The good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good

I stayed up much too late last night working on this whole blog thing-- I'm far too much of a perfectionist, and it totally carries over into my social media outlets.  New color scheme, wa wa wee wa.  Needless to say, coffee this morning was a must.  Luckily the postage machine and I got along today, and overall I was pretty productive. I'm in media relations, so the bulk of what I do at my internship is create relationships with newspaper editors all over the country to enhance media placements for my company's clients.  It's mostly phone calls and emails, and I've been working with editors in South Carolina recently.  

Now, I hate to generalize-- but South Carolinians must be the sweetest, most polite, well-mannered example of Southern gentility that exist.  Consistently excellent phone etiquette and thoughtfulness.  I basically just get on the phone and talk about sweet tea and editorial placements with my new BFFs.  Or something like that.  I'm one of those people who is embarrassingly influenced by accents, so pretty soon I am saying "ya'll just give me a ring if I can do anything for ya!" and drawling at about half pace.  Love it.

The Bad

What I really didn't love hearing was that there was a massive Metro collision on the red line this afternoon.  It's interesting, I first got word of it through Twitter, at almost exactly the same time as most major media outlets began running the story and the magnitude of the accident really became clear.  Shocking, sad, insane, maddening-- this accident was a lot of things for me.  But almost more than what happened, is reactions to it that really frustrate me.  

One tweeter: "oh great, first the Holocaust museum shooter, now a metro train wreck in DC. IDK, im having 2nd thoughts about this trip."

The Ugly

The reactions in the tweetosphere were largely ones of great sadness, empathy, and curiosity.  But the feed was notably punctuated by many who had negativity, fear, and mistrust to express about it.   

I feel an odd solidarity with Metro over this.  Maybe it's just that I really, really believe in Metro as an effective, clean, and efficient mass transit system.  I believe in mass transit on a number of levels.  I believe tragedies invariably occur in modern transportation.  I believe mass transit prevents thousands of car accidents and vehicular deaths every year-- and I believe it is ridiculous to claim to revoke all trust in a system that has worked well, without a single customer death, for 27 years.  

Is there an investigation necessary?  Without doubt.  If there is indeed wrongdoing or negligence, should someone be held responsible?  Of course.  Should this be a wake-up call regarding Metro safety?  Yes.  And go ahead and change your museum-visiting schedule if it makes you feel better.  But I'm sorry, if I hear one more talking head or tourist speculating on the ethical implications of WMATA or DC's overall safety in this sad accident (and that's what it is, after all, an accident)...just ugh.  You must realize that hundreds of WMATA employees and Metro Police are the people who will be working to restore convenience for you-- so that you may visit the center of the free world.  

And thousands of Washingtonians will get up tomorrow morning and do what they do everyday- take Metro.  For most locals, the tragedy is striking, but our way of life is important.  I can't help but be so thankful for all those who have worked all evening (and are still working) to do everything they can to simply help people.  The great appreciation I feel for my way of life and the people who hold it together--picking up the pieces when the worst happens-- is far greater than any tangible sense of fear.  I absolutely refuse to be as influenced by fear as many allowed to speak on this tragedy appear to be.  

One particular tweeter hits the nail on the head: "To all DC visitors: This DC-area resident would ride Metro and visit D.C. Holocaust Museum. Tomorrow. They're safe. #metro"

So for the men and women of WMATA, DC Fire and Police, Metro Police, the FBI, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue, EMTs, hospital staff, the victims and their families-- this bud's for you.

Things I love recently.

1. Artomatic.  Alright, for you DC-types, if you haven't made it out to see Artomatic yet, you're missing out.  A month-long art festival, it's free (!!) and consists of nine floors of visual and performing art installations right next to Nationals stadium.  It's open until 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and makes for a pretty cool alternative to your standard weekend binge drinking.  Yes, there's beer and wine.  A lot of the artists are around, many have finger food, and from what I saw, there's a lot of Barack Obama-inspired pop art.  If I had lots of money and a big house all my own I would have bought a lottt of art.  It's fun, cultural, yuppie, and easy to get to (right above the Navy Yard metro stop).  You've got until July 5th.

2. The Hangover.  I knew nothing about this movie, hadn't seen a preview, but pure and simple word-of-mouth advertising got me convinced that this movie was the comedy to end all comedies.  Yeah, the plot is pretty formula- think Old School or Superbad, but I thought the cast was perfection, and hello, Bradley Cooper is so good to look at it's unreal.  Vegas, baby.

3. Netflix.  Anyone who is around me for more than a few minutes knows how OBSESSED I have become with updating my Netflix queue.  It's an everyday battle, making the crucial decision of what movie gets the top spot.  I absolutely love it and really the stuff you can watch instantly online is the icing on the cake.  Also, how do they send them out so quick?! I am not being endorsed by Netflix or its affiliates in any way.  

4.  Chipotle.  I think this speaks for itself.  Where have you been all my life?

OH HAY Creigh

Ok-- I'll admit it.  Brace yourself: I didn't vote in the dems' gubernatorial primary today.  This is shocking news, in my world.  What's up, nerd alert.

I planned to, until I realized I'm a huge moron and didn't change my voter registration address in time.  Briefly considered an AM trip to Harrisonburg to vote, but decided that would be beyond drastic and not worth the carbon emissions.  Anyways, I figured a blog would be a good place to put in my two cents.  Oops, two posts old and I'm already bringing my politics into it.

Looks like it's official, Creigh Deeds will be the Virginia Democratic candidate for Governor.  I guess I thought Terry McAuliffe had it solidly in the bag with all the big Democratic powerhouse endorsements, so I too did a bit of a double-take when Deeds snatched up the backing of the Washington Post.  My mis-read of the sitch could be in large part due to the fact that I pretty much drink the Northern Virginia Kool-aid and McAuliffe, a McLean (woo!) guy seemed to dominate my gmail inbox and local median strips.  A businessman, he seemed, in the words of his commercials, cut from the same cloth as Virginia Democrats Warner and Kaine.  But I think Politico has it right:

"In a primary process where only committed activists tend to vote, the endorsement apparently helped give the otherwise obscure Deeds a second look in the vote-rich Washington suburbs and helped bolster his claim that he would be the most electable Democrat in the fall."

Thus my anxiety over not changing my address soon enough was a little relieved.  Suddenly conflicted and increasingly annoyed at the McAuliffe mass emails, I came to terms with yielding to other blue-state Virginians to do the picking.  Deed's moderate appeal statewide is a definite bonus-- this factor can be easily underestimated in the lovely liberal bastion of Northern Virginia.  

I'm just looking to keep Virginia nice and blue da ba dee da ba die.  I'm satisfied with the Deeds pick, and admittedly, I have to read up on him and see what he's all about.  But first, I'm going to change the address on my voter registration...and request that absentee ballot so I get my say in November.

Uno

Determined to start this blogging thing.  Finally got the hang of twitter and "micro-blogging," so I think it's time to go pro.  Ha.

The whole idea is that I can start now and develop the habit so I'll keep up with it when I go to Florence this fall.  I'm not sure exactly what kind of stuff I'll "blog" about, probably my travels and a little political commentary on current EU legislation, stuff like that.  Plus your standard study abroad shenanigans.

That being said, I should be upfront about my romantic notion that I will make this seamless transition into living an Italian life.  That I'll make my way into the trattorias that only locals frequent, speaking flawless Italian and defying the American student stereotype in a city filled with them.  It's a lovely thought, and one that keeps me buying clothing that strikes me as Italian in style (a lot of black, leather, and labels) and watching Italian language films through my netflix.  I'm obsessing a little.  Also, I should admit I just dropped $500 on all three levels of Rosetta Stone.  Omg.

I found out today that my fall semester is actually extended by a week into the winter break.  I bought my plane tickets about a week ago, but I plan on calling up travelocity or Lufthansa or whatever to see if I can change my return flight to stay until the last possible second when they kick me out of the Palazzo and send me kicking and screaming back to the U.S. until January.  But who knows, maybe I'll be ready for some American stuff by then.

Come onnnn August 31st! :)