belief in humanity

A gay Rutgers student killed himself by jumping off of the George Washington bridge after his roommate secretly posted live webcasts of him in intimate relations with another young man. The roommate and his accomplice, a female 1st-year student at Rutgers (all parties involved are/were freshmen at Rutgers), have been charged with counts of "invasion of privacy", which could lead to prison sentences as long as five years.

As one would expect, this horrible event has led to widespread discussion of internet safety, the trouble with social media networks, homophobia, privacy issues, social stigmatization of homosexuality, youth depression, bullying, the definition of a hate crime...and there have been calls to lock the 18-year old homophobes away, to charge the two of them with hate crimes, to pass stricter internet regulation policies, to expand education on how to use the internet appropriately, and more.

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I read part of a series of essays today. It's titled "Women and Revolution", and it consists of the juxtaposition of a controversial essay by Heidi Hartmann (the President of IWPR) titled "An Unhappy Marriage: Marxism and Feminism", and a series of essays that critique it. There is one feminist economist who responds to the paper by writing about how with the progression of scientific methods and tools to delay or alter women's reproductive biological processes, sexism will recede because women will no longer be so restrained by their sex.

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These stories sound unrelated. Shut up, I know that they both have the letters "s", "e", and "x" in them. I'm talking about the dissolution of any foundation upon which anyone in our world could base their faith in humanity, courtesy, compassion, or kindness. Why is that we have to resort to iron-fisted regulation of cyberspace and the ingestion of contraceptives or commitment to a surgical procedure to be able to expect humanity from our fellow citizens of a global community?

That's not right. Get some manners. Learn how to treat people with respect and an ounce of kindness. No one asked you to be friendly. No one even asked you to be remotely pleasant. Just try not to be a horrendous human being.

yet another epic to-do list!

as i said in my last post...which i posted within the last 30 minutes, a to-do list is in order! if you remember, i did this before i left to study abroad: i made a list of all the things i hoped to do in france, and now i'm going to do the same thing for the d.c. area! it gives me a sense of accomplishment and reminds me to take advantage of the things i see around me. here we go!

- attend the H Street Festival on Sept. 18 [x]

- go to a free Millenium Stage performance at the Kennedy Center

- go to the Lucky Bar at Dupont Circle for a free salsa lesson

- attend the National Book Festival on the Mall on Sept. 25 [x]

- go to a concert [x, La Roux at the 9:30 club!]

- perform at an open mic night

- go to the Eastern Market

- attend the National Cherry Blossom Festival [x]

- go to Kramerbooks to listen to live music on a weeknight [x]

- host a party at my house [x]

- wear my green floppy hat in downtown D.C. in a non-ironic way

- go on a trail run in Rock Creek Park

- eat at Julia's Empanadas [x]

- compete in a local race, at least a 5k

- see the sunrise in downtown D.C.

- attend Chinese New Year festivities in downtown D.C.

- try Ethiopian food [x]

- watch an independent film [x]

- go to a national embassy[x, Sweden!]

- run a timed mile, try to get under 5:20 (my fastest mile time to date)

from our nation's capital...

After almost dying of boredom from spending my first 3.5 days in the area unpacking, grocery shopping, decorating, and then sitting in my house, I had an AWESOME 1st weekend in the D.C. area. It began with a free ride to practice instead of the 1.5-hour trip to practice that I was originally anticipating, and then practice with Renegade from 11:00am - 2:00pm at the D.C. polo fields by the National Mall! Now, if a good 3 hours of ultimate isn't a good way to start the weekend, I don't know what is.

One of my beloved Whiptail teammates, Pnut, who graduated 2 years earlier than me was in town for practice (we're playing on the same team), and so Pnut, our captain and friend Puppy, and I spent the entire rest of the day and night together wandering towards Dupont Circle and then stayed the night at Puppy's place. Luckily for me, I had brought an extra change of clothes in case I didn't want to ride all the way back to my house in Silver Spring in sweaty ultimate clothes. So prepared! We got DELICIOUS empanadas from Julia's Empanadas for a lunchtime snack and then spent a good couple hours

sitting on the steps of the Dupont Circle fountain and listening to free live musicians perform some beautiful but unrecognizable covers of some old classics like "With or Without You",

"Summertime", and "Something".

The next day, I had originally planned to go back to my house. However, it was an absolutely exquisite day, and I was already in downtown D.C., so I called up a friend and asked him if he wanted to meet me in the city and do touristy things. We met at the Washington Monument and began our day chock full of sightseeing and walking from there!

What an enjoyable day! We saw the Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Washington Memorial (though we didn't go up to the top), the White House, Chinatown, the National Sculpture Garden, the Smithsonian Gardens, and we took a look at a couple floors of the Hirshhorn Museum before heading our separate ways for the evening. We also took an incredibly satisfying lunch break at an Indian buffet. Sounds risky? Not at all! It was INCREDIBLE. Here are some photographs of my day: the arched walkway at the front of the EPA, B.B. King's handprints in cement (!!!), and my friend Nick looking slightly peeved as I took a picture of him perusing the guide to the sculpture garden.

What a fabulous weekend! I guess one of the perks of not being in college anymore is that when I'm done with work or when I don't have work...I don't have work! I'm so excited to continue to explore DC and the areas around it in the months, the year to come! A to-do list is most certainly in order!

(new) home, sweet home

Welcome to Prichard Road! This is where I will be living for the next year of my life! It is located in Silver Spring right before you cross into the next town over, Wheaton-Glenmont. It is a quiet, very diverse neighborhood with lots of commuters and young families. We live within walking distance of pretty much everything we could possibly need because we live very close to the Westfield Shopping Center where there's a Target, a Starbucks, tons of clothing stores, a gym, a CVS, a Giant Foods grocery store, a Verizon store, and tons more! We're also about a 6-minute walk away from the closest metro stop, making it super easy for each of us to commute to work, since we all work in DC.

Here are some pictures of my new home: our house's number sign, our living room (the first room you encounter upon entering the front door), our kitchen, and my bedroom. Notice that I have my usual decorations up, the prayer flags, the tapestry on my bed, the photo collage...my personal home touches : )

I also had my first team practice with Renegade yesterday night, and it was tons of fun! I exited the metro stop in the SW quadrant of DC and found myself right next to the Smithsonian building and could see the Washington Monument to my left. The Department of Agriculture was right behind me. While other people who live in the area may be used to it and jaded to this, I couldn't help but grin when I realized and said to myself, "this is my home for the next year." The walk to the fields brought me right next to the Washington Monument and along the Potomac River from where I could see the Jefferson Memorial. We scrimmaged for most of practice and as we lost daylight, the sun set in a magnificent showing of bands of red-orange with purple streaks, with the Lincoln Memorial beginning its nighttime glow as we finished our game. Marvelous!!! I only wish I had had my camera to document the view.

So far, so good! I begin my fellowship at the IWPR on Tuesday, the day after Labor Day, and I cannot wait! It is starting to get a bit boring trying to keep myself busy around the house and "relaxing". I was never good at that : )

wedding bells and lobster

As if signing a lease, graduating from college, and obtaining a policy research fellowship weren't enough to make me feel like an adult...I attended my first wedding where the bride or groom was a friend of my age! My friend Claire married her handsome, very funny and kind Chilean fiancé, Oliver, in Portland, ME in a lovely cathedral church on August 28th. I have to admit, that thinking about the wedding almost made me more nervous than the thought of moving to DC, just because it was a moment that seemed so distant in terms of life experiences.

It was perfection.

I drove up from NJ with Sara, and the two of us, Colette, Libby, and Steph all stayed in an adorable room full of beds at Colette's grandparents' home in Cape Elizabeth which was only about 20 minutes away! As weddings tend to be, from what I hear, it was a lovely opportunity for us to have a mini-reunion before we all headed our separate ways indefinitely and to celebrate a friend's beautiful future with her husband!

Renegade!

It's official!

I'm finally going to stop being an obnoxiously non-committal ninny and I've signed onto play with a competitive mixed club team based in the metro D.C. area! The team name is Renegade and is captained by an AWESOME Wellesley alum who graduated before I began, with whom I've always wanted to play. One of my former Whiptail teammates will also be playing with me, as well as a friend from Stanford who I haven't seen in over a year.

Take a look at this awesome idea for our jersey:

The part that makes me nervous is the time commitment, but I finally realized that if I freak out about being tired/time, after I finally get used to having a 9am-5pm commitment, I'll realize that I have no friends and nothing to do in my free time. I'll have practice twice a week and 2-3 tournaments through the Fall, depending on how far we make it into the Club Series. I also have to do a track workout once a week along with base conditioning which I do anyways, so no big deal!

The first track workout was 6 x 400m sprints. Anyone who has done track or track workouts before knows that that was going to stink. I think that the apprehension with which I approached with this assignment messed with me because I went out WAY too fast on the first one and then ended up being unable to finish the workout. I went 67 seconds, 78 seconds, and then 89 seconds, and then couldn't do the rest. It was really really frustrating and put me in a terrible mood.

The track workout this week was 6 x 300m sprints, still strenuous, but not as bad, because I personally find that last 100m in the 400m to be the hardest part because I seem to run out of gas around the 300m mark. I was smarter about pacing, and it ended up going really well!! I DID manage to finish the workout and I ended up getting the following times:

60 sec, 52 sec, 57 sec, 59 sec, 60 sec, 50 sec

The fact that I was able to go 50 seconds on the last one probably means that I should've gone harder all the way through, but it felt really good to stay under the "fast" benchmark time that our fitness person gave us for the workout. WAHOO!

Knowing that I have a commitment outside of work and a group of people to meet and spend time with right after my move makes me a lot less worried about adjusting to DC life and a lot more excited to move into my new home :)

new song

The landmark years aren't the ones in which you receive some government-granted plastic card, right, or responsibility. Yes, I think the right to vote is incredibly important. But being allowed to drive, being allowed to hold an alcoholic beverage in your hand...negligible when you consider the things you experience at other ages.

At the age of 22, many of us leave college and take our first steps into the "real" world. The excitement of truly being on our own, taking on additional responsibilities, leaving the caring, loving, greatly appreciated, but at times, overbearing, surveillance of our parents, teachers, neighbors, friends' parents...the excitement hits us most immediately and we can't wait to leave. But then the bills, the new rules, the responsibilities, unfamiliar territory that we must learn to traverse and accept...they hit us second, like a stinging slap in the face, like being pushed into a cold ocean. Don't get me wrong: I'm ecstatic. I have an incredible opportunity waiting for me in DC, great housemates, a loving family, wonderful beautiful friends. I'm just nervous, as usual.

I remember listening to "What's My Age Again" by Blink 182 and I have to say that I never thought I would identify with Blink 182 song lyrics after I left high school, but I do now. If you haven't heard this song and listened to the lyrics, give it a spin. They mention the age 23. As do a handful of other songs having to do with the awkward period that is post-adolescence or the early stages of adulthood. I wrote my own song having to do that period of time.

It's in 4/4 and in A-flat major although it goes between some minor and major key progressions. I'm not sure what to call it. Maybe "23" or "On the Verge of 23". Let me know if you think of anything.

Songwriters and poets have decided that this is the age

When glamour and glory start to fade

And the hangings on the wall do start to change

And we learn that everything's not always going to be okay

The first gray hairs appear upon your crown

And a new line is drawn each time you frown

Responsibility weighs heavily

On the verge of 23

Just around each corner sits a sign reading "turn back catch-22"

Leaving me with nothing left to do

But cry, but crying's not allowed when you're outside

So I've got to wait 'til night when I can hide

Regret turning down the hands that came my way as I cling to the phone

Because I once thought that I could do it alone

Responsibility weighs heavily

On the verge of 23

No one told me it would be this hard to learn to live

Asked to pay when I've got nothing left to give

Watching shadows on the wall as I lie awake in bed

Close my eyes so I can rest my weary head, my weary head

On the verge of 23

On the verge of 23