The experience of riding the metrorail in DC depends greatly upon the time of day. Weekday mornings are typical; lots of suits and faces hidden behind newspapers, but most importantly, it is quiet. Morning metro riders share an unspoken understanding that we are silent on the ride to work. A lot like the rule of standing to right on the escalator, the rule of silence is all too often broken by tourists or groups of school children.

Weekday afternoons are typically quiet. Trains don't come very often and they are usually spotted with college students, mothers with small children, and the odd professional traveling from one site to another.

Rush hour, morning or evening, can be mad, especially if the trains are running behind. We pack in tightly, trying desperately not to touch one another, and uncomfortably sway with the stop and go of the train. I know many other cultures find it peculiar that Americans are so protective of personal space, and maybe we are a bit too squeamish, but I would rather keep the distance and wait for the next train, than to pack in like the commuters in Tokyo:

"In fact early morning rush hour gets so bad in Tokyo’s major central stations that a lot of them employ ‘pushmen’, armed with white gloves and the directive to make people fit in a carriage regardless of any sense of comfort or humanity."



My favorite time to travel on the metro is around 8 p.m.; rush hour is over and it is too early for the happy hour crowd to be stumbling home. The train is peppered with tired people traveling home after working late. It's quiet and we are all sympathetic to one another's general air of fatigue.

Late nights are completely different. Obviously, the later the hour the louder the train; on a weekends it often gets sloppy. Saturday night, after Ryan and I saw Batman: The Dark Knight, we were traveling from Bethesda to Friendship Heights. As we waited, we watched all sorts of people in various stages of intoxication. Our favorite was the girl picture below (though you can't see much of her.) Luckily, a kind stranger shook her awake as her train approached. She was completely out.



(quote and Tokyo photo from http://www.lo-la.co.uk/2008/05/08/train-tetris/#more-193)

It has been a busy summer! In early July Ryan and I drove from D.C. to Murray, Kentucky. Though our stay was too short, we managed to pack in the celebrations: July 4th, Dick's 71st birthday, and the marriage of Dick & Betsy.


The wedding ceremony by the lake.


The newlyweds.


Ryan on the lake at sunset. July 4, 2008.

As you can see, I am working on a slight redesign of the blog. Once I complete this, I plan to dive back into posting regularly. I believe my schedule is finally opening up. No more late nights and weekends at work. Thanks for your patience.

Ryan and I were so excited to spend the weekend with Amy, Andy, and Alex. We haven't seen them since Christmas and I was astounded at how much Alex has grown... and how fast he moves. Alex can easily stand and take several steps, but he must prefer the speed of crawling over teetering on unsteady feet; after just a couple steps, he drops back down to his knees and takes off.

Once everyone had relaxed after the long flight from California, we ventured up the street for some Mexican fare. Alex was so wonderful. He entertained himself for most of the evening by playing with spoons, tortilla chips, and straws. At one point, he was baffled by straw that went missing. It was hilarious.



Saturday was quite adventurous. To treat Alex's lingering ear infection that was triggering sickness, fatigue, and a high fever, we all took a trip to the ER. The hospital was quiet and very nice. They even had a special pediatric ER! With a little sleep and some antibiotics, Alex bounced back in no time.



The weekend was great, but flew by too fast. Now Ryan and I are planning our trip to California!

I love to garden, but it's tough when you've only a few window sills. So, this year, I have been filling my windows with herbs. I started the spring by cultivating seeds for arugula, sage, basil, cilantro, spearmint, and rosemary. The arugula came up quickly and with a fight. I was surprised by how tough that plant is. My basil, sage, and cilantro are growing a bit more slowly. And the others were no-shows.

Despite its attitude, the arugula didn't last long. I just couldn't fight off the black birds. I noticed the plants were growing more sparse by the day, and I even took them in for a bit. But last night, I put them out to enjoy the cool evening. This morning, they were gone.

Over the next few months you may be seeing a lot of apologies posting to my blog. So much is going on in life and work that I often feel too drained to squeeze out a single word of creative thought. But stick with me. I will keep on posting, just not as regularly as I would like.

With Vietnamese food off of the lunch menu, Ryan and I headed over to the Parkway Bakery & Tavern. Parkway was closed for eight years and was just reopening as we prepared to move from Mid-City to the Faubourg-Marigny. Had we moved any sooner, we may not have been lucky enough to find this place.

The restaurant is nestled in a quiet neighborhood on the west side of Bayou St. John, a place one might not look for one of the best sandwiches in the city. It's a bit of a surprise when you walk in and the bar is crowded, the patio is packed and the line to pick up your po-boy is out the door.

The Timothy Family operated Parkway from 1922 to 1995, baking their own bread until a flood damaged the brick ovens in the 1970s. [Owner Jay] Nix used some of the retired oven bricks in his renovation -- your feet rest on them when you sit at the bar. The bar itself is a grand wooden structure of dark paint and decorative carvings that appears to have been excavated from some ancient watering hole; Nix actually designed and built it himself ... In its heyday, Parkway served as a cafeteria for workers at the American Can Company, visible and now refurbished across the bayou. The public space was smaller then and was never air-conditioned. The sanitation standards inspired stories of "roach beef" that persist today. In contrast, Nix's Parkway is tidier than your grandma's sitting room. The mustard-yellow exterior shines. The frosty pony glasses are spotless. Employees singing along to Dean Martin wipe even the outdoor seats to a polish.

A few beers and an oyster po-boy later, I was feeling a bit more hopeful about the restaurants that had weathered the storm.

Admittedly, there was one place that had taken precedent over Pho Tau Bay in our trip out to Mid-City: Parkview Tavern (not to be confused with Parkway Bakery & Tavern.) Parkview is by far our favorite bar in New Orleans. To the average joe, Parkview is merely a neighborhood dive. But to Ryan and I, it is an institution. Despite it's hard-hit locale, Parkview doesn't show a single sign of Hurricane Katrina. It is almost exactly the same as when we left it: the same bartenders were behind the bar, the same regulars were sitting in their same spots with their same drinks, and the guy who walks in to spend hundreds on one video poker machine was loading his twenty-dollar bills in, fist-fulls at a time. We ordered a pitcher of Coors Light, our drink of choice at Parkview Tavern, only to find out that there had indeed been a change... the price had gone up from $3.50 a pitcher to $4.50

Feeling confident that Parkview wasn't going anywhere, we headed around the corner to check out Tyler's. Tyler's was always on the verge of closing and consistently changing hands. There was something strange about the place, but NOTHING strange about the fact that they sold fresh cold oysters for ten cents a piece. That's a dozen for a $1.20. In DC, Clyde's on 7th street probably has the best raw bar deals and they are serving a dozen for $21.95. Sadly, but not surprisingly, Tyler's was no longer. The building is for rent.



To be continued...