Anyway, Senate floor aside, I did go to see where the bills are made, and let me just state for the record that the following story I'm about to tell you is 100% true. This is the crazy story of what it's like being at the Capitol in D.C...
We'll start this adventure around 1 p.m. Monday afternoon. I've just eaten lunch at Bullfeathers down the street on Capitol Hill when I walk upon the Capitol to find police cars surrounding the Library of Congress. Odd. I wonder if the President is nearby?
As I got closer I noticed the whole of the Library was closed off....and so was the Visitor's Center...the place I needed to get to for my tour. Of course that would be closed off too. I asked a friendly police officer if we were allowed to know why everything was blocked off and was told it was because someone had left a stroller in the street and it was called as a bomb threat.
Perfect.
But don't worry everyone! It was only going to take another 15-20 minutes and all the tours were being pushed back.
Me waiting out the bomb threat with a brave face post Mosquito attack
With nothing to do, I didn't feel like going anywhere else just to come back a few minutes later, so I sat down under a tree, only to be attacked by one of those Tiger Mosquitoes that bit my leg up and down.
With a now red and swelling leg that itched like mad, I made my way over to the open Visitors' Center. Nothing to go wrong now, right?
No.
The good news was that all the tours had only been delayed by 20 minutes. The bad news was they decided to combine all the tour times to make up for it. While I was joining my timed tour group, I came across the two rudest people I've yet to encounter in, well possibly my life. Allow me to now reenact the scenario:
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Me - entering queue from the right at the same exact moment as husband and wife from the left.
Woman while walking through the line - "I can't believe she (me) just cut right in front of us. How rude!"
Husband - "Well I would have thrown an elbow."
Me - stunned silence while also thinking "Did he really just say that?? About me?? Because I joined the line at the same time?? Are these people kidding me??" If you only knew the self restraint it took me not to let them know exactly what was going through my head with a few more choice words sprinkled in........sorry I'm taking a deep breath now just thinking about it.
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Okay, so now that I've experienced the bomb threat, got attacked by a mosquito and now been threatened to be hit over joining a huge line with a ton of people at the same time, I was pretty much over the whole thing. But, I persevered my dear friends. I persevered.
And I'm really glad I did, because if I hadn't I wouldn't have seen any of this goodness.
Ike wants YOU to join the Army
Ohio made it into the building, right next to Columbus discovering America. Classic
Reagan laid in State at the Capitol after his passing before his funeral
Grant looking like the dapper Ohio gentleman he was...aside from the drinking thing
The old House of Representatives chamber
Rosa refused to give up her seat on the bus, and she wasn't moving for her statue either
I'm going to be completely honest - the tour was sub par at best. Granted, this tour is only 45 minutes, but it rushes right through both of the seriously cool rooms you get to see. First you go to the Rotunda, where they're currently still under construction after the earthquake a few years ago, and you see where people lay in state and the famous fresco ceiling. Then you move to the National Statuary Hall which is the old House of Representatives chamber. Both are interesting rooms that I could easily spend 30-40 minutes alone in if I wanted to look at every statue. I was lucky to get the pictures I did while breezing through the rooms.
Apparently, the cool way to do the Capitol is to get passes from your Congressmen and women in order to see the House and Senate at work. Guess I know what I'll be doing....hey John Boehner, can I come see you at work? All I'm saying is, I think it should be a rule that if your representative just so happens to be the Speaker of the House you should automatically be let in.
Now where's that School of Rock video that tells you how a bill becomes a law?
*all images taken by me with my trusty iPhone
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