June 16, 1997

OK, so I'm feeling a little bit better today. We looked at houses in Reston again, but this time I know that I can actually afford to live in a nice house there. This does not mean that I won't be subject to free-floating angst througout the summer months. Hell, the weather will be enough to put me in a funk. Today, however, is a lovely day, and driving here with the top down really cheered me up considerably.

Of course, all this house buying stuff is contingent on our ability to come up with a down payment. Actually, that's always been my problem with the house buying stuff. Our income will qualify us for a lot more house than I was expecting, but the more house, the more cash you need to come up with.

On Friday evening, I wanted a beer worse than I have in I don't know how long. More than that, I wanted somebody to bring it to me, and that requires going out. We like Hawk & Dove more than most things in DC, so we went there. On the way, I had one of those revelations that one sometimes has. I've finally gotten to the point where I don't care who likes my goddamn nose ring. Fuck 'em, I say, if they place that much value on appearance (I have a light guage 3/8" nostril ring. You can't even see it in the picture on my bio, so it's pretty subtle). You see, I had a bad experience with someone at NASA (not a civil servant, for the record, but another contractor with much more time in than I) and the ring, and since then, I've been really concerned what it makes authority figures think of me. Well, I know I'm smart, and I know I'm a good employee, and if the ring is a deterrant, then I probably don't want to work there anyway. As it turned out, leaving that contract at NASA was the best thing I could have done for my career in DC because it afforded me a great opportunity that I would have missed.