You know you're from D.C. when...

[disneybound2010]

Ok, I don't actually LIVE in D.C but pretty much grew up there and could relate to 90% of these! ENJOY

You know you're living in DC when...

•You say you're from DC, but you actually live in VA or MD and are too embarrassed to admit it or too tired to explain it

•You know where the Pentagon really is but never bother to correct anyone

•When it's rush hour 24/7.

•When it takes you 45 minutes to drive 3 miles on 66 /95 /395 / 495 / 50 /123 / 29 / 1 / etc..., it's a pretty good day

•When there are at least 15 ways to get everywhere and you know which way to go based on the weather, time of day, current political climate, terrorism road closures, whether you are coming or going, etc...

• When you pay more money in parking tickets in a year than you do in medical bills, college costs and rent combined

• You actually know at what times the streets change directions and which direction they change to

• You don't need a dictionary and a Ph.D. to read and comprehend the parking signs and regulations

•You know that driving through Georgetown, you will hear the music of the car next to you louder than you can hear your own

• When "I got stuck behind a motorcade" is a common and real excuse for being late

• When 'finding a parking space' actually becomes an appointment on your calendar. Eg. 7:00-8:00 Gym, 8:30-9:00PM - find a parking space, 9:00-10:30PM - Dinner reservations

• When you meet someone else from the DC area and the first thing you ask them is where they went to school and what they do for a living

• If you've ever had to explain to someone that there's more to Arlington than a big cemetery

• If you've ever given directions to a woman in a mini-van looking for 'thaa whyyyyyite house' when you were stopped at the red light on 15th and Pennsylvania Ave, NW.

• When you say you're going to the Mall and you don't mean you're going shopping

• When you know the Old Post Office doesn't sell stamps, yet point tourists there anyway

• When you can take the Metro to another state

• When you will NEVER actually refer to the 'Metro' as the subway

• When you elbow tourists out of the way on the Metro escalators to 'gently' remind them to WALK LEFT, STAND RIGHT

• When you actually block out time in your schedule for the escalator ride at Dupont, Rosslyn or Tenleytown...

• When going to work early means being there by 9:00AM

• When you don't bat an eye at 500 politicians and businessmen in suits running like their lives depend on it just to catch the Metro that will be there again in 90 seconds.

• When the 90 year old woman trying to physically battle the Metro door to get in after it's closed seems to be behaving in a 'perfectly normal'
manner

• When you describe traffic moving 1 mile in 15 minutes as "not that bad"

• When Washington National is and will always be "Washington National" not "Reagan National"

• When you're either a Lawyer, Lobbyist, Politician, Student or IT professional and seem confused and perplexed when someone informs you they don't fit one of the above categories...

• When you claim that there's nothing to do on a weekend night even when you have the entire nation's capital to explore

• When you dress like you're going to go to a club, but you just drive around Georgetown instead

• When you have the Metro map memorized, yet act like you don't know when someone asks you how to get to Metro Center

• When you start to believe yourself when you say to inquisitive tourists, "No, sorry, don't know, not from here."

• When you meet someone else who says they're from the DC area and you realize they live two hours away from you

• When you notice that there's been construction on the same stretch of highway for the past 5 years and you never see anyone working on it (50, Mixing Bowl, etc...)

• When you know you've crossed into Northern Virginia (without ever seeing a sign) because your speedometer goes from 60 to 0 instantaneously.

• When the few times you have gotten lost in DC you have somehow ALWAYS ended up in Anacostia and every road out somehow leads back to Anacostia.

• When people from outside the area are thrown off by your sarcasm

• When you realize that I-395 is Northern Virginia's version of NASCAR but no, we don't watch it, we just do it

• When there is no such thing as north, south, east, or west on the Beltway, it's just go "that" way!

• When you go anywhere on the Eastern Shore, Rehoboth, Dewey, Skyline Drive, the Outer Banks or Ocean City for vacation and everyone you meet is from DC

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

Yes to all of this!

I would add the following:

-- You'd instantly know I'm from DC if I told you that I live about 25 minutes form my son's school (by car) or 20 minutes (on foot), and that in the 5 years he's been there there has been construction on the block where it's located the entire time.

-- You'd also know if I told you I live "about an alphabet and a half" from my friend and you didn't have to ask me what I meant.

-- Or that I once hung a picture of an elephant in my preschool classroom and had a 4 year old, of his own accord, ask me if it was a political statement.

 

[3prettyprincesses]

Very funny. You could also add that when talking of the Beltway, there's the inner and outer loop and it's NOT 2 separate roadways. It depends which way you're going on the Beltway (clockwise or counter-clockwise) that determines if you're on the inner or outer loop.

 

[dis-happy]

When a minor holiday comes around and ALL your neighbors get to stay home that day because they are fed/gov't/military employees of one sort of another. Meanwhile, your dh, the only one employed in the private sector, has to go in to work. Same thing with emergency snow days too.


When you drive past the Pentagon at 1 in the morning and see lots of cars and lights and wonder what's up.....the next morning you wake up to a newscast of how we just invaded Iraq---the first time around.


When your Secret Service friend tells you stories....like how Clinton didn't like/was afraid of helicoptor travel when he first got into office so he insisted on motorcades, screwing up traffic everywhere.


When your best friend/neighbor tells you she thinks the retired Army general with too much time on his hands, living next to her in a shared townhouse wall, is listening in on her phone conversations. Then one day he alludes to something you only confided to her, over the phone.


You know you're formerly from DC when you move to a new city, buy a house that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, find they're building an inner and outer loop around your new city, and happily proclaim to your spouse: look honey, can you believe we live inside the beltway now!

 

[Pin Wizard]

LOL!

 

[Just People]

Ugh, this thread reminds me just how awful it is to live in the DC area.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

OK, I admit we overdid the traffic thing. But I love living here, couldn't imagine living anywhere else.

 

[disfan07]

I lived in the DC area for 20 years....did not realize how good we actually had it traffic wise until I moved to LA

At least in Virginia, I could drive 495 and 95 from northern virginia to hopkins in baltimore between 10 AM and 3:30PM and not hit traffic...here in LA, i get stuck in traffic on the 5 and 405 no matter what time of day

In virginia there is actual rush hour...in LA, its ALWAYS rush hour.


I love when people call the metro the subway. They expect it to be like NYC subway....its a lot nicer than the NYC subway

 

[PlutoPony]

You know you're from DC when you have regular visits from the agency that handles security clearances. There's always someone you know being cleared, re-cleared, or moving up in clearance levels.

Btw, did you notice the local morning news now starts at 4:30a.m. instead of 5

 

[dis-happy]

When you know what a slug line is.

 

[DancingBear]

When you look up and say, "That looks like Marine One" and find out later that, yes, the Prez flew up to Camp David that afternoon.

 

[Disney Doll]

Doesn't sound like much fun...

 

[Quiksilvr]

• When you're either a Lawyer, Lobbyist, Politician, Student or IT professional and seem confused and perplexed when someone informs you they don't fit one of the above categories...

<----------------Guilty.

Actually, I'm guilty of most of these, except I actually live in the district so all of the NoVa/Chevy Chase/Bethesda poser comments don't apply to me.

I would also add:

"When presidential motorcades ruin your afternoon conference calls because the sirens are so loud the parties on the other end of the call can't hear what you're saying."

 

[laurafergie]

I lived in Northern Virginia for years and I still go up to the district a lot. The traffic is pretty bad down here, but when I lived in DC, it took me over an hour to go 8 miles to go to work. I used to read a book when I was sitting in traffic. (No, not when I was driving - sitting)

I love DC, I would live there now if I could - but in a perfect world, in would be inside the beltway.

 

[TI double GGER]

And you know how to drive in a traffic circle!

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

When you feel passionately about the president's licence plate.

We're moving out of DC (.8 miles across the line) in a few months and giving up the "Taxation Without Representation" licence plate will be one of the hardest parts for me.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

I never lived in D.C. but my son went to AU and we just loved visiting!

I know in the four years that he lived in D.C. he never, ever got bored!

 

[SingingMUA]

When you DREAD Cherry Blossom season because it means the city will be crawling with tourists and you will constantly be stuck behind people in minivans doing 3 miles an hour around the Tidal Basin so they can admire the blossoms... or stuck behind people on the Metro who are leisurely stretched out across the entire platform, trying to read a map of downtown.... or they stop right at the top/bottom of the escalator in order to consult said map...

 

[pansmermaidzlagoon]

I never lived in D.C. but my son went to AU and we just loved visiting!

I know in the four years that he loved in D.C. he never, ever got bored!

I'm sorry but I just had to at your typo!!

worked in DC for 4+ years and visit there often - can relate to most!!!

 

[dis-happy]

When you never call govenmental agencies by their full name, just the initials: DOJ, DOD, FEC, etc.