Today, tired from a long day and dealing with some hard things, I was once again impressed with what a difference my New Place makes in my life. It seemed like the last thing I wanted to do–to go exploring–when I came home from the hospital at the end of the day, but it turned…
“Are you in real estate?” the builder asked me after I asked to look around inside the burnt out old row house he was renovating. “No, I’m just a curious person,” I said. That was enough to get me inside this big, beautiful house on my street. It had been destroyed by fire two years…
For almost two years, I have been driving by American University three times a week, on my way to the hospital and never been on the campus. Only this year, with my One New Place project, have I stopped and explored (See Jan 25 ONP and April 3 ONP). Today, I went across Nebraska Avenue…
This is the second U.S. Post Office I have explored for my ONP project. I guess I’m starting a One New Place “Post Office Series.” Think about it: They are free, ubiquitous, and you can blend errands and exploration all in one stop. Plus, an anthropologist would have a field day analyzing the differences…
It’s funny: Even though I live in a big city, so much of my time is spent in the same neighborhoods–where I work, where I live, where I go for my healthcare and hospital. It can seem a bit like an exotic trip to go into another neighborhood. I get kind of excited about it!…
Today’s New Place continues our “Pools of DC” series, as well as our “Dog Parks of DC” series–a little something for everybody! In fact, as I was standing with Lola in the dusty dog prison, er . . .I mean park, begrudging the people lounging at the pool next door, I wondered if anybody would…
These days, I am more likely to accept invitations that take me to New Places than I am other invitations. So when a friend invited me to “France” to watch the World Cup quarter-final match, I suddenly became a soccer fan! (Not really, but it was a ticket in and fun anyway). The best…
I was actually headed to another New Place today, but when I pulled onto this side street to park, it seemed so nice (and new!) that I decided it would be my New Place for the day. Newark Street is a short, sweet street, only one block long, but with an elementary school (and…
I often think of seeing New Places as adding prepositions into your life: Instead of going straight ahead, you go into, inside, beside, behind, the places in your routine life. (I have come to call this practice “going deep”). Well, today I added some new propositions (up and on top of ) and “went high”—onto the…
Library Day! We have a brand, spanking new library in Cleveland Park—just opened, so I undertook an exploration of that. It’s pretty slick—makes our old Cleveland Park Library seem like such a sad little Cinderella in retrospect. Take a look—two floors, separate kids’ room, second floor loft overlooking the big open entrance area, and…