Living with DC Idiosyncrasies

Mark and I are more settled now. We finally have a couch, we have a decent handle on groceries, and I've figured out the routine of getting to and from work. But we're still new enough to realize that living here is weird.
Example: DC roads are strange--intersections at tight angles, streets that drop off the map then pick back up later, and cars that use any available section of street as a makeshift parking lot just by turning on their hazard lights and jumping out of the car. Also, the cars that park in the right hand lane, making it necessary to merge left about every 4th block.

And then this sign. I don't know what it's saying

Because parking at the hospital isn't an option (price- and availability-wise), and because Georgetown declined to have a metro rail line extend their direction, I take the metro for 20 minutes, then get on a 20 minute shuttle bus provided by Georgetown University, then walk 10 minutes from the university campus to the hospital. The multiple steps means sleeping during the commute isn't really feasible, so I do a lot of reading and scenery-gazing.

A forced picnic

Really we only use our cars for church and shopping. Maybe I've gotten out of the habit of driving a car, because today for the first time ever, I locked the keys in the car. Right after parallel parking, right before we were supposed to be at someone's house for dinner.

Oops.

Thank goodness for friendly people. The guy host of the dinner took food out to Mark while I stayed in air-conditioning with the girl host and the napping toddler.

We did reunite in time for dessert, thanks to a locksmith.

Another thing we've learned: pick and choose your grocery stores. 

The increased cost of living in DC definitely shows up in our grocery budget. We've finally developed a bit of a system: get milk at Target; get salsa at Aldis; get brand-name stuff and refill water containers at Wal-Mart; and get everything else at Giant. Most of those places charge extra for using plastic bags, so we need to bring our reusable shopping bags to maximize on savings.

 

Now if we could just end taxation without representation, we'd be set.