woooooo i love dc

So much has happened since I last posted here. The amount of love I have for my job and the people I work with has increased. I'm starting to feel home here in dc. A friend/colleague has an apartment on the top floor of the building across the street from my office that she is letting me live in for a month for free. I can see the Washington monument when I am sitting on the toilet. I wish I could afford a place like this. It's tiny, not even 500 sq ft and it's 1300 a month. Yeesh. I'm enjoying it while it lasts though. I just returned from biking around dc. I've started going out on my bike as soon as it starts feeling cooler and riding around until it gets dark. Sometimes I'll stop at a grocery store or a park. When I get home, I look at google maps to see where I've been.

I haven't completely moved out of Sophia and Gene Larkin's home. However, they do host several kids during the school year, and space will be tight. I might spend some weekends with them and certainly will visit with them lots. Their hospitality is mindblowing.

Leads on housing: I'm viewing two group houses this week. One seems especially promising, and a former PP employee lived there once. I can't wait until I have all my necessities in one place in dc. Right now I have belongings at work, Sophia's, the apartment across the street, and in Asheville. I feel that Asheville will be my home forever. I hope my dad never moves away from there. However, I am loving living here in dc. There's great ultimate frisbee, great people, great food, great civic conveniences, great resources...etc. And this city is so much smaller than I thought it was.

I have been increasingly stressed out as of late. I was feeling a bit displaced last week. On top of that, last Thursday night I went on a ridealong, which consists of riding in a PP van around dc from the hours of 12 midnight until about 4. I witnessed prostitution, potential labor trafficking, pimps, johns, and a very lonely part of dc life. I won't go into detail, but I'll say that Thursday night/Friday morning sobered me to some harsh realities of eaking out a life. I don't even know what I think about the whole mess right now. Tomorrow morning, I have a check in with some staff and some other people who were on the ridealong with me.

I haven't had any more dreams about my mom lately. It might be because I am just so tired after every day. I'm sorry to those of you I've been out of touch with lately. I really do think of my loved ones constantly, but cannot devote the time to call each and every one of you and give you the attention you all deserve. The coming weeks should be better.