You know you live in DC if...

I wish I could find the email someone sent me a few years ago. It was a very clever "You know you live in DC when..." type of email.

I do remember a couple of them:

• You know you live in DC when you ask someone where they work and they say that if they told you they would have to kill you ...and they really mean it.
• You know you live in DC when you start reading license plates that say "5Y3EGHL" and try to make it mean something (putting words on license plates is cheap around here and so TONS of people personalize their plates).

Ok, I can't remember many right now, but if I ever find that email again I will post it here.

Today I went over to mall in search of a dresser. Can the woman just shop in peace? All of the sales people swarm to you and make sure that you know their name ...so I can use their name later at the register even though I prefer to find my own furniture? Whatever. There were about three dressers I liked, but because of how they display things I had to keep walking back to each little fake bedroom in the store to remind myself which one had which details, etc. Finally I found one and then I couldn't find a salesperson. I guess they had given up on me. I wandered by a woman wearing a saree (sari, shari) with a tag hanging around her neck and she did indeed work there.

As she was ringing up my purchase (do they "ring" up purchases nowadays? - maybe it's actually "point and clicking" my purchase) we talked about the holiday and then she told me that they were celebrating international something or other and that is why they were all wearing their native outfits. Without a thought I just said, "Oh, I just thought you wore that everyday." Come to think of it, there were an awful lot of Sikhs waring turbans, Saudi men in white dresses, and Indian woman in their sarees floating around in the JCPenny and Macy furniture departments. I hadn't really noticed because everywhere I go people wear outfits from different cultures than mine and I just expect it. So, it was surprising, and almost funny, that she would inform me that she was "dressing up" in attire that I would expect that she would be wearing anyway.

And, so we have our new addition to the list, except I can't think about how to phrase it. Perhaps someone a little more verbally inclined can think something up.

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Update: Ann provided me two links that have some of the lists that circle around. Thanks Ann!

http://www.robinsweb.com/maryland/you_know_youre_from_dc.html

http://www.stevix.com/youknow.htm