Heaven

Today was spectacular. The weather was perfect and I was on my own. My mom and stepdad took the kids to a horseshoe tournament. My stepfather just so happens to be ranked 4th in high ringer average in the world. So he's pretty serious about horseshoes. Before I met him I had no idea horseshoes was a bona fide sport. Micaela was scoring the tournament today to make a few extra bucks.

I headed for Dupont Circle, an area of Washington DC that I know very well and that holds lots of memories for me. It is my favorite neighborhood in DC, and while I know I could never afford to live there it is probably one of my top five places that I would like to live. Maybe number one considering it is right near my family. I bought Jane Hirshfield's newest book of poetry for reading with coffee later in the day, ate lunch, and then I headed up to S St. specifically for this:

I saw a gorgeous exhibition of central Asian tent bands. The colors, the textures, the insane amount of work that went into these practical works of art!! I so wanted to take pictures, but alas no pictures in the gallery. Not so in the gift shop where I saw books on natural dyeing and knitting and spinning that I had never seen before. Plus the textiles for sale were museum quality themselves with prices to match. I didn't buy, but I did admire. This is just one corner of the store.
From here I walked to another favorite neighborhood, Adams Morgan, where Madame's Organ is still to be found keeping watch over Columbia Rd.
Coffee, poetry reading and writing ensued before walking back down the hill.

More wall art in Adams Morgan

Everywhere I went I felt like I was going to bump into my 16 year old self dressed in a dirty black slip on her way to the nearby hotel to wash herself in the "public" bathroom sinks off the lobby. Or maybe my somewhat older 18 year old self dirty and sweaty from working as a bike courier locking my bike to a parking meter for the dash into a building with a delivery. This trip home has been all about the past. I've met up with various people I haven't seen in over 20 years and for the most part it has made me feel good about the direction my life took. Still, there is a bittersweet sense of my youth and being in such a beautiful, walkable city makes me yearn to live here again.

On my way back to the car I took this picture and then realized, when I got to the end of the block, that this house was only three or four down from the abandoned house where I squatted with some other kids when I was 16. I walked down this street a few weeks ago when I went out to dinner with some friends and couldn't place exactly which house it was. Once this street was so familiar to me, now I can't place it a few weeks later. It all looks so posh and upscale now!

One last picture before I got in the car. I've always loved the National Headquarters of the Supreme Council of Scottish Rites right behind me, but I didn't do such a great job of getting it in.

I think I got some sun today.

Who's coming for dinner?

1. If you could invite three people to dinner (they can be living, dead or fictional) whom would you invite, and why would you invite them?

First up, Ella Maillart, she was a trailblazer literally and figuratively. She traveled to faraway places under dangerous conditions and wrote spectacularly about it. A sailor, photographer and great writer I'm sure she'd have some fantastic stories to tell. I highly recommend her books, especially The Cruel Way.

The Dalai Lama. He and Ella could talk about her trip through Tibet in the 20s and I can't see him without wanting to smile. I heard him speak in Houston and his laugh and spirit were infectious.

Sharon Olds would be my third choice. She is probably my favorite poet and I admire her, not only for her work with words, but for her strong political convictions and her ambivalent attitude towards motherhood. Her poems are never sentimental, but strip situations down to their raw essentials.

2. At this dinner, what would you serve (meal planning is the key to the soul, I think)?

I would serve very good homemade baguettes and whatever fruit and vegetables were in season (the fruit with clotted cream!), good cheese and wine and ripe melon wrapped in proscuitto.

3.If you could live go back in time and live in any era, which era would you choose?
I think I would probably like to come of age in the 1920s. So many things changed for women then and I think it would be an exciting time to be woman....of course a woman with choices and some means. Kind of like when people say they would like to be a cat. I guess it goes unsaid that they would want to be a well cared for cat!

Thanks to Linda for this meme. I won't tag anyone, but enjoyed thinking about this.