Porch Gazing

Delighted as I am to have a sweet express bus that takes me from work to home, I really love to Metro to the stop nearest to my place, then walk the remaining mile or so. It's a great walk through neighborhoods and parks, and it's so uniquely D.C. It defies easy categorization - it's very much the city, as every part of my route is just blocks from a major commercial road dotted with bodegas and liquor stores. Garbage collects in the gutters, and buses barrel through. But the on my route I pass houses, some in rows of 3 or 6, some linked for entire blocks, and many stand freely. Today there were spring flowers everywhere - daffodils in bright bunches, forsythia exploding along fences, and whatever that bush is that grows more vertically than forsythia, but in branches like forsythia, and has blushing reddish flowers. Gorgeous.

Someday I will have a house, and my house will have a front porch. The ceiling of that porch will be painted some beautiful color. I've loved that bit of unexpected color since college, when I first walked onto my friend Erica's porch and looked up to see a periwinkle "sky." Today I saw a rainbow of porch ceilings- pine green, sky blue, a bright yellow, a lot of brick red. But my favorite was this unbelievable super-saturated rose color. I'd never have picked it, but it made my heart skip a little. Sign of a good color, I'd say. And I bet it looks beautiful in the evening, sun setting and candles lit.

Stupid Pineapple Express

First of all, Cam's still not home. And I still don't know when he will be. Hopefully just another week or so. But that's not what I came here to talk about.

You know those red boxes full of DVDs popping up at grocery stores and McDonald's and elsewhere? It's a great idea - a DVD for a buck a day, no late fees. Helps fill in the gaps between Netflix rentals, or satisfies an unpredicted urge for a movie night. Good stuff! But wait. There's a catch... And I can't believe I'm the only person who's gotten trapped.

While all of these machines seem to be red, they are actually run by two different companies, DVD Play and Redbox. They look quite similar, though, and function the same way, so I didn't realize that. You can see it coming, I'm sure - I rented a DVD Play disc and returned it at a Redbox. And then found a $28 charge on my credit card for Pineapple Express, the movie I'd "failed" to return.

I can hardly believe I'm alone here. I know it's my own fault for not paying closer attention, but it seems like they've got kind of a racket going on. I'm not litigious, but this little runaround really makes me wonder.