I spent last summer as an intern at The Washington Post in DC. The paper was amazing, the people awesome, the work stimulating. The city? Hated it. Truly, deeply, loathed it. DC was too cramped. Far too many people shoehorned into a relatively small area. And they were all self-important. “I work for Sen. Soandso.” “My friend, who is a White House aid.”
It’s tiring.
The worst for me, though, was the traffic. It once took two hours to get from the Kettler Ice Complex in Arlington to my house in Adams Morgan. That’s seven miles. Rudimentary math reveals my average speed was 3 1/2 miles per hour. Lindsey Vonn skis that fast going uphill. Michael Phelps swims faster than that in a pool of melted Hershey’s bars. At one point, I remember sitting in traffic, pounding my steering wheel, absolutely screaming, “People can’t live like this.” People in the other cars must have been really freaked out, or just though I was way into the radio. Other times it would take more than an hour to find a parking spot in my neighborhood.
Point being, 10 weeks in I really hated living in the Capital City. Then, something changed.
I adjusted to the pace. I learned when I could and couldn’t drive. I began to feel like a Washingtonian. I felt at home.
Of course, as summer internships do, my time at the Post ended and I went back to the West. I had missed the mountains and the beach and I shortly forgot my short-lived affection for DC.
But seeing images this week of the overwhelming snow storm that has struck the mid-Atlantic region has made me miss it. To see pictures of friends sledding in the foreground of the monuments and the White House blanketed by more, uhm, white … It all makes me very sad I can’t join in.
So, friends who continue to live in Washington, as you curse the snow and slowly dig your ways out, take a second to be grateful for the beauty of your surroundings, and know there’s at least one Portlander who would trade you in a heartbeat.
As long as the traffic isn’t part of the deal.
Snow blankets DC in a scene straight from a children's book. If you're snowed in, it's probably easy to forget how beautiful it is right now. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
Yeah, I think I might have reacted differently to DC if I had a car there. And by the way: 2 blizzards + car is not a good combo, as I learned today after it took a good half hour to dig out my car this afternoon.