just a bill.

Everything seems so significant in D.C. You feel history actually bearing down upon you. Even if you're not looking at something particularly significant in itself, you get the feeling that behind some closed door very nearby, someone is making a decision that will affect you. I don't know how the residents stand it, unless they're making important decisions all the time, too.

It's very difficult to be cynical there, and I've had a lot of practice at being a cynic in general. My first afternoon in town, I walked downtown to just take pictures and see what I could see. I approached the capitol building, thinking to myself "So that's where the corrupt congressmen pass all the laws and all the money changes hands, where this so-called center of democracy...man, that's an impressive building. I'm so proud to be an American." Later I gave up on being cynical entirely and just started singing Schoolhouse Rock. "I'm just a bill, yes, I'm only a bill, and I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill."

Maybe I'm just a sucker for imposing architecture. I'd walked from the Washington Monument through the World War II memorial, along the reflecting pool, and up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I stood atop the steps and looked out at the serene reflection of the obelisk and said to myself in awe, "Hey, this is where they filmed that scene in Forrest Gump!"

Even when you're nowhere near all the monuments and federal buildings, you're still constantly reminded of history surrounding you. There's a building code that the buildings can only be so tall in D.C., so that way you can see the monuments from far away. So even when you're just walking around some other part of town looking to find some good Lebanese food, you can still see the Washington monument standing up over everything.

You can't escape it, even when you think you have. I went on a short self-guided walking tour (okay, fine, I was lost) one morning and passed by an everyday, run-of-the-mill Hilton Hotel. Fine. The next night, I was driving by the same hotel with a friend and resident, and he pointed it out to me, "That's where Reagon got shot." Not so run-of-the-mill anymore, eh?

And amid all the tourists and school groups are just regular people who live there, residents whose jogging route included a lap around the reflecting pool. Do those people even notice the triumphs in architecture surrounding them? Do they still look up in awe or are they thinking only about their stock portfolio or the report they have to write for work? I don't want to live in Washington, and maybe that's why. I like the pure childish awe, the fact that I am still impressed by big buildings and important people and tributes to history. It seems like there are fewer and fewer opportunities to just look at something and say "Wow."

Wow.