90ish days of summer

I assure you, this blog is not dead, despite the fact that I haven’t posted anything in about two weeks.

The fact of the matter is, my photo internship at washingtonpost.com consumes the working week, and I’ve kept myself busy during the weekends. The problem is not a shortage of material. I have, in fact, about six photo entries and five other entries in queue. The problem is, the majority of those photos are not yet edited (some of them date back to late June, eek). As for the other entries — well, I’ll get to them! Cross my heart. Some of them will happen this week.

In the meantime, I’ve been accumulating material for a big potpourri post — basically, items that aren’t substantial enough to merit their own blog entry but that I’d nevertheless like to share with you. (Some of these are pettier than others.)

So, here’s some potpourri!

• Three weeks left, and lots still to do
  

I have about three weeks left in Washington, D.C. It’s amazing how quickly this summer has flown. Of course, there is still plenty of work to be done…

Namely, I have three somewhat large-scale projects I really need to complete. Two of them are in conjunction with the other photo-pod interns and other .com departments. Both require a lot of research, too. All I can say is, thank goodness for Google Docs.

The other project is more weather-dependent and not as urgent as the other two. It’s rather disconcerting to see that the weather forecast for the next two weeks involves some significant chance of thunderstorms — every single day.

• Metro etiquette — and other Metro notes
  

The Metro is an amazing Washington, D.C., institution. Without venturing into the various frustrations and annoyances that have resulted from the fatal June 22 collision on the red line, here are my general observations and thoughts.

First, escalators. I won’t touch the stand-on-the-right-walk-on-the-left rule that is so often violated especially when tourists flood the city in the summer. But it does amaze me that, when there is one escalator going up, one escalator going down and one escalator standing still (and all are open and accessible and go to exactly the same point), everyone takes the moving escalators. One trick I’ve learned: just walk up the still escalator. That way, I avoid the inevitable crowd of people jostling to get into the moving-upward escalator, and I can walk up faster than anyone on that crowded escalator.

Second — I love it when my train operator has flair. A train operator with flair will introduce the next station not as simply as “Next station is Rosslyn,” but rather as “Next station is Rosslyn, the last transfer point to the blue line and your first stop in the commonwealth of Virginia on the orange line.” What can I say? I appreciate it when people put in a little more effort.

Finally, the Metro is really a great place for people-watching. Not that I stand (or sit) and gawk at my fellow passengers… but it interest me to see if other commuters are prominently wearing their security/ID badges, donning flats or heels for the transit or featuring wedding/engagement rings on their left hands.

Why wedding rings? I don’t know. Don’t take this as an indication of my own relationship, please. It’s just something I always look for when I glance around before returning my attentions to my iPod and zoning out. Speaking of my iPod…

• I’ve become one of those people

For the longest time, I inexplicably and perhaps unreasonably took pride in the fact that I wasn’t one of those people — meaning, I had never been the person walking to class or going downtown while blissfully plugged into an iPod (or Zune, or whatever) and completely shut out from the rest of the world happening around him/her.

I’ve only had my iPod since last August, though.

But now I am one of those people. And I’ll admit, it’s made the hour-long (or more) commute between the house and the office much more bearable.

• For hire

Next semester, I am supposed to get a part-time job. According to my parents.

I’ll save that predicament for another blog entry.

In the meantime, four establishments near the house or my office have indicated via signs on their windows that they are hiring. These establishments are Summers Restaurant and the Cosi across the street from the Court House Metro station, as well as the DSW and a pho restaurant in downtown Silver Spring.

Given these establishments’ extreme proximity to the house or office, I would gladly hand in an application… except I have three weeks left.

• Fashion in the city

Earlier this summer, two of the video interns and I went to the Washington Post office in downtown D.C. to get photo credentials. On our way back to the MacPherson Square Metro station, Matt — who was walking between Elaine and me — said something that took me by surprise.

“You know what I’ve noticed as we’ve been walking? All the women are slowing down to look at you two, like they’re analyzing what you’re wearing.”

Elaine said she’d noticed that, too, as well as that D.C. women are pretty brand-conscious.

“Even more so than in New York?” I asked, incredulously.

“Oh yeah,” Elaine said. “In New York, everyone’s walking by you so fast; they’re not going to slow down and look at what you’re wearing. But the women here in D.C. are going to look.”

Perhaps ironically, I’ve since been more attentive to what people are wearing to work and leisure. I’m also thankful that the expectations in the .com newsroom are “business casual,” even though we photo pod interns rarely wear jeans or anything less dressy than a button-down shirt.

• Coming next: A photo blog post? Maybe? I hope so.

I have photos of our U.S. Capitol building tour, our beach weekend, our visit to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, our brief stop at Cunningham Falls State Park and the J Bar W Ranch Rodeo.

None of those photos has been edited. Yet.

That is my personal project for this week. Stay tuned.