I've been a fan of emus for a while. They never seem to get as much press or credit as that show-off, the ostrich. There were a bunch of emus on a farm down the street from where I grew up. Trapped behind an electric fence (for their protection or ours?), they must have yearned to be free. I try and visit whenever I go back to the old homestead, hoping each time that they will have been emancipated. Alas, they seem fated to remain on the farm just off Route 520.Since the emus cannot roam where they wish, I shall take it upon myself to wander. Said goodbye to New Jersey when I left for college, and I've been in Washington ever since. Spent four years in school, three years working, and the last three months just fucking around. It's been a pretty fun seven years.
I'm not naive enough to think I've seen, heard, smelled, felt or tasted half of what this town has to offer. But I've done my share of living here, from the tiny bubble of a GW dorm room with a locked balcony door looking out to the Watergate, to...
- far-away Orioles (and eventually Nats) games
- astoundingly-incredible-packed-to-the-brim 9:30 shows
- 3am chili cheeseburgers at Ben's
- the Mount Vernon pool
- riding a bike hundreds of miles all over the place
- a burgled Columbia Heights row house
- ending up at IHOP at like 5am, after feasting at the Georgetown Diner
- rooftop swimming
- open-mic night at Staccato
- peeing in strangers' trash cans
- half-price burgers, pizza, grilled cheese, beers, etc
- editing "fuck" out of the BBC's shit
- having the highest fingers in all of West Virginia
- Midnight Breakfast
- Ocean City skee-ball trips
- mid-afternoon strolls to the Natural History Museum's giant sloths
- Richard Nixon
- napping on the White House porch at 2am
- the Chinatown bus
- singing with Tony Bennett
- Charlie the jack russell
- all-day barbecues/beer pong
- mono-ridden pirate puppets
- that magical morning we drove to Dogfish Head for the first time
- Bedrock Billards
- Shoppers' Club macaroni salad
- hula-panka
- dressing up like a bear
- Cabreeeeeeera or Baaaaarrrrrrrry or Langerhaaaaaans in left field
- singing while serving strangers' supper
- making lego-animated astronaut musical short films
In about thirty-six hours, two friends and I will pack up a truck and head to Chicago. None of us really know what we're going to do when we get there. None have jobs. Two have an apartment. The other is me. Leaving an entire life behind in DC is pretty tough, but I'm sure the Midwest holds some cool shit. And it'll certainly be a change. Washington has a funny effect on people, and if I don't leave now, I don't think I'll ever get out. It's time to free myself of the East Coast.
I owe it to the emus.
