It Was, If You'll Pardon The Expression, Orgasmic

The Library Of Congress, that is.

It took us a while to get there. I plugged the address into my GPS and set it to give us walking directions, but the streets in DC are just weird. Besides that, Chris wasn't sure he wanted to trust the GPS. So it took us a while to get there. And we stopped along the way to get pictures of the buildings around Washington. I wanted pictures of them because they were grand, majestic, beautiful, humbling in their size and architecture. And because if I was taking pictures, I had a reason to stop walking for a few seconds. Ugh!

I was worried about that before we left. My legs are short. My feet are small. My body is heavy. I'm a little on the chunky side. And Chris isn't known for his sensitivity, especially when it comes to what he perceives as weaknesses, and not being able to keep up with him is a huge weakness. It just means you are lazy. I have never had eyes rolled at me so many times in one day in my life. But that's okay, because the pictures I took are beautiful. And it's all over now, so I can live with it. I have to admit that at the time, there were tears in my eyes more than once. And sweat pouring out of my forehead, and pain radiating from my feet and legs as I struggled to keep up.

We finally found a building that was, apparently, the Library Of Congress. The sign outside said so. We spent some time studying it, trying to figure out which entrance was most appropriate. We, of course, got pictures of ourselves on the (very large set of) steps in front of the building before we went in, partly for posterity and partly because I needed to breath before I attempted all those stairs. I made it, though. Well, I mean, there was no question that I would make it, but it was a bit of a struggle because I wanted to make it without having Chris wait for me at the top for a half hour. I almost kept up with him, though. I could make it up all the stairs in the world, I think, to get into the Library Of Congress. If you remember what I wrote a few days ago, you know that words, politics, and American Idol are what make me come alive. Well, American Idol is the least of the three, and words and politics are what I live for. So imagine: a building that has the word "library" and the word "congress" in it's very name. Just standing in front of the door nearly caused me to faint dead away.

We got in a line of people waiting to get into the building, all of whom had to go through a security checkpoint that consisted initially of a verbal check to be sure they had official business in the building, which was closed to the public. It didn't take too long before we were among those who were removing outer layers of clothing, sending electronic devices through a scanner, and walking through a magical little arbor made of scanning devices. Both of us were pronounced safe and we put ourselves back together and proceeded into the building.

The trouble was, we didn't know exactly what part of the building we should proceed into. We just sort of followed everyone else, and as soon as we saw someone who looked as though he might be an employee (By which I mean, he had a name tag of some sort on- in desperation, you make a lot of assumptions. Luckily, we assumed correctly.), we asked him how to get to the fifth floor where the Michigan Pre-Inaugural Reception was. He looked at us very oddly, as if maybe we had grown a couple of extra heads each, or had maybe escaped from the traumatic brain injury unit at a local hospital. Then he told us the elevators in the lower level were probably our best bet and pointed us in the direction of a staircase. We trusted him and joined the masses descending the staircase.

At the bottom, we found bathrooms, which were greatly desirable, but no elevators to the 5th floor. We used the bathrooms then wandered around looking lost for a few minutes until we found someone else with a name tag. We asked her exactly where the elevators were and what we needed them for and she informed us that we were in the wrong building. That prompted two reactions. First of all, Chris and I both became just a little irritated that no one had bothered to tell us A) that there were two buildings or B) which building to go into. The other reaction was mine alone. A LIBRARY, that requires TWO BUILDINGS? Ahhh... there go the shivers again. Imagine my reaction later when I discovered a third buklding as well!

My tired, aching, cramping legs managed to carry me out of the building, down the stairs, aournd the block, and into the second building, which we got directions to from at least three different people before we found it, mostly because Chris doesn't seem to be able to accept that fact that I can listen to and comprehend what other people are saying, and follow directions, and maybe do both better than he can. When we got there, we had to go through a security check yet again. Same drill- remove coat, make sure electronics are in the pockets or in your bag or placed in the handy dandy bowl the security check people provided, then step through the scanning arbor while your stuff got to ride through on a conveyor belt. Once again, we were proclaimed safe. It would have been easier, at that point, to have just been stamped or something. I've never been through so many x-ray machines and explosive-detecting devices in my life. I think I may be radioactive now.

We were much more successful this time. There were signs everywhere pointing us in the right direction and we easily found the reception. Outside of it was a table of women who had Michigan Inaugural Ball tickets available for pickup. We explained that Congressman Stupak had reserved tickets for us and that we were checking to see if we could pick them up. There were no tickets under Chris's name, which wasn't big deal to us. We just figured we'd have to pick them up at his office, where we were headed after we finished at the reception. The girl who was handing them out, though, wasn't so satisfied. It took us numerous explanations and another ten minutes before she let us get away, because she got it into her head somehow that we were picking up the tickets that had been reserved for the Congressman and delivering them to him. We could, very easily, have become the proud owners of 5 tickets, worth $200 each, that Congressman Stupak was having held for him. I guess we just have trustworthy-looking faces.

Inside the reception, we didn't do much of anything. There were two hours of reception left by the time we got there, and we mainly stood in line to talk to elected officials like Senator Debbie Stabenow, Senator Carl Levin, and Lieutenant Governor John "I Wanna Be The Governor" Cherry. (That wasn't a slam or anything- he'd be a great governor. It's just amusing that he hasn't announced his candidacy yet, but he has been absolutely EVERYWHERE in Michigan lately, making it abundantly obvious what his intention is.) We met a lot of cool people, bumped into a few we knew from home or from working on campaigns, and got pictures with Lt. Governor Cherry and Senator Stabenow, the only ones we could make our way close to. The number of people in that room broke every fire code that has ever existed, I'm sure. If any terrorists had managed to make it through the security checks, we woulda been goners.

We talked to the chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, said hi and bye to the Stupaks, and then escaped the chaos. There wasn't much to do or much space to do it in, and we had to figure out where the good Congressman's office was.

On the way out, we finally managed to meet up with some people we had worked on the Obama campaign with, including Miles the Hyperactive Squirrel. We got sort-of directions to where we needed to go, then started following Miles and the crew in that general direction. They all got way ahead of me, of course, because Miles is a hyperactive squirrel and everyone else is athletic enough to keep up. Chris finally, two street crossings later, decided to let them go ahead and wait for me, probably mostly because without me, he had no money for the rest of the trip. He seemed to think we had to go in the direction that Miles and Company had gone in, but I insisted that they had said they were going to the Capitol and we were headed to the Congressional Buildings. I got the eye roll again, but he called Miles to see what was going on and Miles told him we had to go to the Rayburn Building, in the opposite direction from the Capitol. I'm pretty sure Chris wanted to follow them to wherever they were going, but I wasn't a big fan. For one thing, we weren't invited, and I'm not comfortable just tagging along with people. For another, there is no way I could keep up with them all. And for one more, I didn't want to have to run all the way to where they were and then all the way back to where we were- keeping up with Chris for that long already had me worn right out.

So, we found the Rayburn building. It wasn't too difficult. The only problem was that there was a line waiting to get in. A big line. Like, if everyone in Escanaba lined up, that'd probably be about the same size. In fact, there were two lines and we couldn't really find the ends of either one, and we weren't sure there WERE two lines, and we weren't sure they were for the same thing, and it was all just confusing. I strongly considered catching a cab to the end of the line. We finally found it, though. And got in it. And waited FOREVER. Which is another story entirely.

But the Library Of Congress was definitely orgasmic. And that was without even seeing the books!