Hello My Fellow Readers,
My apologies for my brief hiatus over the last month or two.
Not only had I been kept from writing on this blog, I also minimized all my
social media postings only keeping it to a few sporadic event postings. Life
has taken me to go places and challenged me to do things that I did not expect.
I’ve been keeping it on the down low with few friends knowing or figuring out
where my life has taken me. Now, that I am sitting at my favorite café back in
my hometown for the weekend, I have a moment to breathe and take in the last
months escapades and changes. I have taken a job and moved to the North
Virginia (NoVa)/ DC Capital area of the country. To keep it brief, it is no New
York City. My mother’s first reaction to my decision to take this great job
was, “Look at all the amazing new Tinder/Jswipe matches you will have. Just be
careful, there are a lot of spies and secret agents that live and work in the
area.” To which all I could do was to put my head in my hands in awe. Low and
behold, she was right. All of this has provided me with new experiences I would
love to share on this platform with only a month into the life down there.
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| Past the Washington Monument, at 1 O'Clock, the tall building on the other side of the river is Arlington, VA where I will be residing. |
Currently, I am living out of a hotel close to my offices
and coming close to finding an apartment in the Arlington (Clarendon)
neighborhood. (Can’t wait to invite you all.) Being in a hotel, provides me
some interesting people watching of who comes in and out for just a night, a
weekend, or like me, weekly. The roadies of the business world are used to the
lifestyle and I am just getting into my grooves. On my first week in town, I
headed over to Arlington to scope out the various neighborhoods where I would
want to seek shelter more permanently. A necessity for me is to have some sort
of Brooklyn/Manhattan vibe where I can leave my car after work and just walk to
some restaurants, bars, grocery shopping etc. Arlington in the main areas has
that. I also want to see a population mostly of people in my age range. Again,
Arlington has that all without being in what they call “DC Proper”. I pop into
a place called Kona Grill where it is packed for happy hour. I grab a drink and
just people watch and get friendly with the bartender. As I explain my story of
how I ended up there, he begins to introduce me to a few of the locals who are
at the bar socializing. Like my mother warned me about, my first interaction were
with 2 older gentlemen who previously lived in NYC. One is VP of Premier
Relationship Advisors working for a high profile bank and his buddy is a
retired Federal Agent who used to be the lead investigator/spy on the
Castellano Crime Family in Staten Island. My jaw almost dropped since my parent’s
home in Staten Island is 2 blocks from there. They were reminiscing of the old
school NYC lives they had. Great story telling session. They gave me some
advice on what to look for here and what neighborhoods are best. As we parted
ways, we all exchanged business cards and plan to meet again and welcome me to
the neighborhood.
The following week, I decided to begin changing my location
settings on my dating apps. I was giving it a chance to see what the market is
out there. After chatting with several men (or boys I should say better), one
finally had the courage to ask me out. We met at a restaurant called Marble & Rye for happy hour,
which he was adamant we make it for. He came dressed in khaki long board shorts
and Hawaiian style button down shirt untucked. We grabbed a drink and sat
talking outside on the patio. He was a transplant from Cali living in the area
for the past year. He gave me his whole life story without so much delving in
to ask me about mine. As we began to wrap up the date, (to which we order no
food and I had not had any nourishment since 12pm consisting of a probiotic
kombucha beverage) we come up to the bar to ask for the bill. Me, being a good
respectful working class girl, I reach into my wallet as a friendly gesture to
offer to pay as well. He actually accepts to split the bill. Again, another jaw
dropper (this time more so of a mental check). I graciously hand over my credit
card. He hugs me good night, not walking me to my car and we part ways. He did
not text me to see if I got to my hotel. However the next day he did try to
have small talk via text. I guess the NoVa/DC area has some odd balls out here.
These first two interactions with people south of NYC has
truly given me a feel of that men regardless of where you are, are roughly the
same. I may be speaking of small consensus at the moment. Hopefully over time
the quality will get better and the stories will get juicier. Till then, The
Blue Fedora is signing out and enjoying this amazing weather and hanging out with
some close friends.
Besos,
Dr. IK
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