The Nation at Work?

Let’s just say that my first leg didn’t begin auspiciously. I had an absurdly early flight which led me to absent-mindedly leave my mobile behind back at my hotel room in Milwaukee. Normally, that would trigger a sense of neuroses and a flurry of phone calls to rectify the situation. However it’s a bit hard to do a flurry of phone calls when you are missing a mobile and just barely make your flight because you’re lugging around 2 big pieces of luggage and come across the very efficient TSA at Milwaukee.

So it wasn’t until I got to wet suburban Maryland that I was able to locate a phone store who could do me a prepaid deal so I could beg the hotel to ship it to Stop #2—no shipping service is fast enough to arrive same day. This is where things got interesting: this store (company and specific location will not be named, but it’s a company that has really grown too big too fast) had just opened a few minutes earlier. There were 3 people there already. So I choose to just wait. Suddenly, I get politely accosted by an employee who tells me to use some computer check-in system.

Him: It’s really simple.

Me: Fine.

(He makes a few selections which seem to suggest that I’m already a customer.)

Me: Wait! I’m not already customer.

Him: What’s your name?

Me: Hikaru Freeman.

And like that I manage to bounce to #3 in the queue…according to the screen. According to reality, I am still #4 behind 3 men who clearly have all the time in the world to either buy gadgets for their phone or haggle over charges. The employees seem to be more interested in being friendly as opposed to effective.

The polite accoster is nowhere to be found.

After about a half-hour I manage to get some degree of service by another employee who never quite grasps that I want the cheapest basic phone because I just need one for two days. 

Then there’s a computer glitch.

What should’ve been a 10 minute transaction winds up taking a half-hour.

And this was a corporate store!

After some fun talk with my aunt, I make my way to the hotel, and I start thinking about the DC metro area, especially about how everything seems so hidden down here. You wouldn’t realise that it’s as big as it is because everything is hidden behind hills, trees, and inclines. That’s one thing I really like about the Upper Midwest, you can’t really hide sprawl because it’s so flat.

I was hoping to get some glimpse of a national monument as the car crossed over from Maryland into Virginia, but rain and geography conspired against me.

That said, I will say that Alexandria really is beautiful and quaint. Being the Airline fan that I am, however, I’d rather go eat at the DCA (I am not going to call that airport Reagan) food court.

I am rather struck by the fact that the most interesting thing on television is NHK’s World News/Lifestyle channel. You’d think given the US’s current economic ties that they’d at least have China Central Television’s English Service.

Now onto the hint for tomorrow: It has a twin which is far from a Saint. We’re happy for its rice and Milk, but unfortunately its alien son refuses to completely go into oblivion even though his career trajectory would suggest that would be a wise move.

I’m quite happy to be going there if only for the fact that I can finally unpack a bit by virtue of staying there more than one night.