Google This, Kim Kolchiak!

Well, if Kim Kolchiak can sing a song called "Google Me," then I can certainly post a photo taken in Google's DC office when I was visiting once, using the miracle of my cell phone camera.  I sort of like the fun decor and bright colors and the plant, but you do have to sign in electronically at the nice young receptionist's desk on some great long form that no one really takes the time to read but is probably some sort of non-disclosure thing. There's candy to eat too as well if you like as well as a screen on the wall which gives an electronic picture of where all the Google searches in the world are taking place -- beams of light of higher and lower density coming up from a map of the earth. It really does reveal where or where there isn't electricity on the planet (e.g., there's not that many people googling from the middle of Africa).  Then it sometimes switches to another view, showing all the keywords that people are searching on all across the world in all the different languages. I'd be real surprised to see my name being searched, that's for sure! But I bet Kim Kolchiak gets searched a lot and I wonder if Google likes her new cute song?  Someone told me that the most common things googled for are religious things, like people use Google to search for all kinds of things in the Bible, or when they start looking for God.  Now that's awesome!

Light at Cannon

We paused in the corridor of the Cannon House Office Building the other day after a visit to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's office, and I happened to glance up and see this amazingly ornate lamp hanging from an amazingly ornate decorated ceiling. Since the two people I was with were blind, when I told them what I saw, they asked me to describe it and agreed with me how unique and unusual this was. In fact, the whole corridor ceiling was covered in decorative plaster work painted in white, french blue and embellished with ribbons of gold foil in some places.  The lamp itself was frosted glass held in a basket of lacy brass that included arrowhead designs and some other shapes that I could barely discern from the floor below. The floor below was nothing to sneeze at neither, of shiny black and white marble squares, gleaming gently due to the muted lamp light. On reflection I wondered who designed this lamp and ceiling and by what inspiration? And, who keeps this in good repair, who gets to change the light bulbs on such wondrous work that we own, how many notice this incredible wealth of the nation?

Inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building

There's something about being inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building that makes me think that I've stepped into the story of American history being made. After all, such meetings are not every day occurrences and I don't get invited that often. But it's the high ceilings, painted walls and columns, mouldings and lighting fixtures that are so elegant and ornate and old and I always get the sense that I'm walking where other really important people have  walked before. I like the highly polished waxed marble floor of diagonal black and white squares that you think are going to be slippery but they're not. Shoes always clickety-clack when you walk to the room where you are to meet the President's staff and there's been more than one occasion when I've got lost on the wrong floor or down the wrong corridor before finding out from a passing friendly staffer where I am supposed to be. I've probably been in this building a couple of dozen times over the past 20 years, but each time I am impressed with its grandeur. I don't always remember what the meetings are about or what happened, but I do remember the place. Is that mysterious or what?

The Riches Under Ground in DC

All over the city there are entrances to DC under ground where we can park our gleaming vehicles safe from the weather, fender benders, thieves, and parking ticket ladies. Down fluorescent-lit, hot and fumy, steeply curved ramps we hide away our cars while we go off and shop, or work, or whatever.  But you do have to calculate in the time it takes to park and retrieve the vehicle whenever you plan an activity, one of which is to be waiting for your car to be brought to you. In fact, I'm sorry to say that I have driven my car a couple of times downtown, parked it underground and gone home on the bus forgetting about my beloved car altogether!  I always feel a bit sheepish about picking it up the next day but I know it's been well taken care of and at least I knew where it was once I got home and hubster asked "honey, where's your car?" Another odd thing is that all these entrances and ramps downward look very similar and there's been a few times when I forgot which underground garage I parked in or how to get back into the garage to retrieve the vehicle. Sometimes the stairways and elevators open up into another building above ground or there's no apparent pedestrian way out of the depths.  Then, of course, there's the problem of remembering which floor level it was parked on if you are allowed to self-park.  There's something very odd about wandering about in an underground parking lot looking for your car even if you do have an electronic key that you can beep for the car. There's just been too many movies or urban legends where people get run over or robbed or shot in parking lots and something about the low ceilings and minimal lighting creates a scary atmosphere. These garages are deep, and if you've seen a building constructed you know how big the hole in the ground is when they plan for these. There's a whole world in DC that's underground, filled with shining metal objects worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in the aggregate, guarded by very few custodians, and that we just take for granted as part of our 21st century world. Just imagine, for instance, trying to explain an underground car parking lot to Leonardo Da Vinci, or Genghis Khan or someone even a hundred years ago. They'd probably say it wasn't possible, even if they understood its feasibility. Another amazing wonder of our city.