It's been an up and down summer for me, although I'd say it's been much more up than down. My spirit has risen and fallen with the coming and passing of what I mistakenly thought was the first romance (albeit a very tentative one) that I've had in too long to mention. Stephanie and I saw each other frequently and kept nearly daily contact by email or telephone, but that unfortunately has come to a crashing halt. We had been doing a variety of things together in the process of getting to know each other -- folk music concerts, house parties, Shakespeare, and other typical DC attractions and events. Like me she is a vegetarian, rather non-materialistic and possesses other slightly unconventional urban values. She likes travel to adventurous places (she was in Chile, Bolivia and Peru this summer) and also has this same strange interest in Russia and Russians that I seem to have developed over the years. She speaks Russian reasonably well and worked there briefly one summer. She's brilliant in many respects, and works as a research writer and web page designer. Recently, a project that she and her fellow researchers completed regarding violence in the schools was trumpeted by non other than President Clinton. She said it was strange to see the President on television holding up a document the creation of which she had played a important role.
At age 24 (going on 25), she's over 16 years younger than I am. Since she called me first, it was not so much me robbing the cradle as it was her robbing the grave. Whatever I can say about this relationship, it has turned out to be one of the dominant features of my summer, and in spite of some self-inflicted disappointment from my overwrought expectations, it has been refreshing indeed to spend time with her this summer. I only wish that she would have felt as moved as I had, but it seems that for the most part, luke warm feelings are about the best that any woman has been able to manage for me in recent years, and I guess I've grown accustomed to it. I guess I can feel lucky. It's better than some folks get, and it's better than being without anything, which is how I've spent much of the last decade.
One of my other summer highlights was a visit by my long-time highly-valued friends Hatem and Kathy Mostafa (now living in Boise, Idaho). Among the things they seemed to enjoy most about their visit was our bike ride along the Potomac River to Mount Vernon (and of course ribbing me about President Bill). I look forward to visiting them in Idaho next summer, biking along the Boise River (and ribbing them about reclusive backwoods paranoids and militiamen).
I spent several days in Boston visiting my Russian immigrant friends, Michael, Natasha, Max, Vladimir and Valentina Milendorf. Valentina, who treats me as if I were her third son, had a wiz-bang birthday bash at a Russian restaurant with 46 of her friends. I also visited my high school friend Matt Nash and his wife Cathy, and I had a pleasant visit with a young woman from Argentina, Fernanda, whom I met while on a photographic safari in South Africa. She plans to visit me in DC in October.
Aside from that, it has been the normal DC summer fare -- bicycling,
movies, concerts, summer festivals and a little local sight seeing.
Some of my friends and I spent a lovely day in Baltimore
checking out the Edgar Allen Poe House, the B&O Railroad Museum
and Fells Point along the
waterfront.
For Independence Day, I can think of no other place on the planet to
be than in Washington DC,
and the best seat in the house on that day is my bicycle seat.
There is so much happening then
that it'll make your head spin, and the only practical way to get around
and see it all is by bike, although Stephanie and I briefly took our lives
in our hands weaving through traffic.
The Tibet Freedom Concert was quite a kick, or perhaps it's better to say that it was a jolt. Lightning struck in the section just adjacent to where we had been sitting a short time earlier and injured nearly a dozen people. Luckily, nobody died, but one woman is still recouperating two months later. The two-day concert included R.E.M., Pearl Jam, the Wallflowers, Blues Traveler, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sean Lennon, Herbie Hancock, Dave Mathews, and a half dozen other groups. The lightning unfortunately prevented Tracey Chapman, Patti Smith and others from performing. A rally for Tibet on the steps of the Capitol provided a great close-up unplugged view of R.E.M., David Crosby and others.
In the works for the coming quarter is a trip with my mother to Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.
I hope all is well with folks reading this. Check in with me and let me know what's up with you. You can contact me by clicking on this E-mail address: doman@tidalwave.net.
Review previous newsletters:
Dean's News Vol. 1, No. 4, 06/01/98
Dean's News Vol. 1, No. 3, 03/01/98
Dean's News Vol. 1, No. 2, 12/01/97
Dean's News Vol. 1, No. 1, 09/01/97
Best wishes to all,<\P>
Deano
