Crazy Cat Lady at the Crazy Quilt Festival

On Saturday I had the pleasure of spinning at the Crazy Quilt Music Festival in Greenbelt, MD, which is one of three U.S. cities built from scratch as part of the New Deal. I spun between musical acts for several hours, and then did a one and a half hour set accompanied by the Playa Del Fuego fire dancers. You can see video over at the ALP site.

Unfortunately the day of the gig I had to make a vet appointment for George because his third eyelid was protruding--a sign of illness in cats. Fortunately through the wonders of technology I was able to keep an eye on George during my gig. As you can see in the photo, I have a netbook next to my DJ laptop that was used to monitor petcam footage from my apartment. Despite being 13 miles away I was able to see that George was eating and drinking. His vet visit later in the week indicated that his CRF has advanced slightly, so I will need to start administering IV fluids once a week or so. He is doing much better now!

A Day That Will Live in Infamy

On June 22, 2009, nine people perished at a spot thousands of metro commuters pass through every day en route to work in DC. An inconvenient consequence is that red line commuting will be f*cked up for months to come. Despite being terminally early to gigs, I am typically late to work, and my tardiness has increased exponentially despite efforts to leave my apartment earlier and earlier in the week following the accident.

Initially I tried shuttle buses that were transporting commuters past Takoma Station. On the second day of red line dysfunction I got fed up of standing on a speeding vehicle, and sought the refuge of an empty 14th street bus at Takoma station. This was not a brilliant move from a time management perspective! I have also tried taking the red line to Fort Totten and then switching to the green line and back to red. This results in a one hour forty minute commute. I don't mind this prolonged travel time if I wind up in an exotic location, but this seems like a lot of trouble to go through just to sit in a windowless beige cubicle all day.

Fortunately one of my coworkers told me about the S9 Express. I can catch it at its first stop, 1.4 miles from my apartment. It definitely transports a very different demographic than I am accustomed to on Montgomery County buses! The typical rider wears a suit and works on their laptop or conspicuously reads the New York Times. Not that there is anything wrong with that!! I was FINALLY able to arrive to work on time on Friday, plus had a nice above-ground view of DC as the bus traveled through DC's Gold Coast and Mount Pleasant en route to my destination outside the National Geographic building. I think this will work for me until the red line is back on track.