The coolest thing I've done in D.C. so far

I don't think I fully appreciated my press pass until last night.

All day yesterday, it was up in the air about whether or not I'd be covering the vote. It seemed unlikely, as my paper has a tradition of pulling from the wire when big events happen - it's a smart move, actually. If I were in editor, I would not be likely to trust a 21 year old college student with the responsibility of understanding and reporting on the financial crisis or one of the most important votes in our Congress's history. I'd leave it to the pros. So, I wasn't surprised when she, during our weekly meeting, said she would just be waiting to pull from the wire yesterday.

I know it's strange but when I thought I could be covering the vote, I was dreading going to the Hill. Covering this vote would have been so stressful and intense, and I'm thankful that I was not put in that position. (Jenny, my roommate and future reporting superhero, did however cover the vote, all day, for thirteen hours. Her goals and ambitions lie far ahead of mine, that's for sure. But she was amazing!) But, as soon as it became apparent that I would not be in charge of reporting this, the idea of going didn't seem as awful. Sarah, our class photographer and my neighbor across the hall, decided that we should go and we should make it fun. So, as soon as I filed some quotes from the infamous Barney Frank for the paper, we ran upstairs to change out of our jeans and into our Hill clothes. We headed to the Hill and made a pit stop at Capitol City to take advantage of Happy Hour before we went to watch the festivities.

We got to the Capitol around 6:30 and made it up to the Senate Press Gallery (it's a balcony that oversees the Senate floor) just in time to listen to John Kerry present his speech in support of the bailout package.

-- Just to take a time out for explanation, because I know I wouldn't have known had Jenny not explained this to me. If you ever hear the bailout package spoken of as an amendment this is the reason why: Appropriation packages cannot originate on the Senate floor. So, in order to pass this legislation to bailout Wall Street, the Senate had to add an amendment to an existing bill - in this case the Mental Parity Act: HR 1424. --

Back on track now...

After we watched John Kerry speak, Sarah and I decided to walk around for a while. We knew a vote wasn't expected until much later in the night. We walked from the Senate side of the Capitol over to the House side, which was ghostly. There weren't even security guards around. All attention had been diverted to the Senate side. On our way back to the Senate side from the House side, we walked through the second floor - which passes through the Whisper Room and the Rotunda. I never envisioned in my life that I'd be able to walk through the Rotunda of the Capitol Building alone (well with just Sarah at least!). It was a very staggering moment and pretty eerie actually. By this time, it was dark, so these empty halls in the Capitol were almost overpowering.

When we got back to the Senate side, we headed back into the press gallery to get situated for the vote. We sat watching debate on a few other bills before things started to get exciting. When we were first in the press gallery, it was fairly empty. But as it got closer to the time of the vote, it began to fill up, and so did the Senate floor.

My little Indiana heart could barely contain itself as soon as Sen. Evan Bayh walked onto the Senate floor. Everyone in the newsroom makes fun of me because I get very excited whenever Sen. Bayh appears on C-SPAN and last night was no exception. They laughed, but for good reason. Sen. Obama snuck onto the Senate floor without making a big deal of it, but as soon as he was spotted everyone, even seasoned journalists, were standing in the Press Gallery (which is a no-no) trying to find him. We saw Sen. Clinton (who looks much better in person and without the stress of the election weighing on her!) on the floor next. And Sen. McCain made a fairly grand entrance through the main door of the Senate. When Sen. Obama went to shake his hand, Sen. McCain offered one shake and (not even kidding!) rolled his eyes to his Republican counterparts as Sen. Obama walked away.

Then, we got to watch the vote. There aren't many people who can say that they saw the two presidential candidates on the Senate floor during the peak of their campaign, but I am one of those people. The vote itself was, obviously, huge and being there was...historic, for lack of a better word.

Hopefully you'll be happy to hear that both Sens. Bayh and Lugar voted in favor of the package. (I'm crossing my fingers that our Reps. will follow suit on Friday! Ellsworth voted for the House package, but Pence did not...) I think, though, that I'm happy the package went through the Senate. The additional provisions to the Senate plan will, I think, ease in its passage in the House...but we'll see.

But wait...it doesn't end there...

As we were getting ready to leave the Capitol, we saw two possible exits. We had come in one way and knew how to get back to the Metro from that exit. As we turned to leave, a few of the other news staff from BU noticed tons of cameras running toward the other exit. So, being reporters, we followed them, and got to the exit just as Sen. Obama was leaving the building.

We were four feet away from a possible President of the United States of America.

It was a good night, to say the least. I was definitely a little star struck by the whole event, but very honored to have been a witness to everything that happened.

So...D.C. here is a challenge I pose to you great city: Top That.