looking back

This week I cancelled my MySpace account.  I rarely check it, and when I do I have e-mails from random, unknown men, whose awkardly worded attempts at flirting with a perfect stranger were vaguely disquieting and uncomfortable.  So, I cancelled my account, however I did keep my blog posts and thought they would be fun to share here. 

The post below was written two years ago.  I remember this day.  I had been on a blind date with a perfectly nice, handsome, interesting man to whom I felt absolutely no attraction.  I had also just received word minutes before I met him that one of my dearest friends had died.

If there was ever a woman that I would call my second mom, it was this dear friend.  She braided my hair when I was younger, painted my face for Halloween, always loved me no matter what and made my birthday dinner and cake for me on my sixteenth birthday when my parents were out of town.  She let me come and play her piano any time.  When I would go home on leave, my time wasn't complete if I didn't stop by to say hello and play the grand piano.  I still miss her when I go home; Paradise just isn't the same.  I love you, Norene.

I was waiting for the blind date on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant when my sister called to tell me the news.  Just as she told me I saw the perfectly, nice, handsome, interesting man walking towards, and I burst into tears.  I was still crying when he came up to me and waited, patient and concerned, until I finished my conversation.  He was very kind and concerned at my obvious distress.  I was impressed that he hadn't been scared off by the unexplained emotional distress of a female stranger in the first few moments of our meeting.  I pulled myself together and went on the blind date.

I'm surprised at the entry below, because it doesn't capture what I was truly feeling that day.  I needed to write, but apparently couldn't write what I honestly felt at the time.  Everything I wrote is true, it was a good day in spite of the bad news.  But, I think I would have been much more true to myself if I had written about who I loved that day.

written on 19 January 2007

So, today was a rockin' day spent being a tourist. From the top of the Washington Monument, we looked down and watched Marine 1 fly below us and land at the White House to pick up George. Pretty rockin'! The Botanical Gardens made me feel as though it was summer again for an hour or so. The Library of Congress took me back to Italy for the afternoon as I walked among beautiful mosaics, marble carvings and paintings.

I love DC. It was the first city I visited that exceeded my expectations and it still does every time I go out and play. I love the crazy layout of the streets that gets me lost every time I come up out of the Metro. I love that every evening on the drive home, I see the Capitol with the sunsetting behind it. I love the walk around the Tidal Basin to the Jefferson Memorial and then around to the FDR Memorial when cherries are in blossom. I love that the Metro doesn't always run when it's supposed and makes me late for stuff. I love living five blocks from Eastern Market and the smell of meat in dead of summer (blegh!). I love walking the C&O canal in Georgetown, and finding the Chagall mural in some guy's backyard. I love walking Memorial Bridge over to Arlington, and the quiet that I find there.

Basically, DC is now my home and I'm learning its ins and outs. It's been quite a ride since I moved here and I am so looking forward to more. Woohoo!

photo by me