The National Cherry Blossom Festival has been announced for this year. It truly is a bitter sweet time, because, while the trees are gorgeous and it’s one of the most fantastic things to see, it’s also the beginning of tourist season here near the District. It’s frustrating to be unable to get to and from your daily activities without being atouristed.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m fully able to share this wonderful city with others from around the world, I don’t mind giving directions or recommending a good place for dinner or another good location to check out before leaving (actually, I rather enjoy that), but there is nothing worse than being 15 minutes late for class because a family from the midwest couldn’t stand to the right and a gentleman from the northeast thought he’d be kind and hold the metro door for a few people running down the escalator. Not to mention how difficult it becomes to walk a single block at a normal pace, why don’t people understand that you can walk with less than five people abreast?
There are a few rules you should note if you’ll be visiting this city and it’s surrounding areas. There had been a great set in the Washington Post sometime last year (I think by John Kelly, but I’m unable to find it in a search. So TC the Terrible’s set will need to do. He does not phrase them as nicely as the column, but I do believe he gets the point across very well. (Sidebar: While I don’t agree with many of TC’s posted opinions I would like to point out how, often, while purusing his blog, I found myself nodding my head in agreement. I am not against posting to a conservative blog, and I must say I’m really sick of this whole,” if you’re a liberal you must be a Democrat and therefore you must be on the Democrat side of EVERY issue. You MUST. And no siding with the enemy.” Seriously. This is not a ball game. We need to stop looking at it as such. ‘Course, that’d be a whole lot easier if the nations politics wasn’t trying so hard to remain Democratic/Republican with no shades of grey. I think this is most important in the Hillary debate. I am a feminist. I am a liberal. I believe a woman will eventually be in the White House. There is no way in hell I would ever vote for Hillary. I will NOT vote for someone just because she is a woman. I will NOT vote for someone just because she is the Democratic candidate. I will NOT vote for someone on the basis of one solitary issue, no matter how strongly I may feel about it. I think we all need to start looking at the bigger picture. Anyway…)
On the note of Metro rules, I think we need to revisit them ourselves, those of us who live in the D.C. area. Last night there was this awful woman eating a piece of pizza on the Blue Line. Yes, I am trying to stop caring about other people’s actions, but this is just so disgusting and I’m really sick of these people and those who do their makeup on the train. Maybe it’s time for a return to manners and civility, or maybe it’s time for us all to give them looks and make it very well-known, with no question, or disgust and distaste for their failure to be considerate to those around them. I’m open to suggestions. Maybe Miss Manners could help me out on this one. Of course, she’ll probably point out how rude I am in wanting to make my distaste known. Tom always does. But, seriously, there were crumbs everywhere. And she didn’t chew with her mouth closed.
