PTSD

More musings on the (hippie) 'hood

1. I may have mentioned there're no grocery shops or supermarkets around. The closest Big Supermarket is 1.5 miles away in Silver Spring. But, fear not, residents--this place has a "Year-long Farmers' Market". Having cleaned out my hosts' fridge by Saturday, I was eagerly looking forward to buying some foodstuffs at this place.

(Unsurprisingly) The Market was a bloody set-up. Really. I kept on looking at sad (small and dirty) veggies and missing my GM-d* Giant or Trader Joe's version. I mean, seriously, tomatoes that are about half the size of a GM-d version and covered with dirt and, to make matters worse, about three times the price?

2. People dress up to go to Church. This might be a "well, duh" moment for you Churchgoers (does PTSD even have a church-going readership?) but I was quite surprised when I turned up, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, for the "Apocalyse Now!" (with exclamation mark) sermon on Sunday to find people all dressed up in suits. I quickly legged it, hence probably missing the most brilliant sermon of my time. This week, it's "Give us a Sign" (no exclamation mark). I reckon this should have come before last week's sermon since, if we haven't had a sign yet, how do we know that the Apocalypse is coming?

3. Dogs are great fun and I seriously want one of my own while I dissertate. They get you out of the house, are endlessly entertaining and I don't even mind picking up their shit (while I strongly draw the line at human baby excrement). If any PTSD reader(s) fancy a dog-sitter at any time, email me.

4. 7/11 is actually not a bad place to shop for food. Especially if the alternative is the local Farmers' Market. On that, see no. 1.

5. Having had all my library-going experiences in Virginia and Maryland, I can safely say, based on a study of one library, that DC libraries are more in line with the Foucauldian/Benthamite Panopticon than a fun and relaxing place. The local library here has a dark, granite exterior with a (huge) sign saying "the library is a drug-free zone" (probably doesn't include prescription drugs). Once you enter, you are in a small closet-like space reminiscent (for the Catholic, lapsed Catholic and all-round curious among us) of a confessional box. The feeling of being at confession is reinforced by the presence of a (barred and glassed) enclosure in front of you from which a young man (when I went, there was a young man--it may not always be a young man, of course) peers out and asks your business. I lost all my library-going enthusiasm at this stage so can't tell you what happens after. I did, however, have a strong urge to confess all my (real and imagined) sins to the poor bloke.

6. Walking up to Silver Spring from here, there are a lot of "Dominican-style" hair salons along the way. I decided to try one which was tucked away behind "the Corsette Shoppe" (yes, with extra "Es") and next to a Mattress Warehouse but there was no hair-cutter in sight and no sign mentioning where s/he may be or when they might be back. So, no (Dominican) haircut for me (yet).

All in all, I'm almost at the end of my dog and house-sitting in this 'hood and it has provided me with loads of stories about our nation's capital. Oh and did I mention that my hosts (one or both, I'm not sure) are massive gamers and have heaps of games CDs, the new XBox and some sort of old-style video game console? Well, they do. They also have an excellent collection of books, including quite a few that I'd never read and always wanted to get around to reading.**


* Genetically-modified, of course.

** Includes Jonathan Strange and Mrs. Norrell, books by R.A. Salvatore, The Dark Elf Trilogy and much, much more.

posted by Priya @ 5:22 PM