Of Interest:

Think back to the first interesting comment you overheard from someone. It can be hard to remember, indeed, but if you think back, it was perhaps the most raw and truthful first impression of that person because it penetrated power, prestige, money, looks, clothes, accents, or any of that---and it connected you to that person on a different and new level.

So just for fun and for the sake of this Dandygram (plus, who doesn't like a new word?), let's call this interesting comment the "intrement" (interesting + comment, pronounced: EN'tre'ment).

An intrement might not work its way into the first, or even the second conversation, but it will certainly be spontaneous, unprompted, and will ultimately find its way into common conversation, such as the stories about someone's past, a previous job, their passion, how one might approach a problem, answer a question, or provide their genuine opinion.  These are just a few examples.

In DC, however, there are high expectations from others to be interesting because DC is an epicenter of the world.  DC is not a financial epicenter (h/t New York City), a fashion epicenter (h/t anywhere else, Earth) or even an emotional epicenter (h/t Middle East, India, et. al), but DC does possess worldly and legitimate recognition as an epicenter of the interesting and intellectual.

So perhaps, DC has a higher rate of intrement per capita than other cities in the United States, and one might argue this because of how Washingtonians engage with other intellectuals in the city in most initial conversations.  For instance, Washingtonians:

Fein for intrement of others. Draw intrements out from others. And naturally seek intrement in others.

Though DC is not financially rich (Congress is broke), fashionably inclined (read: "Ugly Hollywood"), or emotionally sound (these shortcomings abound!), DC will always have a lot of interesting people.

I'm not gushing, nor am I bragging about DC, but in my three years in DC, there have been numerous intrements around the following topics (I'm surely missing a few):

wars
murder
death
cancer
life
failure
birth
resurrection
survival
love
peril
loss
amazement
trauma
humor
serenity
epiphany
serenity
finality

At the end of the day, whatever the noun or adjective used, an intrement will strike when least expected. And when it does, you will hopefully find an unsolicited and unprompted interest in what was said, and a newfound interest in that person.

Open letter to Washington Apartments in Washington, D.C.

Dear R******* and team:

Thank you in advance for reading this email. I want to kindly circle back to my concern about a faulty HVAC unit in the row of apartments (#101, #201, #301, or perhaps, #401) in  the building of 1*** *th Street NW.  I've expressed this concern to M***** in person in your office about a month ago, to M****** T******* in follow-up to my request for assistance over the phone about two weeks later, and then over the phone to R******* (you may recall this conversation on a Friday afternoon?), to whom I then told, for a fourth time (because I had to tell M***** twice) the problem that is occurring.

My concern has been quite explicit each time I've told it to the various people listed above, and with nothing being done or changing to the current condition of the noise coming from one of the units (it has to be one that is close to ours - or perhaps it is ours?), along with the noise being more cumbersome as time goes on, my concern has grown to disappointment and frustration.

Let me explain why:

Each evening, as I have prepared for bed, the noise from one of the HVAC units has been vibrating the wall that my bed is situated against, which is accompanied by a constant noise and can be felt on the wall of my kitchen if you put both your ear or your hand up to it, as well as any other place in or near the kitchen where our HVAC unit is located.  This is occurring regardless if our air conditioner or the heater is running, and this noise and vibration through the wall has prevented me from falling asleep numerous nights to the point where I lay in bed thinking, "Is this considered a noise complaint?  Should I call the authorities?" But I then think, "No, my apartment management office is clearly looking into this and the situation will be resolved soon and the unit fixed, or if need be, replaced/upgraded."

This clearly has not happened, and now, over month after my original request to M***** asking to have maintenance look at it the situation in our building, which he had no recollection of my request when I had to call to follow up over a week later (therefore telling him again, but with no follow up or concern for this matter), I feel that I am fully justified with my feelings of true disappointment and frustration in this entire matter.

In addition to this, we dealt with MONTHS of ongoing construction right outside of our window for a project that we were told would conclude in September but did not finish until three or four months later.  In this instance, what accompanied standard construction procedures, which I was fine with given the renovations and new management office, was loud shouting and arguing, start times much earlier than the building permit allows, and all around frustration for nearly 6 months of work, which impacted my sleep, my roommate's sleep as well as those of our neighbors whom we spoke with time and again about these noises.

This simply seems unfair--not only to me with the faulty HVAC unit, but also to deal with such an ongoing issue without restitution.  I don't expect for things to be done immediately or overnight, but what I think is reasonable to expect, and for what we pay, as well as bringing numerous tenants into these apartments as our friends (and your business) is a level of respect that matches ours for where we live.  We are respective of our apartment, of our neighbors and of people's privacy, time and livelihoods.  This is matched by our neighbors.  Is it too much to ask for this to be reciprocated and have this issue dealt with?

I don't need to be contacted about this matter directly, but if you'd need to know whether entrance into our apartment would be acceptable to fix this issue, I welcome your maintenance team and staff to come by anytime to see what your tenants have dealt with for over a month.

Additionally, I'd like an official service request created with these concerns and the issue very explicitly indicated so if they decide to resolve it, I would like to know what they did in case it is not fixed.

Best regards,

Trevor Sparks

Trumped by Ben Affleck

Kudos to Ben Affleck for stepping up to a similar challenge that I did in February and for a great cause.

Details here:

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/04/23/ben-affleck-vows-to-live-on-150-for-one-day/

Trevor

Living on $100 for 10 days: DAYS #5/6/7 (Weekend Recap)

After an exhaustive week at work, which included early mornings, late nights and an inadequate, unbalanced diet, I woke up up sick Friday morning (day #5).  This was probably the best-worst thing that could have happened at the start of the full weekend in my 10 day challenge.  I took a sick day at work and started the weekend on Friday by sleeping in until 11am.  My goodness did I need it.

Sneeze!

It is now Sunday afternoon and day #7 of my challenge.  I am still not feeling well, but in the midst of my challenge to live on $100 for 10 days, I am okay with not feeling well.  Being sick meant that I did not go out with friends.  I did not go out to eat.  I did not have the urge to go for any groceries (thank you leftover pasta, Cheerios and orange juice).  I did not even feel like leaving my apartment.  But I did.  Twice.

The first time I left was Saturday afternoon and to get two bottles of wine.  The second time I left was for a short walk over to the building next to mine where I helped to warm my friend Allison's new apartment with a bottle of wine.  Spending some of my remaining money was cause for this friend and celebrating her new place (not to mention a reason to get dressed and get away from my paintings for a bit).  I am now down to $39.45 for the remaining three days of my challenge.

Let me back up and recap the weekend, which was almost entirely spent here:

DAY #5

Once I came around Friday morning and felt like getting out of bed, I started with a light bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and coffee.  I think I have two or three servings of coffee left......I then spent the rest of the day painting.  Shortly after an awesome lunch (since I was home, I made a roast beef and swiss cheese PANINI), I finished my big canvas ahead of schedule!  Here are a few shots of the last few steps in the progress, and a shot of the finished piece.  I plan to hang it above my couch later today:

I am incredibly proud with this painting.  It was quite the undertaking.  I have never painted a canvas this large before, and it is not likely that I will paint one this big again anytime soon (except my friend Liz now wants one, so maybe).  It was also very hard to work with the size of the canvas when trying to maneuver it around and paint the black and white squares (over 180 total!).  I don't even want to think about how much a frame would cost for this painting...

As a side note, I have not signed any of my paintings.  I think it is because I cannot decide on whether to put my full name (i.e. "Trevor Sparks 2013"), my first name and date, or just my last name and date.  The reason I haven't yet decided is because I discovered a unique aspect of my fist name, which kind of gave birth to this whole style.

It was the summer of 2009 when I discovered that if you take the e, v and o of my first name, you can turn them into three shapes, which are now dominant in most of my paintings.  The e can become a square, the v into a triangle, and the o would, of course, be a circle.  So, if I can just come around to making my decision, it would likely be my first name with those three shapes and the year the painting was finished.

With Friday dedicated to painting, and not feeling up for doing anything else, I reheated some of my leftover pasta and watched Waste Land, an amazing documentary from 2010, which documents two years of work of Brazilian contemporary modern artist,Vik Munoz, who created art with the cooperation of scavengers of recyclables working in Jardim Gramacho, one of the world's largest landfills, serving the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.  Highly recommended.

DAY #6

I woke up Saturday morning feeling a bit better, so I made homestyle potatoes, scrambled with eggs, spinach and onions for breakfast, and then for the six hours that followed, I began working on a new painting:

Note the circles drawn with graphite on top of the triangles below.  I am trying to create a second layer with a different shape and additional blue hues.

It was at this point where I took a break to get out of my apartment and collect my ideas away from the painting.  I ran to get some wine for warming my friend Allison's new apartment as well as for the rest of my evening (leftover pasta dinner + more painting + SNL with host Justin Bieber).

Here's the progress I made after a few heavy pours of wine:

As you'll see in the last two pictures, I introduced some watered down gesso to lighten it up and create another layer, although the first of triangles is still transparent.  Then, I painted a series of white circles on top of a third layer of triangles.  The picture, unfortunately, does not do the painting justice since all of the original layers and shapes are still visible.

Nevertheless, it was starting to get a bit messy and confusing, so I stopped here, watched SNL (which was just okay), and then turned in for the night.

DAY #7

Now Sunday afternoon, I am into the last stretch.  I have less than $40 for the last three full days.  I am also running low on milk, lunch food, and most importantly, coffee.  However, I have decided to finish my challenge by not spending any of my remaining money and instead be as resourceful as possible, so stay tuned for the last three days as well as more painting!

Happy Sunday!!

Living on $100 for 10 days: DAYS #3/4

Day three and four of my ten day challenge were basically one long and blurry day.  As I mentioned in my last post, we held our annual conference at work this week.  On Wednesday (day three) and Thursday (day four), over 300 afterschool leaders from every state in the country came to DC to participate in sessions, workshops and plenaries where they learned about the state of afterschool in the nation, how to advocate for resources and support for afterschool, and then on the second day, they stormed Capitol Hill to participate in nearly 220 meetings with their Members of Congress (or their staffers).  Both days were early mornings and late nights, and thankfully, they were also filled with a lot of complimentary food!!

I managed to not spend any of my (remaining) $95 the entire third day of my challenge, and it wasn't until last night (Day #4), after I got back home, that I miraculously caught a second wind to cook a fantastic meal and enjoy a few beers with some painting and NBC's Thursday night line-up.  As best as I can remember and through the blur of our conference at work, here is a short recap for how day three and four of my ten day challenge went:

DAY #3

Breakfast

I had a very hefty bowl of cheerios and some very strong coffee, of course!  I almost had a second bowl since I knew the day was going to be long, and when you work a national conference, the timing of lunches and dinners can be unpredictable.  Nevertheless, the hefty bowl and a lot of milk kept my hunger subsided until I managed to sneak away for a lunch.

Lunch

Around 1:30pm, I was able to grab a box lunch (roast beef sandwich with chips, a soda and some cookies) from the buffet tables.  It was filling, and it was free!  I had two sandwiches, actually...

Happy Hour / Dinner

Oddly enough, my happy hour was my dinner.  For the evening reception at our conference, we held a private screening of Brooklyn Castle for our participants and special guests.  Starting at 7pm and for the 45 minutes that followed before the film, we had an open bar and light hors d'oeuvres (read: cheese, crackers, veggies and dip, and dessert items).  I filled my small plate with as much as it could fit--skipping the deserts entirely.  I stayed through the first half of the film (in my defense, I had watched it four times already).  Brooklyn Castle is an incredibly moving film about the most winning chess team, which is an afterschool program in a Brooklyn public school.  If you haven't seen it, I highly, highly recommend it.

About half way into the film, a few of my coworkers and I finished our drinks and packed up the things we needed to return to the office.  Once we were back and unloaded, I thought I was going to fall asleep standing up, so I walked home in an effort to save my $95 for another day (I should have cabbed home).  This only managed to wear me out even further to the point where I unabashedly tucked myself in bed at 9:15pm.  The only thing on my mind at that point in the night was the 5:30am wake I had the next morning for our second full day of the conference on Capitol Hill.  Alas, no painting occurred on day three..

DAY #4

Breakfast

I skipped my morning routine and instead settled with as much sleep as possible before I needed to be at the hotel by 7am.  No pressure, really, but I was responsible to make sure all of our 300+ conference participants made it on one of the five buses we chartered to schlep them to the Hill for our Breakfast of Champions.  Thankfully, they all made it on a bus by 7:45am, which gave us all enough time to arrive early, grab a small breakfast and some coffee at the Breakfast, and settle into a seat before it kicked off at 8:30am. 

Lunch

Lunch did not happen until 1:30pm, which was an incredibly long stretch from the 7:45am breakfast consisting of an egg sandwich, a few pieces of fruit and some coffee.  I managed to save myself from going into my pocket for this particular lunch and instead used some of the petty cash I was provided for the conference.  Had I spent my money, it would have been $6.87 for a small cup of chili, a side salad and a Fresca.  That's a pretty good deal, and thankfully, we didn't go far to get it or wait long.  

We concluded our events that day around 4pm, and by then, I was exhausted and had been on five Hill visits with the team from the Utah Afterschool Network.  We had some great conversations with Hill staffers from both Senator's offices and three Congressmen's offices.  The team of four from Utah informed a lot of the Hill staff we met with, but it was a tough set of visits (four out of five were Republicans), AND in this political economy, it's incredibly difficult to ask for level (not even increased) funding for afterschool programs - regardless of the Member being Democrat or Republican.  Alas, Utah has a few Members of Congress who support afterschool programs in their state, and the group ended the day of visits on a very positive note with their strongest supporter from the Utah delegation.

Happy Hour / Dinner

I left Capitol Hill and headed home to enjoy a relaxing night.  At this point, the $95 was burning a hole in my pocket because I was craving a well-cooked and nourishing meal, a few beers to celebrate a long week and NBC's Thursday night line-up.  Since I started this challenge, I had eaten simple breakfasts, okay lunches and dinners on the go (or hardly at all).  I think I deserved going into my pocket a little bit for some groceries and beer.

Once home, I immediately shed my suit and tie and headed to the store for what I needed to make dinner.  For the entire afternoon, I had been thinking about the leftover ground beef from when I made the Seven Layer Dip for Super Bowl Sunday, and since I am on a tight budget in this challenge (or at least, that's the challenge), I thought it best to utilize what I had already, so my mind was lazer focused on making meatballs and homemade pasta sauce to also go with a box of whole wheat penne pasta I had in my pantry.

I used a fairly simple recipe for the meatballs, which for the most part, called for ingredients I already had on hand.  I just needed to pick up a few additional things to make the sauce, some beer and a couple other items for the rest of the weekend and the following week.  Of course, I forgot to buy coffee, so alas, there is another visit to the store in my near future.  Here's how I did: 

After this trip to the store, I am down to $62.84, and not to get too optimistic, I am nearly half way finished with my ten day challenge!  Not too bad, but I have not yet started my weekend, and I still have a full work week ahead (read: pressures of Happy Hours, seeing friends, dinners, etc).  After making some of the best meatballs I have ever made or had (following this recipe), I inhaled a huge plate of penne pasta covered in my homemade tomato sauce topped with three of the massive meatballs.  I'd like to point out that making this meal was also very purposeful since it has left me with two or three dinner leftovers.

After a few beers while cooking, I was ready to get in some painting before shifting to my couch to watch The Office, so here's the (small) progress I made as well as a sneak peak of the canvas I am painting for Christa--my bestie from another testie:

As you can see, this week did not allow for much progress on my painting, and to be sure, I fell asleep about halfway through The Office (at about 9:15pm).  I woke up this morning (it is now 4pm on Friday - Day #5!) with a terribly sore throat and aching joints.  I attribute this to the previous two days of a lot of talking, walking, time on my feet, and just generally, being dehydrated from all the go-go-go of our conference, so I took a legitimate sick day, stayed home, rested and rehydrated.

By about 10am, I felt good enough to get up and get my day started.  Although I am still feeling under the weather, I felt okay to paint and made a lot of progress, which will be shared in a post this evening recapping Day #5 of my challenge!

Living on $100 for 10 days: DAY #2

It is too late (currently 10:26pm) for me to write a lengthy blog about Day #2, and thankfully, it was a quiet and nearly uneventful day.  Have no fear, I will provide some of the highlights, and to be sure, I will share how I spent the first of my $100.  Nooooo!  Relax - it was inevitable.

Breakfast
I continued with my breakfast routine again this morning and had a big bowl of tasty Cheerios with milk and a cup of coffee - of course.  I am now eyeing that damn bag of Starbucks coffee because with each morning's percolator, it is also another day closer to dropping some of my loot.  Alas, the day is coming, and sooner than I probably realize.

Lunch
I packed my lunch today, and I was so much happier since the pizza for lunch yesterday left me craving for more and starving at dinner time.  I made my famous homemade roast beef and swiss sandwich with iceberg lettuce and mustard on rye bread. I also packed carrots, chips and a half of an orange--peeled and sliced, of course.  It's the only way to eat an orange at work--leave the mess and the random quirts of juice for your kitchen!

Shortly after lunch, I had a pleasant surprise delivered to my office, which I brought How did I get a piece of art delivered to my office, and for less than $100?  Oh, let me tell you!

A few months ago, my wonderfully creative and artistic mother participated in a long weekend art retreat with a group of other artists where they learned the styles and techniques from the very accomplished artist Flora Bowley (check out the video on her website - it captures her style and some of her techniques and is amaaaazing).  After the participants spent painted a large canvas using Flora's style and guidance, they lined up their canvases and each of the participants picked one that was not theirs.

According to my mom, she ended up with one of the best from the retreat, and after she brought it home and had time to talk with her husband about whether they were going to hang it in one of their homes, they decided against it.  So shortly after, she asked me if I would like it for my apartment, and after all I knew about her time at the retreat, the artist she worked with during this class, and all the talk about how she got the best one, I immediately said yes for the chance to have it for my own.  And now, I'd like to consider myself the incredibly lucky owner of a very new piece of art for my apartment:

Happy Hour
Well, Happy Hour did not actually happen during the happy hours, but I still had an evening event at 7pm, so I scarfed down some quick food I had in my refrigerator (I am definitely making a nice dinner soon - enough leftovers!) and headed there after hanging my painting while eating my leftovers and being completely captivated by what is now on my wall.

Now, as you'll recall, I said I spent the first of my $100 today, and that is a fact because I needed to take the Metro to my meeting (I serve on this Steering Committee for a huge annual DC alumni event for 1500 alum each year called University Row).  Once I reached the nearest Metro station to board the train, I immediately realized my SmartTrip card balance was too low for the trip, so I was forced to add $5 to me $3.15 balance in order to get round trip covered.

Dinner
Instead of coming home after my meeting at 9pm, I tried to make a little progress on my painting to not neglect it, and since I am at a point where I am painting small one inch squares in the blanks strips between the shapes, it was much easier to move it to my kitchen table.  Here's the small progress I made tonight to prepare the blank tracks for some paint, and the last time I did this, I didn't use tape, so taping them should make it go much faster:

Alas, I am exhausted, and we have our annual conference for the next two full days at work, so although there will be loads of free meals (yay!), they will also be two very long days ahead. 

Speaking of long days, I now have $95 and eight full days left!  Stay tuned for Day #3's recap tomorrow!

Living on $100 for 10 days: DAY #1

The first full day of my challenge is now over.  I am home for the night, and I still have my original $100.  Win!!  I will be honest with you, it is only Monday and its the first day of my challenge, so my motivation is at its highest possible level.  I did, however, tempt my spending fate a few times!  What follows is a short recap of where I could have (but didn't!) spent mah money:

Breakfast
It is important to point out that I refuse to get or eat breakfast on my walk to work.  I enjoy my morning routine--sitting in my kitchen nook, eating my breakfast, and people watching.  If the people watching becomes boring, I usually settle with reading the news or a magazine, and when you have a subscription to New York Magazine, it is so much harder to keep the morning routine to just eating breakfast..

I eat one of the simplest breakfasts (but really, it is a pretty standard breakfast for any single bachelor): a full bowl of regular Cheerios with skim milk along with a large glass of skim milk with ice.  This morning, I also made a percolator of coffee, and I immediately realized as I made it that it will be my morning coffee that will be the end of my inexpensive mornings because I will inevitably run out of coffee - soon - and since I must have my morning coffee, I will be spending some of my cherished $100 on that before these ten days are up.  Damn addictions.

Lunch
Today, I was pretty lucky at lunch because I did not need to pack my lunch, therefore saving my stash of lunch food (roast beef, swiss and rye bread, carrots, chips and fruit -- soon enough I'll be eating this sexy brown bag lunch).

The organization I work for is hosting its annual conference this week, so I spent a majority of my morning with the others on our staff preparing materials for the conference participants.  As a thank you, my organization treated everyone with pizza and salad for lunch.  This felt like a really good start to the next ten days as it was the first big save--from depleting my lunch food stash, or even better, preventing me from spending $5-8 on sub-par lunch from a food truck or a Potbelly sandwich.

I still think I tempted fate here a little bit because, for how hungry I was today at lunch, I assumed I would be full from two small slices and a side salad.  But after my free lunch, I also remembered that I have 9.5 days left to live on $100, so I managed to tough it out.  Plus, I had no reason to complain when I started the day off with two meals and had spent no money!

Happy Hour
I know what you're probably thinking - why on Earth during a challenge to live on $100 for ten days would I try to fit in some damn happy hours??  Stupid, right?  Well, you gotta live a little, push the envelope more than once in a while and tempt fate.  I agree with what you're likely thinking, that starting the first day of my challenge by going to a happy hour was not a wise decision.  Nevertheless - I did.  And, I had one drink (amazing self control, thank you), which was a very tasty Hot Hazelnut Toddy from A&D Neighborhood Bar.

And the best part?  My new friend Leigh was so kind to pay for my drink at the bar, and I didn't even bring up my challenge.  She simply thanked me for the hour conversation and my advice/suggestions, and delightfully offered to buy my Toddy.  I definitely owe her an email, and need to put some time and thought and sincerity into what I'll send her (re: job search, DC nonprofit scene, etc.), but I think the bigger point is that not all HHs need to end with a $40 tab!

And if you're reading this, Leigh, thank you for my drink.

Dinner
Alas, I left the happy hour around 7pm to come home for a light dinner alone, which was hard because everything looked so mouth-wateringly good on A&D's new food menu, so I will indeed be back there in 10 long days!

After settling in at home, following an 8pm telephone meeting, I found the last of some weekend leftovers and have now found myself completely entertained with the next steps on my painting.  As promised, here's the update: