Day 011 – WA DC

I slept on and off until 2PM today. Tina was out of the house for work by 8:30 and I could not escape the clutches of her convertible sofa bed and it’s blow mattress. Convertible sofa bed technology has come a long way.

I spent the rest of my time until meeting Tina and her friend Sue for tapas updating the blog and relaxing. I could feel my body fixing my sunburned lips, achy muscles and trying to oust the last bit of congestion left over from my cold. I don’t often use lip balm, but need to get in the habit of using something with a high SPF since I’m often biking into the sun for hours at a time.

We got our Tapas at a delicious restaurant called Estadio near Logan Circle. The food and conversation were great. Sue came over to the US from Brazil to improve her english by working at Yosemite National Park during the winter time. I can only imagine the culture shock coming from Rio to a US National Park covered in snow.  She liked it enough to stick around for a while and made her way to WA DC a few years ago.

We also talked about perception of the “other” and what it is like to have people ask, “where are you really from.” Tina grew up in the Seattle area, but was born in Vietnam – as Americana as anyone born in the US, but she does get the question a lot, which I can imagine is annoying. I assumed Sue was from the US since it took me a while to hear any accent as she spoke – she like to have fun with people by saying she is from Idaho or New Mexico or wherever and why not. I’m often assumed to be Jewish in New York City.

Two other things came up in our conversation that I want to look at – an online course that Sue took called Model Thinking. The idea is to make decisions on complex subjects by organizing information based on models as opposed to gut instinct or intuition. It is a way of accounting for personal bias in decision making in order to make better decisions. This could be really useful in looking at social and political issues.

The other thing was the book – What’s the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (WMK) by Thomas Frank. What interests me about the book is it’s look at conservatives that vote against their own self interest. Which is something I feel happens often when I listen to political rhetoric and see how people vote – working class conservatives that are against Obama Care, minimum wage increase, campaign finance reform, environmental regulation, etc. I’m lumping a lot of stuff together and purposely say “feel” because I really don’t know factually how true this is. I’m hoping WMK will provide me with some enlightenment. Tina has a copy she said she will loan to me.

Lastly, Tina and Sue both work for the World Resource Institute. Check out the website – they have been around since the early 80s and are working to help national governments implement ideas to improve urban life and protect the environment amongst other things.