It’s been an exciting summer! Let’s jump right into the headlines:
I moved (back) to DC
This is either my second or third time moving to DC, depending on whether you count getting kicked out of the dorms and moving into my college home during the pandemic. The real sticklers out there (of which I have never been!) may note that I actually live in Arlington, VA. In that case, it’s my second (or third) time moving to the DMV.
I’m living in a house on a very cute street in Ballston with three roommates. Ballston is a neighborhood on the west side of Arlington, just a few Metro stops from downtown DC. While I lived in DC for about 4 years, I never really spent that much time on the Virginia side of the river, so it’s been fun to explore this new-to-me part of town. There are lots of cool things near me, including a movie theater, a surprisingly adventurous food court, and an ice rink where I hope to watch my friends play some beer league hockey soon! My favorite part, though, is that I'm now only a few miles away from my friends in the city, which makes it much easier to hang out compared to when we used to be in different time zones. How often I actually visit my friends may dramatically decrease once grad school officially starts.
I worked at a guitar shop
Back in March, when Forest Corps was in the process of collapsing, I reached out to my local guitar shop and somehow landed myself a job as a salesperson for the summer! My favorite customers were the people who came in not knowing anything and were willing to try out anything I handed them. My least favorite customers were the old white men (not all old white men, but only ever old white men) who would come in and just start speaking at me. While the former often never even bought anything and the latter often spent well over $1,000 during their visit, nobody at the shop is paid on commission, so I never cared how much someone was spending.
It was also fun getting a little glimpse into the local music scene. Pretty much every single one of my coworkers was in at least one band. We regularly had local groups come into the store to check things out before a show. One time, Kyle Gordon came into the shop, who you may know from TikTok songs such as “Planet of the Bass” or “We Will Never Die”. It was also fun seeing my coworker Charlie’s band, Good Morning Midnight, perform. My manager is the drummer, and my other manager’s brother is the guitarist, so pretty much half the audience was the employees of Twin Town Guitars.
Overall, it was a very fun place to work. Even though I probably could have made more as a bartender or whatever, it is impossible to understate how important it is to be able to have fun at work and enjoy the field you are working in. When I was bored and it was slow, I could try out any of the guitars, amps, or pedals in the shop. While I am very much an electric guitar player, I fell in love with the Gibson J-45, an acoustic guitar. (un)luckily for me, that thing costs $3,000 so I never had to consider buying it. One day.
I went to Disneyland
Say what you will about Disney, that mouse knows how to run a park. Here are the things I liked about the park:
Everything just works. From the parking experience to getting your photo taken, the whole system is just built extraordinarily well and creates a seamless experience. My unit leader when I was a camp counselor used to say to make my programs like Disneyland, and I never really understood what that meant. Now I get it.
The park is immensely immersive. Walking in Star Wars land really feels like being in Star Wars. Going to Toon Town really feels like you're in Mickey’s clubhouse. Grizzly Peak made me feel like I was right back in a national forest.
Something for everyone. My mom is not big into rides and was still able to have a fun day by exploring all the different little plazas, shopping areas, and themed sections.
Here’s what I didn’t love as much
Maybe this is just because I’m an adult, but I found lots of the rides to be a little boring. A lot of them had great setups, big climbing sections, etc., only to never really give you a big drop. That being said, my two favorite rides were Mickey’s wild train ride because the animation was so cool, and the Star Wars ride where you get captured, and neither of those are really thrill rides in the traditional sense. Honorable mention to the Tower of Terror (Guardians of the Galaxy ride), where a stranger grabbed onto me as soon as we dropped.
It’s so homogeneous. In some ways that’s understandable because it is all Disney. Having grown up with the Minnesota State Fair, though, Disneyland felt way too corporate for me. Nothing felt artisanal or unique. Every merch store has the same merch for the same characters. There is no walking to another shop because you want a different Monsters, Inc. shirt. Those are all the Monsters, Inc. shirts they have. That’s not to say the merch is bad. It’s not! It’s great! I bought the Wilderness Explorer hat from Up! But if you don’t like what they have, that’s too damn bad. Disney takes no risks, and that’s frustrating.
Is it really the happiest place on Earth? I don’t think so. But I also didn’t grow up going there; I might have felt differently if it were, say, Shrekworld. Disneyland is an incredible feat of marketing, design, technology, crowd control, engineering, creativity, acting, and a thousand other things that I’m sure go into making an amusement park like that. I think I enjoyed it more from the ‘how did they do that’ sense than I did the Disney aspect. I also don’t think I ever need to go back. Having been to the promised land, Disney Adults make even less sense to me now.
What else is going on?
AmeriCorps is back up and running again! My teammates and I were very happy to learn that our beloved truck “Bug” recovered from his collision with a tree branch, and that many of our phones are still connected to the car stereo. The new class of FoCo seems to be off and running, and it’s awesome to see many of our suggested improvements already implemented, such as getting the entire corps chainsaw and wilderness first aid certified during training.
I forgot how to grocery shop. Since leaving DC in November ‘23, I’ve only lived at home or with a whole AmeriCorps team. Grocery shopping is hard! Also, groceries are expensive now! I think it was easier to shop for my 7-person team than it is for just me.
DC is HOT! Currently 94, but it's supposed to cool off soon. The oppressive heat makes it very hard to want to leave my new home while the sun is still out.
Mount Pleasant Bar Crawl! Scheduled conveniently just days after I arrived in DC (I helped plan the date and nothing else), 30+ people took on 5 Mount Pleasant bars by storm. Shoutout Caroline and Raphy for making it happen!
Women’s Sports! I went to an Angel City FC game and multiple Minnesota Aurora games! The home team is 1-2 in the two games I’ve attended. I’m also trying to track the Lynx more this year. Currently, the Lynx are 22-5, but 0-3 in the last 3 games I’ve watched (including the championship last year), so I think I’m cursed
They can't stop me even if they stopped me,
Jesse
Where I’m at:
Ballston, VA ⚽
What I’m Reading:
Project Hail Mary (Audiobook) 🚀
Sputnik Sweetheart (Audiobook) 🛰️
What I’m Watching:
Andor 🔫
The Studio 🎥
Star Wars Original Trilogy ✨
What I’m Playing:
Claire Obscur: Expedition 33 🥖🇫🇷
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands 🧙♂️
Wordplay 🔤
Ditto on the Disney stuff. I could have done with fewer children and actually fewer adults, would be great if I didn’t have to interact with other humans at all lol.