Anti-Tsunami

It’s been a crazy week.

Florida
I went to Florida last week for the first time in a long time. It was a lot of fun; probably my best solo visit to Florida ever. My mom was my date the University of Miami Reunion, which I attended for work/benchmarking purposes and she was, of course, the consummate date/a lot of fun. She got hit on by an Engineering alumnus, befriended the former head of the UMAA, and discovered flavored Bacardi. We watched Borat, shared a meal at a late-night diner, and stayed at a nice hotel in Coral Gables, which is very charming, and certainly where I would live if I made South Florida home.

Overall, It was a landmark visit, seeing as it has been almost 10 years since I’ve formally lived in Florida, and poignant because my whole life up to that point had been about escaping it. My relationship with Jessica and Doug felt more stabilized. They gave me many, many pairs of nice dress socks, which I needed desperately.

I had a lot of time to bond with my niece and nephew, Parker and Emma. They are both so cute. I am not even being biased. I have a special bond with Parker that is hard to put into words. He kept on asking for little old me to carry him; he told me he loves me! He called me anju - like pear in French. Emma likes stories; I made up one that may have traumatized her — basically switching King Midas’s gold power to chocolate (she seemed pretty anti-chocolate for the rest of the time I was there, which is atypical for her).

I also spent a day with my dad, which was really hard. I haven’t seen him in about 1.5 years, since he visited in SF. We spent the day driving around the old breakfast delis of Plantation, stopping by his PO Box, driving to Boca, then my sister’s yacht club. We just reminisced a lot. He has lost all of his body fat; he clavicle protrudes quite dramatically. As soon as I saw him, I had the strong urge to cry, as if her were already dead. The man that I knew is no longer here. He seems so withdrawn, like he totally lost his spirit. Anyway, I think spending time together brought him joy.

I saw Jen Hearn, which is always nice. When I am with her (and her
husband JC), it’s like a time warp. She just gives me the warm feeling
of home. I also had my co-worker Sasha there with her boyfriend, and it
was so nice to see how naturally they all got along. I also loved
seeing the way Jen lives, in a cozy apartment in Miami’s Design District. We also went to South Beach — the place we used to frequent on the weekends - which just seemed a little depressing - with regular women dressed like hussies.

When I was there, I felt really conflicted because I have so many memories there, and I love Cuban and Jewish food. It feels strangely comfortable and it is my home in a lot ways, but I resent so many thing about it; it’s anti-intellectual culture (you should watch the dumbed-down mudslingy political ads), the hypermaterialism, the car/plaza/chain/parking lot infrastructure. It’s just a depressing soul-sucking pit. I could never again live there happily.

Then, the next few days were really up and down:

I returned to a wet D.C after a 4-hour delay, and a roller coaster flight.

I was tickled pink with Tuesday’s election results. It was so nice to feel victory for the first time in my voting life. The last two elections remind me of having my hopes crushed with Cindy Dubuque - of just feeling really disappointed and defeated, and a lot about relocating Canada (yay for Thorben who is moving to Montreal). This felt like a bar mitzvah, a wedding (a good one), and a birthday all wrapped into one.

I am also just crazy about Obama. I think he has everything going for him; he’s the golden child/the new JFK. I don’t care that he’s young. I think his race is a plus. I should mention here that almost every cab driver in D.C. listens to political radio. It reminds me of South Africa. I love that.

Tuesday night, my friend Mike, a professional water polo player, took me to see a play at the Woolley Mammoth after good Thai - something about Josie and the Chinese Elvis. It was a weird show, and I didn’t connect to it. Thankfully, neither did he. The middle-aged woman sitting next to me rubbed up against me when they turned down the lights after intermission. It was strange.

Afterwards, we went to a cool bar called the Warehouse. The bartender was drunk and funny and kept on giving us free shots of imperfect pumpkin pies (a mix of goldschlager and baileys does the trick). I left a little silly. We met a funny intern named Kelly who went to the bar to order cranberry juice because he is on Cipro. He had no sense of humor, but was nice. And young. And, he works at Gifford’s ice cream.

On Wednesday morning, I had a really sad follow-up conversation with my dad where he told me how crippled and depressed he felt. The next day, he was hospitalized (which I didn’t find out about until Saturday). I am losing him, and I feel really mixed about it. It’s so sad that he won’t ever be the way I remember him, and how quickly he degenerated since even the last time I saw him. He doesn’t believe his life has purpose. My siblings have seemingly given up on him. And, it’s just so sad that my mom is only 13 years behind him, despite how youthful she is now, she is not too far behind. It is also sad the perspectives they developed about friendships, family, etc. It seems the wisdom they have developed in life can be summed up as "life is disappointment." It always ends badly, in sickness and death. Friendships and family inevitably fall apart. There is nobody you can really count on. I see how they arrived at that. I am feeling existentialist. On the optimistic side of existentialism, if that makes sense. Anyway, he is stable. But, still in the hospital.

I also experienced check fraud. Someone went in my desk at work and wrote a $650 check for "rent" to "Brenda Rogers".

And, a good friend of mine lost one of her best friends at 23 years old. The woman just died suddenly. It is an incredible tragedy.

And, another friend of mine who told me about a stalker, was stalked by the stalker, right in front of me. The guy was institutionalized. I hate stalkers.

It was eventful.

On the bright side of things, Andrea came to visit me. I just love her in a very deep way. The whole weekend, we cuddled and talked and I showed her my new city, and introduced her to lots of people who are important to me. And, things always feel the same with her. We shared yummy meals, and caught up seamlessly. When I dropped her off at the bus this morning, I felt an immense sense of emptiness and again the feeling that I was about to cry; like there was a cavity in my heart. But, I just caught a cab, grinned and beared it.

Instead of sulking, I had lunch at my favorite little French bistro, Cafe la Rouche, with 2 new friend s(yet someone else who Josh introduced me to from Cornell). They were really cool, D.C. freshmen. Some people at the table next to us overheard me talking about college, which turned into a full-fledged consulting session.

Oh yeah, I actually have a group of friends out here in D.C., which I didn’t think would happen. And, they are good people! Makes me feel more at home. We had a supremely fun Halloween with apple bobbing, women’s arm wrestling, cheese grits, pumpkin carving, strange picture-taking and other antics. For halloween, I was a burrito (c/o Bay to Breakers). Well, I must say Halloween proper was a little weird. I was told off by a pirate playing "bibbity, bibbity boo"  from Beauty and the Beast on guitar at Cafe la Rouche, after he asked to play for our table, and I respectfully declined. Also, I learned the lesson never to go to the urban neighborhood that is celebrating Halloween (i.e. Castro in SF, or Georgetown in DC).

I think I am going to NYC next weekend.

What else? Akeisha got a job at GW, which will force me to work out all the time. I need a work-out Jiminy Cricket.

It is rainy and cold and miserable outside. I LOVE mist, but hate rain.

Dan Rather taped a show in the building where my office is.

Tonight I got to speak Xhosa at a U of Capetown alumni event I organized at GW. I met the former ambassador to South Africa and the President of UCT. I LOVE Capetown.

I’ve had all these interesting conversations with the President of GW about clothing.

Reunions happened. I almost died from stress. But am OK again.
I was nominated for Employee of the Month in my division - how Office Space is that?

I decided I love Extreme Makeover, and I’ve been speaking more positively about America, since before the election. I also kind of like dressing more preppy. I didn’t think I’d get into it. Assimilation is weird, eh?

D.C. has an interesting race called "High Heels". Drag queens line 17th St. in Dupont and dress like politicos or in uniqued themed garb and run down the street in 3-inch heels. The prize is glory.

I am increasingly interested in rolfing.

Anu and I are doing a 2-week road-trip from Scottsdale and Sedona through the Grand Canyon, Vegas, to LA, Santa Barbara, and back home to SF. I then fly out to Seattle and Vancouver for work and play.

 

I gave myself a migraine yesterday perhaps because so much information is in my head. Hopefully, this blog can serve as a way for me to empty my mind of needless thoughts.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 12th, 2006 at 7:30 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.