Someone is smiling on me today. You know those times when you can’t find a parking spot, you just barely miss the metro train, the lines are long for whatever it is you want to buy or do? Well, none of that was getting in my way today.
For starters, I went to the pool for my Sunday morning swim. The past few times I’ve been, a bunch of swimmers with – dare I say it – big D energy have claimed the lanes and acted as if they are doing me a huge favor by granting me entrance to their lane. I almost rolled over in bed and told myself I would go later in the day when they switch the bulkheads from 50-meter to 25, a much less popular setup for the Swimmers.
“Are you really going to let them claim the territory as theirs exclusively? What will you be teaching them by backing down?” I asked myself. I sucked it up and got there in time to be third in line, scoring my own lane for the first few laps, the Swimmers nowhere to be seen. I ended up sharing a lane with two chill women, and I glided through my laps with ease and calm.
When I returned home, I asked Maxine what she would like to do today. It would be just the two of us. She was at a loss, so I suggested a museum. She was down with it, but vehemently requested we drive instead of take the metro. I agreed, but dreaded the hunt for a parking space. Much to my delight, we found one as soon as I turned off 14th street onto C street, having faced zero traffic on the way there.
We chose the west building of the National Gallery of Art, upon Maxine’s request to look at Impressionism. We wandered through rooms of Monet, Seurat, Pissarro, Van Gogh, and Degas, among others, until we had had our fill. Since rain was imminent, we decided to skip our plans to walk to Paul for coffee and a pastry.
As soon as we reached the car, the rain began. Once back in Crystal City, we found a spot in front of Commonwealth Joe, and right before we opened our doors, the rain stopped. Maxine spotted a banana bread, her favorite, and the barista told us the baker they get those from actually messed up; they never order banana bread.
Once back in our car, the rain started up again. I could get used to this kind of day.
My Corner of the Village 