Weekend Adventure #1: Quest for Art & Culture
I took an excursion today.
I don’t know how you DC metro people do it! People drive even crazier here than they do in Atlanta! And then all the narrow streets, roundabouts…one way streets…
When I finally got to the place I wanted to go, all I wanted to do is take a nap!
So the master plan today was to get some decorations and paint samples to muck around with. I was avoiding the actual city of DC because I didn’t want to go by myself, but I thought, “why not? It could be an adventure!”
I looked up some African book stores and art places and off I went!
So I’m driving along looking at the sings pointing to Langley, NSF, Pennsylvania Ave…saw the Washington Monument poking out behind some trees…and I get to this street called M Street….
Da hail…
It was narrow as hail and jammed packed with 535 million cars trying to turn and do whatever else. I was like…”ummm…”
It was bad enough that stores I’d only heard about kept catching my eye (H&M etc…) It was like there were tons of things to look at, but I had to pay attention to where I was going since the streets have those side street lights instead of the ones hanging over the streets….
I’m sure I ran a red light or two…(though I hope not)…
Then came the first roundabout…
I was like ISHT! I didn’t know they had these in America!!!
I was terrified that I’d get caught in the center lane, but luckily traffic had thinned out so it was much easier to move around…I careened around and continued on my way.
After a few close calls, I made it to a shop called Zawadi. There were some really nice handcrafted pieces there. Ms. Irene, the shop owner, was very regal looking…she stood very straight and radiated this queenly aura…I was a bit intimidated, but she was very helpful. She helped me pick out some nice things for my dining room:
Zimbabwe (baskets), Kenya (placemats), and the Congo (Kuba Cloths) are represented here. Those squares are the colors I’ll be painting the room.
I gave Ms. Irene my information just as a new person in the area and she said she’d send me the name of some of her contacts. I’ll definitely be going back there…as soon as I get the nerve to drive again…
