burning girl: if you will live a moment, live it to the very end, or just skip it. if you will make a change, go ahead and make it to its fullest impact, do not hesitate. I am back. It is 11.38 pm, late night. We have our snow and inauguration. I hated both at first, DC was nightmare on inaugution eve, we had 500 000 visitors to protest or support W Bush. I seriously contemplated of going to the inauguration- a coworker had good tickets from a senator- but then I decided not to---reason? well, too long to explain. On the day before the Inauguration, we had the triple condition- terror alert, snow storm, and pre-inauguration activity. This equation could result in only one thing: TRAFFIC. The whole week we were stuck in traffic and had to look for alternative routes to get home and go to work. did I mention that DC is really very small, only 15 miles square, and that the "DC area" in fact covers parts of Virginia and Maryland. So, well, we tried Virginia highways, to no avail. A coworker of mine went to inauguaration and listened to Bush as he delivered his historic speech (and had to applaud, a lot!). He had interesting details and shared his experience. My manager, who I find one of the most unique people I met in my life (this is a bold statement but I can back it with evidence:)) - actually worked as a staffer for 4,5 years for Senatator McCain (AZ-Rep); Senator McCain happens to be a respected and dominant figure in US politics, and ran for the Republican nomination. Scott (my manager) is full of anecdotes about his experience as a Congress staffer. Some of them are hard to believe but true; here is one: in DC parking is a privilege, usually you keep looking for an available spot, but I wouldn't imagine the high-level politicians at the White House and the Senate would have the same problem, well, apparently, they do. Scott told us that these people, who write legislation for instance, have to park their cars 6 blocks away and walk to the Senate :). So, when his Senator was running for the Republican nomination, Scott would hope that he would win and even become President, then, no more parking problems! Well, research is mind-buggling sometimes, and one needs to cheer up, what better to do in DC than gossip about politics:)...yawn

Finally, back to my normal self, well, partly. I am still weak and my voice is still monstrous after the illness, but glad to say, I am much better. This week was unique for me for the simple reason that I wasnt alone. I shared my pillows, moments, dinner, lunch, breakfast with friends Selmin, Pavlina, and Mark. Mark I just met. Selmin is my old-wine friend (red wine) she is getting wiser and more intelligent as she is getting older(Selmin, forgive me for using this word old, I dislike it as much as any beautiful, intelligent, self-confident woman would do!:)) So, of course, there are regrets, but sweet ones, Selmins birthday went without special celebration, I was sick, and no special plans were made. And there are those sweet moments I shall cherish forever, me and Selmin at Madeleines having my favorite coffee and breakfast, eating Napoleon, and chatting.life couldnt getter better than that. Selmin is the last intellectual of our rapidly sinking age. Her wisdom is like her name, deep and flowing to all sides; she could teach me in five minutes the secret of life, the meaning of existence (at least she would recall precious anecdotes quoting personas from her mental library).I promised her we would go to Adams Morgan, to the coffee I liked so much when I first saw it, but I neved had the time to go back. I was hoping to revisit this crowded space with her, alas, I was confined to my sofa as we had to scale down our grandiose plans to visiting the Holocaust Museum; not that it is not a place to see, but rather, because it is not what Selmin and I would have done if I had not been sick. Levent stayed with me as Selmin, Pavlina and Mark visited the Holocaust Museum.
Pavlina is the one friend (closer than friend) I deeply respect and admire, and I have to say, there aren’t many in my book in my old age of 29. I have grown to be more bitter and cynical as time goes by, yet I have in my life this cult personality that reminds me life is really about the moments we spent together with people we adore these moments are so few. And we can still adore and admire someone even we are ourselves not teenagers anymore. I will miss her terribly and I dont know how to manage in DC without these precious people that gave me so much of their energy as they were around.
And Mark.I know enough about him to say he is of those real rare people we keep looking for all our lives, and only get to meet them thanks to the strangest of serendipities.