Hot Rollers Take Center Stage

After the hair debacle of yesterday, I had a new game plan for Day #2 at the Office of Special Education (OSEP) - hot rollers! I woke up to another scorcher of a day feeling confident that all would go well because (1) I knew where to go (as contrasted with yesterday when I went to the wrong building first and had to sprint to the second DOE building) and (2) I had confidence that my hair would look better - really, could it look any worse?

And, again, standing in my air conditioned apartment my hair had bouncy curls with superstar quality tucked behind my cheap sunglasses. Alas, I had to walk outside and slowly the curls turned to frizz. (For those of you interested, I bought a new product from CVS tonight that should combat this problem.) By the time I arrived at work, it was hopeless. The question that perplexes me on my entire walk/ride to work is, "How do these Washingtonians not sweat and/or keep their hair looking fabulous?" I ponder this question for the 1/2 hour commute each way and have no answer.

Enough about the hair - there was no Arne Duncan today either. I smile every time someone mentions his name as in, "Arne is speaking at that conference," or "I'll call Arne and listen to his thoughts about blah, blah." A first name basis with Arne?!?! What?

I happily flashed my government ID badge and buzzed myself into the DOE. (I find it rather fascinating - dare I say, cool, - that I pass the Department of Homeland Security on my way to work. The buildings are adjacent.) I conjure up stories about the workers coming & going from that office - What do they do? What do they know? Am I safe being so close to that building?

As for my daily routine at OSEP - as funny as it sounds - I can't share much. Most of the work is confidential. And, while I imagine none of you are particularly interested in the legislation/proposals for the reauthorization of IDEA, my lips are sealed (and I know nothing anyway). I did sit in on a meeting of the entire OSEP staff - most of their speak is in Special Education code - the secret, "members-only" acronym name-dropping - the FAPE, the 1% Assessments, the ISE. I admit, I zoned out for a few minutes. Much of the afternoon included me reading about adaptive physical education and surfing the CEC website. Honestly, it's not important - skim right over the alphabet soup...

The kicker of my day was the 2 mile trek in the heat to Whole Foods and the absurd conversation I had with the produce man there. Let me just be honest - I sweat in DC! I don't glow or perspire or have a glistening golden hue - huge drops of water fall from my face. But, I need peppers for my salad - organic peppers. And, yes, I'm willing to walk the 1 mile from Metro Center to the Whole Foods & the 1 mile home to Dupont Circle for some organic peppers. Do you think there were organic peppers at Whole Foods today? Exactly. Not so much.

So, me and the produce man have this ridiculous conversation that begins with me asking him about organic peppers - seeing as how I'd already walked with my two reusable-cotton bags, bumping into all the other bag ladies/gentlemen (DC charges 5 cents for every plastic bag you use) searching for my peppers. He explains to me that there are no organic peppers. My response, "What? This is WHOLE FOODS! If Whole Foods doesn't have organic peppers, who does?" I then, of course, need to tell him about my journey to Whole Foods - the crowded subway, the heat, my hair! He laughs. I leave. Not without buying regular peppers covered in pesticides that will surely be toxic to my body.

There is something incredibly frustrating about walking 1 mile, in the heat, back home with pesticide-infected peppers!

Tomorrow - it's hot rollers with the new curling spray and another day of hoping that Arne stops by.