things that make me realize i live in the nation's capital

So, today was another great day at ABC. I really feel like I've done well on several assignments, and now people at the bureau are starting to trust me to cover news. I was at the Capitol again today, where another guy and I covered a press conference on asbestos settlement legislation in the morning, and the Senate Rules Committee's hearing on lobbying reform in the afternoon (side note--on our way in, we had to stop and wait for King Abdullah's motorcade to enter the Capitol). The afternoon hearing was great... ABC took care of the pool video for the event (meaning we controlled all of the cameras, and shared with the other networks). One of the camera guys that was working the hearing also happens to be one of the first people I met on the job. He saw me and waved me up to a chair right next to him. I was pretty close to the action! Ben Nelson was to my immediate left, and Barak Obama was in front of me. The photographer is great, as he's always so helpful. I also had a front-row seat for the make-up photo op of "pen-pals" McCain and Obama (see story here...http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1595312
).
Besides the motorcade and the Senators all around, here's another reminder that I live in the U.S. capital:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1596287

This afternoon's hearing took place in the Russell building. I left the area around 5pm, and the alarm apparently went off 2 hours later. Crazy.