is other people." But these are the same people we are commanded to love. If it were easy, it would be no virtue.
oooh. That grapefruit spritzer incident would have made me irate.
It's like we're doin it for Disneyland!
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