Where the streets have no shame...

So I'm driving into work this morning, taking a somewhat more indirect route than usual. This involves driving along some mixed residential/business streets rather than the usual slog up I-395.

I'm driving on 23rd Street in Crystal City. This is a fairly busy road when traffic is backed up, which is usually always. There is a woman standing in the street talking to a guy in an SUV who's half in the parking lane. She's on the driver's side, chatting as if nothing out of the ordinary is going on, except that all of us trying to get to Jeff Davis Highway have to pull into the oncoming traffic lane to avoid hitting her.

Traffic in DC is bad today, so I can't take my usual route uptown through eastern Georgetown. I get on the Whitehurst Freeway to Canal Road and go up behind Georgetown University. As I'm driving up 44th Street there's a contractor, standing by the driver's door of the ubiquitous white van, talking on his cell phone. I have noticed this behavior with almost every contractor who's worked in my neighborhood over the years. Is it just me, or do they really get better reception standing in the middle of the street?

Finally I turn north on 39th Street near G'Town Hospital. There is a man in a business suit, carrying a briefcase, walking up the street beside the parked cars. There's a perfectly good sidewalk on the other side of the parked cars. Good thing he's only a block away from the hospital...