Jan 08 2009
DC: Completely Nuts!
I knew better than to get off Metro at Farragut West in the rain. I knew I should go on to Metro Center then take the Red Line all the way to Tennleytown/American University. Did I listen to my own voice of experience and reason? Nooooooooo 
I got off at Farragut West—
Sometimes, the “little girl” in me wins out. That one loves to watch people, hear the sounds and see the world as it flies by in all its busy-ness. That is the one who loves to commune with the lovely silver squirrels that live in Farragut Square. Let me just say that yesterday I got more squirrels than I bargained for when I impulsively jumped off Metro at Farragut West.
The first and most obvious difference was the traffic jam created by the street closures. The Hay-Adams is merely a couple of blocks away. Need I say more? Service vehicles including a USPS truck, Sysco Systems, and FedEx lined 17th Street along the square leaving Metro Bus operators without their usual pick-up/drop-off locations. Actually that location shifted to the middle of 17th Street. Then there were the people. My favorites included the very young couple from Florida maybe? He wore a U of Florida sweatshirt with khaki shorts and she was decked out in muslin capris and four-inch heels. Perfect tourist dress to enjoy the balmy 34* which accompanied the inch and a half wet wintery mix: Welcome to the District!
DC Metro employees are saints. I had never seen one get rattled—until yesterday at Dupont Circle. The trip down Mass Ave had been long. I had heard the bus driver sound his horn at least 22 times when I stopped counting. I don’t remember ever hearing a Metro Bus driver use a horn—but obviously whatever “norms” existed before do not exist now. At Dupont Circle we came to a stop. We waited and he honked and we waited some more. Finally, we moved about ten feet. Our driver opened the bus door and forcefully yelled out, “What are you doing? You can’t do that!” There was not a dry-eye on the bus. We were all laughing so hard while struggling to not actually laugh out loud. All I could do was shake my head. Finally we reached Farragut West and I was the last one off the bus. “This is just getting started, isn’t it?” I asked the driver. “Yeah, and it is going to be bad!” came his reply.
Then today’s Washington Post reports the DC Traffic restrictions for the Inaugural… Bad? More like Mission Impossible!
