Psychic Departure Bunny Lounge

In Heaven, Everything is Fine

Last night, we had plans for dinner at Cafe Soleil followed by the Pixies show at the DAR Constitution Hall. Well, plans sometimes go awry.

I made it to the restaurant, at 17th between H and I a little after 5:30 pm, having both gotten out at the wrong Metro exit and headed in the wrong direction. See, I thought I had the address memorized correctly but alas, when I finally figured out that I should check the piece of paper on which I'd scribbled the address, I saw that I was wrong.

So, late, I arrived at the restaurant. It was empty, so I figured traffic was terrible and that sweetie would call me. And within a few minutes, I received a call on my cell.

However, instead of hearing that traffic was holding him up, I heard "I'm in an accident." So I stepped into the restaurant to cancel our reservations and headed down to where sweetie said he was, at 17th & F. It turns out that a young woman (a minor from MD) in a black Volkswagon ran the red (sweetie had the green and was making a left onto 17th from F) and plowed into his driver side front wheel and door. Yes, the airbags worked in both cars. And yes, neither car survived without a fair amount of damage. No one was injured.

Photos @ Flickr.

The police were on hand immediately, as was a Secret Service paramedic, since the area was right in front of the Old Executive Office Building and a very busy traffic area at rush hour. They took statements a number of times and there was even one witness (a homeless guy with alcohol on his breath but most likely one on the work program who sleeps in a shelter and works as a flower vendor during the day). Since he was a vendor just down the block from the intersection, he said he saw the whole thing and that sweetie did have the green and the young woman was the one at fault. Not the best witness but he also had no reason to even speak up, so pretty credible on the whole, I guess.

The police did a great job of rerouting traffic (the accident blocked two of the four lanes of traffic) but the tow truck took over two hours to arrive and since I hadn't expected to be standing out in the cold and windy weather for hours and hours (almost three before we were able to leave the scene), I was freezing by the time it did. The driver of the other car didn't even have a jacket, so she must have been really really cold. After about one and a half hours of waiting, the police decided to move the cars to free up traffic flow. That was when it became apparant that both cars suffered more than cosmetic damage. Overall, the VW looked pretty good but there was a definite problem with the doors being jammed and turning on the engine also turned on the non-stop horn. Our 10-month old Acura, however, is the worse for wear. The driver's side door is trashed, as is the front wheel well and side panel. And that's just what we could see. When sweetie was backing the car up to move it to the side of the road, we all saw that the wheel had almost no turning ability. And since sweetie's door was pushed inwards in the middle, the top and bottom no longer meet the frame (he had to get in and out of the passenger side door), so the lights won't go off. He'll have a dead battery today. We're hoping that the damage is repairable.

Well, the truck finally arrived and the guy loaded up the cars. All he did then, though, was hand us and the other driver (who by now had her brother there to help her) a business card. This is where there was a serious lack of communication - the police didn't really do a good job of explaining the process. It took a few tries with the truck driver (from all of us) to understand just where the cars were going and how we were supposed to get them back.

So moral of this story is: take the Metro to DAR.

After the cars went off, we then had to get something to eat (my medication requires food).We walked up to 18th & L but there was nothing besides expensive & fancy restaurants, one Caribou Coffee (no real food), Borders Cafe (again, no real food), McDonalds and Wendys. We opted for Wendys, sadly. That area just sucks for food after 6 pm.

We had two choices: take the Metro home or go to the Pixies and then take the Metro home. We chose the latter because 1) it's the Pixies, dude! and 2) we might as well not waste $92. We got to the hall around 9 pm and had to pass through the worst cloud of smoke I've ever had the unfortunate experience to witness outside. Hundreds of human smokestacks. Ugh. The only other time I've been in a worse could of second-hand smoke was at Fletcher's - both times. Luckily, we emerged on the other side of the massive cloud to stand in line. Once inside, we didn't have much of a wait. Sadly, we missed TV On The Radio but the Pixies were fantastic. Not very interactive but also no down time. Straight from song to song. The lights were also very ooooooh pretty. I liked that 'cause from where we were, I couldn't see a whole lot for awhile (the second half, though, I could see very well).

I was so happy to hear Velouria, Gigantic and In Heaven!!!!! Kim messed up on the lyrics to the latter, though. I have loved that song ever since I saw Eraserhead and love hearing versions of it. I have their version of In Heaven from the Gigantic single - which is also my favorite version of Gigantic, not the album version - somewhere. Miranda Sex Garden also does a version.

Anyway, here's the set list I found:

Ed is Dead
Gouge Away
Cactus
Bone Machine
River Euphrates
Velouria
I Bleed
Mr. Grieves
Monkey
Caribou
#13 Baby
Dead
Hey
Debaser
Tame
Gigantic
In Heaven
Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)
Here Comes Your Man
Nimrod's Son
Holiday Song
Vamos
Where Is My Mind

encore:

Isla De Encanta
Something Against You
Crackity Jones
Broken Face

Yay!

( 09:38 FH | aural pleasures. grumpy. pooty. urban living. )
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