6 . 2 7 . 0 6
End of June and I find myself in the middle of the DC flood of 2006. The newspapers are talking about record rainfall over the weekend and picture after picture of flooded basements and trashed cars in creeks and riverbeds. it was so bad on monday that they had to shut down some metro stops downtown and close a couple of the smithsonians. Then there is all this talk about flood insurance following Hurricane Katrina, interestingly enough I sat in on a hearing discussing the future role of FEMA in emergency/disaster response.
Was a little worried about the basement apartment getting flooded, I was minding my own business sunday evening when I just happened to think about checking the drain outside my door. just in time, the water was creeping up to the step and was about to run into the apartment. I jumped into ankle-deep water just in time and started digging out the debris and leaves to clear the drain. Meanwhile I looked up and saw literally a waterfall of water cascading down the steps at my feet. after clearing the drain and making sure there was suction, I grabbed the door mat and made a makeshift dam at the top of the stairs, realizing that the ground was so saturated with water it created a steady river of water rushing from the front yard right down in my direction. after a while I saw a whirlpool start to appear in front of my door and eventually it started draining ok. hate to think of what might’ve happened if I was out of town on travel or something. I might’ve been interviewed on TV the next day or something.
It seems that the nature of outdoor basement drains in the city is to get clogged in heavy summer rains. Same thing happened back when I was subletting a 2bd basement apartment in dupont circle back in 2003 luckily the room I was staying in was ok, but my roomate’s place was totally flooded. Ended up spending many weeknights watching TV with the constant hum of a dehumidifier and industrial carpet fan blasting all night, come to think of it, that was pretty bad, but then again I was still in my college-grad school mindset and it didn’t bother me much. Plus I was having enough fun exploring the city and the time spent in that transition summer.
Speaking of that summer I thought I’d mention some observations I had about the city that I vowed to test out quasi-emperically if I ended up moving out here for a longer term. one in particular was the observations I had on seeing all these katonk chicks in general walking around town, more often while riding on the metro when one actually has a chance to look around and people watch. generally I noticed that DC katonks fall into one of 4 categories - 1) really tired looking, like life has treated them like hell, bald eyebrows painted in, stretched out skin, funny hair dyes/perms, often sleeping during the morning train, been-out-here-too-long-from-wherever-I-am-originally-from; 2) FOB/JOJ-ish, ranging from the over-cutsy kogal-look to the kind of out-of-place chinese exchange student, or stylish OL embassy employee; 3) haole wannabee, sometimes with bleached hair, wearing a tight green “brazil” shirt with matching slippers, punk rocker look, or just clinging to the arm of a east coast frat boy 4) just really fucking pissed off.
All four of these types would generally lack in the looks department, with the vibes of 3/4 rendering them pretty much unapproachable if I was in the mood to go mack or something. And of course there are the hybrid crossovers, usually #1/#4 mostly. Once I had made this observation I couldn’t help but smile to myself when I saw another “category #1, #2, #3, or #4″ walk on or off the train. Often I’d be riding to work and there would be a bunch of category #2 rush on, if they were Japanese I could make out some of what they were saying to each other, comforted by the fact that the majority of the people around them could not understand the language they were speaking in. Then sometimes the #3s would show up with their haole b/f, usually underclassman college-age at GW or AU or something, scoping out the train and eventually glancing at me the sole minority/asian-looking guy on the train - I couldnt’ help but wonder if she would be almost flaunting or gloating or something, making eye contact or just staring at me - ignorant to the fact that even my most psychotic and/or ugliest ex-girlfriend from HS was much prettier than she could ever be.
I especially got a kick out of it if it was a #4 scowling out the window for a reason that I would not care or want to know about. Another time a #1 saw me smiling and creaked out a smile back in my direction, either out of reflex or interest I’m not sure, I hope that maybe seeing a young shit like me just surviving the city and enjoying himself may have brightened her otherwise shitty and hard workday a little more. Or not, maybe she was smirking at the ignorance of my youth. Just as well.
I can say that now, after a couple years living in the city, that the categories haven’t changed all too much. I guess I have just gotten used to seeing them all.