Balancing Act

Transportation: Though I love the metro there are some things that I miss about the comfort of sitting in my beloved car fighting to get to work. One thing is the lack of personal space. There is none. Which is OK, except when your train has to sit on the track waiting for another train that is using the same track (Is this Safe D.C.?) to pass, allowing you to continue your ride. There is the occasional train breakdown. The transit folks kindly ask you to exit the train because the one you are on is not working correctly, and that another train will be along shortly. Unfortunately the next train has wall to wall people, keeping you from boarding causing you to wait till the next train which is just as crowed.

Still harping on transportation, I don’t know who conceived the highways around the Capital but it is madness. I’ve been here for 4 weeks now and I still can go more than 2 miles from my apartment without using GPS.

Plus some guy ran into the back of my car while I was sitting at a stop light! And the driver in a late model red four-door Honda Accord was nice enough to drive away. Welcome to DC Jeff, here is your hit and run!

PARKING! One of the most un-American things in this country is to have to pay for parking! Everywhere you go you have to pay for parking. Don’t tax dollars cover that? I even have to pay for parking at Costco! So sad.

But I still love it here. I’ve done tons of walking so Doctor Karipathian should be happy. He wants me to lose weight and this is helping. After living here for a few weeks, 50 degrees is pretty warm to me.

Spent most of the week at a conference. That was kind of cool. Learned a lot and now I get to write a report about it for my boss.

Things are going good here so far. Still love it here despite the weather and the hit and run driver who smashed into my new car.

I’m back! After some time off from my blog I have returned to D.C. to complete my last semester in our nation’s capital. My cross-country drive included stops in Tucson, which is bigger than I thought but very brown ; Dallas, Texas where I was for New Year’s Eve; then a few hours of sleep in Nashville, finally arriving at my new home in Alexandria, Virginia.

It needs to be said that despite being a Californian I have adapted to the East Coast weather very nicely. My first purchases were two warm winter coats, which have done their jobs well.

Some may be wondering why I’m back in Washington D.C. and not enjoying a warm winter in Malibu. Well I’ve gotten that question from everyone I’ve told where I’ve moved from. If I hear “Why would you come here again,” I might just return to Malibu without regrets. Well, I’m back in D.C. because I was offered a job at the State Department during the summer and I accepted. I will be finishing my Masters both here, taking two classes at GWU, and Pepperdine were I will also be completing two classes. So far so good. There have been a few bumps in the road but I think things have settled.

Last week I worked at State getting fully immersed into my duties there. I am an Action Officer for Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and have enjoyed it so far.

 Yesterday (1/11/10) was my first day of class. It is an intelligence class and my professor is former CIA Agent. Question is, are they ever “former”? Ok I’ll stop talking about him now. Tonight I have my second class, which is a negotiations class so I better get back to my pre reading. See you all in a couple of days.