Kevin Costner's Russian's Rusty: Washington DC Metropolitan Area Thread II

Dammit, this has me tempted again to apply at these places. I had ruled out working for a defense contractor because I personally don't believe in it, but man, I could so use the money.. but.. arrgh. No offense intended, many close friends and some immediate family are in this line of work right now.

Gap doesn't support my browser so I can't see the blazer that will deliver me from lack of preppiness. LOL PWNED.

I love working for the government, though I work for the little g, city government. I only work part-time and they offer healthcare and holidays. I don't work Mondays, but every time there's a national holiday on a Monday, I get to work 6 hours less during that week. However, one of co-workers absconded to Lebanon for the past three months, so I have to work every other Saturday to fill in for her. LOL PWNED.

Another bonus about contractors vice govt direct hire positions: Contractors will turn around and get back to you for an interview (or tell you no) in a matter of days. You can be at a job fair on Tuseday and have a FedEx'd job offer on Friday. Govt agencies' turnaround processes take two to three months or more unless you have an "in" in which case you're still left in a holding pattern for at least a couple or three weeks.

That was exactly my experience. When I decided to relocate to DC I applied for a couple of Fed jobs at NIH, at least two of which I was ridiculously well qualified for. The application process was a complete pain in the ass compared to applying for a "normal" job, what with all the forms and the KSAs and shit.

About three months later (long after I had taken my contracting job), I got a notice that one of my applications had made it out of the first tier of bureaucracy and that whatever office if was forwarded it to would be getting around to looking at it in three MORE months. Now, perhaps there are a lot of people out there who are willing to sit around for six months to find out if they got a job or not, but I'm not one of them.

The job I did take went something like this: sent resume and cover letter on Tuesday. Got a call to schedule an interview on Wednesday. Preliminary offer Thursday. One day of salary negotiations. FedEx with offical offer arrived on Saturday.

Now that I do hiring myself I've gotten to employ the seven-day resume-to-offer-letter schedule, so it wasn't just me; meanwhile, I'm still waiting to hear about that NIH job three and a half years later.

OK, I have a stupid question, so should I go and rent a PO Box in DC or what? I'd been using my friend's address on my resume, where I stay sometimes, and didn't think it was a big deal, because if I don't have a DC area address, who is going to call me back about a job. And every time I see a place to rent I get the questions about where do I work! Of course I'm out of town again so have to drive three hours back to the city to do the PO Box rental.. fuck. I am so out of energy and patience these days.

And why not, I'll just throw this out again, anyone who knows anyone in DC who needs a housemate please hit me up with an email. $800 or so a month is probably about the upper limit of what I can afford. In DC. Not "we're so close to the city, it's right by 395 and outside the door is a bus that takes you on a ten minute ride to the Ballston metro." I really need to live in the city, it's not snobbery, just that it really gets me down to be out in the 'burbs where there's nothing going on and it's hard to get out much.

are you dead set on having a roommate or is an efficiency acceptable?
Because there are places

Is it a peculiarly washintonian affliction that by brain keeps spinning "posse comitatus" to the tune of "funky cold medina?"

That's a kinda sketchy block isn't it? I briefly lived a few blocks down 13th right by U St, but not far away the neighborhoods aren't so great. Not eager to live in another place where I have to deal with frequent car break-ins and the occasional shooting right around the corner..

i would love to live at 13th and u. there are sketchy blocks not far, but living right on u st, right near the green line, and alone! for under $800 ! sounds pretty great.

It's not at 13th and U though, it's several blocks up the street, meaning it's past this big hill with Florida Ave at the bottom. I'm just saying I did use to live near there (as well as a half mile up toward Petworth) and it wasn't safe at all. Maybe I'll drive past and check it out next time I'm in the city though. I mean I don't want to live in a place again where I am afraid to walk out the door alone after dark, I've done it before and I don't need the stress.

It's not at 13th and U though, it's several blocks up the street, meaning it's past this big hill with Florida Ave at the bottom. I'm just saying I did use to live near there (as well as a half mile up toward Petworth) and it wasn't safe at all. Maybe I'll drive past and check it out next time I'm in the city though. I mean I don't want to live in a place again where I am afraid to walk out the door alone after dark, I've done it before and I don't need the stress.

I'm always surprised by how friends of mine have managed to get along in sketchy neighborhoods like "oh, it'll be fine, don't worry about it," but I guess I don't have their good luck.

oh, i see. well check out the block. petesmith's friends live over there and were having a nice time last time i checked, but all reports are that things really vary by the block.

when my former roommates and i were looking for a place we looked at a beautiful house on harvard btween 16 and 15, and we talked to neighbors, many of whom had been there for 5+ years and seen the safety of the neighborhood improve greatly. we asked the current tenants if they'd had any troubles, and one replied, "oh no, not at all, no troubles, it's very safe. ...except the day we moved in someone smashed all the windows to my girlfriend's car and stole all her stuff out of it."

which we decided was not okay.

we looked at a new condo being built near 13th and euclid (at the top of that hill) and it seemed "safe" enough. (the condo units, of course, were tiny and insanely priced.) but yeah, i probably wouldn't recommend walking up the hill from the u street metro at night.

on the other hand, i've had my car broken into twice in two years at 15th & Q, there's been a pcp-enraged stabbing down the block, a mugging across the street last week, etc. nowhere is really all that safe.

um, i don't know what's required to get a p.o. box, but if you need a person on location i could probably help you.

This thread is kind of negative and bleak, similar to the feeling one gets when living in NOVA, or going out to Adams Morgan on a saturday night.

Anyway, three things I like about the DC area right now:

1). Wonderland.
2). CDepot
3). Mulligan's grill in College Park when it's 4:00 PM on a saturday afternoon, no one is there, and my roomate is bartending.

Can someone address the opinion I've heard that The Black Cat dance nights are like the psuedo-hipster/hipster single person's paradise? I've never been. Not saying I'm a hipster.

i don't know about black cat dance nights, but i maintain that the whole foods at 14th & P is the hipster single person's paradise

That is probably true about the Black Cat dance nights. I haven't been, though..

I've had the window smashed on my car (U St) and that was annoying but there were regularly smashed car windows on that block all the time (don't leave stuff in your car parked on the street around there, duh..) What I did mind was Petworth someone totally busted up the car door lock, I got mugged, and I also heard gunshots sometimes. Not cool. My friends were always like "oh, it's not that bad around here.." Sure, it's fine, except I worry about having a gun pulled on me again every time I walk out the fucking door!

I guess the degree of annoying stuff you'll have in Logan Circle is one thing but that walk in the dark uphill past Florida Ave is not one I want to be doing all the time, is my sense of it. Right by U St metro and a bit south is OK just because there are tons of people around all the time and especially late on the weekends.

Thanks for the offer re: PO Box, I'm driving back for a couple days this weekend to see a few places and take care of some stuff, I'll just do it then.

judging by my purposefully minimal experience w/bc dance nights, i can say that they do appear to be total meat markets

as i recall cdepot IS a wonderland.

i'm feeling a lot of enthusiasm for this bleakness.

black cat dance nights are best entered into with good friends, a great amount of alcohol and a minimum of self consciousness. i don't know that anything in DC is a hipster/single person's paradise. i don't know that anything in DC is EITHER a hipster's paradise OR a single person's paradise.

you moved to NYC, right? are you pleased with your choice?

i am. it was time for a change, though this thread is making me nostalgic for dc. as far as cities go, i like nyc better, though i've been told it's not a good idea to try to compare the two. dc felt a lot more knowable, which is probably why i like this thread, whereas nyc is a little difficult to come to terms with a lot of the time.

this is the first time in a long time that i'm not coexisting in both cities, which might be another reason i'm gravitating towards this thread.

i'd ask you how dc is for you, mookieproof, but i think that's the general question of the thread!

ok, everybody. we're having a FACD (that's fancy-a-cider-donut). i propose next weekend (halloweekend) or the weekend after. here are two potential sites. ill start a thread about this, right now i just wanna plumb for interest.

Marker-Miller Orchards
3035 Cedar Creek Grade, Winchester, VA
540-662-1391 • www.markermillerorchards.com
• Activities: Pick your own apples and pumpkins on weekends. Scenic wagon rides on weekends. Picnic areas available. Also available: 10-15 varieties of apples, Barllett pears, plums, pumpkins, Indian corn, winter squash, gourds, mums, apple cider, fresh baked pies, muffins, apple cakes, apple cider donuts, breads and jams & jellies. Apple Harvest Festival: October 8th (9:00-5:00) and 9th (10:00-5:00)
Everything apples!!!!!!!!!!! 20 varieties of apples to choose from, with pick your own available. Apple cobbler and apple caramel sundaes can be enjoyed while sitting on the front porch or listening to the music each day from 2-4 P.M. For the kids we have the barrel train, antique tractors, an apple pitch and room to run. Hot dogs and country ham sandwiches available for lunch. Wagon rides around the farm scheduled for every 1/2 hour. No admission fee.
Pumpkin Festival: October 22nd (9:00-5:00)
Come find the “great pumpkin.” Choose from ones already picked or pick your own. Enjoy pumpkin pie and hot apple cider as you browse around. Also offering hot dogs, country ham sandwiches, and homemade soup.

****

The cider doughnuts at Cherry Hill Farm & Orchard in Clinton (301-292-4642) have such an avid following that you may want to order a dozen in advance or arrive early—the farm opens at 8 during the week and at 7 on weekends. Latecomers have to make do with plain doughnuts, but they’re great, too. Cherry Hill also makes soft-serve ice cream in flavors like apple pie and occasionally pumpkin.

have i really existed for this long, celebrated halloween and autumn so fervently, and never HEARD of cider donuts??

i know - me too! have you read the thread, though? they sound incredible!

Winchester, I pick Winchester and also I require a ride. I DEMAND SATISFACTION. Or apples! Either way!

(x-post)

DC hipster paradise: Spilt Milk at Red, the last of which was a couple Tuesdays ago. With Red gone, I heard it might be headed to Wonderland.

Black Cat upstairs DJ nights (Mousetrap, Depeche Mode Dance Party, etc.) are much larger and a little less friendly than the downstairs DJ nights (Right Round, BLISS, bluestate, Guilty Pleasures). BLISS is my favorite of the bunch and it happens to be this Saturday. I also guest DJ there sometimes, so take that with a grain of salt. The worst thing about Black Cat backstage DJ nights (aside from the crappy sound) is that they shut down at 2am instead of 3.

new(ish) places:

I really like W Domku, a Scandinavian/Baltic restaurant/bar in Petworth. Housemade aquavits, a very comfortable atmosphere, and a staff with a personality surplus.

A few blocks south of Domku on Georgia Avenue, Temperance Hall will be opening soon. It'll be a restaurant/bar in the ever-expanding Joe Engelert empire, but I've got high hopes anyway.

Vegetate is open or opening soon on 9th st, featuring an awful name and all vegetarian menu. It's part-owned by DJ Dredd, so the music should be good.

I'll soon be trekking up to the new Dogfish Head non-brewpub in Gaithersburg. Hope it's worth the journey, too bad they're not brewing on site.

These cider donuts sound intriguing. What are they? And do they have them in cities?

Around U St fashion crimes outnumber violent crimes 3 to 1 these days. There's been a run of small-business stickups on 14th the past few weeks, though, one of which I think was Candida's bookstore, goddamit. If you've got to jack a business, in the future please make it Whole Foods.

Carly-

Living in DC for about a year (Clarenden/NOVA and now College Park), I unfortunately see what you're saying regarding DC not being good for singles (at least singles without much power to weild) or hispter-boho-audiophile types. After college, I actually started out in New York (Brooklyn, east Williamsburg off the Flushing Ave J train stop) but couldn't find any good work, so five months removed from graduation I headed to DC. I am now ready and willing to move back to New York. Suffice it to say, despite all sayings regarding the grass always being greener on the other side, DC just doesn't seem too welcoming.

Maybe it IS impossible to compare New York to DC, but I just get the feeling that although both are smug and competitive, in NY I often feel that I'm struggling with other people, whereas in DC I feel like I'm struggling against everyone.

you sound like you could use a cider donut!

Donuts are overrated, and so is Virginia

I read that as "VAGINA" and I was like whoa dude.

does anyone rate virginia?

if i could go to a pumpkin patch in the near future, i really would.

xp haha

Also Clarendon/Rosslyn/NOVA is possibly the most evilest place I've ever lived! I will maintain this til I die. Suburbs of Phoenix have more character. I never thought I'd live to see the day where I am like, "Gee, I wish I still lived in LINCOLN PARK, NJ" but that day has occurred, like two weeks ago.

I've been trying to occupy myself with drinking heavily! I recommend that, to everyone. I do not care for the Black Cat v. much. Downstairs is much better than upstairs in virtually every situation except maybe NYE. Though I've noticed less the hipster quotient and more the huge goth quotient upstairs.

Yeah, I'm not really getting ILX's current cider donut frenzy. I have had many in my time and while they are good--I mean shit, what's not to like about a donut, right?--I'm not sure they can live up to this level of hype!

My coworkers sometimes joke about my issues with crossing South over the damn Potomac. My boss went so far as to deliberately set up meeting in RESTON and forced me to attend. Reston needs to justify its existence, as far as I'm concerned.

Please, please, let's just pretend it doesn't.

i prefer VA to MD. but i've never lived in MD and when i lived in arlington it was pre-clarendon development. reston is pretty wrong.

futurebride and i are considering haphazardly moving to NYC. i don't think this thread is gonna talk us out of it.

I can't help but remind everyone that Reston was the site of an ebola outbreak! Reston be full of hemorrhaging monkeys!

Hey mookieproof is did your futurebride go to DUCK, too? Are you going to spawn a new generation of DUCKIES?

Note that I checked out the UNC roster the other day and, uh, WTF--is NO ONE LEFT from last year??? Arrrrgh, another season of frustration. . . and K going global, good god.

nah, futurebride is from NY. she has the good sense to prefer darker shades of blue, though.

I can't even imagine how horrible Arlington must've been pre-development??? I mean there's no signs whatsoever that there was anything here pre-development.

Ally
O
T
M.

nah, it was better. fewer cookie-cutter condos, more dive bars. there was an auto-body place in virginia square called motörhead.

ballston has always been ballston, though, as far as i know.

That last one again: 1942

I remember seeing a Metro 25-year anniversary photo that showed the Pentagon City metro entrance in 1976 - with an open field behind it.

AZ, bite your tongue. My dad grew up in Arlington and it was a proud slice of Americana.

I will totally go cider-apple picking!

is 'a proud slice of americana' a good thing? maybe back then...

Now it's a proud slice of Booz Allen Hamilton

The identical rowhomes that have replaced whatever was on the other side of our street do freak me out, I will admit. I mean how do you even tell which one is your house? Paint the door a different color, I guess? They do that on Ode St.

just imagine if you were living in the MIDDLE of the country

oh, nevermind, it'd probably be pretty much the same only flatter

The thing is, it's like...ok yeah cookie cutter condos and chain establishments...I'm not really a big stickler against these things, I mean I lived on the UWS of Manhattan for a good six years, and I mean that basically serves as the world's largest conglomeration of Pottery Barn and Starbucks joints. But I mean there were still other things there, like tons of restaurants, groceries, bodegas, bars, signs of life after 9.30pm...I mean it's just bizarro the way this joint is set up. I mean if the Safeway is closed you're like fucked for life.

I think it would be better to live in the city proper. It is just kind of like...ok the best I can do to describe NOVA is like living in suburban Long Island or Jersey, except without ANY of the local flavor or tiny establishments because EVERYONE is a transient out of town 9-5 5 days a week. Whatever local color scene might've been here before the invasion of the Stepford Corporates, it's totally been demolished and replaced with a total void which is really disturbing in a lot of ways.

But hey whatever dood we booked yr suggestion wedding spot! Thx for tha tip!