Well it has been some time since the election results have sunk in. We have made history as a nation by electing our first African American President the other night. I felt that Senator McCain was very gracious in his conciliation speech. I was pleased that he was putting aside the petty partisian politics that could often creep into a loss and instead of trying to delay the inevitable, or try to wait it out, he concided. That shows a lot about the character about Senator McCain. While some people hated him, for his being a Republican, he was in the end gracious in accepting his loss. Unlike, Hillary Clinton or others before who have refused to see the writing on the wall and just bow out gracefully.

Now, as far as my personal feelings about the election, I have mixed feelings. I was never really strongly for or against any of the two candidates. Both brought a lot to the table, and some brought some baggage as well. I was a strong supporter of McCain in the beginning when it was likely that it was going to be a Clinton ticket. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Bill back in the early 1990s during his first term, but Hillary is no Bill Clinton. And to be honest, even Bill Clinton let me down during his first term. He promised change, hope, and renewal to what made America great, but in the end he back peddled on a lot of his promises deciding the fight was too hard. That being said, I wasn’t thrilled about his second term either.

I see a lot of parallels between between Clinton and Obama, they both preached the same things.  The question is whether Obama will be able to deliver on his campaign promises. Here is a summary of what he is promised the American people:

1. Middle Class Tax Cuts
2. Energy - Alternative Energy and some offshore oil drilling
3. Afghanistan - A refocus on pulling out of Iraq and moving troops to Afghanistan
4. Healthcare
5. Bipartisian - Inclusively getting all parties together

I think I will take a wait and see attitude. I hope that Obama doesn’t make the same mistakes Clinton did his first 100 days in office. Don’t try to change to much too soon. Listen to the moderates, and don’t go too far left.

Today was the first day I had to commute in the DC Metro area. While I was thankful I was doing a counter-commute, it still was a bit of a bear in parts. I was heading west on the 66 to get to the 495, and while I was going against the traffic going into DC there was still a fair amount of traffic. It took me a hour to go 20 miles. I guess that is better than what some of my friends say…they have told me stories where in Tysons Corner they crawled along 3 miles in an hour. I can’t imagine doing that, and to be honest, I hate traffic.

Funny, while living in San Diego I almost always did the counter-commute, whether I was living in Pacific Beach or UTC. There is something to be said for zipping by the long strand of cars inching along to work, heading away from them as you get closer to your destination with each passing second. When I look for places to live, I always think about the commute, because I know people who commute to DC who take an hour to metro, train, or bus in. Some who take 2 or more hours to get in, and I can’t imagine my life spending 2-4 hours a day commuting. Some people get up at 3am to be in the office by 7am. That is crazy…and yet, I have to grudgingly admire them for their constitution.

Me, I plan on living off the Metro line, close enough to DC to make the commute bearable. But far enough to get to other places if needed. Until then, this commute to my client site is barely bearable, but I just remind myself it is only a month, and then on to another (hopefully closer) site.

Wow, a dramatic title…haha, I still have it in me to come up with something clever! Tonight was the night I had to remove my California license plates and replace them with my Virginia license plates. I had put off the inevitable for as long as possible, but my tags on my California plates expired today so I didn’t want to chance it driving to the client site on Wednesday. So sad, my last remnants of California living are no longer on my car. It was so much fun driving around town and having people look at my plates and think “oh he is from California, that explains it.” I would love to flash people “hang ten” hand signs from my car, with my shell necklace hanging from my review mirror…

Oh well, as my title says, all good things come to and end. The good news is I can keep my plates and put them up somewhere…maybe make a plaque for them. Since the damn Virginia DMV took away my California Drivers License when they issued me their Virginia Drivers License.

As summer winds to a close, and the pool is shuttered for the Fall and Winter, you start to sense a chill in the air. The temperature drops down to the 60s (mid 10s for my European readers) and you start to pull out the sweaters out of the closet. Its the time of year where you put a log on the fireplace and get that spirit of Fall and Winter coming.

For us who live in the United States it echoes the days of Thanksgiving and the holidays around the corner. However, with the most recent economic news it would appear that Lehman Brothers is going closing their doors, with rippling effects through the Investment Banking industry. This uncertainty with the economy and the elections has people concerned and worried.

So when I say there is a chill in the air, ironically, it applies to many things.

Tonight I was riding the Metro home at about 11:30pm at night (it was a long night at work) and the Metro was PACKED. I was a bit taken aback when I boarded because normally when I ride after 9pm it is pretty quiet. But tonight it was standing room only, and everyone and their mom was on Metro (in fact I think I saw my mom on the Metro but I can’t be sure).

This phenomenon piqued my interest to find out, why at 11:30pm there are as many people at 7am rush hour on the Metro. Talk about weird and surreal.

So I raced home tonight to get provisions, just in case Tropical Storm Hanna is really bad. I am stocking up on canned food and water, because you never really know. Everyone I have spoken to said that a Tropical Storm shouldn’t be too bad, but I should expect that the power may go out a few times during the Storm due to the heavy rainfall.

Wish me luck!  And hopefully my pontoon is returnable.

So I have been in Washington DC for over three months and someone just asked me recently how I am liking my new job, new apartment, new city, etc. etc. And my initial thoughts were “great everything is great,” but I realized I was quickly answering it without really putting much thought into it. And today while sitting on the couch or should I say couch surfing, I put some real thought into it.

New Job. It is going good, I like my new coworkers and I think that this is a great opportunity for me to try something new and different. So far the work is challenging and interesting, which is good. I do however sometimes feel slightly overwhelmed by everything, since at my old job we didn’t do as much paperwork and documentation as we do here. I was used to conducting data gathering, analyzing the data, and then writing a report. Here it is similiar but we have a documentation part that is very, very meticulous. I guess that is the difference between a technology and management consulting firm and an accounting firm.

New Apartment. I like the new place, it is a bit pricey compared to San Diego, but it is spacious enough for me and I enjoy the fact I am on floor from the top floor. Although since I am mildly scared of heights, standing on my balacony 20+ stories up is a bit nervewracking. However, I am westward facing I can see the sunset and think of my friends on the West Coast. In fact, I like my new flatscreen and my HD DVR (I mentioned it once before) so much that I sometimes I tend to stay home more than go out and explore. That is the negative side to having a place you like to live in, you don’t mind staying home more.

New City. Well I don’t know really what I think about DC. It is different, but yet familiar. The commute reminds me of London and riding the Underground. The people are like a mix of California and London, people are in their own world like London and not as friendly as California. On the flipside, people in DC are less flakey than people from California. Here if they say they’ll meet you for happy hour, they’ll meet you for happy hour. Life here is fast paced, a little superficial, and very status focused. Other than that, its not so bad yet, but I do miss a lot of things from California: amazing sushi, great Hawaiian food, knowing where to drive and how to get there, and my friends.

Let’s see how I feel in 3 months.

Today I had grand plans of going out and photographing the fireworks tonight, but as the day wore on (and the rain came down) I just lost motivation. I do have some photos to upload to my Flickr account, but again even that is lagging behind. I have realized I am becoming more and more “slug-like.” I tend to enjoy laying on the couch on my downtime and just catching up on my DVRed shows.

And thank goodness for my DVR as I have been pulling late nights over the past few weeks. All of my shows are auto-magically recorded for my viewing pleasure at a later time. And one of my favorite features is I can fastforward through the commercials to truly just enjoy the show. Ironically, I find myself sometimes watching the commercials before it dawns on me…”Hey I can fast forward through them.” I guess I am truly becoming slug-like.

On that note, I am going to watch the commercials instead of fast forwarding through them…because I can.

…the more they stay the same.  I was riding the Metro earlier today and I had a flashback to riding the Underground in the UK.  I get on the Metro and everyone, I mean EVERYONE is crammed into the doorway area.  Nobody moves to allow you on, and seems to glare at you if you make the attempt to board.

Normally, I would just back down and wait for the next Metro.  However, today was different. First, I looked at the middle of the train and it was as I had seen in London, almost empty.  So basically, everyone was crowding the doorway to avoid having to move into the middle of the train.  At this, I knew what I had to do.

I took a deep breath and said, “Excuse me, can you please move into the middle of the train to allow us to get on?”  Grudgingly they started to sift into the middle of the train, which allowed more than 10 of us to get on at my door.  Sure I got dirty looks, but come on…why cram yourself into the doorway when there is plenty of room in the middle of the train!

The only thing I can think is people have a fear of getting trapped in the middle of the train.  I guess the fear is that they think nobody will let them get off, so they crowd the doors to be near the exit.  Hey if that is you, that is fine, but make way for the rest of us who are brave enough to go into the empty middle of the train.

Remember that old Motown hit from Martha Reeves & the Vandellas called “Heat Wave?” Well this weekend in the DC Metro area the weather is supposed to get oppressively hot (in fact most of the East Coast is supposed to be affected). So I have never been in a “heat wave” before. What does that mean? What should I expect?

I can imagine it is going to be bad, because right now at 7am it is 75 degrees Fahrenheit (or for my European friends 24 degrees Celsius). Humidity is 96% which has created a fog outside of my apartment the thickness of pea soup. But this is only 7:30am…in the morning. According to the weather reports, the highs today will be in the 96 degrees (36 degrees Celsius), and humidity should be about 50%. However, with the heat index, it will feel like a 105 degrees (40 degrees Celsius).

And tomorrow is only going to get hotter.

I have realized DC has had a lot of “firsts” for me. There was my first tornado watch warning, my first thunderstorm (where lightning was making it look like Paparazzi’s were taking pictures and the thunder sounded like boom, 1 sec, boom, 2 secs, boom), and now with my first heat wave.

I plan on running my AC as long as I can to keep cool in the apartment, but at some point (due to the cost of electricity) I will have to just suck it up. I’ll keep you posted on my first weekend in DC with this Heat Wave. Wish me luck.