With Washington, DC Comes Great Responsibility

First, has anyone updated to the new, fancy Blogger? I'm trying to decide whether or not to take the plunge.

I was able to speak with my friend who is in Africa yesterday. She asked me what the boyfriend and I are doing next year and whether we plan on moving. I can easily answer these questions: no clue!

So many people we know just love it here in DC (of course, I'm willing to bet that's because DC is the land of the single, working professional. The bars are packed with them every night). But if there's at least one thing that I know about myself, it's that I'm not a city girl.

Scrambling around the metro, dodging homeless men sprawled and sleeping in the streets/some yelling strange phrases or cursing/or the occassional insane homeless person who you never know might choose today to get violent, smelling trash/sewer/the piercing burning rubber smell coming from the metro stations/exhaust/and too many kinds of women's perfume or men's cologne, beeping cars late for the office, women my age trying to hold on tight to their sorority days, the impersonal/brusque shuffle and haste of it all. DC and I are not a comfortable fit.

I love the museums. The Smithsonians are incredible and free, the Spy Museum, the National Zoo, the Eastern Market, the Cherry Blosson Festival, and of course the White House, Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial... those are all unique features of this city. I might even say no other city has a setup quite like this one. But all those things also bring a sense of fear. I can't get on the metro without my mind wandering towards the question that always lurks in your mind in DC, "Is it safe?" You never know.

I'm not ready to pull a Baby Boom where I give up my professional, working woman life to move out to the country, buy an apple tree farm, and raise my adopted kid. But I doubt that I will shed many tears when it comes time to leave this area. I'd love to come back for day trips or to bring my hypothetical children up to see some of the wonderful things listed about (not the list with the insane homeless men). But this isn't a place where I'd be comfortable starting a life. You can make fun of and curse the suburbs all you like, Internet, but I think there's something to be said for it.