Starbucks at Eastern Market near 7th and G

Features: It's the same on most corners.
Website: www.starbucks.com
Drink: Dark Roast, black, no sugar, and an Odwalla Citrus C monster

It was at Starbucks back home that my closest friend and I talked for five solid hours before I boarded the plane the next day to take the town here in DC. I miss her so much. It's rare that you find that great friend who knows what you're thinking before you say anything.

We text daily.

I will definitely miss her and many other friends' graduation ceremonies this May. It was a hard decision to take this opportunity. However, I had to convince myself that graduation is the last thing to look forward to in the cycle of collegiate study and to commit to experiencing as many career oriented programs as possible, especially while I have university support. This opportunity couldn't hurt. It just postponed graduate school, not my life. Plans changed, not my intentions. My priorities changed and I allowed myself, and my heart, to follow.

This week has been very reflective. I've learned the most about myself every day just since the last time we spoke. What did I do? What happened? Well, I definitely exposed myself to quite a bit of art that dealt with issues about the human experience and I too experienced something new.

Last weekend I went to the Rosslyn Theatre where I saw a silent production of Romeo and Juliet by Synetic Theatre. I didn't think I would be artsy enough to get it, but I totally did and really enjoyed it. The production wasn't exactly completely silent. An electro music technician was involved in creating atmospheric sounds for everything happening on stage. The sounds, of course, were pre-recorded, but they had to happen at just the right time to make the scene work and accompany the actors on stage. Check out the DCist review.

The Clarice Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland hosted the 25th Annual Choreographers' Showcase. The choreographers competed to get into this competition. I particularly enjoyed a piece involving only one dancer. The choreography created a sense of paradox between the world of our work lives and the intimacy that we experience alone. This was most represented in a segment where the dancer placed a suitcase on the ground and looked inside where a video camera displayed her image on a scrim behind her. So, as she's looking into this suitcase, you see an enlarged version directly behind her. I don't know, I just thought it was really brilliant. It said to me that we look to live as we live to work. Do you get me?

Only this past Wednesday (02/06/08) co-workers of mine and I headed up Pennsylvania Ave. to catch a free (yes, free) dance performance at the new Shakespeare Theatre. Their concert series is every Wednesday offering performances from contemporary music groups to poetry readings. This particular performance featured traditional Indian dance betwixt several contemporary pieces. Indian dance would be great for the youth. The dance tradition is a mixture between an early form of dance technique and simple storytelling. The dancers became various characters in Indian mythology.

Just from a few days, one can get exhausted attempting to see all of what DC has to offer artistically. I'm going to miss this educational prism. No matter where I look there is some type of culturally enlightening experience waiting for me to take advantage.

What I meant earlier about learning about myself had to do with my first ballet class. Yes, that's right. I took a beginner's ballet class at the Capitol Hill Workshop at Eastern Market. I needed to do something that I felt was for me and for just the sake of learning something new. As a clarinetist attempting to survive in an extremely competitive job market, I can easily say that I have had somewhat of a psychological revamping. In this field, you cannot be mediocre. There is no exception. To survive as an artist of any medium, perfection, and excellence is always the goal. Our performance teachers tell us that daily. Let me preface that by saying this is a great tool for success in other fields. Imagine if you went to a basketball game and 9 players performed at maybe 75% accuracy. Now put that statistic in a concert where 9 musicians played only 75% of the right notes. Would that be acceptable? We would allow for some artistic "of the moment" mistakes, but generally speaking, it's not just overlooked.

Back to how this relates to my taking the ballet class. This environment was comfortable because it had to accept my failure. I walked into the room with absolutely no clue what I was about to get into. Initially I kept staring at myself in the mirrors laughing at how ridiculous I looked. I caught myself thinking that I was a fake. I thought that I needed to stop, that I should be doing something else, that I shouldn't be there. After twenty minutes I began having fun, smiling, and well, living. I plan to study ballet through the rest of the semester.

I suggest you start doing something you have no knowledge about. You'll learn something new and most importantly learn about yourself.

…my cup is empty.