Sluggy Freelance is doing a fantastic job skewering WoW in his recent Chapter titled Years of Yarncraft. Not that I don’t like MMOs, but strips like this morning’s remind me why sometimes I don’t miss them.

Someone needs to turn this statement into a t-shirt and more people need to write this down as some sage wisdom.

I can’t decide if no one who has a boring desk job should think about the first 10-15 minutes of “Wanted” before going to work… or if everyone who has same should. Today just feels like one of those days. Reaching for the call button inside the elevator, my finger was nearly introduced to a crawling insect of some kind — way to go beating that pest problem, condo board. I’m breaking in a pair of new shoes, they aren’t really cooperating yet and b-b-baby, I can’t wait for them to be just a bit more comfortable. It’s hot and muggy out and my dry-cleaned shirt was reduced to a nearly-damp mess within the 5-minute walk to the metro station. And after standing in line for 10 minutes at Starbucks, I realized that it wasn’t moving forward and was only getting longer behind me so I gave up. I’ll have to find a way to caffeinate my system later before I completely crash.

Happy Thursday!

Interesting article in the Washington Business Journal reflecting the queer exodus from Dupont and surrounding areas. It talks to Dave Perruzza, owner of the primary 17th St bars, and David Franco, owner of Universal Gear that recently moved to a new location on 14th St.

At the time, Universal Gear’s owner, David Franco, told a local newspaper that Universal Gear’s departure would be the “nail in the coffin” for 17th Street. From his corporate offices just up 17th Street, Franco now says it was simply the right move. “We saw the eastward movement over the past five years,” Franco said.

“We used to know how well we were doing by the number of Safeway bags our customers would store behind the counter,” Franco said. “As time went on, we saw fewer and fewer Safeway bags, because people weren’t shopping there — they were shopping at Whole Foods.”

After gay migration, 17th Street seeks a new identity

What’s interesting to me is that this article completely disregards what most people consider Dupont, as in the actual area around the metro stop and stretching down P Street towards Rock Creek Park. That area still does a fair amount of business, but aside from the dance club, it gets treated as “yesterday’s Dupont.” 17th Street was merely the first to benefit from a migration, and now they’re getting left behind as the gays keep moving.

If you think the scoreboard is busy, you should sit through a game! It was a really fun time though. When I told some friends I was invited to a Nats game they all said, “What the hell do you know about baseball?” To which I countered, “Who cares, they have a suite!”

Before I start rambling on, it was really good to meet some of the TMG Strategies social media people and meet/see the bloggers behind:

• Somewhat Frank
• D.C.Girl@TheMovies
• V.U.B.O.Q.
• ShallowGal

Standing in the Will Call line, twice, makes me think that the park really needs to figure out a way to print validated pre-paid tickets at home. The line was 1/4 as long at the “purchase now” line about 40 mins before game time, and it was over 1/2 as long at 10 mins prior and they really weren’t moving people through quickly. Also a lot of people in the Will Call line thought it was the Purchase line and had to be sent back.

Once inside, the smell of the ballpark is unmistakable… no.. wait.. that’s not the ballpark, that’s… FOOD! And way more than the usual ballpark fare. Thankfully I’d had a small snack before leaving the house, so I wasn’t tempted, but after hearing so many complaints about the price of stuff at the park, I can understand why — the will to resist the goodies has got to be shot after getting a whiff. And that’s just the main (2nd) entry level, when you head up to the 3rd level with the deck seating and suites, it’s like a completely different world. Air-conditioning, bars (that oddly resemble airport bars/eateries), cocktail bars (I had to giggle when one of their signature cocktails was a Dirty Queen) and good sampling of concession stands, again with the intoxicating aroma that seems to say, “Game? What game? You look hungry!”

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Just back in from my first game at Nationals Park, that’s a pretty amazing stadium. A local firm TMG Strategies invited a few DC area bloggers to enjoy the game in their suite. Aside from a little hiccup between my propensity for showing up early to things and them getting stuck in traffic, I was waiting for a while outside the park and didn’t get to explore as much as I’d like, but I’d go back.

While I was waiting, I sent to twitter:

This is at least ONE place in DC I’m unlikely to run into an ex. Or anyone else I know, for that matter.

Well wouldn’t you know that I was wrong, not just running into one, but they were also a guest in the suite, fun! More about my evening tomorrow, it’s past my bedtime!