Thursday, August 5, 2010

Goodbyes and Fast Cars

Last Friday, I took the train down to Clarendon to meet a friend for a beer on his last night in DC. I am still getting used to the summer air in Virginia. So far, it has been much different than the summer air in Florida. It is hotter and the streets feel like the bottom rack in an oven. It is the kind of heat that seers your nostrils, makes your eyeballs tingle and touches the bottom of your lungs.

The station was surprisingly cool, and the train was filled with young women in black dresses, heading downtown for a night on the town. We met at a Mexican restaurant, apropos in that he was departing for Guadalajara in a week. I feel extremely honored that I got to share beers with him on his last night here and that he had one more with me though he had to return to a completely empty apartment, alone, and catch a flight before dawn the next morning. We shook hands, hugged and bid each other good luck. I walked back to the train station. It was almost eleven. I felt sad. I had only known the guy and his family for a few short, hectic, absurd yet fascinating months, and, yet, like Elise and his wife, felt like I had known him forever. I boarded the crowded train car, filled with baseball fasn returning from the Nats game and slinked into our dark and cool apartment and into bed next to Elise, careful not to wake her, though she asked me, nonetheless, and I told her, "Good," and we fell asleep.

Also, this week, Elise's parents made the long trek all the way from Washington State to visit. Sam accompanied us to Kabobs and Bread on Saturday where we picked up a fine sampling of regional cuisine: the kebob. I had heard from someone that as Baltimore has crabs, New Orleans has beignets and Philly has the cheesesteaks, DC has kebobs...of which I am greatly appreciative. Sam and I watched them make the authentic Syrian bread, slapping the wet dough on the inside of a 700 degree kiln. It stuck, then bubbled, then, finally, crisped to perfection. We then stopped at a Peruvian buffet for the best baklava in Falls Church (go figure!).

We took advantage of a cool Sunday morning to go to the Aquarium downtown. I wore Pete in the baby bjorn. Both boys loved the aquarium even though it was one circular corridor of small tanks populated with nothing more exotic than a clownfish and a few piranha. We went through security to find lunch, a Subway, beneath the Ronald Regan building.

Later, we walked to our favorite burger joint where Sam watched his first Nascar race from my lap. Though I have always detested Nascar, I watched it from his perspective, with his eyes and awe. Yeah, a bunch of brightly-colored cars tearing around in circles making smoke was pretty cool. For a two-year old. :)

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