Fun in D.C.

Sorry about the light posting this week, I was in Washington D.C. enjoying the sights and trying to rest my fingers from typing. D.C. was fun, I went to Georgetown where it was packed with people shopping like mad--I found an unoccuppied stoop outside and plopped myself down until the teens I was with finished shopping at Sephora which is a very popular make-up store. It was funny to watch the guys walking with women by the store --the women's eyes would widen as they passed and they would squeal with glee, "It's Sephora!" Either the guy would look a bit puzzled like, "Huh, what's that?" or the more savey among them would know, look at his watch and say, "you have ten minutes." It was interesting to watch. I often wish I could think of some product to sell that would bring as much joy to people as this make-up store does for women. I would soon be a millionaire.

Anyway, I stayed at a nice hotel near the Capital that had one of those new elevator systems called Miconic 10. They seem to be popping up everywhere and I must say, I don't care for them. The elevator sorts the cars for the maximum efficiency by having you press the number of the floor from the outside. Then when you get in, there are no controls so if you made a mistake, you have no way to correct it. Call me neurotic, but I hate the lack of controls inside the elevator. I am secretly scared of elevators but until now, have tried to keep this fear to myself. I use them and deal with the uneasy feeling but I must say that if you have an elevator phobia, this new system is not great. I was the Hearst building in NYC a few weeks ago and they had this system. I had to go to the 44th floor and must admit that by the time I got off, I was pretty uneasy. If you don't like elevators, this device is not the best--perhaps with time, there will be improvements or maybe the manufacturers don't consider that some of us are slightly phobic of elevators.

Anyway, finally, as I drove back from D.C., I spent a good portion of the trip beside a DARE cop car. The car was a Mustang GT that had been painted all over and had DARE advertisements all over it. The most amusing--or perhaps unnerving--advertisement on the car stated boldly, "This car was seized from a local drug dealer." Now call me crazy, but why advertise that you are stealing cars from drug dealers and then driving them around. This is hardly something to be proud of. The law apparently is quite liberal when seizing property from anyone they suspect is accused of dealing drugs but the person does not even have to be charged. And somehow, the idea that this property is given to the police is a real racket, setting up the incentive for all types of corruption. As I was driving, I sort of wished I had a car that said, "I seized this car from a local Sheriff accused of police brutality." Might have been funny, okay, probably not. I might have ended up with a ticket I didn't really want.

So, I had a nice weekend and am now back, after a number of adventures.