In an effort to write something interesting from my DC visit on Tuesday and Wednesday, may I present, the transcript of a conversation I had with a cab driver at 2am in the morning:
BM: 12th street, I forget the number…
Driver: Is it the Shlomo building? (names and numbers changed for security purposes)
BM: It is actually, how did you guess that?
Driver: You’re talking to a human GPS, plus no one is left in this town and thats the only building that might have people.
BM: Everyone went home for vacation? No one lives nearby?
Driver: Man, you are talking to the only guy you’ll meet during your entire visit who is actually DC born and bred. Nobody is actually from this town.
BM: So they come here from all the corners of the country, why? the romanticism of being the nations capital?
Driver: It’s jobs. JOBS. This place is an economic engine on a scale you won’t find anywhere else.
BM: But there are unemployed people, right?
Driver: You’d have a hard time staying unemployed in this town, there’s simply too much work available. Even those who want to start their own business, this is the place to do it.
BM: So twice a year this place empties out and you’re left alone here?
Driver: I tell you where my place is, I save up vacation time, and I go directly to Rio de Janeiro, that’s my place. And I ain’t talkin days or weeks, I go for months at a time, I do it right….. well here’s the shlomo building…
BM: Thanks man. And hey, enjoy Rio when the time comes.
Driver: I will. And you should get down there soon, if you’ve never been.
BM: Absolutely. Cya.