The “Pollies” Day One: Not Much to Report, But the Miller Lite Was Free

I spent most of today traveling, getting up at 4:30 am (!) to get to SFO by 5am to get to a 7am Virgin America flight from SFO to Dulles. Now, I dislike air travel, mostly because it’s like taking Muni without the benefit of jumping off when the sh*t gets bad. However, Virgin America (based in Burlingame! Yay!) has convinced me that there’s an alternate universe crossover that says it ain’t necessarily so.
Not only did we get there sooner than expected, I had a whole row to myself. I paid for the stupid wifi and was online via iPhone to my Twittervercse. Also, got some sleep playing the “Inception” soundtrack. (Jack Donaghy/30 Rock reference). Overall, I was astonished at how well I was treated, from start to finish. Special shout out to the VA employees who were polite, happy and energetic at FIVE AM IN THE MORNING.
Upon leaving Dulles Airport (the one the SFMTA’s own Nat Ford wants to run, along with National Airport, depsite, um, not being qualified to run airports), we took a cab into town. Not a lot to report, but it was at least fast. Also: wow, Northern Virginia, you sure built the HELL out of yourselves!
Finally we were in Georgetown, the haven of my short time here in 1994. Everything was vaguely familiar and yet not. Upon crossing the bridge to the Fairmont, there was a ton of new (as in “I didn’t see these when I lived here when it was a slum”) apartments, hotels and so on. Impressive, but also making me wonder if Phil Gramm had a point about “doing the Lord’s work in the Devil’s city.” (But also not knowing he MIGHT have been on the side of the Devil…but I digress).
The reception for the AAPC tonight was fun, I got to see many old friends and make a few new ones. I would have loved to have partied like it was 1994, but after being up since 4:15 am PST (see what I did there?) I was wiped and I have a lot of work to do tomorrow. So instead of living it up with about 1000000 DC interns that litter this place or the 2011 cast of “The West Wing,” I went back to our hotel, relaxed and had a couple of real beers.
The point? Not a lot. Aside from the fact that this AAPC conference is gonna be cheap, easy, and fast. That’s not a value judgment at all it’s more of a reality. And, it’ll be interesting to discern what the politico pros thing about 2012 re: Obama, the GOP, and whatnot.