The Evaluation

The 2 people who still read my blog may have noticed I stopped blogging lately. I had to re-evaluate whether it was worthwhile to post my thoughts and updates when 1) they're not that fascinating, and 2) even with my squeaky clean life, it's unwise to make everything public. After a few randomized double blind studies, surveys, and focus groups, I concluded that blogging is still an efficient and effective way to share some information with people who happen to be interested.

So here I am in our nation's capital. If you've been here, you know what it's like. My specific location is a basement apartment I can only describe as "cute". It seems to be newly remodeled, so it's like a mini version of a real house or apartment. Since my roommate and I brought a Corolla full of stuff for the 2 of us, we're glad it came with some furniture. True, we're sleeping on air mattresses, but we have free direct tv and new (quiet!) kitchen appliances. Life is good. Our landlords, who live upstairs are a nice couple with toddler, a dog and a cat. It's nice to be around a family for a change...I mean living around a family. I'm not discounting my own family, who I just visited.

Yesterday was a nice day, so we (my roommate and I) explored Old Town, Alexandria. I think this is why I get the feeling of being in a foreign country every once in awhile. Places like this are very non-Midwestern. Compact brick buildings with a hodgepodge of family owned businesses. Public transportation, foot transportation, bike transportation. Buildings that are actually old...almost 300 years is pretty good for the US. We walked down to the Potomac. I admit it, I'm a sucker for water and a little atmosphere. Some good Thai food (which we had) doesn't hurt, either. And I bought fun books! All in all, a good day.

The rest has been settling in mostly, with small victories like figuring out how direct tv works, and discovering a wireless network I can connect to at home. Which reminds me, this blog is brought to you by...unsecured wireless networks.