Our condo was on TV! (Plus some Watergate history and georgraphy)

So as most people who are reading this know, David and I live in the Watergate. What many people don't know is that the Watergate is an enormous complex comprised of three apartment buildings, two office buildings, a hotel, and an outside shopping center. Almost everyone in DC gets them confused at some point. We have food delivery people who call us from the wrong Watergate apartment complex asking why we aren't answering our front door. I've had taxis cab drivers try to drop me off at the wrong building. And tourists looking for the site of the break-in often wander around the complex trying to figure out which is the right building.

So last night, David and I saw our Watergate apartment building on TV. As I mentioned before, we're trying to watch the complete X-Files series on DVD before the movie comes out this summer. We had just started Season 2 with the Episode "Little Green Men." Mulder and Scully have to meet covertly and they choose the parking garage of the Watergate Hotel. They flash a stock picture on the screen labeled "Watergate Hotel," but it's actually a photo of the Watergate South aparment building where we live. David and I immediately call it out, press rewind, and watch it over again. So our condo was on TV, but inappropriately labeled. Here's a close approximation of what the picture looked like:


The left side of the C-shape is our apartment building, and the right side is an office building.

Adding even more confusion is the fact that the X-Files writers probably chose the Watergate Hotel parking garage as a nod to Mulder's government informant from Season 1 who was humorously called Deep Throat. However, the Watergate break-in occurred at one of the office buildings in the complex. So why not the parking garage at the office building for their clandestine meeting? Either the writers' figured the hotel parking garage would be more easily accessible for our heroes, or I'm analyzing this waaaayyyy to much and it was just a gaff.

For those of you confused by Watergate complex geography, here's a cheat sheet:



Building A is the same as the building in the first photo I posted. It's half our apartment building (Watergate South) and half an office building. Building B is the Watergate Hotel. Building C is the office building that was the site of the infamous break-in. The building to the right of C is the Watergate West apartment building, and to the left of C is the Watergate East apartment building. For you Watergate scandal junkies out there, the building across the street from C used to be a Howard Johnson's. In room 723, Watergate conspirators monitored the phones they had bugged at the DNC, and acted as look-outs for the burglars who were captured on June 17th, 1972. It's now a graduate dorm for George Washington University. I snuck inside with some friends one night last year to take a look at the room. There is, in fact, a plaque in front of a room on the 7th floor, with some vague message about something important that took place in the room. (I'll get a photo of it one day and post it).

So the geek in me is happy now in two ways. First, I got to see my apartment building on one of my favorite shows. Second, the geeky nit-picker in me feels satisfied after writing this blog post. And the X-files Watergate gaff was no where near as frustration as other DC misrepresentations in film and TV. Remember the West Wing episode with the Georgetown metro stop?

My worst nightmare . . . Look what I've become!

The first step was last August when I traded in my cute little hatchback for an SUV. The next was buying a house in the suburbs. Then I started "doing the books" for my husband's small business. I had a feeling something was wrong but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then my own mother pointed it out - I am becoming the stereotype of the American suburban housewife.


NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!


So what's next? Knitting club? (Sorry Rooney and Ann!) Gardening? Pilates class? Junior League?!?

Now granted our house in the 'burbs is actually a super cool ultra modernist house that I plan on throwing lots of parties at. (Okay, so they will mostly be dinner parties, which is pretty suburban housewifey, but I will not be cooking the food myself, and we will be sitting on Panton chairs.) And the "doing the books" thing is only one day a week. My SUV . . well . . . it's to haul around our yellow lab and our soon-to-get second dog. (Okay that's digging my hole deeper. At least Jenny's not a labradoodle, then I would be in serious trouble.) And my book club is reading my feminist sci-fi recommendation this month.

I really need to put on an obscure indie rock bank t-shirt and some funky sneakers, head over to Tryst in Adams Morgan, sip an espresso drink contemplatively while I engage a stranger in a discussion of Judith Butler. And then I'll come home, walk the dog, watch something on the TiVO with my husband, and go to bed by 10pm.

Shit! Not only am I turning into a suburban housewife, I'm also getting old and boring!

I'm glad my friend Ann is taking me to the New Pornographers' show in a few weeks. I can reclaim some street cred then. All I have to do now is figure out how I'm going to stay awake that late the night of the show.

Shun the non-believer

I know this video has been around for a while. Over 20 million people have already watched it on YouTube. However, I just saw it for the first time last week and I can't get the damn thing out of my head. It's either the dumbest viral video ever or pure filmmaking genius . . . or perhaps a bit of both.

So without further adieu, here's Charlie the Unicorn:



P.S. If you really want to show you're Charlie love, buy some of the official merchandise.

I'm like a cat chasing a laser pointer

The Wall Street Journal had a really interesting article giving a possible evolutionary biological explanation for web addiction.

The article discusses a series experiments with the researcher, Dr. Biederman, concluding that:

". . . coming across . . . new and richly interpretable information triggers a chemical reaction that makes us feel good, which in turn causes us to seek out even more of it. The reverse is true as well: We want to avoid not getting those hits because, for one, we are so averse to boredom."

Why is this information unique to the web generation, because:

"For most of human history, there was little chance of overdosing on information, because any one day in the Olduvai Gorge was a lot like any other. Today, though, we can find in the course of a few hours online more information than our ancient ancestors could in their whole lives."

So there's actually a scientific explanation for why I have to read the new blog entries in my Google reader every morning. I feel much better now since there's an evolutionary reason behind it. Now if I can only get someone to pay me money to spend hours reading interesting stuff online . . .

My career/life crisis - HELP!

As many of you know, I'm currently writing my dissertation for a Ph.D. program in political science at George Washington University. Or at least that's supposed to be what I'm doing. I should have been finished with the dissertation by now. I've been my program for five years and finished my comprehensive exams over two years ago. (I keep making myself feel better with the statistic that the average Ph.D. in the U.S. takes 6 years. However, I came in with a Masters' degree from the LSE plus a year in the Ph.D. program at Ohio State. In other words, I have no excuse for not being done.) I've gone through multiple dissertation topics. Currently, I am writing on my fourth. I haven't actually held a position at the University over a year (in the past I've been a teaching assistant, research assistant, and worked for a journal). So I have had nothing to do for the past year but write. However, I just can't seem to do it. I just can't write a dissertation and I don't know why.

First problem - I do admit that I am a giant procrastinator. I was the person in undergrad who wrote papers the night before. Since I'm a very good researcher and paper writer (I don't think it's too egotistical to admit that), I could get away with it and get good grades. I also did very well in graduate courses, even with putting off the reading until the day before. That's because I'm also quite good at explaining the main ideas in readings and being able to criticize them (an important skill for graduate students). But now I have no deadlines, no professors looking over my shoulder, no final grade to be made. All I have is the vague notion that I need to write what is equivalent to a book within the span of a few years. That is the death-knell for a mega-procrastinator like myself.

Second problem - I hate political science. I've been slowly realizing this over the past few years. When I left the Ph.D. program at Ohio State, I seriously considered applying to Ph.D. programs in cultural anthropology. Instead, I came to DC and worked at the UN. While that made me realized I needed to be in academia, for some reason I decided to return to political science. I guess I figured I already knew political science and had invested time into it already, so I could finish my Ph.D. quicker. Boy was I wrong! I also overestimated my ability to tolerate being at the margins of the discipline. Sure, I've met a great community of folks who share my "alternative" perspective on the discipline, but I am sick of having to justify my approach and interests all the time. And if I got an academic job in political science, most of my teaching would have to conform to mainstream of the discipline, which don't agree with.

Third problem - I hate politics. Even if I could suck it up and accept my status as "outside the mainstream," I am just not that interested in the subject matter of politics any more. I think I jut burned out. I was so intensely into politics and international relations through high school and undergrad, that I think I used up all my interest in those areas. So even if I found a great teaching position with a department sympathetic to my perspective on the discipline, I would still have to teach about substantive topics related to politics.

Fourth problem - I really don't have to work. I don't to talk about this publicly, but I will mention it now. (Why do blogs make you feel like you can write things you normally wouldn't say?) I have family money. I will not starve or be living on the streets. I have lived comfortably for the past 15 years since I left home on inheritance. I have been seriously thinking about this of late. If I was broke like (almost) every other graduate student, would I be done by now? And if I had to have made all my own money, would I have chosen academia as my career? I'm not criticizing my family for the financial choices they made. I have gotten to have some amazing experiences because of the flexibility of my financial position. But I can't help thinking "what if?" especially in this time of crisis.

The bottom line - I'm almost 33 years old and I feel like I've never really had a career or done anything meaningful in my life that was work-related.

So what are my options?

Academically, my sympathies lie more in cultural studies. So I could start a new Ph.D program in something like American Studies. I am fascinated by the academic study of popular culture, and I personally consume quite a lot of it (a.k.a. I watch too much TV). Right now, my political science dissertation is on the influence of the globalization of American culture on international politics. I also have an interest in the cultural aspects of interior design and modernism. (Interesting research question - what does the way someone decorated their house say about their identity? What image are they trying to project and how does this interact with broader cultural movements?) I could study both of these in an American Studies program. Also, my Mom has done academic work in American Studies and writes about folklore and legends. I could collaborate with her if I switched to this field. George Washington and Maryland have well-regarded American Studies departments, and George Mason has an intriguing-looking program in Cultural Studies. I could adjunct in political science while I was working on the new Ph.D. for some extra moo-lah. The big question is whether I could get a handle on my procrastination if I was researching something I truly found interesting?

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have a secret desire to be an archaeologist. I could start a new graduate degree in that field. Maryland and UVA have anthropology programs where one can emphasize on archeology. Of course, this could just be a silly childhood fantasy. But if the academic side didn't work out, I could always do cultural resource management or work at a museum.

Also mentioned in a past blog entry is my secret desire to have a career in modernist interior design - not as an academic but as an actual designer or buyer. I certainly don't have the background to enter most graduate programs in the area. However, the Corcoran College of Art + Design has a certificate in interior design. I get that and try to get a job at a design firm or furniture store.

I've always thought I would be very, very good at being a lawyer. I'm very logical, methodical and good at arguing and critical thought. The main reason I never considered law school is because when I was in grade school, every day when my dad got home he asked me "how was law school today?" (Did no one ever explain to him the concept of reverse psychology?!?) It's not like he ever seriously pressured me to go to law school, but he's a lawyer and he probably recognized I would make a good one too. (We have always argued like cats and dogs!) So I could do to one of the many law schools in the area and get a job as an attorney. The upside is I could actually make decent money on my own, which would be quite psychologically rewarding given my dilemma regarding the family money situation. There's also a lot of areas of the law that interest me - immigration, civil rights, reproductive rights, gender/sexuality equality, etc. I could even teach law school. But what happens if I hate it? How can I be sure I won't?

Finally, I could get the kind of "real" job people with graduate degrees in political science and international relations get. Think tanks, policy research groups, hell . . . even an analyst position at the CIA. Part of me just wants to give in and do this. But would I be happy in the "real world"?


So, friends, please weight in. What in the frak should I do with my life??? Should I finish the Ph.D in political science and then move on or just chuck it all now? And what should I do next if I ditch political science? And am I a total crazy, whiny, looser for not getting off my ass and being a lazy grad student for all these years?

If Saul Bass did the Star Wars opening credits

Sorry my postings have been less frequent lately. I have a conference coming up where I'm presenting a paper, so I've been forced to spend my days actually doing work. Ugh!

I came across this video last week and have been meaning to post it. It's a super-coolio video project by a film school student. He/she did the Star Wars opening credits in the style of Saul Bass. Saul Bass was a filmmaker and graphic designer who is know for this paper-cut out style. He did the opening sequence for films such as Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, Anatomy of a Murder, and It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World.

This has already made the rounds online, so sorry if some of you may have already seen it.

THS debate biatches weekend

This weekend I will be hanging out with five women that I have know since high school. We all met through debate. Yes, we were complete debate geeks or MASTERdeBATORS as was the joke. The "sport" was dominated by men for decades, and when we were in high school in the early 90s, gender equality in debate was almost, but not quite, there. So an entire debate squad dominated by kick-ass women was still unusual. And we were oh so completely kick-ass. Debaters from other school trembled in fear when they heard they were hitting some of the Topeka High School biatches. We also weren't afraid to look good as well.

We all went on to do interesting things with our lives. Ann worked at the Washington Post for years before switching careers to become an urban planner. She's in a Master's program right now. Erin 1 (we actually call her by her last name but I don't want to post that online) is a chemical engineer who received her MBA a few years ago. Erin 2 (we also call her by her last name) worked for various think tanks and policy research groups around DC as a web designer and communications person until leaving that life to get her Master's in education so she could teach high school English - and be the debate coach (oh, irony!). She recently made another career switch to home/life organization guru (with a website and blog in a major magazine) while completing a graphic novel on the side. Jenn did her BA & MD in 6 years and is now a doctor with a hospitalist specialization. Laurell is our resident hippie do-gooder, working for an urban gardening project with inner city kids. She's also the mother of a wonderful 8-year old. And I am an overeducated graduate student, as you all know.

Since we were all debaters, needless to say we are all strong, intelligent, opinionated and argumentative women. It can be a bit intimidating when we're all in a room together. Certainly with our personalities we all don't agree with each other all the time, and can have our rows. However, I know all six of us will be there for one another for the rest of our lives. If something tragic happens (god forbid), these are the people I call first (after my husband and parents, of course). They will not stop caring about me even if I do something incredibly stupid. They may give me their opinions, advice, tell me I'm being stupid, etc., but in the end they will always love me no matter what. It's rare to find a friend like this and I've found five. We are all so lucky.

So this weekend we're all meeting up in DC (which is convenient since three of us live here), getting a hotel room downtown, and partying all weekend. Even though we're all serious women in our 30s with careers, families, etc., we can still let lose and go crazy every once and a while. So if you see a group of intelligent, beautiful, 30-something women out this weekend acting totally inappropriately and drunk off their asses, you know you're come across the THS debate biatches!