DC is a place where you find yourself, more often than not, under cover. Whether it's dashing from shaded sidewalk to awning-covered entrance, or splashing through reflective puddles of rainwater beneath the wished-for-protection of an umbrella, DC is a place where under is better.
And if under is better, "under the weather" says it all. Whether sneezing from the local allergies brought on by a higher than normal pollen count or coughing from some germ that managed to send the entire office to bed in waves of feverish misery, living in DC is also synonymous with "under the weather".
Chilling goosebumps that follow your every movement until the dampness in your hems and shoes finally dries in the late afternoon of a long day. Humidity in both cold and hot temperature extremes. Dripping trees that offer less than optimum protection from the rain. Gray clouds that quietly roll in to wrap themselves around you and the tall gray buildings around you in their insidious attempt to claim your soul. And of course, what DC is best known for, the strange bed partners in power plays and immoral relationships who spend time undercover under covers in DC.
And DC really could claim your soul. It wouldn't be the first time it's happened. Power and lust and egos reign in this place. They reign and it rains.
Damp basement parking garages built under the office buildings above. Long trench coats flapping around your calves and transforming your smooth, professional appearance to one of someone under cover as you splash through the muggy gray.
DC is not my favorite city, of that I am sure. And I don't think that will change. I have a lot to learn and see and experience in this area filled with history, cloaked with mystery and filled with people, things and places that might be best left undercover,and I am excited to get on with it.
Truth be known, and this is a recently discovered affinity of mine, but I love sloshing through the streets of DC in my trench coat and galoshes. I like being undercover, to be one of the thousands on DC sidewalks that appear to be sleuthing along the sidewalks.
That being said, right now, I really do want to be undercover. Under covers that is. Clean sheets and layers of quilts. Warm, dry, safe, calm. No busy streets or trench coat or damp socks. Or tall gray buildings. Just dry warmth. And quiet.
Under covers in DC. Or DC(undercover).
There's really not much difference when you think about it.
Then again, there really is.
