Summer Lovin'

That's where I'll be July 13-22. :-)

Saturday Nights, Taxis, and Hookers

If it's one thing I like about DC the most, it's the cheap nightlife. Rarely do places have cover charges (which is great, esp. coming from a land where it could be up to $25 to get in somewhere...*cough* LA *cough*), and having the Metro definitely makes getting around really easy and affordable. With all that being said, when Saturday nights do arrive...I really don't care about spending $8-12 bucks on taxi fare on the way home because my night spent was practically free anyway.

Let's fast forward to last night in Dupont. Nadia and I were out by the South Circle exit and I was hella hungry. We decided to go to Kramers, but there was NO WAY in hell I could make the trek across the circle due to my soon to be blistered and already swollen feet. I told her we should take a cab. She protested for a little bit, but I insisted (partially because I didn't think there would be a cabbie that would be THAT much of a jackass to charge us $8.00 for a 30-45 second right underneath Dupont Circle).

This city always seems to surprise me.

We got into the cab and I told him where we needed to go. As soon as we got in front of Kramers, the Indian dude says, "$8.00". I'm like, you have GOT to be kidding me!!! Then he goes on the whole schpiel that all of his money goes to his gas, and I'm thinking, "Yeah, that whole THIRTY second cab ride costs you $8 in gas". I give him a $20, and he gives me back $2. I had to inform the jerk I gave him $20. He does a stupid smile and gives me a ten. I didn't tip...obviously.

On our 2nd taxi trip of the night (after we stuff ourselves with nachitos at Kramers), we attempt to find a taxi to take us back to Union Station. Granted it's around 2:45am and there are HELLA taxis all over the place. Taxis with fares already inside them fly by us, and I tell Nadia I always feel like a hooker when I'm trying to hail a taxi. You're suddenly at the disposal of tons of cabbies who decide whether or not to "pick you up" (so to speak) -- especially in the wee hours of the morning. (Alejandro and I have this great scheme where each of us will be on opposite street corners and try to hail taxis from different directions -- ya'll should try it...it works!).

Some cabbies stop and ask us, "Where are you going?", and we answered time and time again, "Union Station". We heard various excuses such as: "You're on the wrong side!", "Too far!", "Not going there!". Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't cabbies have to take you where YOU (the CUSTOMER) want to go? Then we got a cabbie who took the freakin' cake. He comes by and asks where we were going, and I said "Union Station". This jerk has the audacity to say (after we get in the cab), "It's going to be $12". I think about it for a second and I'm like, "No, it should only be $8" (because DC is based on a zone system). Then the cabbie says, "Take it or leave it". WHAT A DOUCHE! Even though it was only $4, my dignity doesn't have a price! I tell Nadia to get out of the cab and we finally find another cab like 10 minutes later who was willing to take us ALLLLLLL the way to Union Station (7 min ride).

So I talk to the cabbie and ask him if what those other cabbies did was okay (according to Taxi Law or whatevs). He said they shouldn't have done that, then goes into a schpiel about something or other. The conversation somehow goes into who cabbies decide to pick up for passengers, and he says, "Yeah, around U Street and 16th or U Street and 15th, there are lots of black men and lots of cabbies wont pick them up". That kind of shocked me considering the cabbie himself was black...I asked a couple of more questions, but he continued on saying that cabbies just didn't feel safe picking up black men as passengers.

The cabbie then proceeded in telling us how most taxis will not go into SE or NE DC simply because those are poor areas (and in some cases, very unsafe). I remembered how earlier that day when I was in SE because of a work related event, I was not able to get a single cab to take me home because there weren't any around. I ended up walking the entire way back from SE to my place on Capitol Hill.

It was strange how this cabbie felt comfortable enough stating how he openly discriminates in picking up passengers.

We eventually were dropped off at my place (well, 1 block away because of the zone line), paid the $8, and came home.

S.A.D.

"Seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, also known as winter depression is an affective, or mood, disorder. Most SAD sufferers experience normal mental health throughout most of the year, but experience depressive symptoms in the winter or summer. SAD is rare, if existent at all, in the tropics, but is measurably present at latitudes north of 30°N, or south of 30°."

To tell you the truth folks, I don't even know if Washington, DC is at a latitude north of 30 degrees N, or south of 30 degrees. Judging from the negative temperatures that we've had for the past couple of days, I'm sure it is.

I cant even begin to tell you how much I miss California right now. It's the dead of winter here on the Eastern Seaboard. Here in DC, we're not forecasted to hit above 35 degrees for the next seven days (at least). Many of you Californians that haven't experienced winter may be thinking, "C'mon Salma! It's winter! Aren't you excited to actually utilize all of those scarves and gloves you've accumulated at sales throughout the years?".

Honestly, I'm so over it. I really do think I'm S.A.D.

I would do absolutely anything to go back to California and drive along PCH...or go to Coffee Bean and grab an Ice Blended...or walk out wearing my standard uniform of jeans, t-shirt, and flip-flops...or go to the pier and grab some frozen yogurt (all year round). Oh yeah, having a tan all year around doesn't hurt either.

I miss you, California. I'll be back for a couple of days soon...and I'll be back for good when it's the right time. Promise.

Walking, Walking...

My nephew Amaar and I do this little dance routine with a favorite song of his. It goes:

"Walking walking,
walking walking,

hop hop hop,
hop hop hop,

running running running,
running running running,

now let's stop,
now let's stop"

Sad thing is at this point, I cant do three out of the four commands in that song properly.

When I moved here to DC at the beginning of summer, I brought along all my precious belonings from LA to here. Those included various pairs of heels that I acculumlated throughout the years. I wore those heels all over this city -- to work, to play, to shop, to go out. I should've known because this is a "walking city", that all of the walking in heels everywhere would eventually catch up to me.

The pain started in October...carried on through November...then eventually landed me to the ER because I could barely walk due to swollen ankles.

Now it's November. My heels that survived are tucked away in my closet or at the clogger (that's what they call shoe repair people -- I didn't even know they existed!), stuck in physical therapy for the foreseeable future, and I'm forced to wear flat shoes. Why? Apparently I never learned how to walk properly (at least, that's what my physical therapist told me). I only use one side of my feet to walk and the other side just idlely kind of sits there.

I did a little diagram for you guys. Keep in mind, I don't know how to use the Apple version of Paint...so it's not a very pretty picture. And no, those aren't my feet. I dont wear mendhi on my feet on a daily basis:





My PT asked me what my goals were when I'm finished with therapy on my feet. I responded with no hesitation: "To be able to wear heels again".

You can take the girl out of LA, but you cant take LA out of the girl.

A Million Apologies

I'm sorry, fans. I haven't had time to update my blog lately. Here are some things you'll be hearing about soon:

-Dining alone..kinda
-My new job
-The troubles of this Ramadan (along with the joys)
-Is there any point to being clean?

Alright ya'll. Hopefully that will keep me accountable in blogging about those topics/events. Come back soon! :-)

.15 Seconds of Fame

I thought this Monday morning was going to be boring. Au contraire...

I picked up my daily Express today and look what I found: http://www.readexpress.com/read_freeride/2006/09/local_blog_log_12.php

Thanks for the recognition! :-)

By the way, the damn cart is still sitting in my living room. I'm going to take it back to Safeway...one of these days...

Prayers

This is going to be one of the most difficult, tiring, challenging weeks of mine due to professional and personal reasons. I don't know how things are going to turn out, but I'm sure God will take towards whatever path He has chosen for me already.

Pray for me! Lord knows your girl needs it.

Mini-Cart Disaster

I swear. I thought living in DC during the summer was bad. Try the freaking cold Fall. Apparently, DC is supposed to be “beautiful” in Autumn and Spring (a la California all year round minus the changing colors of the leaves on trees). I decided to wear a light, air-y top today to work and whaddya know? Tropical storm/depression/hurricane/crappy weather decides to creep up and I’m freezing my butt off – despite what the NBC affiliate weatherman told me this morning: “78 degrees and beautiful!”.

Okay, now on to the topic at hand for this post: portable carts for grocery transportation.

Coming from California, the only time I’ve ever had to use a cart was to bring my groceries 50 feet from Ralphs (a.k.a. Safeway) to my car, and then I would shove/push the cart in some random direction hoping it would not hit another car (much to my family and friends chagrin). In DC, however, Washingtonians and the like use mini-carts to take their groceries home because a lot of people here don’t have cars – including myself. I never have done any grocery shopping by myself because either it was taken care of for me or I’ve had Alejandro with me to lug all the goods back home.

Until yesterday.

What was supposed to have been a ten small-item grocery run, turned into a full on excursion. I ended up buying like three weeks worth of groceries and decided that it would be impossible for me to take all of this back home by myself via the Metro. I was going to cough up the $20 or so to hail a cab, but I came across the “mini-carts” that I had seen so many people use for their grocery runs. I decided to pay $25 because one of the Safeway employees told me they would assemble it for me. (Which was pretty much the deciding factor cause Lord knows I can’t put assemble anything for the life of me).

Surprise, surprise. When I get to the cashier, they told me because of “liability issues” Safeway employees could not assemble mini-carts. Fabulous. It’s now 4:45pm. Thank God the checkout line closed right after the cashier rang my goods up because I would’ve held up that line for another 35 minutes while I struggled to put that piece of crap together. I had two security guards help me because they were not designated Safeway employees.

I load up the six bags of groceries into my mini-cart. I quickly discover that this thing has absolutely no turning radius, so I have to lift it up slightly whenever there was a need to turn. Instead of running down the Metro escalators like I normally would, I slowly make my way to the elevators. (To all of you that constantly complain that I’m a slow walker, you would NEVER want to be around me pushing a mini-cart full of groceries). I ended up taking five elevators that day and screamed my head off on every single on of them.

I get on the Green Line towards Chinatown and see that the apparatus that was supposed to hold one of my back wheels in place is missing. So now the cart was pretty much going to be malfunctioning if I didn’t kick the left wheel back into place every 3 feet. Yeah, it wasn’t fun going back to Union Station. The transfer at Chinatown for the Red Line wasn’t good times at all.
I finally ended up getting back home with Alejandro and Bilal’s assistance -- Bilal holding an umbrella over my head as we exit the station because of course it started raining and Alejandro holding all of my extra items. The piece of crap mini-cart totally fell apart when we got back home and I vowed never to go grocery shopping by myself EVER again in this city.

I called Safeway this morning and they were being ultra shady about giving me a refund. I finally ended up speaking to a manager who said she would be willing to offer a refund and/or exchange depending on the condition of the cart. I don’t know how I am going to bring that mangled metal contraption back to the store. How embarrassing.

A sturdier mini-cart is what I need. I was looking some up online and found this review for a cart I am interested in:

“I have copd and scoliosis and cannot walk a long distance without sitting down. However, with this cart I can lean on it as I walk and I can walk further distances. I take it everywhere and it carries my oxygen tank, my purse, and whatever else. It is invaluable bringing my groceries into my home. I love this cart and would recommend it (and HAVE recommended it) to anyone needing assistance.”

Hrm, cant walk for long distances and carries her oxygen tank. Sounds like it would work for me.