I braved the crowd to see a little cherry blossom action yesterday

Cherry blossom decals at the Farragut West metro station (they appear to be at the McPherson metro as well) ~ happy little flowers on my morning commute :-)

washingtonpoststyle:

George Clooney is arrested for civil disobedience this morning after protesting at the Sudan Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Photo by Kevin Lamarque (Reuters)

I ate lunch with some co-workers in Lafayette Park today. It is so beautiful outside!

Playing with my new camera and captured the first snow of the year in DC!

Just listened to this man, Dallas Green, sing all night at the 9:30 club. Probably the best concert I’ve been to in the past two years. I’ve been a City and Colour fan for a while, but hearing him live brings it to another level. I’m very happy I had the opportunity to see this group live…if you haven’t heard their work I strongly suggest you check it out!

11/11/11 Foursquare check-in!

…he looked something like this

I realize that I live in a drug free zone, but last night on my walk home from the metro I noticed three bike cops riding around. On the corner of North Capital and New York one of the cops decided to search this black man on a bike. I looked over at the cop searching the man and noticed he had a gigantic cigar in his mouth. Um…disrespectful? I thought so….

A Story of Why I Wish I Could Break Your iPhone into a Million Little Pieces

I was riding the G2 bus to work this morning and I am still in shock over the interaction I witnessed between two people. Let me give you a description of the two individuals I will be talking about:

White Girl - small framed, white girl, wearing a black jacket, and most importantly wearing headphones connected to her iPhone

Black Man - tall, (I’d say) handsome, well dressed, energetic (shaking his knee up-and-down), and also talking on his iPhone

This is how it started:

White Girl: (in annoyed tone of voice) “Can you please stop shaking your knee, it’s moving my seat.”

Black Man: (stopped shaking his knee and thought a moment) “You know, I don’t mind that you asked me to stop moving my knee, but your tone is really nasty.”

White Girl: “Actually, I can’t hear a word you’re saying because my headphones are in.”

TENSION BUILDS UP - black guy tries to speak reason and white girl continues to talk, but ignores everything being said to her.

White Girl: (stands up) “Excuse me.”

…she “solved” the situation by moving to a different part of the bus.

What I wanted to do, but didn’t, was to walk up to the girl and ask her to take out her headphones for a minute. I wanted to point out and show her that we are riding the bus with our neighbors and that, as humans, if we want to communicate we need to both speak AND listen (I realize there are other ways to communicate besides speaking, but for the purpose of this imaginary conversation I would only say “speaking”). I wanted to tell her she was wrong; I wanted to tell her to apologize; I wanted to tell her that regardless of the color of anyone’s skin, at the end of the day we are all just people.

This interaction on the bus made my heart heavy, while other people on the bus just ignored that it happened all together. This reminded me why I wrote my thesis about intergenerational arts and community building. This is why I work in the arts, to promote human interaction and communication. This is why I wanted to break her iPhone. (I do understand the value of having headphones in the city, it is overwhelming to be surrounded by so many people in one place, and my noise-blocking headphones have saved me from many-a-migraine.)

But really, this story is about people, neighbors, communication, and respect and this is why I’m sharing this story with you.

Please take your headphones out if you want to speak to someone.