This city is full of planners. People that are jam packed with plans. I've struggled to find someone to grab a last minute drink with on many occasion because everyone is so busy. I myself have been way too booked. I hate it. Let's slow down. 

Last night I had too many things on my schedule. Tuesday is my weaving night-so I'm in the studio unless something else comes up that I just can't miss.  Little Salon often happens on Tuesday night, so if I go I'll either leave weaving early or go a little late. 

Last night I finished my weaving (well almost) so I got to Little Salon a bit late. 

By the time I got to Little Salon I had already missed the opening gallery time and musical performance. I came in just as Matthew Davis was presenting his nonfiction piece. It was moving-the space itself was moving. Waking into a home full of actual strangers, pouring a glass of wine and settling in to listen to a new art form is an amazing feeling.

Afterward I wandered a bit and found some familiar faces-people I had met through Little Salon or other similar things-and then got a space by the ultra-modern stove for the shadow puppet show.

i missed my friends. I missed the group of people I used to frequent this thing with and the friends I have in other places who will never experience this with me, or at least not anytime soon. They've since moved away (to where I moved here from, actually) or I've moved away from them. And maybe it's just now I'm realizing that they were they ones I'd call for a last minute beer. They'd be around to spend a lazy afternoon drinking multiple cups of coffee at multiple locations around the Mission and beyond. They'd sit in an eclectic coffee shop to study obscure essays and make friends with aspiring writers and actors and directors in Los Féliz. They'd get lost in the dark along the river on the outskirts of Bilbao with me because I had a hunch something interesting was just around the corner. They'd have time to spare and time to go on adventures. 

Or maybe it's just me. I moved to a place with super planned out people and have become one myself. I need more time to be able to get lost. You probably need more time to be able to get lost.

I know I'm not alone in these feelings-being both a part of something awesome and also missing all the awesomeness that has come before and all the people that made that happen. The only thing we can do is slow down. Stay in touch. And travel, often. But not too often that you aren't home enough to make those friends that will grab a last minute beer with you. I actually have those friends, it's the time I'm lacking. 

So here's my commitment to being more available - because saying DC is full of planners is just an excuse. 

If you didn't make it to little salon last night-here's what went on:  

  – Folk music byMaureen Andary, who will arrive armed with both a guitar and a ukulele– A display by DC-based literary magazine Barrelhouse, which will release a new issue in late March

– Puppetry by Christopher Broholm, who will combine puppets and human movement to perform a few scenes from a work-in-progress about Laika, the dog from the Sputnik II mission
– Photographs and video by Mimi d'Autremont, who will exhibit recent work on the Gallaudet University football team
– Nonfiction by Matthew Davis, who will read from a longer, multi-year piece about the Gallaudet University football team
– Craft chocolate samples (in both solid and liquid form) by Undone Chocolate, a DC-based craft chocolate company affiliated with our good friends at Union Kitchen.