On the Hill

Today in the Capital, we made three legislative calls. We met with aides for Senator Gordon Smith (standing in a hallway by an elevator because there was no place to meet in his cramped office suite) and Senator Ron Wyden, and then our last visit was to Congressman Greg Walden's office.

Rep. Walden's administrative assistant, Blair, gave us a great welcome and it even turned out that Ralph knew some of her family members from Medford. Then his senior policy advisor, Valerie Henry, greeted us. She remembered meeting with Teri and me last year and even some of the things we discussed, such as the congressman's son's college search. She took us into his office and after a couple of minutes of small talk, he walked in to talk with us.

I was pretty impressed by Walden. First it was great that he took over a half hour to talk with us. He was very interested in what we had to say and asked us questions about our impression of the No Child Left Behind Act. I'm not sure we clearly got our specific requests through to him but it felt like we connected personally. Before we left, we had our picture taken with him:

Me, Valerie Henry, Ralph Burrelle, Greg Walden, Teri Calcagno

Tonight I connected with Sarah Paff, one of the students that Jeannette and I worked with when I was at Asbury College. I've been to Washington DC five times in the seven years since leaving Kentucky and each time I've been able to see Sarah. It's kind of funny (and sad) but I've seen Sarah more often than some of my friends in Portland and Salem.

Every time we get together, Sarah introduces me to some place new to eat. It is her mission to make sure I don't eat at any chain restaurants while I'm in Washington. She is working her way, restaurant by restaurant, through a list of DC's top 100 dining establishments. Tonight, we went to Indique, which as you might guess serves Indian food.

Jeannette will be very impressed to see our appetizers: mussels and something else I can't quite describe or name . . . .

Sarah said it was a yogurt. We put it on a pita bread, though of course it's called something else in Indian cuisine. We also had a chicken entree. But mostly it was just fun getting reconnected with Sarah.