Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Hanging Out in D.C.
I got home on Sunday evening from a weekend spent in the nation's capitol. It was pretty fun. I had a ton of reservations. Mostly I wanted to stay home and sleep. But partly since I already bought my flight ticket, and partly because I already put in the notice I was going to attend, I just packed my suitcase for the 8th time this year and flew out to D.C.
I'm pretty happy I went. 17 non-profit environmental organizations sent representatives to this gathering. Our task was to finally put all of our differences aside and talk about how we can start working together instead of against each other. It doesn't sound like such a novel idea, but in these politically-charged days, where almost everyone seems to have their own uncompromising agenda, I think this was a pretty big feat. There was a lot of brainstorming and strategizing that weekend. It was intense, and although we didn't come out with some huge master-plan, I think we lay down the foundation for something pretty big.
The crazy part was Saturday night. I guess that by saying "Saturday night," you might already have a good idea of what happened without even needing to read on... One of the representatives who lives in D.C. offered to host Saturday night dinner at her place. Officially dinner was supposed to go from 6pm till 9pm, but it went over "just a tad." Before dinner even started, one of the guys took the liberty of splurging almost $200 on a keg to be delivered to us. After about an hour and a half of relative sanity, the alcohol started to take its effect. People got a bit louder and rowdier, and the next thing I know a whole group of people are outside smoking (and from what I was told--it wasn't cigarettes).
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Woops! I hate to cut things in the middle, but my grandma just got home from her day of wandering around downtown St. Paul. I'm going out with her to see a movie now, so I'll describe the rest of the D.C. party later on tonight!
I'm pretty happy I went. 17 non-profit environmental organizations sent representatives to this gathering. Our task was to finally put all of our differences aside and talk about how we can start working together instead of against each other. It doesn't sound like such a novel idea, but in these politically-charged days, where almost everyone seems to have their own uncompromising agenda, I think this was a pretty big feat. There was a lot of brainstorming and strategizing that weekend. It was intense, and although we didn't come out with some huge master-plan, I think we lay down the foundation for something pretty big.
The crazy part was Saturday night. I guess that by saying "Saturday night," you might already have a good idea of what happened without even needing to read on... One of the representatives who lives in D.C. offered to host Saturday night dinner at her place. Officially dinner was supposed to go from 6pm till 9pm, but it went over "just a tad." Before dinner even started, one of the guys took the liberty of splurging almost $200 on a keg to be delivered to us. After about an hour and a half of relative sanity, the alcohol started to take its effect. People got a bit louder and rowdier, and the next thing I know a whole group of people are outside smoking (and from what I was told--it wasn't cigarettes).
------
Woops! I hate to cut things in the middle, but my grandma just got home from her day of wandering around downtown St. Paul. I'm going out with her to see a movie now, so I'll describe the rest of the D.C. party later on tonight!
