i'm tellin' you, no way

This city is so weird. Yesterday I was sitting in a coffee shop on the Hill, writing letters, and along come these two people who just have to sit down next to me and start talking really loudly. And name-dropping. Something about movies with Paul Giamatti. Janet-this, and Janet-that. His phone kept ringing, he couldn't figure out how to get to the Mandrin Oriental hotel, meet-and-greet from 6-8, blah, blah, blah. So this, apparently, is his fault.

Add that to being on a plane from Austin with Karen Hughes and then randomly seeing Barak Obama on the way home the other night (I've dreamed of meeting Obama. Just not in 100-degree heat after a run.), and it's been a pretty good celebrity-spotting week.

There's a joke around this city that D.C. is Hollywood for ugly people. If you think about it, it's not too far off. Spoiled people are followed around by an entourage, try to get good press, and act like children when they don't get their way. The difference, of course, is that our politicians make decisions that actually affect people's lives. It really doesn't matter to me that celebrities waste millions of dollars on things they don't need, then believe that their talent and good looks somehow mean the rest of us should listen to them. They're pretty easy to ignore. And mock. It does bother me that politicians get it in their heads that they are somehow special and then proceed to make bad decisions on behalf of our country.

But it's kindof a kick to see people. I've always thought it isn't the same if you see a politician in Congress. Once I saw Hillary Clinton in the tunnel on the Senate side. But that's like saying, hey, I was on the sound stage of this Wes Anderson shoot and I saw Owen Wilson. It's where they work. They're always there. It doesn't count. Now Bono in the Senate, that's a different story.