Monday, February 17, 2003 ::: snow snow snow snow snow snow! I decided to go for a long walk in the snow and it was kind of neat to see just neighborhood people out on the streets for a change. There were a lot of people out, the snow finally having stopped and everyone was out shoveling out their cars and doing some shopping at the corner stores. It was really kind of weird. Dupont circle is not normally like that at all. I felt like I was on some kind scripted television show - yesterday my old college roommate had come over from baltimore and we decided to get some breakfast at luna but upon discovering it was closed went to trio instead. We ended up sitting near where the waiters and waitresses were hanging out and having breakfast on their own, congregated around one woman was holding forth about the snowstorm while she sipped a cup of coffee and smoked a cigarette.
I've been doing a lot of reading while I'm all cooped up looking out window into my snow blanketed alley. I also just joined a book group and am supposed to have finished reading Giovanni's Room by tomorrow. James Baldwin is such a wonderful writer - often books that are viewed as the first widely read novel dealing with a Big Intellectual Issue such as a Sexual Identity Crisis tend to rather skimp on the quality or become somewhat dated but the prose sparkles with charm and literary craft and Paris which is usually just described to death in everything and which I am rather contemptuous of when wheeled out as a scenic backdrop seems in this case entirely appropriate. I hope tomorrow's discussion will be worthwhile.
I got Katharine Graham's Washington as a birthday present for my father but couldn't help reading a few passages here and there. There was an awful lot about socialites which I hadn't really been expected. I was expecting more mover and shaker kind of stories.
It really is kind of strange to read about this world that exists around me in which I participate very little. Aside from volunteering for a few political fundraising dinners and occasionally running into a few people who have political jobs at parties, I don't really intersect with the political life of the city. I wonder to what degree political Washington enters into the life of the average Washingtonian - As the child of mid-level public servants (non-political appointees) I do occasionally, when I spend time with my parents, experience more of all that when they are in town, but since they're living thousands of miles away right now I don't see much of that either. As for mass protests and the like these events seem to affect me as more of an inconvenience than an exhilarating expression of democracy, which I guess I should.
On saturday there were a lot of greenpeace activists out with petitions to sign. They all looked so cold and I felt really sorry for them. I filled out a petition card after some prodding.
I'm coming to the realization that this post is becoming very diarylike and I have to say that I have been doing some thinking about what sort of direction I want to take with this weblog. I have to say that I do want to keep a sort of professional distance in my posts as they are public writing and while I think I would like to address some more serious subjects it difficult to do so without sounding sanctimonious and preachy. I think I will save ranting for my diary. I do like the sort of longer more writey sort of posts that appear in gawker and the morning news and I think that I should really make the time to do something more on those lines. Additionally, I've realized that I've really been drifting away from my interest in linguistics and that mainting a weblog on the subject has really been sort of a chore. I am getting ready to apply to programs in american history and would perhaps be interested in maintain a separate weblog in that but otherwise like to mainly concentrate on this particular weblog which I also think is due for a name change.
some more good articles from the post - what it's like writing cards for hallmark, which I recommend reading until the end. There was also a very good article in the food section last wednesday about a day in the life of a line cook, which is an excellent insight into how restaurants are run and what has to go on in order to get your food to the table.
Tuesday, February 04, 2003 ::: This weekend I saw Queen Christina, which is a fabulous fabulous movie, starring Greta Garbo, who spends a lot of time walking around in pants and being androgynous, or at least as much as the film codes would allow. Perhaps not entirely historically accurate, but the general gist of it is there. good good movie. I also saw slacker again, which I should probably own, since it's usually my backup when I want to watch a movie but not anything in particular. Goes very well with repeat viewing, I guess.
