On the Road: NC and DC

For the past two weeks, I’ve been on an interviewing tour, first to Raleigh, NC, then to Alexandria, VA. A phone interview was in the mix as well. Busy busy.

I was surprised by how much I liked Alexandria. I loved it! At night, King Street glows with string-lit trees and with people having fun amid meticulously restored bars, restaurants, and shops. The city is beautiful, and the people are endearingly nice. Also, just across the Potomac River, National Harbor could be a vacation destination in itself. In fact, that’s not a bad idea...

Braving the "Bad" Part of Town

Before Friday, I'd never gone to the Artistic Perceptions gallery in Augusta. The gallery itself seemed fine, but the nearby nudie bar, gun shop, pawn shop, and tattoo parlor gave me the jeebs.

But my mom and I were out for First Friday, and the band wasn’t yet playing on the Commons, and Pyroteque wasn’t yet spinning fire in the street, and there we were, coughing pollen and ready to head home. “Hey,” I said, “There's this one other thing I was kinda interested in, but it’s kinda in the bad part of town.” “Pfft,” she said, “Whatever. Let’s check it out.”

So off we went. We strutted past that nudie bar like Tony in Saturday Night Fever. Just kidding, but we probably would have if their music had been loud enough. We ended up seeing lovely art, meeting lovely people, and having a fun First Friday.