falala

This weekend was pretty spectacular, which was a complete surprise to me. The week dragged on and on. The internship is going well, but sometimes I feel small and unimportant, like a field mouse. The girls are fun but it's never a relaxing day with them- there is always laundry and cleaning to be done, fights to break up, and friendship drama to navigate. Friday, I was spent, and looking forward to immersing myself in a good Netflix movie and some War and Peace and shutting out the outside world.

Then I got a text from Matt, one of my oldest friends from high school. "Come with us to Nellies," it beckoned coyly. Since we hadn't seen each other since 2010, and Nellie's is the best gay sports bar I've ever been to (think brightly colored lanterns hanging from the ceiling and a giant sparkly ball on the top of the roof), I relented.
Being at a gay bar is an interesting experience as a straight female. Everywhere you turn, there are men. All types of men! Burly men, effeminate looking men, older men, men with earrings and long hair who look like they stepped off of a 90s grunge album. And all of them don't give a damn about you. As a straight woman, you are a wisp, welcome but not noticed. It was nice. Basically the same as any other bar but with more men, less cleavage, and better clothes.

Somehow, I got dragged into going to the drag show at Town, a gay club across the street. I've never seen a drag queen up close and personal and was wildly curious. The host of the drag show was sassy, asked questions like "If you've got a big package, make some noooise!" Then, the performance started. These drag queens were decked out in gorgeous wigs, the longest eyelashes I've ever seen, glitter, and NO body hair whatsoever. They must've paid dear money to a waxer to remove it. One of them, Tatyanna, was on Ru Paul's Drag Race. She looked like a woman, sounded like a woman, and danced like a woman. It was hard to believe she was a dude. I'm still scratching my head over how makeup and clothes managed to morph her so amazing. I wonder if you call drag queens "he" or "she".

Then, Saturday was my cousin's son's bar mitvah. Shimmy is 13, and his story is amazing. He was born deaf, but thanks to cochlear implants and an unshakeable will, he was able to read all of the Hebrew at the service. Saw all of my cousins and their kids. It's weird to be one of the "adults". I am the oldest cousin who does not have kids now. The girl three years older than me, Shoshi, already has two. It seems like only yesterday we were talking about dating, and now, she has two toddlers!

Saturday night I went to meet an old college friend to see Beach House. On the way there, transferring from the Red to the Green lines, I ran into a girl with fabulous fishnet tights. We started talking, and I learned she was a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in West Africa for three years. She was awesome. She said being in the Peace Corps was like being in Survivor; hard as hell, but totally worth it at the end. I love all the international people who crop up everywhere in DC.
BEACH HOUSE was awesome. In a weird twist, one of Kellie's friends at the concert brough another friend with her. This girl turned out to be the roommate and good friend of Kimmy, Justin's brother's girlfriend. We got really close to the stage, and, even with people pushing us trying to get up to the stage, we managed to stay close. The lead singer has a raw and powerful voice, and I love their mix of electric guitar riffs and keyboard sounds. Their lightshow was filled with twinkling white lights on a black backdrop, so it looked like stars in the sky. They used a defogger too, which gave the whole concert a dreamy, ethereal feel. It also made me hella dehydrated, but I didn't want to get out of my spot. I spent half of the concert wondering if I was going to pass out. But they were so great, I hardly cared.

Sunday, I helped Jane run some errands and saw Justin for the first time in ages, since he's been working everyday at a conference. CODIE left for Asheville for massage school, making her the first of the two of us to head out on her own. I can't wait to visit her.

Tomorrow is March. Where is the time going? Just three months left until the Peace Corps. I've STOPPED obsessing over it- I really don't think mulling over the details will make the transition any easier. I just want to enjoy warm showers, good beer, and the beauty of here as much as possible before heading crossing hemispheres.

Happy end of February!
Anrea

snapshots of sunday

Learnin "Banana pankcakes" on the guitar...
Annie Dillard's "The Writing Life" itching to be read...
Just downloaded some Manu Chao and National...
Room begging to be cleaned...
Hello, Sunday afternoon.

I am currently eating:
-lettuce
-hummus
-a big ole carton of blueberries
-feta cheese,

all gloriously mixed into a salad bowl. Whenever the weather starts getting warm, I start craving lettuce and tomatoes. Inside feels like a trap. Today was one of those days: it felt like 70 degrees, the sky was a perfect blue, and there was a steady, invisible humming outside of grateful people and grateful animals. While Jane got her hair done,, I walked around Woodley Park. I saw two old men in sweater vests standing in front of an old-fashioned barbershop, waving their hands and talking to eachother in rapid Italian. Saw the National Cathedral for the first time today. I knew it was a big church but I didn't know how big. It's enormous- it looks like a Gothic castle! People were sprawled out on the lawn, soaking up the sun, studying, and talking. I laid out and smelled the grass for the first time this year. It was amazing, self gratuitous, and free.

The girls came home, rushed through their homework, and went right over for a playdate. They played outside for hours and didn't even touch the Wii. Talked to my mom and am getting ready to see Sara at the Quarry House, a dive bar in Silver Spring.

It's days like this that make me feel like I'm back in Sevilla, walking around in the sun, lying on the grass, and watching people pass by. Three years ago, I was there, but sometimes it feels like I've never left.

thursdaysss are almost as good as fridays, more understated yet quietly hip

One of the great things about living in DC and working for a refugee agency is all of the cool people you come into contact with on a regular basis. Yesterday, I got to take one of the loveliest clients in the world, Leyla, to the DSS to figure out how to get her food stamps. While the PG DSS is one of the LEAST lovely and most frustrating places on the planet, Leyla is always smiling, always positive, and incredibly patient. For the two hours we waited in the waiting room, I studied for the GRE and she read a children's English book. Never once did she complain or look frustrated. After we got her food stamps reinstated, she told me "Thank you" with a smile full of gratitude. This is a woman who has had family members die, who had to flee from the Congolese war, one of the hotbeds for gender-based violence, a woman who is living in poverty, yet she still manages to smile and be grateful for every little thing she has.

THEN, in a second dose of African awesomeness, I saw the movie "Pushing the Elephant" last night at a new, independent theater in DC called West End Cinema. The movie followed the story of Rose Mapendo, a Congolese woman who was seven months pregnant when the war broke out in 1998. Her husband, her seven kids, and herself were all put into a death camp. Her husband was killed immediately, and she gave birth to her twin boys on the concrete floor of the prison. She and her family lived in the death camp for fourteen months, and then escaped to a refugee camp, where they then went on to be resettled in the US. The movie is about her reunion with her 17 year old daughter, Nangabire, who she hadn't seen in 13 years. The movie also follows Roses' work with her organization, Mapendo International, and her work helping foster peaceful dialogue between women in conflict regions. You can read more about the organization here:
www.mapendointernational.org

More info about the movie, which is playing on PBS in March, and is coming out to DVD in April, is here.
http://www.artsengine.net/pushing_the_elephant/

Her courage, her incredible strength and love, and her ability to forgive and triumph, is incredible. I left the small theater filled with hope that people like her exist.


Today has been pretty good. I'm about to go over to the girls house. They are starting to get a little snarky. One taped the other's mouth shut during homework time yesterday when I was folding laundry. I gotta step up my A-game and have eyes on the back of my head. They are constantly making me laugh. My favorite quote of theirs from yesterday is:
"Old people are so cute. They look like teddy bears."

Tonight is my second GRE class, and then I'll go to IHOP to get a Make A Face pancake with one of my favorite people from Birthright. THen, this weekend will be filled with delicious New Orleans food with friends, the pups, and, possibly some yoga and dancing. I haven't shaken my tailfeather in quite a long time, and frankly, it needs to happen.


LOve and happy Thursday,
Andrea