Things I've Learned, Part Two

Things I've Learned from Hulk Hogan:

5. Eat your vitamins and say your prayers.
4. You can wear headbands at black tie events if you're badass enough.
3. Not opening a car door for a lady is a jabroney move.
2. Come on, brother.
1. His family is insane.

Things I've Learned, Part One

Hot off the press from the realm of stolen ideas,

The Top Five Things I've Learned from away messages:

5. Generic song lyics.
4. College kids like to party/drink alcohol.
3. No matter where you go, there you are.
2. :-)
1. I am away from my computer right now.

Thanksgiving

Last week, my mother, father, and sister came to D.C. to visit me and do some sightseeing. They arrived Tuesday evening and left Sunday morning. While they were here they saw a bevy of attractions and are already planning a trip back. Aside from showing off my nuclear sweet office, I would say that the highlight of their trip was me cooking Thanksgiving dinner.

This is the first Thanksgiving dinner I have ever prepared and I was a little bit nervous. To make matters worse a Monsignor friend of mine, who was unable to go home for Thanksgiving, joined my family. I say to make matters worse because, in the words of John Lovitz from Newsradio, he is a bit of a foodie. Additionally, he and my sister took turns gently mocking me. Such is the way of the world, I suppose.

Now, for the important information. My meal consisted of turkey, asparagus, yams, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, and apple pie (with optional espresso (served on the side of course)). The following photos are the documentary of my monumental feast. (Authors note: Sorry if you have seen these before, but not everyone is on teh facebooks.)

This is the first picture of the day. It is me preparing the turkey. You'll notice a turkey, a lemon, an orange, sage, rosemary, and oregano. All of these things went inside of the turkey, as well an an onion.

This is the turkey after I took it apart and rinsed it. You'll notice the neck was included but the giblet was not. Both my father and my sister were offended by this. They thought that I, perhaps, was playing some manner of goof on them.

These are the aforementioned lemon, orange, and onion that were cut into wedges and inserted into the turkey along with a few springs of the aforementioned spices.

This is the turkey prepared for the oven, almost, I had to let it rest out of the fridge for thirty minutes so it would reach room temperature. You'll notice that the turkey is now stuffed and coated with an herbs de Provence butter.

These are the pots and pans I used to fix my sides. I actually used five but only four fit on the stove-top at any given moment. If you look carefully you'll notice that there is a probe thermometer in the left of the photo. That one's for you Alton Brown!


This is the final product. The hand showing off the feast is that of the Monsignor, no I did not wear a suit for dinner. I had on a nice green sweater vest and red/brown corduroys (thanks Dan!). I was trying to be autumnal.

This is a close-up of the finished bird. You'll notice its rich color as well as the twin towers of cranberry sauce.

Finally, what is Americana without a pie cooling on a window sill? This particular pie happens to be apple, mostly because I am a magnificent brother and did not bake a pumpkin pie because my sister abhors it.

So, there you all have it. This was my first attempt at a Thanksgiving dinner, and if I might be a braggart for a moment, it went quite well and tasted as good as it looks.

In unrelated news, the gym was very crowded today and there were no treadmills open, so I ran home after I finished lifting. I feel like I accomplished something--leaving all of my things at the office like a moran.

Smell ya later.

Playtown

I've seen the same commercial for this product several times in the past hour while watching the Godfather Part II. It is for a product called "Playtown." That sounds good enough but then they give their brief hook I get befuddled. This is the jingle, "Playtown, the town that play built." Is it me, or would that be a really shitty town? I can't imagine that play builds very good towns.

Foodstuffs

Because all anyone in the blogosphere does is steal each other's ideas, I am going to keep that proud tradition alive. In that vein, I am stealing my roommate's idea to post pictures of things I eat/drink. Also, because the dish I just made is something we used to eat in college, stealing his idea seems appropriate. Ahh, college. At least my counters look a lot nicer now.


The above dish is a disgusting looking, but surprisingly tasty treat. It is corn beef hash with friend eggs and A1. I came up with the eggs on top of corn beef, or probably someone else, and my roommate decided that A1 would probably liven it up a little bit. You should try it sometime.

The following picture is something I mentioned in my last post.


This is the most exotic thing I've drunk in a while, and it was the rum that was being served at the event I went to last week. I would post pictures of what I normally drink, but we've all seen bottles of Canadian Mist and Gordon's before. After the get-together they had goody bags filled with indigenous coffee, rum, and a "passport" with lots of quick facts about the country, I picked up one to enjoy later. The coffee was also good, so says LiZhi.

My family is coming into town tomorrow and I will be preparing my first thanksgiving meal on Thursday. Providing I don't burn my house down and the food looks edible, I'll probably post pictures of that as well.

Carry on.

Long Time No See Revisted

Hi intarwebs. It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Right now my typing in inhibited because I apparently have a pinched nerve in my ring finger on my left hand--at least that's what the nurse in the attending physicians office told me. As a result my finger goes numb whenever my hang gets cold and takes a long time to de-numb itself.

A couple of weeks ago I went to Baltimore and something absolutely hilarious happened. It involves a black eye and a girl. If you want more details feel free to ask, but be warned I come off as a bigger asshole than I really am.

I found out earlier this week I am going to begin taking on new issues for my boss. They will involve foreign affairs/trade. I am very happy about this, as it is what I have wanted to do most since coming to Capitol Hill back when I was a junior in college. As a result of my soon-to-be new found responsibilities I was told it would be a good idea for me to go to a party last night. I don't want to say where it is, but I'll be more than happy to tell someone who isn't the entire internets. I went and it was pretty sweet. The party was at some country's embassy, and it was a country I'd never been before but all that changed yesterday. Thank you counting embassies as native soil law. I met the people I was supposed to meet and hope that I made a favorable impression on them.

More importantly, to me, is the delicious rum that had. It was a dark rum that was surprisingly sweet. Some website gave it a 91, which seems like that is a good number. Personally, I think that it is the best rum I've ever drunk. Sorry Admiral Nelson.

That's pretty much all for now, except to say that a pal and I are going to listen to Bach's Cello Suite tonight at the Kennedy Center, so that'll be cool. They tell me Yo Yo Ma won't be performing it but it should be good music, nevertheless.

Stay tuned for more info from the city that lacks a "J" street due to a rivalry between John Jay and Pierre L'Enfant.

Edit: After consulting various sources to check the accuracy of the previous statement, despite the high verisimilitude of the above fact, I discovered it is, in fact, an urban legend. C'est la vie.

Long Time No See

For all of my adoring fans who have been been complaining about me not updating the blog in a while, I've been busy. Back off.

In related news, I haven't been busy. I started a gym membership last week at the House Staff Fitness Center and it's a pretty nice facility. It's smaller than Shirk (for those of you who get the reference) but doesn't cost $40,000 a year in membership dues, so that's a plus. I go three days a week after work. I normally run about two miles then lift for about forty minutes. It's pretty sweet. I figure I'll ripped in like one or two more weeks. Look out ladies!

Work has been going steadily, ya know.

Yesterday I got to practice using my French. Président Sarkozy came over from France for a bunch of reasons, one of which was to give an address to a joint session of Congress. I scored our office's ticket and got to sit in the gallery whilst he gave his speech. It was pretty good and Mitch McConnell called it "Reaganesque." He is a very good orator, even when translated by a woman with a British accent. B.t. dubs, are there no Americans who speak French who might be able to do the translations for the U.S. Congress? Come on, John Kerry speaks French, why not let him do it? Which reminds me, I wonder if they ever changed Freedom Fries back to French fries in the Rayburn cafeteria.

For Halloween a coworker and I went to Baltimore for a party that a coworker's friend was holding. The coworker was a box of wine and I was Tom Cruise from Risky Business. I don't have much to say other than they apparently aren't sticklers for pants at the bars in Baltimore.

In Related News

Today, as I was walking to the train station to get to work (sans umbrella which I idiotically left in my office last night (b.t. dubs, it was raining)) and I saw two interesting things. The first thing I saw on a corner was a styrofoam cup of urine. Approximately half a block later I saw a bag-o-pants. I spent the rest of my commute to work wondering if they were placed on the sidewalk in related incidents. If they weren't, what a delightful coincidence!

Just Another Day At Work

Yesterday as I rode my bike into work I was in a surprisingly good mood. I think it because this weekend I enjoyed some merriment under the auspice of my birthday. I hung out with a bunch of people this weekend and even ate some food and drank a few beverages of a refreshing nature. Anyhow, yesterday I rode my bike into work. I have started to do that when I feel like sleeping in for an extra couple of minutes. I am pretty sure I can bike to work faster than I could drive in, given morning traffic in D.C. Almost more importantly, the bike ride to work is only narrowly longer than the walk to the train station. So, if I am not in my Sunday best, I have started to opt for the bike to work.

I've digressed, as I was coming into work I rode past this. There have been several protests in D.C. lately and I believe they have all been led by a group called October Revolution. The protest yesterday morning was a large group consisting of the aforementioned rapping polar bears, Code Pink, and Veterans Against the War. I paused for a moment as I was entering my office building to watch at least six people get arrested. Now, before anyone flips their lid, saying that they were using their right to free assembly/petition the government, I would point you to the fact that they were standing in the the middle of the street ( not shown in the video) obstructing the flow of traffic on Independence Ave. This, by the way, is illegal. The protesters who remained on the sidewalk were free from the "iron fist" of the Capitol Hill police.

On a related side note, on Friday the October Rebellion folks marched in Georgetown to protest the World Bank's actions. My pal who resides in Georgetown and I planned on attending the protests to watch and learn. She ended up getting stuck in the library working, and I was taken out to a birthday dinner of Indian food by some gracious compatriots, so we ended up missing them. We also missed a lady getting hit in the face with a brick.

Stay tuned for more from the city where Democracy always works.

This I know

This is a list of things I've learned (or at least remembered (or been inclined to lookup again)) while reading The Count of Monte Cristo. (Let the record show I haven't finished it yet, I am trying to finish Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power and then another book so I can return it to its owner.)

1)taciturn
2)sapient
3)indefatigable
4)alacrity
5)munificent
6)propitiate
7)probity
8)expiation
9)officious
10)loquacious
11)punctilious
12)pusillanimous
13)truckle
14)sagacious
15)disquieted
16)kine
17)canimus surdis (I'm still waiting to use this, it's a sweet aphorism)
18)aphorism
19)exordium
20)deign
21)venal
22)perspicacious
23)revenge is a dish best served cold and as a billionaire
24)mala ducis avi domum*

Suck on that GRE.

*This list was compiled in no particular order.

New TV Show

I just had an idea for a new TV show, MTV Crypts. Instead of going to rich people's houses they go to dead rich people's crypts. Obviously they would start with the Crypt Keeper, but I am sure there are tons of other great crypts out there. There are some crypts under churches in Rome, heck there's even a crypt in the Capitol. I'm just saying, wouldn't this be a way better show than listening to stupid celebrities show of their cars on dubs? Dead people can't say anything, and we all know that medieval lords were way bigger bad-asses than Missy Elliot.

Excelsior

As of October 6th, I am employed. I now have a full-time staff position, no more paid intern for me! That is all.

Columbus Day

One of the perks of being a government employee is having Columbus Day off. That is one of the few perks I can think of, that and the Thrift Savings Plan, which I haven't started using yet. Anyway, I had Columbus Day off and I spent a good deal of time this weekend palling around with someone and drinking a beer or two. That was fun and we had some laughs but I needed a change of pace on Monday. It was pretty hot out so I wasn't feeling another bike ride to Mt. Vernon (about 45 miles round trip and definitely not worth it) like Saturday, so I walked to the Mall. There has been some great confusion about this when I told people I was at the Mall. It is not a mall, it is the Mall. Better known as the Smithsonian Complex. Here is a picture to aid in your understanding.

If you look closely you'll see an arrow and a stick figure, that is me (not to scale). Around 1:15pm I packed up a book in my backpack and took the 35 minute stroll down to the Mall. There were some nice shady spots on the North side of the street, so I grabbed a park bench and proceeded to read. I finally finished I book I'd been working on for a couple of weeks now, you may recall Dreaming in Cuba. It was a nice relaxing day in ridiculously hot weather for October and I eventually bought a hot dog and went home. (By the way, I still don't think that Dreaming in Cuba is a great book, but my impression of it warmed from my initial assessment, I would give it a B/B-.)

On my walk home I saw a local winery store and felt like stopping in to get something to cool me off. Sam Adams still has its seasonals going and I was able to pick up a Cherry Wheat, the only wheat beer that I can truly say I liked the first time I had it. It tastes sort of like a cheery soda, but it's beer.

Upon returning home and cooking dinner I decided to sit on the porch and have a beer. At this time the gentlemen living across the street from me invited me over to their house and asked me if I am in a band. Apparently, they have heard me playing guitar and harmonica on my roof and are interested in having me come to one of their practices. I am not too familiar with the type of music they play, Go-go, but if I have some free time when their next practice comes up, I'll see what my acoustic guitar and harmonica can add to their group.

Anyway, stay tuned for more news from the city where Jessie Jackson, Jr. can be seen riding a segway down K Street (the infamous lobby corridor).

Continued Success

My loyal reader base my be familiar with my previous successes of crashing, I use the term loosely as I technically received invitations, events wherein I received free foodstuffs and drinks without doing too much more than showing up; a similar thing happened Thursday evening. A group was having a happy hour at a local drinking establishment, a classy one at that—proper dress was required. The people whom I came with and I ended up showing up a couple of minutes before the event technically began and as such had our run of the place for a while. I've been to happy hours before, and they typically have some beer and maybe some rail-style hard alcohol. This was not the case on Thursday evening. The only thing off limits was the 100 dollar a bottle scotch. I took this opportunity to sample some Black Bush Whiskey, some Tanqueray 10, and some Chimay Blue. For the uninitiated, Chimay Blue is a delightful Trappist Ale, brewed in Belgium of course, as all Trappist Ales are. I have sampled many types of beer in my day and this one ranks in the top two or three.

Needless to say, I, as lowly as I am on the Hill, have little to no influence on anyone or anything. As such, it is wasted dollars to lobby me, but I am more than happy to be lobbied. I'm still not quite sure what the organization was lobbying for, but all the better, I suppose.

The Leaves They Are A-Changin'

Those of you keeping abreast of my latest moves will know that I have been spending a lot of time on my roof recently. It is a nice, calming place to be. It lets me drink a beer in peace, look up at the five visible stars, and ponder the happenings of the world and where I went wrong. Anyway, I noticed last night while enjoying a Sam Adams Octoberfest (yes it is out now and as delicious as I recalled (for those of you who don't recall, my previous roommate and I went through 16 of the 21 Sam Adams varieties last year in what we dubbed the "Sam Adams Challenge" (there were some real winners (Octoberfest was among them) and some real losers (Old Fezziwig Ale to name one of many)))) I happened to notice that the leaves were starting to change color on the tree across the street from my roof. It is not too noticeable yet, just a dozens leaves or so towards the bottom, but it is happening nonetheless. I don’t know if that insight it supposed to be poetic or somehow insightful, but it struck me last night and I thought I would share.

In other news, I have been listening to "Desire" almost non-stop for the past three days. It seems to me to be one of Bob Dylan's more overlooked albums. It has the nearly infamous song "Hurricane" on it, but I am willing to bet most people cannot name another track off of the album. The sad thing about that is "Hurricane" isn't even the best song on the album, "Sara," and "One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)" are superior on most accounts. Anyhow, I highly suggest you listen to it again if you already have it or you find some way of listening to it if you do not have it.

In Vino Veritas

This weekend I spent a bunch of time palling around with an old pal, whom I oft reference in this blog. Friday evening I was feeling in the mood for a quiet night in and this pal was more than willing to oblige my desire. After work I quickly ran to get some a fine box of wine for our enjoyment and some sunchips. I later learned that against all logic my pal hates sunchips (though seemed to enjoy them quite a bit after a few glasses of vino). I am still confounded by this discovery. Sunchips have a great multigrain taste that I find irresistible; oh well, the world don't move to the beat of just one drum. Anyway, my pal came over and we had some wine on the front porch and then shared a tasty frozen pizza. After doing this, I thought it might be a good idea to sit on top of the porch. There's a sturdy awning and I've wanted to "chill" on top of it for a while. So, we brought the box of wine and my guitar on the roof and proceeded to rock out. We sat on the roof for a long time singing songs and drinking wine. The night ended with an episode of The West Wing, I mean we are political science majors at heart.

Saturday, after shaking cobwebs out of our brains we met up by the Washington Monument for a nice bike. We made it within seven miles of Mount Vernon before we realized that we were quickly losing daylight and should head home. All told I got in thirty-five miles on the bike, I would consider that a decent ride. After going home, showering, and collecting myself I headed over to my pal's house where we watched more West Wing and I drank some more wine. The pal wasn't feeling quite up to wine after the night before so she enjoyed a refreshing Heineken. During the third episode of the West Wing, there was an incident wherein I spilled my wine onto the white carpet of the house I was in. Thanks to quick actions, the carpet now shows very few signs of the carnage.

Finally, it was time to come home and I headed to the bus stop to pick up the D6. After waiting for quite some time my pal suggested that cab would be a quicker route home as there was no bus in sight. I agreed and decided that I should try hailing a taxi to take me back to my place of residence. I flagged one down, told the driver where I wanted to go, and was then told he would not give me a ride. Okay, peculiar, but I tried again. The second cab I hailed did the same thing. The third cab, the same thing. It took the forth cab I tried to get me a ride home. I'm not sure why this happened. I did not have a gun, I was not falling down drunk, and I had plenty of cash. I'm pretty sure refusing me service is against the law, but I didn't have the wherewithal to jot down any pertinent information to lodge a complaint. I eventually made it home and all was well. But seriously, what the hell?

Stay tuned for more news from the city with jackass cab drivers.

These Days

Well, it occurred to me that I haven't updated this blog in a few days, and I'm sure that my huge reader base is in withdrawal. There hasn't been too much going on lately that is interesting or exciting, at least nothing that I am comfortable posting on teh intarwebs (at least not yet). In the interests of having this post not solely discuss my anger at the D6 bus, I will share with you some of the things I have been reading lately.

The two books that I read most recently are The Shipping News and Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries. The former is a piece of fiction and the latter is a book about black holes. I should say that The Shipping News was recommended to me by a good pal and was a great recommendation. It is quite possibly the best piece of fiction I have read in a long time (if you've checked my facebooks recently you'll notice it made it into my "Favorite Books" list.) I have already passed it along to one of my roommates in the hopes that he will read it and enjoy it as thoroughly as I do. It's sort of dark and I was worried a lot of the way through it that the lose plot ends wouldn't be tied up satisfactorily, but they were. I've been thinking about it a lot lately about what makes books good, but having not majored in English, and being not nearly as pretentious as people give me credit for, I have trouble quantifying what makes literature good. This one was good though.

The second book I mentioned is something I have been wanting to read for a long time. It is by Neil deGrasse Tyson, who is definitely my favorite astrophysicist. It is a compilation of essays Dr. Tyson has written throughout the years and they are all witty and informative. I learned a lot about space and I am now armed with more useless facts to spout out about space and bore others. I would suggest it for anyone who is interested in science! and wants an easy read (that is not to say that it is elementary, but I am even less of an English major than I am a science! major and I had no trouble understanding it.)

Also, I have started two new books, Le comte de Monte-Cristo (that deserves a double italics) and Dreaming in Cuban. I am enjoying the former more than the latter but will continue to work my way through both of them--presumably I will be done with the latter before the former as it is 900(ish) less pages.

Finally, a ridiculous occurrence today with the D6. As I walked home two buses passed me. The past three times I walked home from work I did not spot a single bus, today two! What the hell! (Said in the style of you know who.) Anyway, that's all for today folks. Stay tuned for more "interesting" stories from the city designed by a Frenchman.

A Touch of Class

Two cool things happened in D.C. today and both of them took place on "The Mall." For the uninitiated, The Mall is the Smithsonian complex. Contrary to some belief there are many Smithsonian museums, The Museum of Natural History, The Air and Space Museum (but there's no air in space), and so on and so forth. Around one I went for a jog after a week and a half hiatus. I needed to get back into my groove. Anyway, on the way back on my jog I ran past some war protestors. They get pretty fancy on the weekends, public address systems, big tents, et cetera. This particular group had a stage with speakers and some microphones, I can only assume they were trying to rouse rabble at some point. But, the story has gotten off track. The song that was being played while I ran past their booth was Masters of War, a classic Dylan song from his second album, “The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.” For those of you unfamiliar with this song I would direct you here. The point of this story is to say, nothing like a little Bobby Zimmerman to put a spring in your step as you go jogging.

Now, as awesome as Bob Dylan is, he isn't the touch of class that I am referring to in my title. Today I was reminded by an old pal of something I had intended on doing on The Mall. Today was the day that La bohème was performed on the aforementioned mall. Once a year, for three years now, the Washington National Opera Company simulcasts their performances on a large screen with large speakers. The audio-visual display is set up on the north side of the Washington Monument, the side facing the White House. For those of you who are not familiar with La bohème, I would direct you here. This was my first opera experience and it was pretty cool. It began at two and was a two and a half hour performance with intermission included. I have to say, though, that if I knew these people in real life I don't think that I could stomach them. Everyone was quite melodramatic and the fact that they never talk but sing could become a little taxing. Like all good opera goers I had Coors Light and cashews. Not exactly caviar and one hundred year old scotch, but it was classy enough for me. Anyway, things are shaping up.

Government Pork

Yesterday was an exciting day at work. Since I have been in my office I can't think of a day that was more action packed. I am speaking of course of the National Pork Producers dinner. It is apparently the place to see and eat copious amounts of pork. Reportedly, most of the Hill shows up for this glorification of the dirtiest of animals. I, being as mindless and sheeplike as the rest of my compatriots, decided that going to this reception would be a great idea.

The event began at six but knowing that it would be crowded I decided that showing up at 5:35 would be in my stomach's best interests. When I got to the door I was, naturally, asked if I had RSVP'd and I, naturally, replied that I had not. I asked if it would be okay to just fill out a name tag and proceed in. This led to questions about the closeness of my office. I was also informed that the event was not scheduled to begin until six, and might I be able to come back later. I informed the kind woman that my office was in another building and asked her if she was instructing me to leave and come back. I never had my question answered and took this as tacit approval of my admission.

So, I am now through the door, but what to do first? The only people in the room at this point were pork producers/lobbyists and little ole me. The line for the pork was a little long so I did what any sensible person on a budget does, and went to the bar. I finally managed to tried a Pilsner Urquell (the only thing they had cold in the indoor bar). I would give it a B. With my frosty beverage in hand I queued and waited for my turn at the pork. I eventually had some rib tips, Frenched pork chops, scrambled eggs with sweet corn, bacon, and cheese, and a ham and some other meat (I assume a type of pork) panini slice. I took this food down fairly quickly, grabbed another beer (Sam Adams (they had them cold on the balcony)) and got back in line. To be tangential for a moment, the setting for the reception was excellent. It was the Agriculture (unsurprising) hearing room. The hearing room has a door that opens to a balcony that overlooks Independence Ave., and by virtue of the building’s placement, the Capitol. As I was saying, I grabbed a Sam Adams and got back in line. I was mostly full at this point, but in exchange for letting me duck out of work before 6:00 I promised a co-worker a plate laden with meat in return. Luckily, the teeming masses showed up as I was about to leave. I managed to abscond with my pilfered meat and no one was the wiser.

An interesting end note, I walked home from work again last night, I was full of pork and it was nice out. And yes, I beat the bus home.

Stay tuned for more news from the city with the most visited museum in the world (for those of you in Paris, that's the Air and Space Museum). (The Paris comment has nothing to do with any prejudices against the French or admirers of the French, simply that is that city that contains the Musée du Louvre. You see, the Louvre is the most visited art museum in the world but the Air and Space Museum routinely boasts more visitors a year (by a couple million.))

Alumni Affairs

On Tuesday my alma mater had an alumni event on the rooftop of a law firm on Eye street. I, being hungry and always in search of free food and drink, thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to schmooze with big wig alumni. (As it turns out I spent most of the evening talking to my fellow '07s.) Four members of my university were flown from Illinois out to D.C. for this event—The President, the Director and Assistant Director of Alumni Affairs, and the chair of the Business Department. I guess they figure that Washington Alumni have deep pockets because it seems like that's a hefty bill to foot for what is essentially a fund raiser that had about thirty guests (not to mention all the beer I drank and food I ate). I often wondered why it was my tuition continued to increase at a steady rate while I was a student, and I think the picture is becoming clearer.

Throughout the course of the evening I very rarely left the bar or the buffet table (I cannot stress how poor I am enough, free things are fantastic (and the buffalo wings were the most elegant I've ever eaten)) but I did manage to have a couple of conversations with people I didn't go to college with. The President was making his rounds dutifully and naturally stopped by to say hello to me. Shortly after realizing that I work on Capitol Hill and barely have enough money for rent he moved on to those with deeper pockets. I remain fairly well amazed at his ability to discern my ability to give back to IWU and judge me as unworthy of continued conversation within a minute or so.

The evening was not a complete bust, though. Across the street from the law firm is one of my favorite night spots in D.C., The Bottom Line. I was introduced to this establishment by an alumnus who was working on a master's degree while I was spending a semester in D.C. a little while ago. It has a good feel and decent drink specials and someone, I'm not sure who, suggested that after the event we retire to The Bottom Line for perhaps an oat soady. I then lobbied the aforementioned chair of the business department to join our motley crew at the aforementioned bar. It may very well be my Capitol Hill experience is working because I got him to come along. We enjoyed a few drinks and went our separate ways worse for the wear. The aftermath is unimportant, but I believe good times were had by all.

Links

Also, F.Y.I. I had added a tasty link to my page. It is the link to my former college roommate's blog. There you will find tales of whimsy and wonder from the Land of the Rising Sun (for those of you in the House of Lords, that's Japan).

D6

My hate of the D6 bus line is very well documented; in that I complain about it all the time to everyone I meet. I have two ways to get home from work, take the train then walk ten minutes, or traverse the Capitol (complete with tram ride to Senate Office Buildings (yeah, I know you’re jealous (because it’s so awesome))) take the bus and get let off right in front of my house. I take the train to work because the D6 bus either gets me to work 20 minutes early or 10 minutes late. Coming home, though, I don't have to worry about punching in on time and can take a slower route if I so choose. Since the bus costs $.10 less than the train I take the bus home everyday. (Interestingly, taking the bus home recently led to me running into an old classmate from American University.)

The weather was pretty nice yesterday—about 68 degrees when I left work at 6:05 pm. When I reached the point in front of Union Station where a co-worker and I normally split ways I decided that I would walk home. The stroll was nice and my iPod kept me company. The best part of the walk, though, is that I tied the bus. It literally took the same amount of time to walk home from work as it would have if I had stood on the bloody corner and waited for the bus to pick me up. Last week after coming home from Silver Springs I also decided to walk home, not because it was breezy and I wanted to clear my head but rather because I waited twenty minutes for a bus and none came. Oh, and during the entire walk home no buses showed up, and I walked the bus route back. Several days ago I went to visit a pal in Georgetown. I had to wait at least twenty minutes for a bus each way. Between the waiting time for the bus and the time spent sitting on the bus, I could have biked to her house faster, probably even have jogged there faster.

If only I lived on the D8 line, I'd be made in the shade. Normally three D8 buses run past the Union Station bus stop before a single D6 shows up. The bottom line is this America, the D6 bus line needs to get its act together. Start running more buses during peak hours of transportation. There is no reason that there should be a forty minute wait between buses at 6:00 pm.

Stay tuned for more tales of woe from the city whose license plates read “No Taxation Without Representation.”

Inagural Post

Good morning internets. It is pretty early in the morning and I am unable to sleep. It is too late to keep drinking and too early to start so I've looked to my mistress the intarwebs to pass the time. Where's a picture of a big truck when you need one?

I'm sure all of you know this already but I am in Washington D.C., the Federal City, the birthplace of democracy, America's Capital. If you want to watch democracy inaction, this is where you go. (See what I did there?) Currently, I have a job on Capitol Hill (or as Washington insiders call it "The Hill"). (Also an interesting note, Washington insiders don't call Washington D.C. Washington, it's D.C. So if you want to come here and sound initiated into all of D.C.'s glory make sure you don't call it Washington, or Lexington for that matter.)

Now I know what you're all thinking, "You work for the United States House of Representatives, you're so kickass!" And, while I am pretty kickass I don't think that it is tied to my current job. There's a little saying around D.C. about Capitol Hill (The Hill), I haven't learned it yet because I haven't been here too long, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with all the Rogers that work there and how you have to be an idiot to take a job there. But, I was a political science major, (like every other person on Capitol Hill) so I guess this is my calling--much like moderately priced soaps. There is one thing I know about the Hill that is pretty awesome though, it has the nickname of "The Last Plantation." You see Congress, being the lawmakers, decided that they should exempt themselves from virtually every labor law on the books, pretty much the only thing they're not allowed to do is ask you if you are a Republican or Democrat. For those of you keeping score at home, they do anyway. Several weeks ago there were fliers going around for a blood drive. The posters asked that each Congressional office have one intern volunteer to donate blood. They went on to say, "Interns on Capitol Hill are treated notoriously poorly. Everything is taken from them but their blood, and now we want that too." I thought it was pretty cute, and yes an intern from our office gave blood. Brilliant.

Stay tuned in for more stories from the city with more lawyers per capita than any other city in the United States.