A Changing World

I am entertained easily. I have never lived in a building with a trash chute before. I went to the door labeled 'trash room' which is down the hallway from my apartment. It wasn't really much of a room; it was a closet. There was a little metal door on the wall, and so I opened it up and dropped my bag in. I made some sort of 'squee' noise as I heard it slide down five floors and land on the pile below. Cool.

I’d say one of the most interesting parts of my job, is the part where I get to watch history unfold right in my face. Now, a lot of people would say "I see that on TV," which is true, but I am literally standing in it. For example, I was two feet from all the directors of all the Department of Defense guys. Sparkling stars on shoulders everywhere! I really enjoy doing what I do. For example, I just had an email pop in from work telling me that I am covering a committee hearing that Condi Rice will be the witness at on Wednesday. Cool. I frequently attended hearings, conferences, whatever... and I get to sit there and not just watch it on CSPAN. Actually... I’m standing next to CSPAN... usually asking the very nice camera guy how much the camera weighs. 35 pounds fully loaded with battery, actually :)

On Sunday, fellow TWC friend Craig and I decided to find Taco Bell. Craig, apparently, was having withdrawals, since "there is a Taco Bell on every corner in Ohio and I can’t find one here!!" Well, it was a super windy day. Something like 50 mph gusts. And... it was 40* out. So, Craig and I were leaning into the wind, trapeizing all over D.C. since the directions we got weren’t very good. At one point, the wind blasted so hard, I was lifted right off the ground and flung into poor Craig. I grabbed on for dear life and we were screaming with laughter. It was hysterical. Awesome, is more like it!

When we finally got to Taco Bell, Craig ordered himself an entire Grande Meal and pledged to stuff himself with it, which he did. The whole thing. In one sitting. And tried to steal my nachos when he was done. But, I noticed something while I was sitting there. See, I saw a homeless man in a wheel chair come in, and there were four very young looking kids surrounding him. I watched them buy him food and then they sat down at a table and talked to him while he ate the food. I, of course, always carry my video camera and mp3 recorder, and so I pulled it out and filmed them for a moment. Then I interviewed them, edited it, and posted my video on YouTube:



This makes all sorts of other things, like "what sort of yummy dinner am I making everyone for poker night" questions... seem a whole lot more irrelevant. Presently, I am watching CNN sort of like "wow." Most likely, it doesn’t matter when this actually gets posted, you could go "wow" at CNN at any moment because of this election season. Tuesday I went to George Washington University’s polling spot (it just was one that we randomly picked) and asked people why they had decided to vote for whoever it was they voted for (didn’t ask them who). It is very, very weird, to be watching them do the exact same thing right on CNN. Bizarre. I mean, going from "freelancer" to "I’ve got a Congressional Press Pass, thank you," makes things seem a bit surreal.

I felt that way again while I was covering CPAC on Friday, which was the Conservative Political Action Conference. I was with a whole bunch of other people, of course, but I wandered around with my Marantz and nice big fat mic that I kept poking into people’s faces- and I got to watch person after person get a "no you can’t come in"... and by "person" I mean freelancer. I have never felt so privileged as I did at that moment- because of TWC and my internship at Talk Radio News Service, I have actual, real, bonafide press credentials and so I get to do the most fascinating things.