Where we live - DC

Grace and I's first home as a married couple is a studio in downtown Washington. It consists of a bathroom, a kitchen, a storeroom, a big closet, a main room and a porch. The kitchen is just big enough for the two of us, but it's small enough so opening the refrigerator or the dishwasher erects an impassable barrier. Our main room we divided into three parts - the "dining room," the "living room," and the "bedroom." Really we have a card table and folding cloth chair to the left, a futon and shelving to the right and an inflatable mattress "hidden" away behind the futon. It's white and spare, or as we like to call it, "modern."

We're on the third floor of a utilitarian brick building. The elevators are faux wood vinyl. We share the building with a wide range of people, but most of them seem young - though some have children. Yesterday one of the kids was scared of me on the elevator and he begged his dad to pick him up. The kid was jumping from foot to foot with his arms up to his dad, who didn't grant his son's request. The kid was in a total panic - kept glancing at me as he got more and more agitated. Anyway, they got off before me and when he left he seemed confused that I hadn't killed his family (it could be my haircut - it may be a little severe).

Anyway, we're on the edge of some really nice parts of town and some parts of town that aren't as nice. Across the street are brick rowhouses. On the corner there's a convenience store that has whole milk (but no other kind) and tortillas. They sell coke in glass bottles. That's one of three sources of food around the neighborhood. There's a whole foods a few blocks away - always packed with yuppies - and another grocery store which is considerably cheaper and stocks things we like, like coke (available in glass bottles also). It's also much closer to our apartment, but it's in a part of town we try to avoid when it starts to get deep into the evening.

The people are a mix - yuppies (like us?) account for maybe half the population. Lots of dogs, being walked late at night. Most dogs are small but one guy owns a great dane. They tend to be to the west side of us. The condos get pretty nice just one block over. If you go in the opposite direction from the yuppie/dog walker stronghold there's a lot more hanging out on the street. Kids with bikes, teens with bikes, seniors in chairs in front of their apartments.

We walk everywhere from here. It's anywhere from a 15 minute to a 30 minute walk to get to places we like to go. It's a half hour to the monuments and 25 minututes to my work. In the deep humidity and middle of the afternoon sun the necessity of walking tends to keep us indoors.

It can be a noisy area. When the heat arrived in force in DC car alarms, loud arguments and sirens went up by 200% or so. Things have cooled down since.

And that's the place we live.