Go Vote

If any of you aren't registered to vote, there is still a little bit of time left to do it. Do it.

And then there is that matter of what/who to vote for. My quick picks:
Pres - Obama
1A - Yes
2 - Yes
3 - No
4 - No
5 - Yes
6 - No
7 - No
8 - No
9 - No
10 - No
11 - No
12 - No

Not sure how much convincing you may need to go for Obama. If anyone has doubts, voice them in the comments so I can see what they are, please. The props are a bit more complicated. I am a pretty liberal guy but also don't enjoy saddling future residents of CA with too much debt through bond measures. Props 4 and 8 are the really important ones to vote down.

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Now that that is all out of the way, we can get back to some fun.

Living in DC is fun. It certainly isn't normal, but it's pretty great. A small group of us went to a specialty ice cream place that is at least a mile from campus. We took the metro to it, but decided to walk back to work off the frustration of it being closed when we got there. We weren't completely certain where exactly we were, but figured out our general location and took off in one direction.

After walking for a while and not seeing anything we recognized, we were getting a little bit discouraged. Just as we were about to pull out the trusty iPhone map, we figured out where we were. We were standing in front of the Treasury and could see the White House. D'oh!

The last 5 blocks of our walk were not completely uneventful though. On the other side of the White House, in front of the OEOB there was a big tourist group of middle school girls. One of them is talking to another pretty loudly (in that screechy tween voice) about how she really likes tie-dye shirts. Danielle, who was having a pretty bad night, decides to yell back about her love of middle schoolers. At this point we are about 100 feet away and closing in on the group. They all look up at us and the girl who had been talking just has a stunned look on her face. Danielle then cheers up for some reason and promises the girl a tie-dye shirt.

The video camera wielding parents are all giving us pretty weird looks, which only get weirder when I noticed that Scott was himself wearing tie-dye. We started trying to get him to take it off and give it to the girl, but he refused. Sadness! The giggles of delighted middle school girls can really be nostalgic. Plus the awkward and uncomfortable parents completing the scene!

I also went to listen to Donna Brazile speak and got to meet her afterward. She was pretty hilarious and just exudes intelligence. I've always enjoyed her commentary on CNN, but she is definitely better in person.

And tonight I went to listen to Beth Leonard talk about her life and the career path toward becoming a campaign manager (Meher: the Man behind the politician). She ran Iowa for Kerry in the primary and Ohio in the general in 2004, and ran New Hampshire for Edwards in the primary this year. Pretty accomplished for her age, and a GW alum. Her biggest point was that people who want to run campaigns should get the heck out of DC for a little while and return to real America. Interesting... might not be a 'return' for me having grown up in Cupertino...

And don't worry, I've been having plenty of traditional college fun as well. My very chill House Proctor (our version of RA) can attest to that. Hah.