Memorial Day

I'm just back from a bicycle self-tour of the capital monuments and memorials. What better place to pay respect and homage to the veterans and fallen heroes than at our national monuments?

What an honor to live in a country with the potential to be great. And it's hard not to feel grateful, humbled and in awe of the courage and willingness of people to serve in the military (regardless of our feelings of the rightness or wrongness of combat).

Ceremonies included laying wreaths on all the memorials: WW II, Vietnam, Korea; lectures at the monuments: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR and other activities, but I couldn't find a parade, interestingly enough.

This was the first Veteran's Day that I haven't worked in 23 years, so it was nice to have the day off to visit the memorials.

Last night was the Mark Twain prize at the Kennedy Center, celebrating the life and humor of George Carlin. It was hysterical. Comics came out to tell stories about Carlin, and bits of his bits were shown on a large screen. Comics included Margaret Cho, Denis Leary, Bill Maher, Joan Rivers, Jon Stewart and Lily Tomlin. It was interesting to see the older comics squint at the teleprompter placed 28 rows back in the theater as they read their monologues.

Work is starting to gear up for next week's lame duck session, although staff in many offices are still away (email auto replies about being back on 11/14 or 11/17). In my office, we're still working on researching new bills, speeches and background material.

The Hill newspapers continue to guess at cabinet and executive White House staff positions, Congressional committee appointments, and progress on additional economic stimulus packages for next week. The media finally had a tour of the new Capitol Visitors Center (which we fellows previewed during the summer), and it remains fabulous and definitely worth seeing.

At the same time, many of us outgoing fellows are job hunting, and starting to mentor the incoming fellows. Apparently, newly elected Senators likely won't be filling the positions that I'm most eligible for until early next year, so the wait seems longer that I would have liked. It's understandable that the more senior positions are filled first.

It's been quite a year. I'd love to stay another.