Proud

When my partner A. and I first moved to DC from Chicago, I would always try to take the long way home from shopping or an evening out by driving through the city so I could look at the Capital at night. I always felt sort of awestruck and proud, until getting stuck in city traffic so often, that the sight became sort of ordinary. It's an amazing sight on a summer night, graceful and majestic, inspiring and moving. I loved hanging out on Pennsylvania Avenue, there are these great bars that have beers for 2 bucks, although the restrooms are not so tidy, you can sit at a table on the sidewalk with an unobstructed view of that wonderful building. It changed for me at some point, I don't know when exactly. I remember that my partner A came home after having a case that she'd worked on go up to the Supreme Court. She was completely thrilled, because for a lawyer, I guess that's the big time. When she came home from court that day, she was a little less than enthused. When I asked her why, she said,"I worked so hard on those arguments, and Clarence Thomas was asleep through the whole thing, and Scalia kept interupting! I even saw _______pick his nose! "
I guess we assume that our leaders are above those sorts of human things, I dont know why, but when you find out that the great and powerful OZ is just some geek behind a curtain, it changes everything.

My partner A. always said that law making was sort of like the hot dog factories in Chicago. You can enjoy the end result a lot more if you don't know anything about the process.

I haven't been to Capital Hill much in the last five years because you can't really see anything when you drive by except for cement barricades and orange fencing. There are so many police officers around that I worry I will be arrested if I forget to use my turn signal (which I do frequently). I am never completely up to date with my tags, or my drivers license, because it takes a whole day to do those sorts of things in DC because the city services are well....less than functional. Driving by the Capital is something I avoid most days. It seems so closed off, so militarized, so...afraid.

Tonight we went to a party at a friends house in Capital Hill. We had dinner and dessert, but when the younger people were running off to the Mall to watch the fireworks, I declined. The Mall is always packed with tourists and people from Virginia, and if you live in DC, you just don't go to the Mall on July 4th. It's not done. Its like getting on one of those green trolly busses with the guy in front pointing out all of the places of interest. It's just not done. We live here. The places of interest for us are the Safeway, and the Super CVS that has bottled water for 3.59 a case. We don't do the Mall.

But I love fireworks. I can't help it, I love flashes of light and color, and I love the sound of loud explosions. Okay, I grew up in the seventies, so maybe that explains my affinity for unnatural color and light. My gurl A. was sitting all comfy and relaxed next to me on the couch, but I just had to tug at her sleeve until she got up to go outside with me to watch the fireworks. We walked down East Capital until we got to 4th street, and there, right in front of us was the Capital Building. It was all lit up and majestic. The fireworks were arcing over the top of the building. You could actually see through the windows of the dome the red, white and blue lights of the rockets.

It was way cool.

We walked down the street, hand in hand, and there were tons of people walking towards the light show. Grown men were saying "ohhhh....." when one of those rockets put out five different colors. We stood in the middle of the street, me and A. holding hands and hugging, and I have never in my life felt so at home, or so comfortable. I felt the love of strangers, my fellow citizens, I knew that I could walk safely holding A.'s hand because we were Americans and I was in the Nation's Capital and all around me were other Americans who would defend our right to walk down the street, hand in hand, and keep us safe.

This is a great country.

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