Howdy from DC

[PlannerGirl]

HI all! Im a y oung planner *are they all old? Am I alone?* Just moved to the DC metro area. Working for City of Fairfax, nice small quiet town with no greenfield sites left, YUM!

Live in Arlington in a honest to god walkable community, its out of this world fun and sooooo easy to do everything. Ive become the Metro riding queen and save for going to work I dont use the car. Big change from my last community *Greensboro NC* where going one block required a car.

Are there other area geeks out there?

Danie

 

[Chet]

Welcome Danie

Good to see you on the board. I grew up just outside DC in Colombia MD (one of Reuss' New Towns) I always wonder if that influenced my career choice...

 

[el Guapo]

Welcome!

I loved Arlington, what I remember of it when I wasn't qauffin schooners of Bud and toking fatties with Teddy K. Welcome to Cyburbia. Have fun and visit often.

 

[Richi]

Howdy Danie!

Greensboro N.C. to DC Metro. Culture shock or what!

As to auto dependency in NC - just look at where the NASCAR drivers are from. However I've seen driving from one side of a parking lot to another in Jacksonville (FL not NC) so maybe Greensboroisn't too bad after all.

 

[Dan]

PlannerGirl ... chicks! Chicks! CHICKS! Chickschicksbeediddlebeeblahchickchickpickkaytabybiddlebekadaya...

 

[Dan]

Uhhhh .... sorry about that. This Municipal Complex report I'm writing is dragging, you know, and it does things to your head.

Anyhow, I live at the end of a cul-de-sac. Me, my dog, and 13,000 square feet of St. Augustine lawn. Nearest commercial zoning is a mile away. I suck.

 

[Tranplanner]

Plannergirl - don't mind Dan, he's just a little...uh - frustrated?

 

[PlannerGirl]

Lol thanks guys! *are girls that unusual?*

Greensboro to DC was like coming "HOME" there is URBAN to plan, well ok i am not sure there is much "planning" going on but its a job eh? Lol There are some very cool things going on in the area and perhaps a chance for me to FINALY go to law school.

Drive across the parking lot? those folks should go the way of the Dodo, idiots. I hate the car, and parking lots from hell, as if there IS parking in the District or the part of Arlington Im in.

But then again id trade this cold morning for a parking lot in warm Fla right now.

Danie

 

[NHPlanner]

PlannerGirl wrote:
Lol thanks guys! *are girls that unusual?*

Not really....we've got our regulars in Jen and KMateja but outside of that...not many that post often.

On a completely unrelated note...glad someone finally is using that avatar....

 

[PlannerGirl]

Lol well the pic kinda fits me so... if the shoe fits wear it.

Oh well if there is so few girls there is more bandwidth for me!

why ARE there so few women in planning, outside community development touchy feely stuff?

Danie

 

[el Guapo]

That avatar

Humm... we may have to start putting saltpeter back into the html.

 

[NHPlanner]

PlannerGirl wrote:
Lol well the pic kinda fits me so... if the shoe fits wear it.

Oh well if there is so few girls there is more bandwidth for me!

why ARE there so few women in planning, outside community development touchy feely stuff?

Danie

I don't think it's a shortage of women in planning....just a shortage of them that post here!

El Guapo wrote:
That avatar....

well...at least it did say that before he edited it!

I agree entirely Guap....I don't know what it is about Mrs. Billy Bob....but I sure do like it.... :dazed

 

[PlannerGirl]

Lol ok I needed a laugh this AM, thanks.

yes I have met other female planners-old and gray and grumpy for the most part. Im a good 15 years younger than my co workers on average. Frustration!

BTW is there some way to search for others on this list from the DC metro area?

Danie

 

[Downtown]

I hear you about the frumpy old planners (no offense to frumpy old planner ladies) (wait - i am wearing knee highs now. am i a frumpy old lady at 26? eeeek!)

anyway, as for women in planning, my grad class ratio of guys to girls was 2:1, and 1/3 of our girls liked the girl on girl action. A glance around the room at a local APA convention will show lots and lots of white men in khakis and blue shirts. maybe it is our loose affiliation with civil engineering that scares women off? i really don't know.

so welcome to the estrogen club at cyburbia.

 

[NHPlanner]

KMateja wrote:

anyway, as for women in planning, my grad class ratio of guys to girls was 2:1, and 1/3 of our girls liked the girl on girl action. ...

Now you've really done it Kelly....Dan can't handle this kind of talk given his current "situation." Please be gentle....if we lose Dan we lose these boards!



Couldn't resist Dan...sorry!

 

[Tranplanner]

I think Dan may have just killed a kitten...

 

[el Guapo]

Tranplanner...

OMG!

I just shat myself.

 

[Downtown]

Sorry Dan. I was just trying to find an alternative way to say lesbian.

 

[PlannerGirl]

lol

ok i dont care if a planner is gay, lez or whatever, it would just be nice to know my co-workers have a LIFE outside the office that would involve such fun as what goes on in bed. *can we mention such stuff here?*

All ive worked with have been old and geeky, note geek is not bad im a geek in disguise, but come on.

D

 

[Chet]

I am a stereotype!

KMateja wrote:

A glance around the room at a local APA convention will show lots and lots of white men in khakis and blue shirts

I shot coffee out my nose reading KM's post - Today I am wearing a blue shirt and khakis, as are two members of my staff....

 

[el Guapo]

Notthatthereisanythingwrongwiththat!

Read a few old posts and you will pick up on the general level of tastelessness here. For Christ's Sakes we have kitties croaking while planners cradle laminated photos of Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr in the privacy of their bedrooms.

 

[Dan]

Tranplanner wrote:
I think Dan may have just killed a kitten...

Damnit, I have a report to finish today, but instead I've killed two Persians and a Russian Blue.

Maybe I should go do those final inspections.

 

[Dan]

KMateja wrote:
Sorry Dan. I was just trying to find an alternative way to say lesbian.

Remember ... I used to live in Northwest Denver.

Highlands Village parking lot, West 32nd Avenue, Denver

 

[Downtown]

bturk - terribly sorry about the coffee out the nose - but i've come to refer to the blue shirt/khaki pant combo as the "planner's uniform", as well as the "GIS Guy's uniform" and the "Geography conference attendee uniform". Although now that my husband is moving up in rank, he now wears a sweater over his blue shirt.

 

[Dan]

PlannerGirl wrote:
BTW is there some way to search for others on this list from the DC metro area?

Unfortunately, not yet. You can search by name, search by keywords in the post, but not by posting location. Sorry.

Hey, what you can do is tell your co-workers ... send out a chain letter or something. We'll see lots of inside-the-Beltway folks soon enough ...

 

[Dan]

STAFF MEETING!

Planning Director

Transportation Planner

Community Development

Development Review

 

[Downtown]

Dan, thanks for throwing the chick in!

 

[PlannerGirl]

Staff meeting

OH my god i just got out of staff meeting myself and had to fight not to laugh my butt off the whole time looking around the room.

Sigh, i usualy do the black slacks earth tone blouse thing, pretty on par. Giggles but i do drive a saturn with lots of activist stickers all over it, boy does that get odd looks from the frumpy folks *thinks of the 'celebrate diversity' flag sticker, the ' its only kinky the first time' sticker etc*

Ill pass along this list to my friends, that are cool enough anyway.

D

 

[Dan]

Re: Staff meeting

PlannerGirl wrote:
Giggles but i do drive a saturn with lots of activist stickers all over it, boy does that get odd looks from the frumpy folks *thinks of the 'celebrate diversity' flag sticker, the ' its only kinky the first time' sticker etc*

You, El Guapo and prudence are going to have some fun, I'll tell you what.

 

[Chet]

What about me, Dan?

I celebrate diversity too. In fact, the best Karaoke is lesbain Karaoke!

 

[el Guapo]

I'm all about that tolerance crap!

Dan,
I have held a Vegan's hair out of her face as she puked up the magic mushroom tofu omelet and the potato vodka gimlet. I'm so freaking cool for a fascist it will scare the hemp vapors out of the pores of most of the Birkenstock sportin' sons of Boulder.

I got diversity and empowerment coming out my ass in quart jars!

 

[Downtown]

I wasn't aware that there was a distinction between lesbian and straight karaoke. what is the difference?

 

[Chet]

Ah, but there IS a difference

KMateja wrote:
I wasn't aware that there was a distinction between lesbian and straight karaoke. what is the difference?

This link is to a review of a local club that is straight-friendly but has a gay clientelle, and Karaoke Thursdays. If you are ever in town, it really is a must see, Star-Wars-Cantina-meets-Lesbain-Bar atmosphere. Be sure to wear your flannel shirt and Doc Martins steel toed shit-kickers. Shaving your fem-moustache is optional. The muscial genres selected by the participants are especially interesting... The men tend to lean towards Patty Page, Patsy Cline, Cher, and Erasure, while the women lean towards Meatloaf, Journey, KD and Melissa of course, and Rod Stewart.

www.onmilwaukee.com/barsclubs/bars/biz-770.html

 

[planasaurus]

PlannerGirl wrote:
HI all! Im a y oung planner *are they all old? Am I alone?*

Yes. They are all old, fat, sloppy men (at least in my office). I am one on the only young women in my office. I think that all of the women are in consulting.

 

[el Guapo]

Erosion

You say old, fat, and sloppy like it is a bad thing.

Each of those men was an Adonis until a woman got ahold of them with thier determination to change them. They have been Opraized.

 

[planasaurus]

My boyfriend is getting fat and starting to act old, and I am fighting it!

I thought that opraizing was trying to stop the nartural fat, sloppy, old man process from happening.

 

[el Guapo]

Nope.

Opraizing is the constant criticizing and nagging that saps the man’s will to go on. It is live aeolian erosion. Eventually the man just prays for the day when blessed hearing loss will grace his existence. Überfrauen like Dr. Phil, Al Gore, and other sensitivity mongers are just as guilty. We need more real men and less sensitivity.

 

[Dan]

KMateja wrote:
I wasn't aware that there was a distinction between lesbian and straight karaoke. what is the difference?

Lesbian karaoke is when you sing along to songs by artists that El Guapo likes.

Not that there's anything wrong with that ...
















This post has been sponsored by the La Leche League, Subaru, Whole Foods and The Pew Charitable Trusts.

 

[el Guapo]

True

Very true Dan. I do enjoy an Ellen'ish soundtrack of rabid lesbian music most days. Heaven is a gunshow with a Lilith Fair soundtrack. I guess I just coined an entirely new fetish. What must the guys in my milita unit be thinking?

 

[Downtown]

El Guapo - They're probably thinking that they don't want to get stuck in a bunker with you.

(As I type I'm listening to a little Natalie without her Maniacs)

 

[Dan]

Re: I'm all about that tolerance crap!

El Guapo wrote:
I got diversity and empowerment coming out my ass in quart jars!

I should start a "quote of the week" section.

We have a winner!

 

[laxman33]

Geeks?!?!

Yes, maybe I am a geek as well....... now I must live with that fact for the rest of my life. Thanks!

Anyway, I'd like to re-introduce myself.....

I am an exciting 24 y/o finally graduating and in the process of finding a job. I am tall, dark and handsome. Some hobbies include corona, traveling and sitting at home by the fire making paper mache geese. If anyone would like to join me send me a line.....

But seriously, can anyone find me a job.........It's almost May and I don't have what I want yet. I may have to settle.

Sincerely
Irish in Beantown

 

[el Guapo]

Don't Settle -Yet

Settle: why you have the entire rest of your career to settle and sell out. At least get a good and fun first job. Then you can slowly turn into a bitter, depressed and dispossessed planner.

Have looked at the APA web site, the various municipal league association web sites, and used “planner” as a keyword in the newspapers' classified ad search engines? Have you asked your professors for leads? Have you considered working in a rural area where you would gain more experience and have a lower cost of living? Have you considered going back for an advanced degree, thus putting off those pesky student loan payments? Have you considered faking your own death and assuming the identity of a rugged outlaw biker who makes his own rules? Have you considered taking hostages and offering to trade them to the authorities for a job?

Best of Luck

 

[GeogPlanner]

OMG this is some funny $hit. and now i know there are more baby planners out there like me