God Bless America

There's something to be said about celebrating America's birthday in our nation's capital. To walk around this hallowed city, as many great Americans once did, in the shadow of our sacred landmarks, on our nation's birthday is quite the euphoric experience. All this culminates with fireworks on the National Mall. Nothing screams America like seeing fireworks explode over the Lincoln Memorial! I love America! Happy birthday, America!

While on the topic of D.C., here's my list of things I love about D.C. (still a work in progress). First, I love the landmarks and monuments in this city. They're gorgeous both in how they look and what they represent. I love walking around the city and admiring all the cool buildings, though it's difficult to navigate around all the tourists. Freaking tourists...let me enjoy my monuments in peace and without you taking pictures of every angle of Lincoln (yes, I'm talking to you, Asian tourists). Brady came down a few weeks ago and we took some time to visit the sites and I was reminded of how glorious these monuments/landmarks are and what they represent. It's so great to stand in front of Lincoln, the man who kept our Union together, read his speeches and admire his giant statue, then look across the Reflecting Pool to see the Washington Monument on the other side. Amazing. There's only one view I love seeing more in this city and that's the Capitol Building. Every time I walk past the Capitol I can't help but take a few seconds marvel at it and appreciate the grandeur of its architechture (especially the Dome) and reflect upon what the building represents. I could stare at the Capitol for hours (I talked about doing that once in an earlier post).

Along these lines, another thing I love about D.C. is running through the city. My favorite route takes me along the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, National Mall, Capitol and White House. Probably the most scenic route I've ever run. It's like an impromptu tour of the city. I feel like a powerful D.C. insider whenever I'm out for a run along that route, especially when I'm around tourists who have no idea how to get around the city.

Next, the National Portrait Gallery is my new favorite D.C. museum (sorry Air and Space). I love this museum because it has portraits and biographies of our nation's greatest men and women. It's great to stand in awe of these figures who did so much to make our nation great. The museum has portraits of some of our widely known heroes (the Presidents, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Kissinger), as well as some Americans who aren't as widely celebrated (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Daniel Webster, ect.). All these heroes have made some sort of tremendous impact on the American experience and have defined what it means to be an American. I felt my ego deflate as I saw some of these people and, for probably the first and only time, it felt good.

Another cool place I recently visited is the National Zoo. My favorite attraction was, of course, the giant pandas. Sadly, they weren't doing anything fun. They were being lame sleeping in their pavilions, thus making panda cuddling impossible. Sorry Vitz.

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Now on to the Senate front!

Work has definitely picked up, I'm working on a really cool project that involves researching potential donors. I have very little downtime now because they've given me a massive list to research. It's actually a lot of fun and it's taught me a lot about campaign fundraising.

I've been adding to my list of Senator run-ins. Last week I went to a reception at Michigan's own Debbie Stabenow's office. We had an interesting conversation, especially when she asked me where I worked in D.C. Seeing as how the NRSC pretty much completely works against Debbie, I was hesitant to answer honestly. In the end, I sucked it up and told her where I worked, to which she replied, "Oh, well, we won't hold that against you!" then proceeded to quickly end the conversation and move on to take the mandatory Senator-constituent picture. Awwkkwarrdd!

The next day, as I was leaving my office, I ran into an infamous Senator now commonly referred to as "Big John." For those of you who haven't seen Senator John Cornyn's "Big John" video (which I included on my last post), click here. So anyways, he was walking out of the building and I was about to cross the street, but I decided to detour and introduce myself. We had a nice chat about his upcoming election, what I'm doing here in D.C., and, of course, the "Big John" ad. He's definitely enjoyed the publicity the ad's given him, and I'm sure he gets a good laugh out of it. Afterwards I snapped a pic with him:


A few minutes after seeing Big John, I ran into Senator Chuck Hagel! Here's some backstory: PSIP has assigned each of us "mentors," Michigan-alums who work here in D.C. who have volunteered to impart their wisdom upon us. My mentor, Paul, is Senator Hagel's Legislative Director. That pretty much makes him a baller and someone I might be in a few years. Anyways, I'm walking to a reception after seeing Senator Cornyn and I saw Paul walking outside the Capitol with someone who looked familiar who I quickly recognized as Senator Hagel! It was a very quick encounter, they were in a rush to what I think was a VFW meeting. The run-in pretty comprised of me quickly say hi to Paul and then waving/quicking shaking hands with the Senator as they walked to their meeting. Either way, I'm going to count that.

So adding Stabenow, Cornyn, and Hagel to my list, my count is now up to nineteen! The list is Graham, Dodd, Snowe, Ensign, Cochran, DeMint, Isakson, Thune, Wicker, Barrasso, Murkowski, Coburn, Burr, Coleman, Smith, Hatch (He had lunch with our department a few weeks ago, funny man. I like him.), Stabenow, Cornyn and Hagel. Nineteen down, eighty-one to go!

That's all for now. Somehow I've got less than three weeks left here in D.C... WEIRD!