While I'm not generally bothered about possessions, my thing-to-take-out-of-a-burning-building would be an old-school radio that sits next to my fireplace. It's one of those big 1940s radios with a lit face. I got it at a junk shop, broken and cracked for fifteen dollars. My father ripped out the old radio parts, installed a small CD player that hooked up to the speakers, built shelves and a wine rack and cut a door along the side. From the outside, it probably looks like it did when some kids were sitting in front of it listening to the Lone Ranger or the Danny Kaye Show - but from the inside it houses a collection of gins and scotches and all sorts. Most days the radio is playing something different, but it's usually playing something. (OK - so half the time it's just playing NPR.)
I believe in helping friends move, working hard (I started out at as a management consultant in Boston - then moved to work at Westminster in London), and that being grateful for what you have is a key part of enjoying life. I spend my days in a world of numbers and ideas, so when I leave work it's great to have a distraction. I love my friends like my family and believe I learned a lot of what I need to know about life from Kurt Vonnegut's _God Bless You Mr. Rosewater_. Oh, and if I have an opportunity to dance - I'll take it.
As a former military kid, I like living in a city where most people came from some place else and just about everyone has their own interesting story for what brought them here. I've spent most of the last ten years working between London and Scotland, so as much as I enjoy travel, it's been great to make DC my home.
