wondering
walking home from work on this near-90 degree day, and passing people who were exposing much more flesh than they really needed to be exposing, and spending 67% of my walk home wincing, i was reminded of something susan and i talked about in chicago. one day, probably while drunk (because as i remember the trip, i was drunk for 75% of the time), i said something to the effect of "godDAMN there are a lot of attractive people in this city." everywhere i looked i saw cute girls, cute guys, cute babies, cute old people. i wondered if it was just chicago that was particularly good looking, or if most cities were this way (my domestic travel is pretty limited to the east coast). susan turned to me very seriously and said "catherine. you must know. DC is a Very Ugly City."
now i wasn't sure this was true. i'm of the opinion that all of my female friends are, well, hotties, and the guys aren't terrible either. but maybe it's just that, having lived in the area all of my life except for my italy stint, i have become accustomed to the mediocrity that are the asymmetrical, pockmarked, flabby faces and bodies of the DC elite. i mean, i have long known that DC is an Unfashionable City (yglesias argued a while back that DC's reputation as an unfashionable city is merely due to unfortunate and excessive comparisons with NYC and LA; but have you SEEN how the boy dresses? he knows nothing, nothing!), but are we an Ugly City? a Fugly City, even? and if we are excessively ugly, why is that? i know our congressional representatives are nasty-looking, but their ugliness hasn't taken over the entire city, has it? i would think that the hotness of the southern belles and gentlemen that have invaded the city since the bushies took over would balance everything out. but it seems not...
