Ms Packwood marches on Washington

Damion and I at the start of our trek.

The Street Where You Live

Well not me, but my FFF. Welcome to Adams Morgan. Cute isn't it?

On my way to her apartment for the first time on Saturday, I bumped into Joel, the coordinator of the fellowship program (he's new). I thought this was really funny since I know maybe 25 people in this city. Parts of it are very small town like and that is quite comforting.

Adams Morgan is a bit like Yorkville if Yorkville was adjacent to Regents Park. DC is that kind of place, neighbourhoods change by the block. So it makes for an interesting mix of characters.

But it has a Whole Foods and you will be relieved to know that it is just as over-priced, and yet fabulous, as it is in Toronto. I was carded!! This is not unusual really because every bar and restaurant pretty much cards everyone. So it isn't because I look so youthful(though I'm sure I don't look a day over 32). However, I had not expected to be carded at the high end grocery store for buying a bottle of wine.

I mention Whole Foods mainly because it is here I bought the ingredients for the most expensive butter tarts ever made. As it was Canadian Thanksgiving, I thought I should make something that was Canadian and the only thing I could think of was butter tarts because they don't have them here (pecan pie is close but not the same thing). I don't even especially like butter tarts. Anyway, sadly the most expensive butter tarts ever made, did not set properly so I ended up not taking them to the office as planned. They were quite tasty though, even in their overly runny state.

The weekend was blissfully lazy overall. Saturday I did not leave the apartment once I'd gotten there (it was rainy so I had a perfect excuse) and watched a Bones marathon on one of the 200 channels she has. Sunday was the march, mentioned above, and Monday, I explored the neighbourhood a bit. I found this bookstore/coffeeshop/speakeasy called Busboys and Poets. It was really barely a bookstore which was a bit disappointing, so little browsing opportunity. It was also packed so there wasn't even a corner for me to prop myself if I'd wanted to have a cup of tea. And I'd not brought my fancy laptop to work on so I wouldn't have fit in (it was that kind of place - which is weird considering I'm pretty sure there was a drug deal happening on the corner across the street).

That night, I went with a few of the fellows to my first local DC theatre experience. It was a staged reading of the sequel to the Laramie Project. The original was written 10 years ago around the murder of Matthew Shepherd in Laramie Wyoming. This sequel was being simultaneously performed in 150 places around the world including all 50 states, DC and Toronto. It was interesting to see, though I thought the actors were for the most part pretty awful and the writing weaker than the original. I was however glad to have been there and to have attended something with the DC theatre community. The KC is somewhat removed from the norm - similar to how it was when I was with the Mirv - so it was good to be there.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

This post will be short as I'm staying at my FFFs fabuous pad and using her French keyboard which is NOT QUERTY so lots of letters in places I'm not used to them being -so it's slow going. (the spell checker also thinks I'm spelling absolutely everything wrong)
Am so enjoying the freedom of some personal space, I feel like myself again. And this neighbourhood is very similar to Queen St in Toronto so lots of little cafes and shops - very lively.

Today I joined the Equality March and walked from here (18th and California) to the Capitol and back - the march was 2.3 miles and I think it's another mile to where it started so I feel very virtuous for lots of reasons.
Day off tomorrow for Columbus Day. I am going to my first non-KC play so that's going to be exciting I think...
More when I have my keyboard back....

Everything starts early here. It's now about 9:45pm as I write this and tonight I went to dinner, walked to an auditorium on the GW University campus and heard a reading by Michael Chabon (author of the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay among others) with an overly long Q & A period, and am home after my half hour+ commute. It's a very sleepy sort of place. I think part of it is that the Metro closes at midnight (at the latest, I think it's earlier some nights) so that handicaps the city somewhat. But in general, it just isn't a late night sort of town. The majority of the programming at the KC starts at 7 or 7:30 too. I guess that's just what works. It is also much more rare for someone here to work after 5pm (government hours) - I of course do, but that's a whole other issue.

The reading was interesting, though not the best I've been to. It was good to go do something a little different and I'm always up for seeing different venues.

This weekend is Columbus Day weekend here so we have Monday off. And Saturday and Sunday too as a bonus. Tomorrow I'm heading into DC and spending two nights at my FFF's fabulous Adams Morgan apartment while she is in NYC. Tomorrow when I get there, I may just never leave. I may just lay on the couch and watch crappy television for eight hours straight. We'll see.

Sunday I'm going to the "Equality March" - they are woefully behind on gay rights in this country and plus I thought it would be good for me to wash the memory of the anti-health care rally from me once and for all. It's down on the Mall so it will be neat to see it full of people. And I can walk there from my fancy bachelorette pad :-)

And the KC has posted our "class" pictures. So if you'd like to amuse yourself you are welcome to look:

http://www.kennedy-center.org/education/artsmanagement/fellows/fellows_10.html

I would just like to say that they edited our bios and did a terrible job. AND the headshots were taken after the group shot for which we spent about 2 hours outside in the wind (this is a very windy city - especially on the terrace of the KC), so no one is especially happy with how their hair looks. However...

Metro tidbit #143

They close the Arlington Cemetery stop when the cemetery is not open. I do not know this as a verified fact, however, from my observation this seems to be the case. I mean it makes sense but it just hadn't occurred to me - the cemetery is so big it's not going to be your closest metro stop regardless and I guess this also ensures that people leave the place when they are told to!

I haven't made it there yet but will at some point. My friend the bagpiper sometimes plays there so I may wait until he's playing for something to go...

Exploring the depths of KC

When the Kennedy Center was built, they did not anticipate a staff of 1000 working in it, so there are some interesting places. For instance today we had our finance class in the PMO conference room (I like this name as of course it sounds like Prime Minister's Office to me). It is located in the parking lot. I'm not kidding. It's along a side wall on the B level of the parking garage (so two levels down...). So yes it is a small airless room, but I suppose it isn't filled with exhaust fumes which I guess is the alternative.

Yesterday we had a backstage tour of the four larger theatres in the facilities. The Director of Production gave us his personal tour - though most of the stories cannot be repeated in polite company (he is ex-union and was the head carpenter at the Opera House for 20 years. He was made the TD at some point after that and there are excellent management-union relations because of him. One story involves him smashing through the front gates at the White House. Oops). I have to say that the first 3 theatres were of a size that I am used to working in - though very neat to be on stage (and felt right at home) but nothing out of the ordinary for me.

And then we got to the Opera House. This is the second largest stage in the US (so North America) and it was magnificent. I was in heaven. They were in the middle of the fit up for the next Washington Opera performance (Falstaff) and everything was just so....neat. I was in awe of it all. I'm not sure how to swing one of my other routines so that I can just live backstage there but I'm going to give it serious thought :-) I didn't take pictures because I didn't want to be that person, but I'm sort of wishing I had...

Ms Packwood goes to Pennsylvania

So Pennsylvania was traveled to via Virginia and Maryland (all three states welcome you!) and it really was very scenic. It's about two hours to Carlisle and Carlisle is about ...20 miles? from Gettysberg. Or is it Gettysburg? I probably should know - it was a big deal around these parts, lots of things happened there.

I mention this first, though it was our last stop on the way back to DC as the photo is of course of Abe. (And I still haven't figured out how to get writing on top of a picture...) He's looking pretty good for his age I thought.

I feel I need to point out how cheap alcohol is in the state of Pennsylvania. It's absurd. I bought a bottle of shiraz at their liquor store (as in Penn wine and spirits are sold separately. Beer you can still basically buy at the corner store) and this very bottle sells for about $16 in Ontario (as I have bought it once or twice before). In Pennsylvania? $7. A pint of Guinness? $3.50 (I'm not even exaggerating...it was crazy) In comparison, the wine in DC would be about $11 so still cheaper for sure, but not insane. Just a bit of trivia for you.

We were staying in the guest house of friends of Bryan's (Pennsylvania fellow) - it was a two storey addition to their garage and full of antiques, so we were slumming it. The Gala itself was on the farm of a donor to the ballet school - it was the first fundraising event they had ever had and it was really charming. Most of it happened in a barn (music, silent auction, munchies) with a performance by the school in a tent outside followed by a live auction (I mention this as it will become important later...) Apart from the grass and barnyard nature of the location not being the best for someone wearing high heels (ahem), I would say it was all quite successful and the dancers really wonderful - superb actually. Since we had not paid for our tickets, we all thought we should bid on things (this is also important to note for later). I won a wine and cheese basket in the silent auction (consumed later that evening at the guest house), my FFF won a 1940s teacup (very cute and she was the only bidder!) and our Harvard fellow won a very fancy electric toothbrush of which he is very proud. Dental hygiene is important.

Harmless enough so far.

Well then we get to the live auction and there was one item which attracted our attention. It was a trip for 6 to Puerto Rico. Yup. So we bid. Not being completely stupid, we had set a cap on how high we would go and it of course was soon passed. However, this trip was donated by the owner of the farm (gala location) and at the very end of the evening he was thrusting wine at us to take home, after much sampling had occurred (it was very good wine I have to say) and we joked about how we lost out on the trip. He said "why don't you go as well?" As he owned the villa - 3 storeys, 3 bedrooms, rooftop pool with ocean views from 3 sides and a path to the beach - he could give away as many weeks as he wanted.

And so it seems we have a trip for 6 to Puerto Rico for a $1500 donation to the school to be taken sometime in 2010. Of course all of us taking the same week off might prove to be challenging...we'll see. But isn't that nuts??? More difficult will be selecting the 2 fellow fellows to travel with us...I'm sure there won't be a shortage of takers.

It was a whirlwind 24 hours as we all had to be back at KC yesterday afternoon for day one of the Board seminar. It's been interesting so far but I'm a little beat. One less great aspect to the guest house was the grandfather clock which chimed out each hour. As a pretty light sleeper, I woke each hour on the hour, so I have some catching up to do.

More later....

Strange metro fact #78:

Have I mentioned before how when a train is approaching the station, the lights imbedded in the platform begin to glow? About every second or third one will pulse for the minute prior to the train's arrival. In some stations it's a white light, in others a red. In the underground stations (which tend to be on the dingy side) with red pulsing lights, it's all a bit science fiction feeling, like the tunnel is coming alive. But bad 70s sci-fi not modern new sci-fi as it is very dated. The metro is a strange place.

Fellow Road Trip!

I'm off this morning to scenic Carisle, Pennsylvania (I hear it is actually scenic...) with three fellow fellows one of whom was the Executive Director at the Pennsylvania (one "n" or two in Pennsylania - or rather 3 or 4, I'm not sure...) Youth Ballet who are having a gala tonight. Since the week of a fellow is not complete without a gala to go to, we are going.

Back in the morning since we all work tomorrow afternoon (as what is a weekend if one does not have to go in to work?). Sunday through Tuesday is the KC's national Board Seminar, which I actually think will be very interesting - because apparently I'm a bit of a geek that way.

So more tomorrow on my return....