19-XII-2000.
I'm still looking for a different job, seeing how Zero is sinking under the burden of the Borg engine and the whole „m$ is god“ mantra. Scheduled an interview with some guy in Crystal City - which is the DC version of Novi Beograd, new city on the other side of the river. The big maneuver is that I took a day off because „it's my fucking slava“ (yeah, right), and then planned a trip to DC with Nina to see Go and Ricardo. He still didn't tell his dad that they got married (we only heard a couple of weeks ago), and I was to be to show up on their side. I'd do the interview first, then go visit them. Here's the instructions from the guy:
„If you are inbound on I-66 East, take the second Rosslyn exit. It will propell you towards the Pentagon (Potomac River side). Continue on this route past the Pentagon on your right which will lead you to Route 1 (Jefferson Davis Highway) which is the main roadway in Crystal City. Move over to the left lane as you can and make a left turn at the 2nd traffic
signal. This will be 23rd street, proceed one block to next signal (Crystal Drive). Go straight across this intersection into the entrance driveway for the underground parking garage. Enter into the Hourly Parking area, it will cost you $4 or $5 per hour.“
I found the place alright, the route wasn't complicated. The garage, ummm... tight. I kept watching for crumpled bumpers and decided that these guys must be some skilled drivers. Considering how they never really had to learn to drive in tight spaces, this is America and everything is bigger and all the driving space is fit to accept SUVs and trucks, this was admirable.
I think I left Nina in the car. Somehow I keep forgetting she was there, probably because she wasn't on the pictures. Got up there, and everything went by as the guy said it would. I saw that he'd like to have me onboard, he knows about me, probably from UA (where else), and I don't really need to have a security clearance as my work would be mostly away from the data, so that a shipyard working mostly for the navy being the customer is not an obstacle. But... several things put me off. First, the building. Them being in this glass cage (as are all the buildings in the street, that's why both the street and the area are called Crystal... probably because glass is not a crystal), where there's zero space for smoking - you need to go down and out to have one, passing through at least some security each time (they all have a touch card on a leash around their necks), then the rooms with any windows being reserved probably for managerial staff only - I haven't seen any view while there - and, worst of all, they use vpm. That put me off completely, I was hoping to get into some place where I'd never see it again. So when he gave me an application form to fill, instead of 70K$, what Burt (who told me of this and recommended me to the guy) estimated would be best hit, I asked for 80$. If I'd have to eat all that shit, I want it to pay.
Anyway, Jack recommended to stay with Zero by the end of the month anyway. For 80K$, it'd be worth the risk.
Then I don't know how we met Go and Ricardo - did she come with us? Probably did, because..
Then we drove to Jose's place, in some apartment somewhere inside the beltway, few miles south of Pentagon - that'd be not DC but Alexandria, in some mix of low level novogradnja, with apartments not higher than three floors. That's as high as can be done on wood and plasterboard alone, without involving more concrete than just the slab on which to lay it all. And there they told him that they got married.
There wasn't much of a scene. Jose took it in his stride, wished them luck, they had a drink (I still had to drive 100 miles home) and then I took two of them to Georgetown, looking for a community college where they'd continue their studies.
Don't know how we shot this, probably with a 10 second delay and Agfa parked on something doubling as a tripod. The jacket I'm wearing is still the old one that her uncle handed me down after that wedding in 1990. Wore it also a year ago while we were traveling from home to here. [nope, Nina shot that]
In the end it will turn out to be NoVa, which we didn't find that day, me getting lost in the narrow streets of the cute old town. Parked in some garage, and we just walked around, ate something, they checked a few things here and there and then on our way back found a neat place under some bridge, a forgotten hole where only some garbage and kayaks were stacked, and took some pictures of each other.
This was after trying to find our way through Georgetown, which was like a different city - somehow all southern and narrow and not as ordered as the DC itself. Weird, and likewise hard to find a place to leave the car (the garage saved us), this is how we ended here.
Then I left them somewhere to grab a train (i.e. subway) and I drove home. Some snow started falling, and while the day is somewhat longer than at home, I still caught dark before I was half way home. New tires, however, and there was no problem, I drove about 50mph most of the way and got home without any trouble.
The next day Joška was supposed to visit my folks, but his son got sick so he was taking him to dispanzer. Supposed to redo on 21st, in the evening, when they're scheduled to have electricity.
Dad writes that SPS (Sloba's party) took ownership of the komitet building, pretending that it belonged to the communist party, of which they claim are inheritors. But it was built from city's money, ie. we all can claim a share of it. If some day someone sues them for renting out others' property, that's gonna be a big process. [which did happen many years later, they lost the building but kept the money].
Mentions: Agfa, dispanzer, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jack Baran sr, Jose Bariero, Joška Apro, komitet, Majkrosoft (m$), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), novogradnja, Reginald Burton Cape (Burt), Ricardo Manuel Bariero (Ricardo), slava, UbiquAgora (UA), VPM, Zero Distance (Zero), in serbian