Kickin it in DC

Well I got here on the 12th in the early evening. Caught a cab and headed to meet my roommate Marshall and check out the place we arranged over email. I'm living on the corner of N and 10th in a historic district called Shaw which is about 2 blocks south of Logan Circle. Marshall's a great guy, he's on contract for Nat Geo until the end of April, working at putting geographical education back into the school systems.

We swilled some beer over the pathetic Packer game at the Dominan Brewpub and then called it a night. Lowell our other roommate was showing up mid-afternoon from Missoula, MT. Not sure how things worked out so good but I couldn't of randomly chose the perfect of roommates. We drank beer and rearranged our apartment so that I have the far room facing the street corner, Lowell's in the living room, and Marshall has the bedroom down the hall. It works out pretty well although we're moving upstairs on the 31st into a relatively nicer and larger place.

The next goal was to find a bike which would drastically shrink this city by getting around quicker. I found a smaller green fixed gear bike complete with a hipster guarantee. I was just telling Lowell that I could join the fixed gear junkies as if I were re-enacting a skit from Portlandia. I ended up going to pick it up in a neighborhood called Cleveland Park which allowed me to get used to the metro rail for only the second time in my life. It's another world down there. Like ants moving beneath our feet from one hole to the other. Cleveland park is a ritzy neighborhood for those who made the money around here. The guy who was selling the bike was an interesting guy. He was new to America and selling it for his wife. Ended up staying and chatting a bit drinking some mango juice he implied on giving me. Turns out he's from Guinea while his wife works for an environmental firm. Not knowing many people he wants to meet up for tea and have me over for dinner sometime soon. But at this point it was dark, and I had to find my way home during rush hour. So an hour later and ending up over by George Washington University (not anywhere near my apartment) I made it back in one piece and a new found knowledge of the city at rush hour. Lowell and I then hit up some local watering holes the first of which is a classy bar that serves beer at a price we were only willing to pay for one. The second was over by Dupont Circle and has 50 cent tacos on Thursdays....which means we now have Thursdays covered for dinner.

The next of our rather slow days we decided to play tourist and go see all the cool monuments.

So I'm at Wednesday...Which I arranged to go meet my boss over at work. Got all schnazzed up and walked the 10min to Nat Geo over on 17th and M. Lowell came along to meet his supervisor and our hearts raced as we took the exclusive elevator up to the 7th floor. Debbie Gibbons, Director of Maps for National Geographic is my boss. She makes beautiful maps, her most recent was just published in the Easter Island article for this months Magazine. Check it out it's great. She gave me a tour which included meeting everyone on my floor. It's surprising how many maps are created with a team of only about 10 or 15 people...I met the GIS guy who continued to comment on my Military Map I just created for class. The views on my blog skyrocketed yesterday morning and sure enough Debbie sent it around to everyone to check out some of the things I had been working on. They really liked my work for the World Distribution of Military Bases and said they have wanted to make a product along the same lines. Getting complements on my work from these folks was a great feeling. My cubicle is huge, including the MAC I'm going to have to get used to. Ball chair, and walls lined with maps of everywhere, this is going to be a great atmosphere to get my map on.


She also mentioned I'm starting a project for the Prairie Land in South Central Montana. The President of Nat Geo went camping and thought the map they gave him wasn't good enough so that was the birth of this project. I already have a significantly large meeting next Friday with the trust board for this land to get their input on what they want to see on the map. Super STOKED. I'll also be helping up with some edits on a map of the Pocono's which is up in Pennsylvania. Wish I could start now but that just increases the motivation for next Tuesday.

On top of our great visit to work we are now playing on a National Geographic indoor soccer team that was set up a couple weeks back. Marshall had been on it and invited us to play. Rachel just mentioned it's like were still in college! We play over in an elementary school gym thats about 3 blocks away. Although we got crushed it was really fun and awesome to play some soccer.

To sum up the in between stuffs...Found Lowell a bike so we can cruise around town, checked out the Air and Space Museum for 3 hours which is MASSIVE, found a local food joint where I hacked off my left arm for groceries, chatted with Rach a bunch she's lovin her job!, our Internet is slow and our sink is clogged but an awesome place regardless. Now I'm off to the Smithsonian with Lowell to get our history on some more.