filed in Daily Life
Marriage Free For All
After today’s exhilarating news that will take us one step closer to marriage equality, I decided to try an experiment. To demonstrate gratitude for such tangible human progress, I challenged myself for 24 hours to keep my petty grumbling about other humans at bay. Would it be possible in the car to be generous with the person cutting ahead of me from the right lane? While walking the dog, could I not sneer at the pedestrian so glued to his cell phone that he practically runs into me? How long do you think I lasted?
Photo by Melanie Bonajo
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I lasted until the marked, uncontrolled crosswalk at Union Station on the way back to the office. But I can’t possibly commit to be kind to my “fellow human” in DC right now. It’s peak tourist season, and most tourists barely qualify as “intelligent life.”
I need to just pretend my birthday is a month earlier, and do my normal two-week birthday checkout around the 4th. It’s the HEIGHT of tourist stupidity. Today I was nearly hit *4* times (all out-of-area plates), told off on the sidewalk twice, and screamed at because some idiot wasn’t paying attention, and her kid (4-ish) started to follow me across the street when I jaywalked. Apparently, it’s now MY responsibility to make sure her kid doesn’t wander out into the street when she doesn’t want him to (at least traffic *was* clear…I’m in a hurry, but I *don’t* have a death wish), rather than her training him not to follow random strangers…and that’s just a *sampling* of an average day. So, I’ll be nice again come mid-September.
HA! JoDa — I don’t know you but I feel your pain. I’m in DC as well and yes…”Stand to the Right” doesn’t quite resonate. Deeeeeep Breaths!
Oh and yes, I believe this is why the fall is the best time of year in DC. 😉
Here in NY/NJ we have lots of subway construction going on during weekends, which makes a mess of the various lines. Which pisses people off. A lot. It’s at times like these that I remember a line from “The Honeymooners”, when Ralph (Jackie Gleason), trying to hold in his anger, says “Pins and needles, needles and pins. A happy man is a man that grins”!
It’s hard to imagine Ralph being so cheerful. I’ll have to remember that line.
Better weather int the fall too, right?!
I’ve been here long enough that disruptions in my routine – like someone standing on the left – annoy me, but this time of year is outright dangerous and bathed in a thick layer of tourist entitlement. Why was it *my* fault that some stranger’s kid followed me into the street? Why did the out-of-state SUV driver today – who got pulled over and ticketed after making an illegal turn and nearly killing my coworker and I in the crosswalk – feel it was okay to catch up with us a few blocks later and menace us for “making him get a ticket?” Why did a biking tourist hit a friend I was walking with on the sidewalk, and then nearly assault me when I told her that if she didn’t apologize AND get into the street (this was downtown, so riding on the sidewalk is illegal), I was calling the police to report the accident. I tell you, they get worse every year. This isn’t even mentioning the more minor issues like being forced off the sidewalks by large groups (nowadays, I tuck my hands (so I didn’t “push” them) and just plow right through…I’m not walking into traffic because they can’t be bothered to take up less than the whole sidewalk), almost running over kids while driving because they bolt into traffic on busy streets, having the occasional stroller dropped down the escalator on me (yes, folks, it’s happened to me MORE THAN ONCE…only once with a kid actually in it, though), and being yelled at because the directions I gave a lost tourist were not to their liking. If you hate DC and its people so much, THEN STAY HOME!
The fall is much nicer. Late September through the end of October is usually great – for both weather and crowds – though it can sometimes be a little cool towards the end of October. If I didn’t have to go to work downtown, I’d never set foot in the tourist core between June 1 and September 10 or so.
San Francisco (where I used to live) filled up with tourists in the summer. When I was able to practice gratitude about it, I realized that at least I lived in a place nice enough that people wanted to come and visit.
I like respectful tourists, which, in my experience, generally means foreign tourists. As soon as I hear an accent, I let my guard down, because they are generally well-grounded, friendly, and respectful. I have zero problem giving people directions, recommendations on where to eat, tips on how to get a cab (even flagging one down for them if they’re having trouble), or any other minor thing they might need. I *DO* have a problem with being treated poorly for that or when just going about my business. Lola can probably back me up on this, I’ve gotten lip service from tourists over all manner of things – including their being lost and being upset that they had to travel a bit when I’m nice enough to give them directions to get un-lost.
I don’t know what it is about this city that makes the tourists so darn rude, but they are real “gems” here, by and large. I normally don’t get lost on vacation, but when I’m a little confused, if I need to ask someone for help, I say “excuse me, do you live around here? Sorry to bother you, but could you tell me {where X street is, if you know how to get to Y location}?” and then thank them, even if they’re not sure and can’t really help me. Meanwhile, here in DC, I get yelled at on the regular for telling tourists to walk to the Metro *3* blocks from my office. Or, like happened just Wednesday, not knowing how to get to a particular restaurant, but asking if they had the street address (I can tell you where ANYTHING in DC is with the street address), and then while getting cussed out for thinking they might have done the bare-bones preparation of having the street address, getting cussed out again because my phone was “too slow” while I Googled it. Apparently they were late for their reservation, and it was *my* fault they didn’t know where they were going. I *wish* this were an unusual story I could chuckle with my friends about…
I hardly ever come in contact with tourists in L.A. and I suppose that’s one of the perks. But then there’s the traffic…
Hearing you Lola, I’m glad to have made my trips to D.C. before tourist season hit. Tourists make me cranky, too.