a brief re-cap of the last month

I haven't posted in a while.

That's because in the last month, I have:

• moved back into my grandma's house from my parents'
• turned thirty
• received a visit from the Hubs
• finally won a callback for a job interview
• been called and interviewed for then offered another job the day before that interview
• accepted the job and started the next day as Kramer Middle School's new seventh grade social studies teacher
• given up on my PhD(?)
• struggled with my husband's decision not to evacuate for Hurricane Isaac
• watched a relative take most of the furniture from my grandmother's living room, where I grew up
• staged a counter-attack my body's fight against its new sleep and work schedule
• been signed in to the DAR
• fought with my husband incessantly about him returning to D.C.
• received a salary offer that's $10,000 too low
• ignored a thirteen year old's question "Why are you dressed like a fucking whore?"
• pre-qualified for a mortgage loan
• realized that my hair is falling out - literally in handfuls

So I've been busy. I promise to do a better job of writing, and going places/doing things to write about. Because I can't be captive to the classroom. Or my soulless, empty living room. Or my husband's phone calls.

I can't be.

you've gotta see this. really.

The same day my family went on the St. Elizabeth tour, we also went to the Frederick Douglass house. I don't have much to say about the site - because you should go for yourself - but I did want to post this photograph of the view:

Seriously.

I've made a conscious choice to avoid using profanity on this blog, but a view like this requires me to paraphrase one of my students' favorite things to say:

"You better get some toilet paper, because Anacostia's shittin' on you."

The east side is the beast side, y'all. That's all I'm saying.

St. Elizabeths tour

Today, my mother, sister and I took advantage of the D.C. Preservation League's tour of the St. Elizabeth's grounds. My mom and I grew up in Congress Heights, and my dad grew up in Barry Farm, but none of us have ever really been inside the gates.

The gatehouse, which is under construction.

The original center building

Second story, fourth window from the left, is where poet Ezra Pound lived for years.

You can see clean through the front door to the other side.

They just don't make buildings like this one any more.

Instead, they make buildings like this - the new Coast Guard headquarters. Look at that view.

All of the mentally ill soldiers who died here with no family to claim them were buried on the grounds.

You can see more of the USCG construction from the cemetery.

And then look at this view. This is pointed toward Southwest.

And there, in the background in Northeast, and the Shrine.

We have one of the best views in the city over here.

A home built on the ground for a private, paying patient.

Old greenhouses. They'll be torn down, but replaced with buildings that evoke greenhouses.

I'm pretty interested in seeing how this project turns out, and how it impacts the neighborhood. The tour guy, a gentleman from the GSA, said that just the USCG building will mean 14,000 employees driving to the campus every day; this doesn't even factor in the second and third phases of site redevelopment, which had their funding pulled by the Republican Congress.

But for now, I'm glad they're opening the site up to the public. It's neat to finally see the thing that's taking up all the prime real estate in your neighborhood.