07/20/2005: "Paranoia and the city"

Yesterday Rick and I took the metro to one of his classes at the American University. Afterwards we had a froo froo dinner at a sidewalk cafe in DuPont Circle. It was strange riding the metro in DC, Rick mentioned the extra security but I couldn't see any...I haven't ridden a subway since the bombings in Madrid and London and it did make me a little nervous as there were signs about watching out for suspicious behavior or packages and showed examples such as backpacks and paper luch bags. Rick's hispanic and when he and I traveled through Morocco, Morrocan men would come up to him and start speaking Arabic because he could pass as being a local and he says that on the Metro he often gets worried looks from people checking out his backpack.

Anyway, two trains were down on our line at rush hour so these masses of people developed, all trying to push their way onto already full trains. It was horrible and yet comical at the same time. The announcer would say "please let the people off the train before attempting to board" but people would just push on through. I got sandwhiched between 4 sweaty people so snug I couldn't move and momentarily panicked thinking I'd be crushed to death. It was much closer to my fellow humanity than I'd like.

Still, I'm having a great time... for now I'm going to watch the coverage on Bush's supreme court nominee while I wait for my friends from Baltimore to come and pick me up. I'll spend the weekend there and then come back to DC on Monday which is when I'll get to do the touristy DC stuff, and maybe take in a show at the Kennedy Center though I don't really have anything to wear. There's nothing like being in a city to realize how much I lack style!