pop culture, reviewed

Here’s the thing. Jake and I are moving to Washington, D.C. in about a week and a half. If we haven’t already told you personally, I sincerely apologize. I have tried to tell everyone as we see them or talk to them, but haven’t been making too many big announcements because, well, it makes me cry.

Don’t feel bad, though. I’m really excited about it. We’re moving because Jake got a really good job that we think he will like a lot. We sold our house (to the first person who looked at it, before it even went on the market! I know!) I got a pretty cool job along the way that I think will be fun. We found a house to live in when we get up there, on Capitol Hill, near Eastern Market. (We’re renting, not buying. Do you know how much real estate in D.C. costs? More than it does in Columbia, that’s for damn sure.) We already have tickets to three shows up there the first week in August (Ben Folds/Rufus Wainwright, Liz Phair, and Lucinda. And The Shins/The White Stripes in September). We have very dear friends who we love who are in D.C. already. We will be closer to our friends in Delaware and our friends in New York. Fiona and Sammy can take walks in Lincoln Park and the Congressional Cemetery (you’re allowed to walk your dog in the cemetery — I’m not being weird).

So, all those things are awesome. We can’t wait for all those things.

At the same time, we had to sell our first house, which is sad. We loved this little house. Goodbye glass doorknobs and transoms and hardwood floors! We’ll miss you. I am leaving a firm that I absolutely love and colleagues that I am proud to call true friends. Y’all don’t know how hard that is to give up! I am leaving my book club, and while that might sound like a silly thing to think about, we have had that book club every month for over two years and I love the women in it. I will miss our Monday night meetings. I’m leaving law school friends and college friends that I have known for more than ten years. We will be a lot farther from my family (and slightly farther from Jake’s).

I’m also sad to leave the city of Columbia. I love, love, love Columbia. I love our neighborhood. I love not being able to go anywhere in this whole damn town without running into people that I know. I love Mr. Friendly’s and the Cat and Cleaver and Rockaway’s (though I loved that better pre-fire) and I like seeing Tony and the Walking Woman, just walking around.

Also, I am going to have to give up my car. For some reason this has upset me quite a bit. We don’t have a parking space in D.C., and we’ll both take the metro to work. It was almost time for me to start thinking about getting a new car anyway. Mine is ten years old — it was a high school graduation present and here it is, almost time for my ten year high school reunion. This car is much loved and well taken care of. It has been my car my entire adult life, since I was 17 years old. It took me through the summer after high school (best summer ever? quite possibly), college, law school, and the first two years of my marriage. That’s a good car. We realized, though, that it would be so expensive to register it and get a parking pass for it in D.C. that it will cost more than the car is now worth. So, it won’t be making the trip to D.C. For some reason I was okay with the new job/new house/new city thing, but thinking about not even having my trusty Rodeo makes me feel sort of heartsick. What can I say, y’all? I’m loyal. And I don’t like change.

I’m going to have to stop now. Y’all understand. I’m certain that we are going to love D.C., and I’m excited about going, really. I guess mostly I feel lucky to have lived so long in a place that will be so hard to leave. Columbia has been my home for a long time and I expect it will always seem that way.

(I also hear that people up there think that Maryland is the south. If you are one of the people that believe that, just don’t tell me. It will change my opinion of you.)

Y’all are going to write us, though, aren’t you? And come visit? You better. If you don’t, I will call you out publicly on the internet and you don’t want that kind of shame.

P.S. Last time we were in D.C., we saw a Hall and Oates tribute band called “Just Oates.” They didn’t need Hall — they was just Oates! They had black curly wigs on! You can’t get that kind of entertainment in Columbia, peeps! So there are definitely good times to be had in our nation’s capitol. Of that, I am certain.

P.P.S. Nothing to do with D.C., but just in case you were wondering. When I saw Tom Cruise on Oprah, I was shocked and horrified but he still seemed sort of harmless-crazy, you know, funny-crazy, like Britney is. After the Today show fiasco, though, he is no longer fun-crazy and is now mean-crazy. I don’t like mean-crazy. Tom Cruise is mean, and also ignorant. I think it is terribly, terribly offensive and dangerous to speak out against psychiatry and antidepressants that can SAVE PEOPLE’S LIVES and he ought to be ashamed of himself. Katie Holmes should be ashamed of herself, too, for not snatching a knot in his head.