DC On The Brink Of A New Year
December 31, 2012, Washington, DC: This is Washington, DC this morning on the brink of a New Year. A barista a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol is being interviewed about the fiscal cliff by a foreign news team as he makes my latte. Headlines splashed across today's papers hail the Redskins, last night's winners of the NFC East. This is the year in which a seemingly bland David Petraeus was deemed scandalous in these circles and an ever feisty Marion Barry was reelected to DC's city council. Maybe we could have guessed it: that this year in our hometown would be both par for the course and downright unbelievable.
Maybe we could guessed last New Year's Eve that Congress would be holed up here today in partisan gridlock, even without knowing then who the president would be. But we likely couldn't have imagined the energy that young athletes like Bryce Harper and RG3 would bring to this city. Or the power that a foreign storm called a derecho would have over this town, sweeping through in the course of less than an hour. Or the compelling nature of the new additions to the neighborhood that would alter the landscape and encourage us to stick around. Or that after spending a full year studying this place and its people, we'd come to appreciate and enjoy it more than ever.
Related Posts on Neighborhood Nomads:
- Washington, DC: A Baseball Town (October 13, 2012)
- 20 Nomads of 2012 (December 18, 2012)
- Keep Your Cool: Thoughts on Summertime in Washington (July 8, 2012)
- What Summer Brought to Capitol Hill (September 6, 2012)