Add to that the fact that roads in the area are either “under construction” or “vehicle-destroying crater-filled bomb sites,” with about a two-week separation during which a road is actually drivable.
Just yesterday, my morning commute was extended by 45 minutes when the cops decided to close of a bridge for no immediately apparent reason. What was it? Protest march? Terrorist threat? Chemical spill? Car accident? Street fair? Whatever it was, we have zero room for error.
Any slight problem on the roads will make you late. And it’s no good saying “You should have taken the Metro,” because the same things happen there routinely—unexplained delays, interminable halts, the “three orange trains have come through, where’s the fucking blue train!” situation.
Anyone who lives in the area and complains about tardiness or says things like “being late is a sign of disrespect” needs a boot to the head.
I don’t think those are in Takoma Park. I live two blocks from Flower Avenue and I’ve never heard of those streets. I think they may be in Mt. Airy, MD.
I appreciate the fact that since so many gov’t workers carpool, no one tries to keep you late at work. Many times I’ve seen folks leave meetings due to sacrosanct car pool times.
Agree. I’m not familiar with Mt. Airy, but I do know that all of Old Town Takoma Park’s streets are named for trees, not flowers (with the possible exception of Tulip Ave, although there is a “tulip tree”). I’ve lived on both Willow and Holly Aves, as well as off Flower Ave (Greenwood, and Garland). I miss living in Takoma Park!
Sorry, folks. I wasn’t meaning to confuse anyone: “Flower Street” was just a made up example because I couldn’t remember any of the specific ones. I just ran across a number of places where streets seemed to have the same name, but with Road, Lane, Court, etc. where two or more of them intersected.
Looking up an actual example I ran across, there’s a part of Silver Spring where Alderton Lane and Alderton Road merge into one another very close to where Woodwell Road and Woodwell Terrace intersect.
I moved to DC a few years ago. The food scene is great in my opinion. The weather is too hot a couple months of the year, but usually not too bad.
On the whole though, it’s not really my cup of tea. The vast majority of people I meet are very career focused, they have little time for much else. I’m at a point in my life where I have time to do things other than work nonstop but it really seems like there is not much else to do.
> The vast majority of people I meet are very career focused, they have little time
> for much else. I’m at a point in my life where I have time to do things other than
> work nonstop but it really seems like there is not much else to do.
That’s not what I observe at all. There is far too much going on for me to do all the things I would like to do. I want to read books and see films and experience Internet-related interactions and do various other things. So I read a lot of books and belong to several clubs concerned with reading science fiction and fantasy and go to science fiction conventions and go to signings by authors who write a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction books. I see lots of films and belong to a film society and go to a film festival. I post regularly to the SDMB and many times (but not lately) go to Dopefests and look at various other Internet websites like Youtube. I occasionally go to alumni get-togethers for my undergraduate school (which, although it is a little less than a thousand miles away, has many alumni in the Washington area). I occasionally go to fundraisers for charities I have contributed to. I live ten miles from the Smithsonian and seldom am able to see new exhibits at it. I don’t have time to try all the interesting new restaurants. I can’t possible do all the things I really want to do. For what it’s worth, I work at a government agency with people who are highly educated and good at their jobs but are not what I would call career-obsessed. And there’s all the usual things everybody has to do in their ordinary lives. I don’t have time to do it all.
This is not to say that your observations are wrong. Your observations are your observations and mine are mine. You are probably interested in completely different things than me. I just see things differently than you.
I do all those types of things also (except for the dopefests - there have been none that have happened that I know of since I started visiting the SDMB).
There is plenty to do; the number and variety of meetups as well as cultural activities is astounding. However, the difference for me is that most of the people I meet are very busy - so we’ll see them once a month, if that. This is true of the people we knew before we moved here as well as the people we met after we came here. Maybe I’m just having bad luck, but every person we know works a lot of hours and is literally traveling every other weekend for work. I also have found that a lot of people my age (30’s) stay here a few years and then leave.
There’s plenty of activities to do - we agree there, but for me, compared to where I used to live, there is not a whole lot of opportunity to forge new friendships. People are also more guarded here - it’s just a very different mentality.
I’m open to suggestion if you know where the more laid back type B personality folks tend to congregate; but I haven’t found it yet.
