good ol' DC

Impressions upon my return:

- Pretty close to zero fashion sense as a city- or rather a single fashion sense- shared by most and overall dull. (blunt, harsh, not to say I'm better but just saying). It's inevitable when you compare to NYC.

- Not much has changed- the stores, the pace, even the rhythm of the traffic lights on the walk to Aldon from the Bethesda metro. Not even the corners on which the homeless hold their cups out to passersby- only the actual faces have changed, a passing of the guard. Granted it has been less than a year but still.

- Friends. You pick up where you left off.

- Buildings coming up in Bethesda- a more urban feel with the tall buildings. But Bethesda's charm was non-urbanism so close to downtown. Anyway, it's DC-style urbanism, which is softer, gentler.

Nothing profound. Just thoughts.

An aside. A coincidence? On the train ride down I caught up with a friend from lives ago who told me she lost her father to thyroid cancer. After our call I pick up the Nadine Gordimer book I brought along (hoping it would be as good as The Pickup but frustratingly disappointed) in which the first paragraph is a statement that the protagonist is isolated after a thyroidectomy and radiation therapy.