("the district") no façade left behind

sigh. bleak night. i'm bewildered and concerned.


but there were some small joys.

every time i go on travel, i receive an assignment from justin of photographs to take (with my phone). the assignment for this trip was:

1> The interterminal train at the Atlanta airport.
2> The Washington monument.
3> A congressman/woman or Senator/Senatress.
4> CIA headquarters.
5> The Black Cat club.
6> A flyer for a band on Dischord records.
7> The Udvar-Hazy Center.

so right around midnight, to take our minds of the dismal numbers trickling in, loretta, chris and i decided to take a drive to tackle my assignment. i'd already gotten #1, #5 (twice), and #6. so we headed out in search of politicians, udvar hazy, and the cia. we decided first to stop at the reagan building (site of the republican gathering) to catch some congresspeople. i got as far as the security checkpoint and was denied entry. as i hung around outside, a small group of young women started squealing and jumping up and down, and another man told me that ohio had just been called for bush. i visibly wilted, but then remembered where i was standing and straightened myself. i took a couple photos of senatorial-looking people, as well as some photos of the security guards and the building, and then hopped in the car again before all the police could descend on us to tell us we weren't allowed to stop there (they were waiting for bush to show up).

next we made our way to the udvar-hazy center, snapped some photos in the dark, and whizzed back on the highway. the most notable part of this journey was the return tollway trip, because we had no coins, and there was noone manning the toolbooth. we spent nearly 13 minutes outside our car hunting for $.35 in change on the ground. triumphantly scrounging up 3 dimes and a nickle, we threw them into the basket, but the light didn't turn green. one dime had to go through several times, and when it eventually did take, the light still didn't turn. eventually we gave up and just drove through the red light. at the next tollbooth, we told the agent that we'd paid our .35 cents at the previous booth but the light hadn't turned. she said that's fine, there are plenty of cameras that will show we paid. hah. i'd like to see that videotape.

but the best part was the cia. first we tried access via the mystical magical george washington parkway. as it is designed to do, it confounded us and spit us back onto the 495, so we decided to take a different road. finally we saw the sign for the CIA, and we were so delighted by the road sign that we decided we must have a photo of it. as we pulled over and i got out of the car, a white suv pulled over behind us and a young officer got out, looking very suspiciously at me (it was, after all, 2:30 am on election night). he told me i was not allowed to take any photos. i asked him if i could just take a photo of the sign. he said (as if he were thinking, "duh!"), "this is the CIA, ma'am, no photos." i said (incredulously, with a "this is AMERICA! where's my FREEDOM?") "i can't even take a picture of the roadsign?" he looked a bit flustered and said, "well it's not really safe for you to be out of your vehicle on the side of the road... i looked at him like that was a pretty lame thing to say, and he looked like he knew it. he then repeated that we were not allowed to photograph any of the CIA buildings. i said i hadn't and would not, and that all i wanted was a picture of the sign. he asked to see the other photos in my phone. so i showed him the pictures of the udvar hazy museum, and he seemed somewhat satisfied that i was sincere. he told me to hurry up and take my photo and then be on my way. that whole experience made the whole night sparkle. god bless america.

so here they all are, justin. what's my prize?

1> The interterminal train at the Atlanta airport.


2> The Washington monument.


3> A congressman/woman or Senator/Senatress.






4> CIA headquarters.


5> The Black Cat club.



6> A flyer for a band on Dischord records.


7> The Udvar-Hazy Center.




as the sun rises on the mall here, the official electoral votes are Bush 254/Kerry 252. it's all on ohio. people are still down the street waiting for president bush to show up. i'm going to go to sleep now for an hour or two.