Back yard

So yes, K and I moved a month ago. The new place is terrific, and the housewarming party is tentatively scheduled for the 19th.

While the house is nice, I think its most interesting feature is the creepy back yard. Let me take you through the experience of coming home through the alleyway. I took these pictures during the day for illustrative purposes, but try to imagine going through this in the dark (which we often do this time of year).

Why would we come in through the alleyway? For one thing the parking space is back there (I'm still car-less, but K has a newly-sideswiped red station wagon), and for another, it's a shortcut to and from the metro--at least if you don't figure in the time spent locking and unlocking.

The first set of doors to lock and unlock are these, the doors to the parking space:
This brings you to a parking space lined with jagged-topped cement walls:


For extra creepiness, one of the more talkative feral cats will sometimes watch me from the top of one of the walls and meow. Next I unlock the deadbolt on the ivy-grown metal gate on the left; it groans as I open and close it. I step onto the first of the narrow cement steps:

To lock the iron gate I have to put my hand into this jagged hole in the cement wall:


I walk up the stairs and into the leaf-strewn back yard:

There's often a feral cat or two crouching in the shadows watching me, but they run away when I get too close. I walk up the rusty metal stairs, opening and closing a second metal gate at the top and, finally, the house door.

In conclusion, if you're looking for a location for shooting your low-budget horror movie, I'm sure we can work something out. I should say, though, that the house's positive features include a big kitchen with shiny new appliances, reasonably spacious living and dining rooms, and a second floor (!) with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a balcony... that overlooks the back yard.

Changes

It's been an eventful month, so I'll blame my complete lack of blogginess on feeling that my life is in such a state of flux. Also on relating interesting anecdotes to K when I get home instead of sitting down to blog about them. In an effort to make up for it, here's my month in review:

• K, upon contracting a bad sore throat, declared she was allergic to the futon and began sleeping on the floor. She swears it's not so bad.
• K and I found a new place, a rowhouse in a neighborhood few have heard of, and those that have believe to be sketchy. However, it's a rowhouse! That we can afford! In the city! And it's near a metro stop! The move is scheduled for Saturday.
• HSBFF came for a visit, and we spent Veterans Day weekend in NYC. It was cold. We ate a lot, and I introduced HSBFF to Malaysian food.
  
• I saw The Tragically Hip (which henceforth I'll refer to as the Hip, thus affecting an intimate knowledge of Canadian culture), Zappa Plays Zappa, The Taming of the Shrew, the Karelian Folk Music Ensemble, and They Might Be Giants. Also Bad Boys 2. Woo-sa!
• Agent V [this is what happens when you let people pick their own monikers] had K and I over for Thanksgiving, along with a few mutual friends and his parents. The stuffing and company were both excellent (really the only criteria that matter in judging a Thanksgiving, IMHO). I made two pies, trying my hand and making crust for the first time. For a recipe with so few ingredients, crust is surprisingly difficult. But the results weren't disastrous, just somewhat humbling.
  

Winter

K was in town this past weekend, which gave me a reason to explore some new parts of the city: a jazz bar on U Street, Eastern Market, an amateur production of The Crucible. We also tried Ethiopian food, which may become a kind of rite for people who come to visit me. K flew out today, and the weather promptly went from comfortable-with-a-sweatshirt to unpleasantly cold. It hasn't taken long since moving from Ithaca for me to become completely unused to low temperatures, with dramatic results: last time the weather turned chilly I broke out in hives, and I'm afraid it might be happening again.

Hives! I am officially allergic to cold. I wonder if I could parlay this into being allowed to work from home?

Inside the Beltway

Until recently I lived in Ithaca, New York and blogged on MySpace. Now I live inside the Beltway and blog on Blogger. Here's a little rundown on what I've been doing lately:

Last Tuesday I went to my last tae kwon do class, then played Ticket To Ride with some friends. It's a board game that involves building train lines across a map of North America, and I came in dead last in the first game (I'd also done pretty poorly the last time we'd played). But for the second game I got paired with another serial loser and... we won! It was a historic moment. Also it was a very late one, which was unfortunate because on Wednesday I had to go pick up my sister at the airport very early.

I'd flown her in from Denver to help me move, and being that it's very expensive to fly from Denver to upstate New York I sent her to Rochester in an effort to save money. Rochester is an hour and a half from Ithaca, which can seem like a long time when it's raining hard the whole way there and the whole way back. We stopped on the way into town to admire Taughanock Falls, and it occured to me that I hadn't been there since I was in Ithaca for the very first time interviewing for my job there. It was a nice bookend to my time there.

Then we rested for a bit, picked up the moving truck, and started loading it. Thursday morning we got up early with the intention of leaving town at 8:00, but by the time we'd finished packing the truck and the car and cleaning the apartment it was 10:30. K had to drive the truck since she can't drive my car (it's a standard), so we caravaned down to the capital. It took forever, and of course we were just north of Baltimore when rush hour started, which didn't help. Finally got to my building at about 6:45, when the loading dock theoretically closed at 7:00, so all we could do was frantically unload some boxes and trash bags full of bedding in order to camp on the floor.

Later that evening we headed to 18th Street in Adams Morgan for dinner. I started to worry that I'd moved into too hip a neighborhood, but the food was good, and, ignoring our sweaty selves, so was the atmosphere.

Saturday and Sunday I hung out with TOWWAS and shopped and tried to unpack (a slow and still-incomplete process).

And yesterday... I started work! I commute on foot, which is nice except for the heat wave. How hot is it? Walking into an air conditioned building from the street feels shocking, like diving into cool water. But people assure me this is 1.) temporary; and, 2.) as bad as it gets, which is comforting.

The cool thing about the walk to work is how many errands I could potentially take care of on the way. It's only 20 minutes, but along the way there's Safeway, CVS, 7-11, four dry cleaners, two liquor stores, a hardware store, a day spa, a shoe repair place, two Subways, a Starbucks, and numerous promising-looking non-chain restaurants. Not to mention that I can catch up on my podcasts!