Ice Slide

I joined the "Moms on the Hill" list-serve right around the time Nora was born. It's been a great resource for information about raising children (insights into schools, extra-curriculum programs, suggestions regarding different childhood ailments/issues) and living (recommendations for contractors, safety alerts), on Capitol Hill (and has also facilitated the buying and selling of several items).

But occasionally, disagreements break out on the list-serve, such as the infamous "by protesting the White Supremacist March you are giving credence to their cause" debate of 2012 and the "you were dismissive of the real issues the mother of the 'defiant pooper' was facing" controversy of 2014.

Such was the case in early February when in response to an inquiry regarding the appropriate dress code for the ice slide at the St. Elizabeth's East Gateway (snow pants or no snow pants), and received a response from another mom complaining that the city had spent $200,000 to install an ice slide in Anacostia in lieu of expenditures for recreation centers and libraries. This began a debate about the appropriate use of public tax dollars, if public employees are in fact worthless, what the Dowager Countess of Capitol Hill would do and whether one respondent's emails were in fact, "snotty ad hominem response" filled with "...personal invective."

I was riveted, immediately decided we had to go and invited the Browns to join us.

Our kids had an awesome time. The Browns... a bit less so. Poor Ben slammed his fingers in the car door when we got there and Mia's face hit the wall her first time down. But in the end, the kids all recovered and seemed to enjoy what some would deem, "a temporary boondoggle" and what we all thought was pretty awesome.