Springtime in Washington

The cherry blossoms were in peak bloom last weekend. I never tire of fighting the crowds to look at the blossoms!

Tea with Laura

Laura and I had tea at ching ching CHA - so much fun! I ordered the golden blossom tea. It started out as this hard little dry ball and then blossomed into this gorgeous flower complete with flower arch and all in the water. Laura describes it better in her blog :)

Only in DC...

do people care this much about politics. Not sure if you can make out the license plate of the car we were stopped behind yesterday but it says 'H8DUBYA'. If you're wondering, he was a terrible driver!

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

We had a really good Easter weekend. This year was the first year our church held a Good Friday service. I really enjoyed it. I just loved our church in Tucson's Good Friday service and it's something I have really missed since being here. I think taking time for worship and reflection on Friday makes the celebration on Sunday so much more meaningful and joyous. It was made even more special because we had a friend visiting from Tucson with us -- it was fun to share the experience with him.

Our church hosts a giant Easter egg hunt after service so our Easter adventures always start Saturday night with me shoving chocolate into plastic eggs. Two for the egg, five for Melanie, two for the egg, five for Melanie and so on. Then I went out to a lovely breakfast with a friend of mine while P practiced his talk for the kids service.

I joined the children's service to hear Peter's talk-- or Mr. Peter as the kids call him. It was quite good. He illustrated the importance of an empty tomb by smashing an egg on one of the college kid's heads and smashing an empty egg (which he had carefully spent hours blowing out the night before) on another teacher's head. Thanks to Mr. Shane and Mr. Dan for being good sports! The message being that it matters that it's empty. I was hoping to post a video of the great egg smashing up here but Mr. John who took the video hasn't sent it to me yet. If you see Mr. John--harass him for me and get that video :)

I imagine tons of kids this week are smashing eggs on their siblings' heads thanks to Mr. Peter's lesson.

Go Cats!

Last night Peter & I had box seats for the NCAA playoffs. First Duke vs Belmont, and then UofA vs West Virginia. While the Wildcats lost we still had a great time and got to meet Wilbur in
person! Plus the executive suites are pretty cushy so at least we lost in style.

Disenfranchised

Most of you know that I lobby Congress daily. I lobby Congress as a paid representative on behalf of my clients, but I also lobby Congress as a private citizen. My primary choice of lobbying on behalf of my own interests is to write my Congressional delegation. I am on several 'action alert' networks that alert me when legislation on an issue I care about is moving. I instantly grab my pen (mightier than the sword) and write constituent letters to my Members. This worked well and was extremely satisfying when I lived in Arizona and then in Virginia. However, it has really lost its oomph since I've moved to DC.

I love DC. I love that it's the national capital. I love policy — and sometimes politics. I love the city. I love the brains of this city. And I love that everyone in this place knows politics. Walking through a restaurant the other day I overheard various conversations with words like 'obama' 'clinton' 'mccain' 'farm bill' 'reconciliation bill' etc. I love that almost every cab driver I've ever had has an opinion on all three branches of government and feels the need to share these opinions with me.

What I do not love is that now as a DC resident I have lost my voice as a personal citizen. My new representative is Eleanor Holmes Norton. She is a delegate to the House of Representatives and can vote in committee, can speak on the Floor but she cannot vote on the final passage of a bill. I have no voice in the Senate. I am without federal representation! I knew this would be the case when I moved to DC, but I didn’t expect it to bother me this much. Now when I get an ‘action alert’ I sigh and send a note to Eleanor knowing she can’t do much.

5th anniversary of the Iraq War

The view from my office today.