Springtime in Washington

Most people hear "Washington" and immediately think of Congress, politics, and partisan bickering. Yes, that's all part of Washington, but it's also so much more than that. It's a city/metropolitan area filled with art. And gorgeous architecture. And amazing museums, monuments, and landmarks. Mix all of that together with Mother Nature and at certain times of the year, it is a city of breath-taking beauty. This is one of those times of year....

Support the Troops!

A local organization here in MD has been formed with a simple mission: to support the troops returning from Iraq or Afghanistan & to encourage others to support those troops.

What's really neat about it is how they are doing it. We've all heard stories about personnel in uniform being thanked in airports or people buying them meals or what not, but how do you know someone has served if they aren't in uniform? This organization solves that problem by creating a sticker that they can put on their car:

Simple. Easy. Effective.....

Another great thing is this organization has no political agenda or affiliation. Their mission is to support the returning troops and anyone who wants to do that is welcome, regardless of political leanings. Considering the political climate we live in, how refreshing to find something that is truly bipartisan!!

Lastly, this is being done solely by private funds!! Stickers are free for those who served (or families of those currently serving). If you fit in that category, click on their website and request the appropriate sticker and it will be sent to you free of charge. (I know there is a volunteer "envelope stuffing party" being held in the area today where they expect to send out 200,000.)...If you are not in that category, but would like to contribute, you can donate thru the webpage/paypal. Each sticker costs only $.04 to make, so even a small donation can go a long way/help a lot of ppl.

I just donated. And while I can't make today's stuffing party, I do plan on helping out at the next one. The way I see it: if a sticker brings about even one thank you, that's $.04 very well spent!!

An Interesting Morning

Unlike, say NYC or Chicago, you won't find a subway stop every couple of blocks in the Washington area; instead, DC's subway was built on a "hub and spoke" system. It's great for moving ppl into the center of the city, but not necessarily for getting from point A to point B outside of that central area.

One of the results of that design is that the Washington subway system is, on average, a bit less...um...colorful than some other big-city subway systems. For the most part, my fellow passengers during the morning rush hour are also your professional 9-5ers, all heading into their offices for the day. On average, it's pretty quiet in the subway car, as ppl tend to doze, read the paper or a book, do a crossword puzzle, etc.

Then there are days like this morning. There were delays on the line, which meant the car was much more crowded than normal. Then, a (most likely mentally-unstable) woman got on, lugging a cartload of stuff with her, which wouldn't be much appreciated on a regular rush hour, but was even less so given the overly crowded conditions. She started telling everyone w/in earshot how she had taught herself to play multiple musical instruments, never had a lesson, etc. She then decided to show us with a little performance.

Let's just say, you haven't lived until you've heard both the US Marine Corps anthem ("from the halls of Montezuma....") and the Star Spangled Banner played on the harmonica in the middle of a crowded subway car during your rush hour commute.

Let's hope tomorrow's commute goes back to being quiet & not very colorful.

Spring in Washington

Spring is one of the most beautiful times in Washington. Ppl come from all over to see the famous cherry blossoms. They are most concentrated around the Tidal Basin, near the Jefferson Memorial & that area is usually very crowded during peak bloom, but there are other areas with beautiful blooms as well.I'm still learning what my camera can do, what settings produce what shots, etc. The best way to do this is to practice, so I brought my camera to work the other day & planned to go over to the Tidal Basin to take pics after work. Unfortunately, I had to finish some stuff up & didn't get out as early as I'd hoped. Thus, I decided to skip the 2 mile walk to the Tidal Basin in favor of spending the time (and the good lighting conditions) shooting near the US Capitol, along the Mall, and near the White House instead.These are some of my favorites from the shoot. (If the weather conditions cooperate, there will be more coming, but the forecast doesn't look too good for the rest of the week.)

Playing Tourist in my own backyard

I'm updating our website and my boss suggested using some pics to jazz it up a bit. He was willing to buy some stock photos from a couple of professional websites, but since we're so close to some of the famous landmarks, I suggested just giving me an hour sometime with the good work camera & letting me go play a bit. When I got brain-fried yesterday, I decided that was just what would perk me up, so I grabbed the camera & headed out.

It was a perfect day for it!! It was 60-ish degrees & we had a storm front on its way here, so there were some interesting cloud formations, as you can see. (I *much* prefer shooting on cloudy days to shooting in bright sun -- the results are always much more interesting!) In addition, I decided to do this a little before 4:00 pm & since it gets dark here just before 5:00 pm nowadays, that meant I had the "golden hour" of twilight to play with. I love how the colors change so much, from one shot to the next, in such a short time frame.

The ones I'll use for work are more "standard", but I also took some more artistic shots for myself. The ones on this post are some of my favorites from around the US Capitol and the Supreme Court bldg.

Enjoy!!

Thankful Thursday Friday

Traveling this week has left me scrambling to catch up, so I'm a little late, but thankful none the less. This week I'm thankful for:

• Being home -- I like traveling, but I'm always glad to come home.
  
  
• Those things Washington DC has to offer like great museums, wonderful theatre & arts, etc. I'm reminded every time I go away how many nice things this city/area offers.
  
  
• My dogs --it's so nice to see how much they've missed me whenever I go away. Makes me feel special. :-)
  
  
• A great cadre of volunteers --without their help, we couldn't run the dances we offer. This is especially noticeable this week since I was gone for much of it and couldn't have managed the details even if I'd wanted to.
  
  
• My dance partner -- who did keep things running while I was gone. Teaching classes or filming a partner-based dance show is not easy to do solo and he had to do both this week. Thanks, darlin', you're a gem!
  
  
• Making 2 new friends at work -- this trip, I was paired up with 2 ppl I'd neither met nor worked with before. Given the nature of the trip, one spends long hours (14-16 hr days, or even longer) as a team, most of the time in one car, so there's no getting away from one another if personalities clash or you just aren't a good fit. I was paired with 2 wonderful people with great senses of humor. Within a very short time, we were laughing and joking with each other as if we were old friends. It made the very long work days a lot nicer than if we hadn't really clicked.
  
  
• Being healthy -- Last time I had to do this type of work assignment was a couple of years ago. I was not well, so those 16-hour days really were trying. This time around was a MUCH better experience.
  
  
• Our veterans. And the troops currently serving our country. They deserve our thanks & more! Take a moment or 2 this upcoming Tuesday to at least honor them, if not doing something to actively thank them.

Props to Tiburon for the great new autumnal graphic & the original idea for the Thankful Thursday posts. Feel free to take the idea and the graphic and play along.

DC Humor

For security reasons, every federal building and a lot of non-federal buildings here in Washington require the people who work there to wear their id badges while on the premises. Thus, a pretty large percentage of people as you move about here, especially in the downtown region, wear their id's on lanyards around their necks. A lot of companies/most federal agencies have jumped on the opportunity to get a little good PR & have printed up these lanyards so they prominently display the organization's name.

So, I couldn't help but smile this evening when I noticed that the guy sitting in front of me's lanyard read "It's none of your business where I work".