Anti-Tsunami

The other day I had the most surreal experience. Helicopters are always flying around the District. On Thursday morning at 4:30 am, I was awaken by the sound of a chopper hovering right above my apartment. The Vietnam-reminiscent sound did not subside; for 45 minutes this machine, with its high-beam search lights glaring in my window, made regimented rotations above my flat. I fully got out of bed — not sure if I was dreaming at first — and checked the Internet to see if there was something major going on and couldn’t fall asleep again until after 6. I have no idea.

Part of why the helicopter experience was so off-putting is because the noise woke me up from a horrific dream. Here goes: A friend took me outside, and randomly put a lethal sci-fi-like laser gun in my hand. He had another laser gun and shot a guy, and killed him. He told me he was going to run away to Mexico and dispose of the gun. He offered for me to go with him. I declined and ran inside, with my laser gun in hand, and didn’t know what to do. First, I hid it between the mattress and boxspring. Then, as I heard the sirens in the distance, I decided I was going to tell them the truth, though the evidence would weigh against me (though I had no animus toward the dead guy). Then, I woke up.

There’s a lot of crime here in DC — random crime. A couple weeks ago, this dude got murdered in his sleep a couple blocks away (Swann St.). Note: I live in a posh neighborhood. Looks like there may be foul play, but still weird. In Bethesda (the Palo Alto of DC), some one-legged Iraq War vet, got attacked by a bunch of hoodlums. And, you know about the 27-year old rising star who had his throat slashed in Georgetown. The homeless people here aren’t as aggressive as they are in SF, but the streets are dark, and people lurk in the shadows. There’s always the creepy, albeit romantic, sounds of crickets looming in the background, which adds to the feeling.

With that said, DC has been good. I am having a lot more substantive conversations about politics and the state of the world. I missed that; especially because my career is largely bereft of intellectualism. Danai (my amazing friend who’s award-winning play, In the Continuum, is in town for 6 weeks) went to dinner (Kanlaya Thai) with a nice group of people I compiled. She commented on how the conversation reminded her so much of what she liked about Macalester. I’ve heard that before from other Mac friends sampling my world, with regard to other circles, and it made me feel really lucky.

At dinner, there was a lot of baseline ideological accordance, with tweaky, interesting disagreements. Our discussions were like abstracts of PhD theses. We talked about how multiculturalism/pluralism define American culture, and are destroying America, as we export the model and apply it to a global context; about how the American middle class is being erased due to outsourcing; about how our less patriarchal system creates less of a "need" for women to be in relationships, and about our skewed, ever-changing perceptions of "needs"; we spoke about how September 11 was predictable, and conversation about it too "easy". All of these things are blog-worthy in and of themselves. I also watch the news a lot more; not because I feel like I have to, but because it is interesting.

I find myself thinking about the Midwest a lot more these days; glorifying the amenities and friendliness of Chicago and Minneapolis. With my salary, I could live like a king in the Twin Cities. I could buy a 3-bedroom house near Macalester — in that lovely, safe, tree-lined little area with book stores, record stores, coffee shops and nice people. I never thought about that when I was in California. Or Connecticut. I feel like I am lacking certain things right now; like a sailor with scurvy who needs some citrus.

I was supposed to go to NY this weekend, but I battled a sore throat (a weird, very painful one, sans cold) this week and am headed to SF next week, so I don’t want to relapse or overextend myself.

I saw Jeff in DC yesterday. Was nice to see an old friend. He had an altercation with our waitress that was embarassing and funny (he got his food late and demanded that she take it off the bill; she got all ghetto and defensive in the SNL way).  That kind of encapsulates a night with Jeff. We left the restaurant at about 12:30 am last night. As the place was thinning out, a group of about 10 yuppies early-20-somethings entered and thinking Jeff was the host, asked if the restaurant was still serving drinks. Jeff said - "yes - just sit down at any table", and they complied. Also, we have had the ongoing fight about the correct pronunciation of Uganda, which he pronounces "oooooganda". I met the woman who he cites as being the expert last night. And she was with me. Oh, the glory!

Danai and I hadn’t seen each other in a while, and we were discussing how we had changed. She showed me a picture of her and her boyfriend. I analyzed it for about a minute and spewed out all of my perceptions of their relationship. It was dead-on. I feel like the John Edwards (not Presidential nominee, but Crossing Over guy) of relationships. I think it’s because I’ve been surrounded by so many f-ed up ones I developed a keen sense — through "thin-slicing" (Blink reference) of the healthy-ness/spark in a relationship (don’t ask if you don’t want the truth; or tell me if you want me to lie). Anyway, the way I’ve changed is that despite this talent, I’ve let go of other people’s baggage (in the ife coach realm in general). I used to assume liability for other people’s lives and decision. I still have the potential to do that, but I stop myself. I realized that the few instances where my friends have assumed that pain for me, haven’t propelled me forward at all.

Reflecting on my mom’s visit, it’s interesting how we had a lot less to do because my life is so abundant with material goods. She really wants me to have kids. I’m not feeling it. I wonder if I will (?) My dad’s getting a lot worse. He is usually very talkative, but seems to have given up. Makes you really ponder your mortality.

I am switching more and more to myspace. I think I am going to start posting my blogs there too. I held out with friendster for longer, but I am succombing — little by little.

I really want to start college consulting. I’m going to do it!

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 26th, 2006 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.