Gyms recently opened back up in the District for the first time since the lockdown began, but I am not sure when I’ll be back.
Gyms recently opened back up in the District for the first time since the lockdown began, but I am not sure when I’ll be back.
One of the most interesting things about the first days of the COVID-19 lock down was the effort people put into outlandish costumes.
We had a somewhat subdued Capital Pride this year.
Sure, there was drag brunch and meet-ups with fair-weather friends who only come out during holidays. But I refused to make any substantive plans for the weekend and declined a few invitations. Although this was anti-social, I have no regrets because I gained the flexibility to skip the parade (due to heat) and most of the festival (due to rain.) What privilege.
Thank god I brushed my teeth before the morning dog walk.
After doing a loop around the National Mall, I direct the dogs back toward my apartment building.
I can see the fire trucks from down the street and think, “Please, please let those be for another apartment building. Maybe the place next door had a kitchen fire?”
But the fire trucks are totally for my building. And it isn’t just a normal false alarm — the fire hoses are actually plugged in and spewing water all over the street.
While walking the dogs through Chinatown and Judiciary Square this morning, I notice that someone trashed the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. A large binder containing officer names is ripped apart and the pages blanket the southern part of the memorial.
I reflexively take out my phone to Instagram the petty vandalism, but I immediately realize that I should take some responsibility over my new neighborhood and just clean up the damn mess. The wind hasn’t picked up most of the pages yet, so it’s better for me to handle this rather than waiting for the Park Service to show up.
I tie up the dogs and get to work.
Moving is always an irritating experience for me because I have to confront all of my past bad purchases. However, this move was easier than most.
We were adults and hired movers. Getting out of the Virginia apartment did take a while however because of the sheer size of the building (long hallways, etc.) and the perpetual weekend traffic jam on the bridges connecting Virginia to Washington D.C.
I enter the lobby to wait for my Uber and realize that the street in front of the office is completely blocked off by police. The blockade extends down the block, which is pretty odd for a random weekday. Did someone get run over?
Turns out that the street closures are because the local hockey team is in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
We went to some hockey games in Dallas, but I obviously don’t follow the sport. I can’t even properly feign interest — this weekend, I politely asked someone if they were at a Stanley Cup watch party and Michael whispered in my ear, “He’s wearing a BASEBALL t-shirt!”
We braved the rain for dog walks, bowling, happy hour, and of course, study spots. The rain also coincided with a nice warm-up, which made things much more comfortable, albeit a little soggy.
Washington D.C.’s Chinatown is a place that I will get to know well this semester — in addition to being the site of the closest subway stations to school, I am also externing at a law firm in the heart of Chinatown.
Classes started and I am already well-acquainted with the law library.
The LL.M. program is going to be challenging, but it’s also a luxury to focus on nothing but tax law for two semesters. My J.D. program felt like a hodgepodge of different topics at times, whereas my LL.M. classes are clearly interrelated and cover much deeper material. We’ll see how I feel in a few weeks.
Buildings along the National Mall in Washington D.C.
Washington D.C. is beautiful and dense. The lack of tall skyscrapers for landmarks makes it difficult to navigate at times. I’ll eventually figure out the grid system.
The streets are very diverse and busy without being crowded. There are tourists with cameras, people wearing suits, baseball jerseys, children running on the subway, and very aggressive panhandlers.
Many areas of town are busy late into the night, but there’s always the looming threat of getting mugged — so I guess it’s like any other large American city, just with more museums than most.