the people in your neighborhood

People are fascinating, frustrating and wonderful.

On my way to work on Monday, I saw a man going through one of those blue recycling bins on 8th Street, SE. In full view of all passerby, this guy was going through somebody's discarded mail. This is how identity theft happens, dear readers (all five of you). Get thyselves a shredder, stat. One of those cross-cutting shredders...

Then, there is the patron saint of Eastern Market Metro stop. The weekday morning station manager is sometimes the brightest part of my day. He stands outside of his booth and greets the neighbors cheerfully as they come through his turnstiles. I've never seen any other DC transit official actually behave as if they were a part of the neighborhood. He remembers faces, never has a bad day... It is as if he has made it his mission to brighten every person's day. I just love him.

As a result of this post from Shards, I even sent a note to WMATA.

Two very different people separated by mere city blocks. Weird.

i'll take the industrial-sized bucket of eyecream, thank you

If I lent my Killers or Franz Ferdinand cd's to you, would you let me know? I haven't seen either in quite a while...

Even though I had today off, I am still beat. Six day work weeks are brutal, yo. One of the bright points of my day was when a La Prairie saleslady asked me if I was in my early 20's - even though I knew she had to be lying (if the Trader Joes checkout clerk doesn't card me then it means I'm looking my age) I was damn grateful. I think that I have become a rather stressed-out and unpleasant person (also, my skin is awful and I actually have circles under my eyes); I can't even make interesting conversation. This bodes unwell for me socially and romantically. I miss my friends, and hope that my life resumes some normalcy before B2 gets tired of putting up with my shit.

Regarding my upcoming birthday - I'm thinking of planning some time to get together for drinks and appetizers on either the 7th or 8th of October... If you will be in town and have a preference, please let me know.

the frustration of adult children

Today, I talked to a man whose ill parent lives very near the Texas gulf coast and who is too ill to drive to safer ground. Originally, this man's concern was that this parent would be unable to evacuate by car, so I obtained some contacts through Red Cross and the local Emergency Operations Center down there, as those organizations have the ability to transport special needs people by air or bus (we have made sure they have plenty of air support to do so).

I checked in with the man later to discover that his parent had decided to stay home and try to brave through the storm. He was incredibly frustrated and worried. It is difficult enough to live so far from an ill parent; the distance makes you feel impotent in addition to fearful. The man wanted so much for his parents to evacuate but could do nothing about it. Please send good karma in the general direction of the Gulf for his and his family's sake.

I'll be calling my father tomorrow and giving him a lecture on the scale of some of the many he delivered when I was a child (which is to say, lengthy and outraged). And since I get my hard-headedness from him, I'm sure he'll reject my arguments outright, mull them over, and then accept them but never actually tell me that he came around to seeing my side of things. (While I will reject some arguments outright, I get my ability to sheepishly admit fault from my mother.)

Anyway, my fair readers, we're looking at another full weekend of hurricane response work; thanks to Baby J, I've gained a couple more pounds from the little care package she sent (the caramel chocolate popcorn was damn good, by the way); and tomorrow, I get to meet with the attorney who is prosecuting the case against the idiot who tried to steal my purse when I was on a first date last October. Yowza. I so need a vacation.

i want my mommy

Hurricane Rita is expected to hit Category 4 around 2 pm tomorrow. There really is no rest for the weary (and I haven't had time or energy to be wicked, people). I'm utterly despondent.

This is, yet, just another reason to hate Summer; it is hurricane season. I long for those cool crisp Autumn days... the smell of burning leaves and getting to wear my cashmere sweaters... so many more good hair days... not having to worry about whether there's enough ice in the gulf or having to funnel some of the most absurd (and predatory) attempts to make a buck through naive congressional staffers (for example, the bank that would like to offer free checking to displaced persons - this one just made me want to cry). Also, my air conditioning is on the fritz.

Seriously, folks. I haven't had an entire weekend off since the end of August, and things are going to get really ugly if this storm hits the coast at full force on Saturday. I'm thinking of importing my mother (hell, I'll take anybody's mother at this point) to come and take care of me. I haven't been able to hit a dry cleaners or think about heating up anything other than a Lean Cuisine since this crap started. It doesn't matter that I'm nearly 35, right?

[I need you, mommy!]

damn good haircut

My DC stylist, Kelly, is quite the haircut wunderkind. He looks like your typical 20-something hipster-slacker, but the boy is quite a talent (as well as hot, single and straight). Kelly has been doing my hair since the late 1990's when he was at the Bubbles salon near the US Senate office buildings. I followed him to a couple other places as his reputation and prices grew, but finally stopped going to him when my salary couldn't quite support his well-deserved prices.

Fortunately, things have improved for me and I can now benefit from his artistry again. You know you have a great haircut when you don't have to style it with a hairdryer... He's opened his own shop with a partner and it is a very modern and unfussy space. The shop opened its doors today to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, so I was there at opening (which was painful). 100% of the shop's services went to support the American Red Cross's activities and they just had me make out my check directly to the Red Cross (a well-spent $75, if you care to ask). Then they handed me a little goodie bag with samples!

huh huh

I don't always agree with wonkette, but she always makes me laugh. She does raise a good point tonight: why is the president speaking from New Orleans, which is mostly emptied out, instead of somewhere with a large number of 'displaced persons'?

Also, either there was something a little strange in my Lean Cuisine tonight or some dude is serenading my next-door neighbor... Do I break his heart and tell him that she's gay? Nah... having a neighborhood troubador is way better than a drug dealer.

crankypants

At some point, the stress level at my job simply has to decrease, right? Can it really continue, unabated, for three weeks straight??? I stayed home sick yesterday, only to return to an even crankier bunch of co-workers. It isn't pleasant, people. The private sector is looking more and more attractive...

things that keep me going

[this post has been edited as it was too embarrassing...]

Chocolate, phone calls with my 6 month old niece, and the vague promise that I might get to sleep in at least one day this weekend.

[Postscript - also, eyecream! Can't live without eyecream! Or lunesta! Thank the gods for lunesta!]

[Post-postscript - attention from a particular cute man also totally helps. I think this might be a less embarrassing way to state this. Ahem...]

38 hours of overtime

When you look at the number 38, it doesn't seem like all that much. It could have been a whole lot worse too. But the intensity of work and public pressure make that number weigh much more.

I logged in an additional 38 hours between Friday, September 2 and Saturday, September 10. Today was my first entire day off since Sunday, August 28. I woke up at 9:30 today, and it seemed like such a luxury.

I'm too tired to pray that this week will improve...

new addition

As a way to control stress, I bought a little Siamese Fighting Fish. Gil IV seems to be enjoying his new surroundings but hasn't yet displayed fighting spirit when I hold a mirror up to his bowl. He's a total wuss.

Unf, the landlords don't allow other pets. I know I've written previously about how I long for a purse-sized dog, but now think a little cat would be okay. They totally get rid of bugs. Damn my allergies and aversion to cat boxes!

looks like i picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue

Just kidding. I never sniff glue. Or eat paste. I was never one of those children...

But it has been a long weekend, y'all. Not in the good way either. I worked most of the weekend. So did most of my colleagues, and we had to bring in reinforcements from other agencies. And, we're mostly dealing with congressional issues. I mean, good grief! "Yes, I certainly understand that your boss is extremely desirous of flying down to the Gulf for a little media facetime, but we're still trying to focus on saving people's lives. Maybe he/she could wait a few days?"

They're not all bad. Many offices are calling in an effort to help marshal resources and shelter. I love those staffers. Some calls, however, are a clear effort to find something to exploit and politicize. I find especial satisfaction when I can thwart those efforts with hard facts about our operations.

Of course, I'm not going to entirely defend what's been going on. If you read the Washington Post, and caught their coverage yesterday, their take is pretty accurate. Everybody is to blame here. The Governor of Louisiana (for not allowing the Feds to take a bigger role earlier on), the Mayor of New Orleans (for not helping the working poor who wanted to get out of New Orleans but didn't have the means), FEMA (because they're supposed to be the coordination experts, but it is a little early to be firing anybody), the people who underestimated the storm and refused to leave (does Category 5 mean nothing?)... The CNN coverage has been extremely biased, and when my flaming liberal mother (she's the Carville in my parent's relationship) agrees with this opinion, you surely know it to be true.

Work is stressful - like go home and cry after work every night stressful - but every single person there is completely devoted to the mission and to improving the situation in the Gulf. They're working their asses off, they care deeply, and they care about each other which makes even the roughest days bearable.

I need to acknowledge the lovely efforts of B2 to help me destress last night and tonight. He brought me back a great moose magnet (various moose pick up lines, which include "nice rack") from Canada for my fridge and some fantastic Yankee Candle Company votives from Maine! He fed me and forced me to stop watching CNN/MSNBC/Fox News. He's a total mensch. And he had grown quite a fetching beard during his trip which my inner cave chick found very appealing.

The situation is not going to get better very soon. If you have the means, please consider making a monetary or blood donation to the Red Cross. And send me some chocolate. Good chocolate. Organic vanilla white chocolate...

bending the rules

One of my blogging rules is that I don't blog about my job. You see, I generally really enjoy my job and I'd like to keep it. But sometimes I need to flesh things out in writing.

I'm a civil servant. I made a decision after 9/11 to return to civil service and have never looked back. I can't imagine working for a for-profit at this point. In particular, I'm working for an agency that is involved with the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

On behalf of my colleagues, I'd like to tell you how hard we're working to respond to the hurricane. There are people working round the clock to help the people down there and who are profoundly frustrated that they haven't been able to get to the people marooned in New Orleans. We are sickened and broken-hearted. We don't understand why so many people stayed behind, or why they didn't have the opportunity to evacuate.

I kept my composure till I got home. Then I had a pint of ice cream and a good cry. Tomorrow, I'll go back to work and keep on fighting.