Around Town

With Aak having interesting experiences on the Metro, I began wondering if I'm just not paying attention. I'm sure everyone has tellable stuff happen to them but don't have the story collecting mindset. So, I'm mentally running through stuff that has happened to me.

Well, there's always the annoying drunk people. Last night was the frat boys that kept addressing each other as "son."

There's the fighting couples. They're pretty funny.

There's the homeless Vietnam veteran in a wheel chair I bent over to help into the car, only to be overwhelmed by his urine smell. Then I sat near him while he mumbled to himself and occasionally burst out with "that's some godd*** sh**!" That made me sad.

That's about all I can think of. I always sit at the bench at the far end of the platform and immediately take out a book. If I don't have a book (rare) I do the Express or Examiner crossword puzzle. For a little while I got into the morning routine of doing them. It was kind of neat to watch myself get steadily better. I've noticed that whenever I have it out, people always say "oh, I'm no good at those." It's like it's in the collective unconscious to have a hang up about sucking at x-word puzzles.

Happy memory: gf and I went to the Arlington Cemetery the other day. First we went to the Kennedy grave (didn't know two children were buried there: one stillborn and one died in infancy.) While there we met the most friendly and helpful security guard. Then we went to the tomb of the unknown soldier and watched the changing of the guard. For those who haven't had the pleasure, in the ceremony there's the old guard, new guard, and some guy who seems in charge and tells them what to do. I didn't expect that guy to turn and address us, which he did and told us to stand. One woman, who we suspect didn't speak English, stayed seated. He stopped the ceremony and demanded that she stand before continuing. During the experience I started feeling patriotic. I love such things. Then they kicked kicked everyone off the grounds because the park was closed but we disobeyed and wandered a little. My paranoid side felt convinced that there was a sniper perched somewhere watching us.