I'm Sittn' Here on Capitol Hill . ..

By Chris

"I'm just a bill. Just a lonely 'ol bill. And I'm sittin' here on Capitol Hill . . ." We were singing that Saturday School House Rock song this morning. I was very fortunate to spend my day on Capitol Hill with a really fun group of colleagues.

Day Pass
No cars today . . . as we used the METRO (train) to get from lodging to the Capitol area. Unlike the simple one-token-gets-you-anywhere system in Atlanta, there are many more options here. All but one in our group decided to be smart and buy the day pass. Sticking our cards in the slot repeatedly, the gates wouldn't open. One colleague on the other side taunting: "How's that day pass working out for you!" It's a little after 9:00, and it turns out the "day" for the day pass doesn't begin until 9:30. They should put that somewhere besides on the back of the ticket, that you don't get until you purchase the thing out of a machine. Metro staff man had mercy on us and lets throught he "back door" The METRO is very clean, and much nicer than Atlanta's MARTA. So, we get off and have to insert our cards in the machines again to exit (that's how it knows how much to charge . . . point A to point B fare, I guess. Well, now it will not let us out (except for our heckling colleague who purchased the proper ticket). Waiting until 9:30 didn't work either. METRO lady helps this time, with some ribbing. Turns out that since we had not ever "entered" officially, it would not let us exit. Helpful METRO man really just got us trapped. METRO lady ended up fixing our problem, and we still made the short walk to our first Senate meeting on time.

Lots more stuff to report on the day . . . as we shuffled between office buildings, cafeterias and a couple of places on the mall. Will recap that later.