Before this spirals off into a whole other direction, let me get back on task. I'm out here for our annual IAFF Legislative Conference, just wrapped it up last night, and I'm taking a couple extra days to play tourist. This town fascinates me, I'm not gonna lie. I could live out here, except I'VE NEVER WON THE LOTTERY AND JESUS GOD IT'S EXPENSIVE OUT HERE! Seriously though, there's an amazing amount of things to do here and if you're any kind of history nerd at all *raises hand* you will find yourself enthralled regularly. The city is incredibly diverse, and it's filled with interesting people. Choose your definition of "interesting" btw. All qualify. Possibly more on that later.
So, to the week. Monday was filled with speakers, elected officials and one political pundit from a "news" channel I refuse to acknowledge. Bleeding heart liberal here, sue me. He's been here before, two or three years ago, I think, and he's actually pretty funny up on the dais. But I found three of the speakers to be especially impactful. The newly appointed DNC Chair, Tom Perez, is very passionate about trying to right the ship of the Democratic Party. I wish him well. I thought he did a fine job as Secretary of Labor and I hope he can accomplish great things in his new position. The other two, both newly elected U.S. Senators, were California's Kamala Harris and Illinois' own Tammy Duckworth. Her speech was one of the most inspiring of the day, mixing humor with drama as she described some of the incidents around her helicopter getting shot down in Iraq. She spoke of her door gunner, how despite his being wounded himself, taking his weapon and moving from the wreckage to protect the perimeter after the crash until they could get rescued. This was part of his assignment for the day. And as she related his sense of duty; how he wasn't about to let anyone in to cause further harm to "his" crew, I think many in the crowd were able to draw parallels to what we, in our jobs, must do from time-to-time. She pulled a couple standing ovations and prolonged rounds of applause. Senator Harris spoke of her recognition of some in the political arena trying to balance budgets by throwing stones at public safety employees. Not an uncommon thread here, but I'm told by my friends from California that she's always had their backs. From her words Monday I believe she will continue that stance. I also believe she has bigger things ahead of her. Very impressive human being.
One of the more enjoyable parts of coming together with firefighters from all over the country is renewing old acquaintances. I saw a guy that worked us in the Deeg back in the day and left for a gig out by Seattle. Craig and I spent about 30 minutes talking about those days, although it was at the end of the night and there was a little bit of distilled spirits on board so our recollections may not have been very accurate. Just sayin. Either way it was good to see him. I had a nice chat with our 8th District Vice President, Mark Sanders. I sent him an email voicing my displeasure a couple months ago and had gotten a prompt, thoughtful, respectful reply and wanted to thank him for that. I saw a handful of guys from the Political Training Academy I attended a couple years ago; guys from Pennsylvania, Cincinnati and Arkansas - shout outs (shouts out?) to JT, Doug and Seth. In fact, last night after a long day of meetings and such, I had called it a night early. I was up in my room watching tv while Scott did his level best to maintain our social image when I got a text from Seth asking where I was. He guilted (not really) me into coming back down for "one" drink. And we hung out for a couple hours swapping stories and laughing our respective asses off about a variety of things. Quick plug for the podcast Firehouse Problems Kitchen Table Solutions (which can be found on whatever platform you use) because they do a great job. I remember one episode in particular (no, not that one, I wasn't in it) Seth and Kyle talked about (but if you're looking for mine it's episode 23. Take that Womack!) how glad they were that their firehouse had a bunk for each guy because they didn't want to have to roll around in all the disgusting things (unless it was their own disgusting things) science tells us are on our beds. So, imagine my surprise when Seth told me he and the other guys from Arkansas he had travelled out with were sleeping two to a bed. Now, I'm no more or less homophobic than the next guy, but that's a line I won't cross unless it's a dire emergency and, quite frankly, I can't visualize just how dire an emergency it would take for me to cross that line in the sand. Seth, I'm telling you right now, you are obviously more comfortable in your manhood than I am in mine. Of course all the jokes about cuddling and similar activities ensued because we're a bunch of twelve year olds.
Alright, speaking of funk, I just realized that I've been working on this more or less for an hour. Since Scott did such an excellent job of keeping our social image well represented last night I probably could have run a marching band through the room with no effect but I decided to just run out for a quick cup of coffee and "a little" work on this. I think it's time I headed back to the hotel and jumped in the shower.
At least that's what the facial expressions of some of the people around here are telling me...
I may toss out an update or two on my travels out here, I haven't decided yet. I mean, don't hold your breath, but I have a feeling this city is rife with posting potential.
Besides, since I've been here the sun burned the overcast away and is now shining brightly over the District.
Still not a metaphor...
Peace
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