Your federal tax dollars

Saw this at the National Arboretum yesterday. Makes me wonder why no one ever hires sign makers who can spell. There was another sign on New York Ave. touting tropical plants, which contained the oxymoron “THERE HERE”.

Anyway, spent the day yesterday at the Arboretum with Ian, wandering around then having a little picnic by Mount Hamilton — hope all those tourists had sherpas to help them climb that treacherous, craggy behemoth. It must have been all of 30 feet high. Ian is a font of information about almost anything, so I had a running commentary on the vast collection of plants, butterflies, birds…

Then, off to 14th Street downtown, where all the merchants were having sidewalk sales. It was a markedly different place than when I lived a few streets over about 10 years ago. Back then I had a gun put to my head outside my own home, and after that I vowed never to live on a street lower than, oh, 21st. It’s nice that the neighborhood seems to have gotten a bit better, but I do worry about the people who live there and don’t have high salaries and disposable income. Some of the items we saw on the street, such as kitchenware, were 50% off, yet still outrageously expensive.

Back to my neighborhood for a little craft store excursion, where Ian noted that beading supplies are much cheaper than downtown.

Dinner in Old Town at Austin Grill, where a young woman at the bar had a small seizure. We all stopped and watched, concerned. I felt sorry for her — not because she had a seizure, although that’s not a very fun experience, but because when she recovered, I can only imagine that she must have felt embarrassed by what happened, with a restaurant full of people staring at her. When her party helped her outside to a waiting ambulance, I wanted to run after her and tell her we weren’t staring at her, we were pulling for her.

I’m more and more intrigued by Ian the more I see him. He is incredibly intelligent, so much so that I feel pretty dim in comparison. I also feel like my life has been unlived. He can’t believe how many things I haven’t done in my life, an example being that even though I’m a Washington native, I’d never been to the National Arboretum before. I tried to explain it away by saying that it was a “touristy” thing to do, and we natives never did anything meant for tourists.
In fact, it comes down to the fact that I am a solitary person, who hasn’t really been on a 4th date in a decade, who has friends who also have pretty narrow interests (and not very many friends, in fact), and can’t stand doing things alone. I’m not outgoing and don’t like to talk to strangers or go out to meet people.

I dunno. Maybe Ian was sent to change me a little bit. We’ll see.