Catty Town

In college, my roommate GlowingMan had a cat named DC. DC was pretty mellow, but had a deep pathological hatred for a stuffed animal of Socks, which was the Clinton family's cat, as you may recall. Now, Dianaverse has a cat (who I will call Voldemort) that is madly in love with a similar stuffed toy. I mean, love. Muskrat love. Afternoon Delight. Hm. Funny, I always pegged Voldemort as a republican.


I am in DC this week. I get out here a couple of times a year and I always use the Metro. DC's Metro system is one of the best in the country. It's clean, safe, and it goes almost everywhere. You get to see some colorful characters and sometimes talk to an interesting person or two.


Maybe it's too small a sample to judge, but it seems like the people of DC are really grouchy this week. Usually if you catch eyes with someone, you smile, and they smile back. This time, everyone who catches my eye, I smile, and they scowl. It's more like Chicago. Yesterday I was on the Metro in a double-seat with my suitcase on my lap and a lady was sitting next to me (on the aisle side) and when I told her mine was the next stop (so she'd let me out), she snarled at me, "Calm down, I'll let you out when the train stops. Sheesh!" Extra wierd because she'd been having a perfectly friendly conversation with a friend only a few minutes earlier.


It's as if the people of DC want to be left completely alone. Perhaps it's the election. Perhaps it's all the terror alerts. Perhaps they all have wedgies. But it hasn't always been quite this bad.


Tonight I'm going to Dupont Circle for dinner with La Francaise. That should be fun as long as we don't have to interact with any other human beings while we're out.