8.02.2006
this day in history
One year ago today--August 2, 2005--I spent my last hour at work, madly trying to finish up a few last emails and memos (and seeing to the care of an ancient plant) before going to the hospital for the induction of labor. Waddling up toward M street to hail a cab I found that a crepe-and-bubble-tea joint had just opened a few doors down from the office, on Thomas Jefferson Street, so of course I had to make a pit stop. Vanilla bubble tea and sucre-citron crepe in hand, I proceeded home, and from there to the labor and delivery room.
And then everything changed.
Was it fitting that I spent today at Ikea? Perhaps--the intellectual mettle necessary to navigate its maze of mysterious Swedish home furnishings is not far outpaced by the work required to make a newsmagazine. Assembling the stuff once you get home, well, that's even trickier. And much more fun than rubbing some clips together to produce 100 lines about Mel Gibson, or Hezbollah. (Subjects which are then rendered equal, by the interior logic of the newsmag.) I'm sad that I never got to go back to the crepe-tea place, or the wonderful bakery that is its neighbor. But apart from a few sweet souls, I can honestly say that's all I miss from life on Thomas Jefferson Street.
And then everything changed.
Was it fitting that I spent today at Ikea? Perhaps--the intellectual mettle necessary to navigate its maze of mysterious Swedish home furnishings is not far outpaced by the work required to make a newsmagazine. Assembling the stuff once you get home, well, that's even trickier. And much more fun than rubbing some clips together to produce 100 lines about Mel Gibson, or Hezbollah. (Subjects which are then rendered equal, by the interior logic of the newsmag.) I'm sad that I never got to go back to the crepe-tea place, or the wonderful bakery that is its neighbor. But apart from a few sweet souls, I can honestly say that's all I miss from life on Thomas Jefferson Street.
