In my experience the main difference between DC and the other major knowledge sector metro areas is that people here are much slower to really adopt DC as where they are “from”—they don’t internalize being from here, proclaim being from here, in the same way that a 24 year old U of Tennessee grad is “from” New York within 18 months of moving to the city.

Seems to me like you should make the leap.

And like the other reply here, I’ve taken Amtrak from DC to Durham and it’s not bad. You’d be able to navigate it all on your own—metro to Union Station; Amtrak to Durham; Uber to Duke and then the campus is pretty walkable. The busses would probably be even cheaper.

If you’re young, are willing to tolerate roommates and some of the other aspects of bohemian poverty, then I can see this being a good option for you. Living in a navigable city may drastically improve your quality of life—I know something of what it’s like to feel trapped in a suburban area due to disability. The freedom of movement could open a lot of opportunity for you, especially socially.

There may also be a lot more opportunity for advancement in this area relative to a college town. But, to everyone else’s point, a GS5 position is going to put you in a tight spot financially. You’ll want to balance modest expectations on living situation and disposable income, and how you spend your free time. If you have an interest, hobby, special skill, or anything that could let you use some of your free time toward a second income, then I think this becomes a much better proposition for you. Lots of folks work in hospitality (bars, food service, etc) or in special interests (bike shops, speciality retail, teaching something) in order to give their budgets a bit of breathing room. As a young man in the late 90’s I kept a second job at a store that catered to my hobby and it subsidized the hobby, gave me some budget padding as I moved up the ladder, and filled my free time in a way that earned rather than spent.

Arlington

Originals! It seemed like they’d been clipped and stored somehow and then carefully put into those vinyl sheet binders that everyone used for photo albums in the ‘60s and ‘70s. When I got them they were packed in an cardboard box from about that era marked “House Memorabilia” that also has pictures of the house and the park through the years. I’ve meant to get it all digitized and put into some proper archival quality storage for ages, but it’s still in the back of my closet just where I found it 20 years ago.

Try Off the Record in the basement of the Hay Adams hotel on a busy Thursday evening instead. Depending upon how much of a recreational interest you take in politics, there’s a high probability that you recognize some public figure having a drink.

My row house on Lincoln Park was built circa 1890 and when we bought it it came with a binder of newspaper clippings from the era about the neighborhood that suggested it was going to be a fancy up-and-coming place.

The rentals desk is open at Target Shooting Solutions way out in Avondale. But it was closed for a while during COVID. They’re still not renting ears & eyes (I think?). In addition to the protective gear the main issue seemed to be that many stores sold their rental fleet off during the huge gun purchasing boom at the start of the pandemic and for a long while only wanted to sell their limited ammo stock if you were also purchasing a gun.

Assuming you’re talking about a white-collar office job, if your tattoos are covered by a long-sleeved dress shirt, and you don’t have any down to your hands or up beyond your lower neck, you should have zero issues. Other than that some offices are cool with polo shirts in the summer and you might want to stick with long sleeves depending upon your read of the formality of your office once you’ve been there awhile.

I know a partner at a law firm who has a couple of dozen tattoos including a full chest piece. He’s big into motorcycles and vintage guitars and you’d have zero clue about any of it until you pass from professional colleague to personal friend with him. He’s the top guy in his subject matter and has clients from all over his industry, including in very buttoned down companies.