Coffee, Chaos & Capital Views

Welcome.
I’ve been thinking about how to start this for a while, and it turns out the beginning wasn’t a grand moment at all. It was DC traffic.

I was riding home, stuck on 395, as one does, surrounded by brake lights, concrete, and the quiet collective sigh of Washington, DC commuters just trying to get through another weekday. My mind was doing what it’s done for the last few years, replaying emails, deadlines, responsibilities, and that constant internal checklist that comes with working for the government in a city that never really powers down.

And then I looked up.

Not metaphorically, literally. I looked up at the sky.

It was one of those sunsets that feels almost intentional. The kind where the clouds, light, and color come together so perfectly that it looks like someone took their time painting it. Soft pinks and oranges, a little gold, a little drama. The whole thing felt expansive and quiet in a way that caught me off guard.

What stopped me wasn’t just how beautiful it was. It was the realization that I hadn’t really looked up like that in a long time.

For the last two or three years, my head has been down. Not in a defeated way, but in a survival way. Like many people in DC, I’ve been scratching, striving, pushing, managing, achieving. Doing what needs to be done. Being capable. Being responsible. Moving forward because standing still never feels like an option here.

Somewhere in all of that, I stopped pausing long enough to notice the sky.

That moment on 395 felt like an “ah ha,” not because it changed everything instantly, but because it reminded me that I want more presence in my own life. More noticing. More reflection. More honesty about where I am and how I got here.

This blog is my space to do that.

It’s a place to document my 36th year, the fun parts and the uncomfortable ones. The joy, the frustration, the growth, the moments of clarity that happen at inconvenient times. Living in DC. Working for the government. Navigating ambition, identity, hormones, dating, burnout, hope, all of it. No polished narrative required.

I want this to be a space where I reconnect with myself and the world around me. Where I reflect on how far I’ve come, even when I’m focused on where I’m going next. Where I occasionally laugh at the absurdity of this city and my own life within it. And where I remember to look up, literally and figuratively.

If you’re reading this (and I truly don’t know if anyone will) and you’ve also been moving through life with your head down, just trying to get through, you’re not alone. Maybe this can be a reminder for both of us to pause when we can, notice what’s above us, and appreciate the quiet moments that don’t demand anything from us.

Here’s to me. Here’s to you. Here’s to 36.
Here’s to looking up.