Music everywhere we go…

When we lived in Berlin, we’d frequently see and/or hear musicians on trains, in train stations, and sometimes even on the sidewalk right outside our home.

Here in the DC area, musicians don’t play on the Metro trains at all and only rarely in or near the stations. So whenever we do encounter someone sharing their musical talent in a public place, it’s definitely a lovely surprise.

Here are a few of the musicians we’ve encountered lately, and yes, we do show our appreciation with at least a dollar or two to each!

August 21, 2015: Clarendon Metro station, Arlington, VA

February 21, 2014: Washington, DC (photo taken through the window of a brew pub near Shaw Metro station)

February 17, 2014: Arlington, VA (outside the Clarendon Metro station)

November 24, 2013: Washington, DC (outside the National Archives)

August 8, 2013: Falls Church, VA (outside the West Falls Church Metro station)

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Things I’ve Heard From Our Balcony

 

Someone playing a trumpet! For a few brief and wonderful moments, I actually thought I was in Berlin listening to our regular musical visitors. Then the very un-Berlinish crosswalk signal down the street began beeping and I remembered that we’re now back in the US where we rarely hear music on the street. It’s likely that the unseen trumpet player is a busker down in front of the Metro station a few blocks away, but that doesn’t really matter to me. I’m okay with letting a little musical mystery back into my life…

A rather angry squirrel barking at some unseen threat.

Overgrown tree branches scraping against the window of an apartment in the building across the street.

An extended set of really, REALLY loud male sneezes.

The local high school’s marching band practicing its halftime show out on the football field a few blocks away.

A spirited, high-volume rendition of the Rocky theme by a twenty-something guy running down the block.

Things I’ve Seen From Our Balcony

Armored car guards picking up a deposit from a nearby restaurant.

A wasp nest high up in a tree across the way.

A group of very loud, very official (possibly even Presidential?)-looking helicopters.

A large group of children playing a swimming-pool-free variation of Marco Polo in a nearby courtyard.

Workmen using our balcony as a staging area for repair work on a balcony a few floors above.

A very flattened blue-striped work glove, obviously run over multiple times.

Crows, or maybe ravens? I don’t know which but I would like to because sometimes they quite companionably hang out on our balcony railing and I feel it’s rather rude not to know their proper name. I’ll try to get a picture and then maybe you can help.

Excellent Socks in Unexpected Places, Part 3: Something’s Missing!

March 4, 2014: Orange Line, DC Metro, near Ballston Station (Arlington,VA)

Outside temperature: Definitely well below freezing, making this a bold and possibly frostbite-worthy fashion choice!

February 1, 2014: Red Line, DC Metro, near Bethesda Station (Bethesda, MD)

Outside temperature: It’s early February and everyone’s wearing coats, gloves and hats, so it’s safe to assume socks might be appropriate…

Excellent Socks in Unexpected Places, Part 2

February 1, 2014: Red Line, DC Metro, near Woodley Park/Zoo station

Space-age combo of galaxy-worthy leggings and shinier-than-they-appear-here silver snow boots.

Excellent Socks in Unexpected Places, Part 1

At Rainbow Rowell’s author event, Politics & Prose, Washington DC, 19 September 2013 (Bonus: Rainbow Rowell’s super-cute shoe in the bottom right corner!)

On the Orange Line, DC Metro, 19 September 2013. Bad light, great argyle.

The 1st thing I love about living in Arlington, VA…

It was really hard to move away from Berlin at the end of July 2013. Really, REALLY hard. So hard that I’m not sure I could fully describe the sadness we felt on leaving if I devoted twenty posts to it.

BUT…leaving places you adore is part of the deal when you’re blessed with a nomadic life of adventure, and so begins my new list of all the wonderful, delightful things I love about living in our brand-new adopted hometown of (enthusiastic drum roll, please) Arlington, Virginia!

Before you start assuming I’m about to expound on how amazing it is to live so close to our nation’s capital, it’s not amazing enough to be number one on my list. That special honor is reserved for something I’ve dreamed of even before I could read (yeah, we’re talking decades): living within easy walking distance of a library.

See that beautiful building up there? It’s the Central Branch of the Arlington Public Library system and it’s mine, ALL MINE!!! Okay, I do (generously) share it with thousands of others, but the little girl inside me who used to have to wait oh-so-impatiently until someone would drive her to the library each week is absolutely giddy to now live only a few minutes away from such a beautiful bounty of books.

And the librarians, OH the librarians…but that’s another love of mine you’ll just have to wait for.