DC Adventures Part II

So, that last one was kind of fun, and I figured I’d do another. Maybe there is something in the air here that has re-activated the writing gene that was inactive in Columbus (perhaps something in the…Blogosphere? Thank you. I’m here for 2 months. Tip your bartender).

I’m sitting here at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, right in front of the reflecting pool, a fitting place for some reflecting I think, especially since the water is way too grungy to display any actual reflecting properties.

I’ve remembered another big difference between Ohio and DC: People here don’t smile nearly as much. Back home, I smile a lot…I smile when I run, when I drum, to strangers, etc, and people often smile back, or at least don’t recoil in fear. I get the impression that when I do that here, people suspect I’m some sort of creeper, which is sad.

People take themselves far too seriously.I’ve actually made an active effort to smile more over the past year, and I can honestly say that I’m happier because of it. Smiling forces you to momentarily step outside your own ipod-fueled bubble, and acknowledge other people, and it also keeps you from taking everything too seriously…it keeps you grounded and humbled. I can only really think of two objects where are exceptions to my new “smile and be happy” policy.

a) People who stand on the wrong side of the Metro escalators. Now that they have the “metro voice guy” telling you where to stand, ignorance is no longer an acceptable excuse. This can send normal people into delirious rages.

b) People who are wearing Georgetown University stuff. Sorry. I have to assume you’re a prick.

Speaking of which, I don’t think I’m going to write very much about my job, which is of course, the biggest reason that I’m here. I’m an Intern people…there are hundreds of thousands of people just like me, proudly displaying their Hill badges like some kind of Sneech from a Doctor Suess book, dressed like they’re off to some College Republicans meeting. I don’t even work for a sexy government department. People will Hill badges sometimes wear them to bars around here, hoping that some naïve out of towner will be impressed. Nobody *ever* goes “I just met this cute boy, and then I found out he works for the Federal Judicial Center! I just had to have sex with him then”. Nope. It’s never happened.

I’ve worked for several government entities now in my life, and I don’t have the desire to name drop and puff out my chest like I used to. I enjoy my work, I like being here, but lets not sugarcoat what I’m doing. I’m interning. We all know what that means.

Finally, I’ve been spending a fair amount of time around the monuments, this being my first week, and a lot of the other fellows in my group haven’t seen them before. I don’t mind, I really like the national mall area, even though I’ve seen it several times already.

But then I got to thinking. A lot of our nation’s treasures are gifts from other countries! The Statue of Liberty is from France. DC’s cherry blossoms are from Japan. We have some random golden statues from Italy. I’m sure there are more that I’ve missed, and they’re all awesome.Have we done this for anybody? Is there a statue somewhere in the world that has from our friends, the United States under it? (I’m not trying to be snarky…if we have, I’d like to know). More importantly though, why aren’t people still doing this? Why are we not writing checks for new monuments to try and get our world status back? Why not go “Hey, sorry about that whole Iraq stuff Europe…can we make it up to you by giving you something marble and shiny?”

Seriously, everybody loves monuments. They make a great backdrop here, tourists come from all over the world to ogle at them, and at night, they can make a serviceable cheap date (just avoid the war-themed ones. Nothing is a bigger buzzkill than the Vietnam wall). Maybe our next president ought to look at bringing some new ones to the world.

Until later my friends. I’ve got a whole notebook full of notes for new entries.