We Went To Washington, D.C.

April 24, 2015July 1, 2025 / Ally Bean / 28 Comments

ZEN-DEN NEEDED TO be in D.C. for his work, so we wrapped a couple of days around his business travel– and went to Washington, D.C. for a fast little vacay.

We figure that it must have been 15+ years since we’d been there together, which surprised us. At one point, Z-D’s job in the midwest took him to D.C. about half of the year, so I’d meet him there on the weekends.

D.C. was our favorite vacation playground.

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Cherry blossoms were past their prime, but tulips were everywhere. I snapped these photos at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.

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FROM A TOURIST’S point of view much has changed for the better in D.C.

What amazed us was how much cleaner, easier, prettier, friendlier the city has become. No snarly people [I’m looking at you, Boston] or people with superior attitudes [I’m looking at you, NYC].

Instead, hotel employees, nice. Cabbies, pleasant. Museum employees, helpful. Restaurant wait staff, attentive. TSA, patient.

Who would have thought that while the jackweasels in the U.S. Congress can’t agree on which way is up, the rest of Washington is buzzing along like cooperative little bees making honey while the flowers grow?

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I took all of these tulip photos with Zen-Den’s iPhone, which is something that I’ve never done before.

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WHILE MOST OF our time in D.C. was taken up with business events, we did manage to do a few things.

We had a delicious lunch at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, which is a gorgeous old-fashioned hotel in Adams Morgan that you may remember from scenes in The Pelican Brief.
We rode the metro which made me feel like a young twenty-something fresh out of college, assuming I’d end up in a big east coast city. [That didn’t happen, now did it?]
We went to the National Gallery of Art, toured it, then ate lunch in the cafeteria in the basement by the waterfall because… well, that’s what we do when we’re in D.C. together.
We wandered around the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden which was pretty even if we were a week late for the cherry blossoms.
We saw the Navy Yard, the Watergate Complex and Rock Creek Park from a taxi.
And while waiting at Reagan National Airport for our flight home, we saw an Honor Flight of WWII & Korea veterans arriving in D.C. At their gate a live jazz quartet playing pop standards from the 1940s & 1950s met the group, while a crowd gathered round and applauded.

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While the flowers were glorious, these iPhone photos don’t do them justice. Next time I’ll bring my real camera with me. 🙂

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IT’S BEEN A long time since I’ve been anywhere that I felt as comfortable as I did on this Washington D.C. trip. We’re both ready to return soon.

Next time I’d like to focus on seeing more of the presidential and war monuments; take in a few more museums; perhaps go to a concert; and breakfast each morning on fresh east coast bagels with a schmear & a coffee regular.

How have I lived without them?

A Week In Which A Mellow Bean Lets It Go

April 17, 2015April 17, 2015 / Ally Bean / 20 Comments

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I’m hiding in our home office this morning. Adjacent to the foyer and away from the kitchen, it’s a room with French doors that I can close when need be.

Like today, for instance.

This is a morning when I’m trying to ignore the dreadful whiny motor sound of our dishwasher as it cleans the dishes. Our dishwasher has, of late, become cantankerous. Still doing that which is asked of it, but making certain that I know that it’s working hard to do so.

Old age affects us all in different ways, I suppose.

This week I’ve spent more time in the home office, or study as the builder referred to it, than usual. Fortunately it’s a lovely room replete with my desk, my computer, a large over-filled bookcase, a funky old occasional chair and, of course, a potted pothos so that there’s another living organism in here with me. It’s a writerly space.

From here I’ve watched this week’s happenings around Chez Bean.

I’ve overseen the AC being serviced, the windows being washed, the plumbing being inspected, the neighbor’s tree being cut down while using our driveway as a service road to get to their tree, and the gutters being cleaned out.

I’m exhausted from all of this work! 😉

But you see, that’s what’s going on around here. Me, simply letting go, watching optimistically as other people and machines accomplish things. While I research + write stories and essays that may, or may not, find their way into this blog.

If life is best lived by focusing on how you do things, then this week I’m one mellow positive bean, letting it all get done one way or another without my interference.

Come what may.

A Report From The Sidelines Re: Neighbor Vs. Birds

April 14, 2015November 19, 2015 / Ally Bean / 33 Comments

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[Note to readers: we live in a neighborhood with homes built on wooded ravine lots. With many trees. In which birds build nests, as they are wont to do. These are facts.]

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The neighbor woman who lives behind us has upped her anti-bird campaign. She’s still out to chase all the birds away from her property, but she has a new tactic.

Now, in addition to her shouting and noise-making, she has begun to place bright shiny silver & red metallic streamers in her trees.

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She wanders around her backyard throwing these streamers up into the air near tree branches. Then when a streamer gets caught on a tree branch she loosely ties it to the branch, leaving yards of streamer fluttering in the wind.

This means that when the sun shines and hits the moving streamers, her backyard has bright lights randomly twinkling. It reminds me of an old-fashioned used car lot, which I guess she thinks is a turn-off for birds.

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I find this new behavior alternately entertaining or annoying.

What entertains me is that her neighbors on the property immediately beside her have put a large bird feeder on a shepherd’s hook. They’ve positioned the shepherd’s hook in such a way that she’ll see the bird feeder ever time she steps outside onto her deck, but they cannot see it from their deck.

Don’t you just love passive-aggressive behavior?

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However, what annoys me is that when the streamers are twinkling their brightest the light from them is strong enough to be noticed on our TV screen. Inside the house. Across the ravine.

Meaning that if we happen to be watching something on TV, our show has little sparkly red dots of color superimposed on it. It’s kind of like stroking out without going to the bother of having a stroke.

Now how strange is that?

A Conversation In Which I Learn Something About E-book Readers, I Guess

April 10, 2015January 9, 2017 / Ally Bean / 37 Comments

Make no assumptions…

IT’S BEEN STORMY here this week. Some days the sky has been as dark at 11:00 a.m. as it is at 11:00 p.m. This weather phenomenon has been the talk wherever I go.

As you would imagine.

ONE THING THAT I’ve learned during these exceptionally dark mid-days is that my Kindle Paperwhite does what it claims that it’ll do. That is, it automatically adjusts to the changing light conditions, making reading an easy pleasant experience.

I’m rather impressed by this.

SO I’M CHIT-CHATTING with two acquaintances, a man and a woman both in their early 50s. And I mention, in passing, as a way of having something topical to say, that I’ve enjoyed my Kindle during these dark days. And both of my acquaintances said: “what’s a Kindle?”

They did not know about e-book readers. Any of them.

I WAS STUNNED, and started trying to explain what a Kindle is– what e-book readers are– how you use them– the different brands of them. Et cetera, et cetera. But while I talked, hoping to inform, these two seemingly normal people just stared at me like I was talking Martian gibberish. Which to them, I was.

Can you even imagine?

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[Hello FTC! Please note: I’m opining here about an object that I bought with my own monies and just happen to like. I received no compensation of any sort for this review, such as it is. I mean really, who would pay me to say this?]