NOVA Days and Nights

We're back from our whirlwind sojourn to the Nation's Capitol.

As noted before these trips make us nostalgic for our previous life there in the late 1990's.

We lived just across the Potomac in Arlington. Boy has the region built up since we left in 2001. When we moved there back in '95 the now highly built up Route-1, or Jefferson Davis Highway, was mostly lined with old rail-yards and empty fields.

We lived off Route-1 for about a year until we discovered our roommate was a habitual liar and actually steeling from us.

Later we got a condo with our college buddy, the afore mentioned Paul, who still lives down there and is a lobbyist.

Those summers were hot, often topping a hundred, and humid, but the heat burned off at night leaving warm air tinged with a cool breeze. Often, becuase we were young we'd just hop into Paul's car and ride up 395. Paul was the designated driver, we the designated drinker. In those days we could open up a bottle of Tulimore, throw away the cap, share it with a friend and drive home stone cold sober.

This being say, 1996 we'd listen to Pearl Jam, or STP or Rage Against the Machine. Those rides felt like a movie montage. At night we'd drive to Heavy T's, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and hangout for a few hours. In those days you could park right next to the memorial. Later we proposed to our wife there.

We were attending a non-Jesuit University in Washington DC then, and in between classes we read all the history we could. Moving down there in '95 we discovered the Borders at Crystal City and saw just how many history books were actually available. These were the days before Amazon of course. This is when we discovered World War II, the Napoleonic Wars, 19th century Europe and a host of other topics.

In between classes and real jobs we lifeguarded during summers at our condo's pool complex. We were a certified life guard and licensed pool operator in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Usually we worked 10 hour days at $6.15 an hour. That was pretty good, actually as we worked 6 days a week. Also we were young and stupid and didn't care about things like real furniture. Our idea of a basement curtain was closing a blue blanket in the window. We're surprised our neighbors didn't complain.

Speaking of, a 40ish single woman lived next to us. She was tall and slender and had some kind of corporate job. She was blonde and real classy, you see and gardened in white, spandex shorts. Paul and I liked to think she wore actual stockings to work. We called her, 'the hottie'. God, she must have thought we were idiots.

Back at the swimming pool nobody really showed up for the first few hours and in the summer of 1998 we read most of the American Heritage History series.

We kept our pool clean and orderly. Word got around and our pool became popular with the mom-set. Daily a gaggle of 30ish moms gathered at the baby pool with their toddlers. As we could walk to the pool site we went whole days without actually wearing a shirt, we had no need for one. We were 24, tan and about forty pounds lighter and kept a set of dumbbells at the pool. Once, while walking away from the pool we heard one mom say to the other, 'Tempted?'