I love DC Bar Folk, well, Sunday Folk

Posted on March 22, 2010 by Virginia Shaffer

Sundays are shaping up as easy breezy. With the patio out, I’m making a decent living, but it’s not as hectic as beer spewing Fridays and server sweat and tears.. Sundays are quaint, mid-30 folk that can hold their alcohol and search for good conversation. What age am I again? ha..

Last night I met my role model. A young woman who graduated school and immediately left to go to Venezuela (she followed a boy there!). She was there the year that Chavez was elected. A year after the break up, she came home, and then went to LSE for grad school.

After London she went to India to work on a development program, and fell into the movement of Human Trafficking. She further worked in Laos, Nepal, Cambodia, and back in South America on the Abolitionist movement against Sex Slavery.

Last night we sat for 2 hours informing a local of what sex slavery even was, and his mind was blown. He had no idea of the magnitude of sex slavery, and his anger and frustration after the conversation made me content. The more that people know about sex slavery, the better the movement to stop it. Sure, it’s not such a great bar convo, but I’m sure at some point in his life when he overhears something on the topic he’ll be able to spread what we’ve told him, and that’s what counts.

Refer to my Bangkok Post for more information.

“I think some foreign men think it’s okay to pay for sex here in Thailand, as they think the girls actually want to do this. But these men don’t understand that most of us have no choice .” -Pim, former Bangkok sex worker (http://captivedaughters.org)

18th St.

Posted on March 16, 2010 by Virginia Shaffer

I’ve lived in Adam’s Morgan for the past 2 years… (Well, 1.5, considering Taiwan), and I’ve always been entertained by the calamity of the notorious and chaotic alcohol paradise of 18th St. NW. Rum and Cokes, loud music, Salsa dancing, live Reggae, Falafel and Jumbo Slice Pizza were always just a step out of my door and two blocks to the left.

Before this I worked as a Cocktail Waitress at Chi-Cha on U Street, another famous strip of complete raucous weekend sloshfests perpendicular to my new establishment, but left on terms of academics and the like before things really got wild. 18th St has always been a blur of people though–a hodgepodge of populous and unyielding twenty- and thirty-somethings, out to stray far from their 9-5 young professional lives or college atmospheres, all in the name of youth and freedom.

Anyways. I’ve just been hired at a relatively new bar in the area known for their excellent quality barely-pop selections. I don’t even drink beer (anyone who knows me can back that statement), so there little Virginia goes, recommending bottles that she has never heard of or tasted prior to 2 weeks ago. But I remind you all, that in Sales, it’s all in the art of persuasion. It’s all you need! (I swear I’m learning a TON though)

I’m hoping some stories will generate some random laughs on my posts.

Here are a few of my first favorites:

-This past weekend once the slow hours of the night hit and the bar was dwindling down, I had the longest conversation of my life with a genius who graduated from MIT and is a Nuclear Scientist. He was on his first date with a guy who was way too Bush league for him (A Church Glee Enthusiast, with a curfew of 9 on a weekend, no insightful or intelligent conversation, and a hater of Blink 182….How can you hate Blink 182!!)… I actually talked him out of going on a second date. I’m taking on the Hollywood “Wise Bartender” role well.

-I waited on a group of deaf people, which was my first experience with coming up with my own hand gestures for what “strong drink” entails. It went well–I pretended to walk in purposeful zig-zags to demonstrate the severe affects of the drink, and had them laughing hysterically at me and signing things I didn’t understand… haha).

-I have already found one of my favorite regulars. Last night, he was in the bar for a total of 7 hours drinking with friends. He was a Sous-Chef until he was in a bike accident last year. He’s still rehabilitating and hasnt been back to work yet. Last night he walked around the restaurant and waited on my tables, and then we randomly found him back in the kitchen downing his liter of Hofbrau and washing dishes like a maniac. He repeatedly turned around at us peeking in the doorway, yelling, “I GREW UP ON THIS!…. I GREW UP ON THIS!” He’s also a graffiti artist, but hates to be called the word “Artist.”

A great start.

Shifting Gears

Posted on March 10, 2010 by Virginia Shaffer

Hi Everyone,

I’m sending my heaviest apologies for not being a well-behaved blogger in the past…ehh… month (eek!). I have no reason for any of this, other than that I am having some inspiration issues. Now that I’m not out trekking the world or sunbathing on blissful islands I feel that I have a loss for what to inspire others on, and struggling to fill those gaps. My past month has been quite arid, depending on the way that you look at things. I’m plowing through weeks of coursework and job searching, burrowing in city cafes and spending all leisure time with close friends and not blogging, so, you tell me, what to write?

There are a few topics I’m juggling with, so if anyone has preferences, I’d love input. Here are the latest brainstorms:

-Enhancing my “Causes I Support” Section, with DC events, fundraisers, volunteer opportunities, & happy hour fun

-Reviews of places I frequent, i.e., those hole-in-the-wall cafes, mom & pop restaurants, and also the big shots

-Environmentalist issues that I’m in support of, incorporating good home techniques for sustainable living and cool green ideas

-The road to a better all around you (not that I’m perfect by a long shot), but over all small simple ways of improving life quality

-For more of a comical read, I was just hired as a bartender/server on DC’s most notorious bar strip–so this could involve some great story lines for blogging

-Any combinations, all of the above, or new ideas?

Since I am an amateur blogger, I’d like to ask the audience on this one, and see what works. I’ve got a lot of interests that always take me in several directions, so narrowing it down by popular opinion would be a blessing.

Thanks to all for any input!

Welcome to Snowtropolis!

Posted on February 6, 2010 by Virginia Shaffer

We’re getting about 3-4 feet over here. Things have just begun. DC is going under! The ladies and I tonight are facing the whistling winds of white blobs in conquest to find other human life on U Street. What a Bizarre !!!!!!

Language erased my punk rock lyric car-singing capabilities.

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Virginia Shaffer

Back in Wash and the winter weather is so ishy.

But, good things are going on here. I’m working my mind and keeping up with the times again, stimulating the other side of the brain that doesn’t deal with Mandarin (although I miss it!).

Here’s something funny. The other day I was cruising around in my old beat-up 96 honda civic with a black hood on a candy apple red car (thanks moo), and listening to a constantly skipping CD, Rooney, yah, great band. Well I used to know all of the words, right? But as of three weeks ago, they have fleeted from my mind like the money in my wallet for gasoline. And I assume, that the reason I am humming now is because there is no more capacity for me to store Chinese characters and Spanish Subjunctive conjugations and all the millions of punk song lyrics that used to turn on like a light switch. Semi-Charmed Kind of Life rap during the bridge? Gone. This is what I have must given up in my brain to become multi-lingual. Every now and then a word or chorus peeps out but I’m usually lost by the second word followed by long head bobs, unidentifiable pitch noises, and funky shoulder quirks.

I can’t believe this is what my brain thought was disposable, after all those high school years dedicated to crowd surfing, eyeliner, our all-girl band “Lipstick Lampshades” that lasted for a summer (of which i was the drummer– nothing but high-brow talent, of course), and making Converse Allstars wealthy S.O.B.’s.

Is this what getting old feels like?

Reverse Shock Primary Stage 1

Posted on January 25, 2010 by Virginia Shaffer

Missing Pia, Danielle, our little kitchen and Taipei 101 from the balcony, missing scooters, hotpot, shashimi and real dumplings.. missing the Taiwanese hospitality and the Mandarin in my ears… missing night markets, mountains, weekend getaways and the Pacific… and I can’t believe it but I’m even missing luxy. ohhh luxy weekends. love to Taiwan.

Funky Buddhas

Posted on January 7, 2010 by Virginia Shaffer

So, short blogs, with photos doing most of the talking here.

If you’re in Taiwan and want to learn more on the Aboriginal culture, go do some weekend trips. But, if there’s no time and you still have an itch to read and see worthwhile Aboriginal culture, head to Academia Sinica, on the end of the Blue line in Nankang or the Muzha Brown line.

Here are some of the cool artifacts that you can lay your eyes upon. I particularly love the Buddha sculptures. They are all different forms of Buddha gods that represent various personalities and character traits. I.e., god of curiosity, the scholar, the god of courage, the god of celebration.. etc. Those might not be the same one portrayed here but they still fascinated me!

Back in the Dank City

Posted on January 7, 2010 by Virginia Shaffer

I am already back in Washington, D.C…

There are so many small little posts that I wanted to do for my last treks in Taiwan. And naturally, I wanted to do them while I was there, but life goes on and time spins around too fast and here I am. Poof.

I’m still facing denial problems with Taiwan. When I was in Europe, the feeling of leaving absorbed my body, if you recall, “This could potentially break my heart into two large chunks of organ. Then, I will lose half of it here, probably somewhere on the street, and find myself suffocating in an airplane with no way to get it back.”… Europe Pains Found Here Oh the agony of coming back to the homeland I had!

Taiwan became the surreal whereas Europe was my rebirth to reality. I guess, it’s hard to compare the two, but I find myself lost on what to feel with Asia. I’m still searching for an underlying theme that brought me to life. It did, I know it did… But what ways? I’ll have to wait to assess those. I’m still prancing around the USA in light happy footsteps, and reverse shock has yet to make me quiver.

Thus, I will finish Taiwan with a few short last-day marvels. A series of small posts that had me beaming until plane embarkation.

A Taipei Halloweeny

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Virginia Shaffer

Wow.

There is no place I think I might rather want to be. I have decided that this year for Halloween I am going to be a Pheonix. All I keep imagining is a feather mohawk on my head. I think I got the idea from this very video… And since I have already bought a ticket, I cannot wait to write the review.

Squawk!

These Nature Pics Above

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Virginia Shaffer

I’m working on fixing the berry and tree pictures on the bar above. What do you think? I say berries are a little unfitting, as much as they are all things fresh of fruit goodness.

Sorry Nature, still love you lots.

There is still a hippy in me without the berries

virginia h. shaffer

Life in the Washington Machine.

Category Archives: 4. Random