Halloween

I love Halloween. This year I get to spend it in Chicago with Kyle and Jeremiah. The best thing of the day, seeing Minnie Mouse driving a light blue convertable bug down Michigan Ave.
If you are ever out the Chicago way, I suggest checking out O'Leary's Chicago Fire Truck Tours. They have taken old fire trucks and even an old station house and converted it for tours of Chicago. How often can you say that you rode around town in an old fire truck?

Amazing Race, DC style

The DCSYP will have a Scavenger Hunt/Amazing Race on November 15th, starting at 11:30am. It promises to be a good time. Teams must go through different sites in the city and pick up different items, then make it to the next meeting/check point. Like in the Amazing Race teams leave in the same order of their arrival to each meeting/check point; who arrives first, leaves first. On top of the fun of just getting to run around the city, there are prizes. Tickets are $25 until Oct 31st.



Had to post pictures from last night's High Heel Races or drag races on 17th St. It was a lot of fun, even in the rain. Di made yet another appearance, so did the geisha and Cookie. There were casinos from Vegas' strip and a group of roller blading cowgirls. I thought the funniest was the group of Metro stops, Ms. Anna Cost-Ya and Ms. Manassas, I hope I don't I have to spell out the joke there. The best, the S&M Pooh. Oh fiddle.

Not alone

I'm not alone!

From Mike H:
"One thing I can't stand is Germans who act as though they know everything about the American government. Oh, it's corrupt. Oh, it's ineffective. Oh, it can't take care of its people. Granted, I'm not a huge fan of the American government, and especially not of those who currently have control, but it pisses me off every time I hear somebody make such a blanket generalization. You know what, Hans Peter Klaus Müller? At least my country didn't start two world wars and kill millions of people in camps while under the control of a tyrannical dictator. Why don't you cut a nice slice of that off and lay it on a piece of your dry, seed-filled bread you non-showering, bike-riding, unfriendly bastard? Somehow the stupid, cultureless Americans managed to expand their country, industrialize, and come out on top without resorting to despotism."

It don't mean a thing

...if it ain't, well ok.

So, the A Night at the Cottn Club festivities are almost upon us. For three nights and two days there will be about twenty events. This is hosted every year by Tom and Debra and culminates in a gala $100 a plate dinner and dance at Sequoia. If I had the money.....
For the like cash-strapped, Tom and Debra do have a free swing dance every Wednesday at Lulu's. I've been there, it's pretty fun.
If swing isn't your thing, then there is still a lot of dancing in DC. A great site is DC Dance Net, they have every dance listed. Not the easiest to navigate, but once you learn it, then you're set. There's also BAM at UMD and they always have outings listed. Of course I must list the Promenade in Balitmore. For Haloween they will have a mascarade ball. What could be better? Ballroom dance and masks. That's fabulous.
And finally there is my personal all time favourite, Glen Echo Park and I don't mean that nudist park. There really is nothing better than dancing in the Spanish Ballroom, especially now that it's been restored.


If ballroom isn't your sort of dance, then there are many many clubs for you to shake that booty at.

Costuming

Well, since it's the time of the year for Halloween, it must also be the time of the year for costume parties and of course, costume contests. This week-end Clarendon Ballroom will have their costume contest. Dream and the VIP club will have their costume contests next week-end. There is the annual Catholic kids costume contest at Col Brooks' Tavern, now that's a personal favourite of mine.

Before and after Halloween

I'm going to post about this again, and give some more information. The Washington, DC High Heel Races, or drag races will be on Oct 28th on 17th St, between Church and R. The street will be closed and the race begins at 9pm not far from the door of JR's. It's organised by JR's and Delta Lambda Phi. Pictures from last year's race.

Next is a post-Halloween tradition. Every year the week-end after Halloween, tens of thousands of people set up camp for the week-end on the beach in Long Neck, Deleware. It's called Pumpkin Chuckin' and people spend hundreds of dollars on machines to chuck a pumkin as far as they possibly can. There are rules and even suggestions for spectators. It's a good time, especially if you like to see gourds fly high and far into the air.

Speaking of, it's also time for Lawyer's Moonlight Maze. It takes about two hours to go through and you will get lost. The best thing, running around a corn field with a flashlight playing tag. Yea. I can't wait.

For more of a traditional scare there is Calleva's 11th annual Haunted Forest. There is both a haunted trail through a forest and a haunted bus. The thing that makes me like this one, it requires a waiver form. Oh, makes me think of the haunted housing that I used to do in Kansas City.

Well, I haven't been very inspired lately to post, so I've just been slugging along, but along with that I can post about a completely Washington, DC phenomenon, slugging. The BBC has a good article about slugging today. For those of you who don't know slugging is when a commuter driver picks up a commuter passenger from some location in NorVA and takes them to a certain destination in Washington, DC. This is a reciprocal arrangement, the driver gets to use HOV lanes and the passenger gets a free ride into DC. I had a couple of friends who slugged to work for a while, both were females and they never had any problems. Even though this is a completely ad hoc run thing, there are a couple of websites dedicated to slugging information. Kinda reminds me of the jeepney of the Philippines.

Soon, I'll start the back posting, so if you care, you'll have to read past dates.

DC has a great thing, it's called the DC Society of Young Professionals. Membership is free and the society hosts a couple of hundred events a year and also you can hear about a lot more. It's great, you're able to socialize with other people who are young and like to go out. Not only is it bar hopping, but they also schedule bike and walking tours of DC and the like.

The thing about DC is that the population here is pretty transient. Somewhat surprisingly the population peaks in about July when all the interns and half the college students are around. When the fall rolls around, then things start to slow down. Though, there are still the house parties. People who work for the government, especially the hill types, stick out like a sore thumb. They are always travelling in some pack, mostly upper middle-class people, sometime all white, with some button down shirt and khaki pants. Yea. And then there are the ones who all work for non-profits, who are normal and a diverse group of people. Speaking about this has sparked a bit of a rant. Something that has been irking me lately, white people using terms that just don't suit them, like shiznit or hizouse or biatch or aiight or chillin or something like that. Once in a while, if there is some context, it's darn funny. I used to ask someone for my bling bling, but either than that, to use it all the time, the humor is lost. If you grew up in the burbs or somewhere not near the inner city, you went to a good, probably mostly white high school and you would do the Office Space thing of singing along to rap, but when someone who you find questionable comes near your car roll up your window and you think that PG County and the SE is dangerous or would never live in the places that rappers grew up in, then it's not funny to add shiznat to your lexicon. Stop listening to rap music and thinking that you are down like that and take a reality check. You're probably white and well off and you really don't get it.

You too can get a Taste of DC down on Penn Ave today, tomorrow and Monday. Admission is free with a food item donation and there is quite a sizable line up of bands playing throughout the week-end. Though, you will have to pay for a taste. What sucks this week-end, the Metro line closures on the red line. Pain in the ass. So, the red line from Fort Totten to Union Station will be closed today, tomorrow and Monday for track replacement, they are literally removing part of the track and replacing it. There will be buses running from all stations to other stations, but still a pain.

Yesterday the Bureau of Engraving and Printing released the new $20 with all the added security features, one being that the colour has changed. Well at least the back is still green, but the background on the front is a mix of "peach and pistacio" or light green and pink. Along with the release of the new bill comes a marketing campaign in the tens of thousands to inform the public that what they are getting from the bank or supermarket is indeed the real thing. There is even an interactive bill that you can see all the new security features in fine detail. That seems somewhat ironic, but oh well. I really see no need for a huge campaign, no one will go to the bank and see a different bill and then reject it, telling the bank that they are giving them fake money. Either way most of the currency that the US has produced is abroad. Finally, new bills or coins are only rejected really when there is an alternative. The Treasury Dept will take the old $20s out of circulation and the new $20 will be the only thing to use. That wasn't true for the Sacagawea dollar. Even after an extensive campaign the Sacagawea dollar coin was pretty much a flop. The Susan B. Anthony coin was taken out of circulation, but not before more were minted to keep up the demand for them on the NYC transit system and post offices.

Metro is trying out a new toilet system in the Metro rail system. It was debuted today at the Huntington Metro station and will be there for a year. The toilet even has a name, it's called Galaxy, wow. It's a self-cleaning computerized toilet. Although every Metro station has at least two toilets each, station managers are sometimes reluctant to let riders use them. There is even a campaign to get easily accesible toilets in the Metro.

I would just like to say for the record that traffic in VA sucks. Some people from VA don't know how to drive and it irks the hell out of me. I can't believe that it takes me 1.5 hours to get about 25 miles and I fully blame somebody down in Virginia.

Rivers and whales

So, I guess I do do a post about Schwarzenegger's win and how I've lost all respect for California, not that I had that much respect anyway. I also lost some respect for the Kennedy family, which I at least had more respect for than California. Or I could talk baseball, but there are more highly qualified people than me.

Instead there's this great thing to post about: the ongoing fight over the Potomac River. A fight that has now made it's way to the Supreme Court's docket. The SC is currently hearing oral arguments and hopefully a decision will be reached by July 2004. The evidence that Maryland is using to prove that they are the sole soveriegn over the Potomac River is a 1632 colonial treaty and historical maps from the Census Bureau. Wow. Virginia wants to put an intake pipe on the Potomac, Maryland has been blocking their efforts, they cannot cite any impact that would directly happen to Maryland, but instead, "Maryland officials objected to the intake because they said it would let Virginia exploit the river's water to fuel uncontrolled suburban development of the kind that Maryland itself would not permit." Go Maryland for fighting suburban sprawl not even in your own boundries.

Next, on a more scuba related topic, it seems that Navy sonar gives whales the bends. How is that possible? Well, read the article. While this isn't the bends as it happens in humans, just the thought of dying from the bends is not a pleasant way to go. These animals are driven to beach themselves, they obviously are very affected by sonar, which makes a lot of sense.

Sorrow

Sometimes I have such sorrow in my heart. I'm going to break from my normal posts and use this to vent a little.

It's unbelievable to me how intangible something so very important can be. Like friendship or love. What proof do we really have of either? Tonight I went in search of some proof and came up with nothing. And that bothers me to no end. It bothers me that you can spend hours upon hours, day after day with someone and you have nothing tangible to show for it. An occasional picture, a random email, although you spent time and energy and emotion on someone, you really have nothing to hold from them. A memory, a feeling and that's about it. I have such sorrow over what is lost and wish I had something to hold, so at least that thing would evoke a memory, but there's nothing.
I blame myself for not holding precious more of what I searche for tonight. I blame the other for being lost. Most of all, I blame the other for not placing an importance on friendship or love and not holding both close to them and not having sorrow in their heart at the loss of both.
Now all I have to hold is my sorrow.....what good is that?

Indian summer

I'm really hoping for an indian summer. We already had a frost advisory, so does that mean this warm weather is the indian summer? Hmmm, I sure hope so.
Soon, I'm going to take the long and slow moving drive down Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park. This 105 mile road contains 75 overlooks and some of the best 'leaf-peeping' that can be done in the autumn. The USDA Forest Service has an up-to-the-minute report on fall colours. Or there is a foliage report from the Foliage Network. NBC4 has a good fall resource on their Weather page.

And now for something completely different:

MH, who is a fabulously funny guy, reminded me of this quote when describing a mutual friend/acquaintance:

"Cameron has never been in love -- at least, nobody's ever been in love with him. If things don't change for him, he's gonna marry the first girl he lays, and she's gonna treat him like shit, because she will have given him what he has built up in his mind as the end-all, be-all of human existence. She won't respect him, 'cause you can't respect somebody who kisses your ass. It just doesn't work."
-Ferris Bueller's Day Off


Sometimes, MH can be a really funny, but mean guy. I at least would have gone with that song, "When a Man Loves a Woman" at least it's not so degrading:
"If she's bad he can't see it
She can do no wrong
Turn his back on his best friend
If he put her down....
She can bring him such misery
If she plays him for a fool
He's the last one to know
Lovin' eyes can't ever see"....she's his world.
But no, MH went straight for the Cameron quote, but I have to admit, it is appropo. But, the lyrics of this song make it sound prettier.

You should come back from Japan MH, there's still many fish to get out of the Potomac!

Well, there are only 25 days between us and a Friday night Halloween. Why am I posting on something so far in the future? Well, if you're going to brave Georgtown on a Friday night on Halloween, you'd better start thinking of a costume now. There is a guide to help you prepare. But there are two things to keep in mind. First, if you're going trick or treating, then I would suggest trick or treating for Unicef. It's a great organisation and it's a great way to help. Also, you get a box at Pier 1, Sears Portrait Studios, Ikea and many supermarkets.
Second off, let's not forget the High Heel Races. Or as it's also known the drag races. Sponsored every year by JR's, this is an annual pre-Halloween tradition for the Dupont/Adams Morgan area. This year it will be held on Oct 28th and the race is at 9pm. Register early to race, be ready to have your costume outdone or just go and have a fabulous time.
A picture from last year's race:

From the Post

Cold weather reading

There is nothing worse than the feeling of walking out your door and a wave of cold fall air hitting you in the face heralding the coming winter. Actually, there is something worse, getting out of cold brackish water, taking off your wetsuit and shivering as you change from a bathing suit to clothes as that cold fall air hits your whole wet body. Well, in honour of the cold weather two things:

First an activitiy, the National Book Fest will be held tomorrow on National Mall. Organized by the LoC, this is a fabulous festival, especially if you like to/can read. And if you're not into reading, but watching TV, TLC's Paige Davis from Trading Spaces will speak. I love that show.

And then in honour of the dive this week-end, some information about the asian oysters that are being tested for large scale release in the Chesapeake Bay. The oysters are released on a limited basis to test their viability in the Bay. Hopefully the sterile asian oysters will help the decimated native oyster population and allow a viable oyster industry to return to the Bay. This project has been fast tracked, so we should see results soon.

Now playing: Hangama 2002, the best Indian techno.

It's official

So, it's official, if you didn't know, DC has very bad traffic. Actually the third worse traffic in the nation, right behind the state of CA that has more cars than people. Yup, only SF and LA could beat us for traffic snarl. You can read all about it, or read a discussion from one of the co-authors.

I am so damn happy that I'm over 25:
"According to the new issue of Details (yes, the one with Ashton Kutcher on the cover), people under 25 are all freakin' bisexual these days--even the boys."

Started to back update, be sure to read.