And Noowww Jayyyy Lenooooo....and Me?!

Hey folks,

It's your good buddy Matt here. Welcome once again to the Gorm-zone! I had an interesting couple of days, so I figured I should fill you all in. But before I do, I want to update you on something that happened recently. I told you that I saw Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on a tour of the Capitol. A gentleman who was on my tour took a few pictures and was gracious to send them to me for use in the Gorm-zone.

On Saturday, there was an event I was looking forward to for a couple weeks now: The National Book Festival. Every year it's held on the National Mall and brings forth really famous authors.

There's children's author Judy Blume

This year was no exception. From Jodi Picoult and Nicholas Sparks to John Grisham and filmmaker Ken Burns. The book signing schedule was my bible for the day as I spent most of the daylight hours in the shadow of the Capitol, buying books and then getting them signed.

I got down to the Mall at around 10:30 and heading to the book sales tent to stock up for the day. I bought A Time to Kill by John Grisham and took my place in line. However, as the minutes ticked down, the line wasn't moving. I decided to abandon my quest to meet John Grisham (who I really didn't care about anyway) and head over to Douglas Brinkley. Brinkley (son of former NBC News anchor David Brinkley) is a noted historian and author. He edited all of Ronald Reagan's presidential diaries into a book. (Apparently everyday of Reagan's presidency, he wrote an entry. Heck, I can barely write two blog posts a week!)

Ken Burns gave a lecture and signed books

Anyways, my parents gave me that book as a graduation gift from high school and I was able to get it signed my him. I also waited in line (for an HOUR AND A HALF!) to get American Lion signed. It is a book about Andrew Jackson by Newsweek editor Jon Meacham. It won the Pulitzer Prize this year. From there I rushed over to get a book signed by Gwen Ifill. She host a political show on PBS but many of you may know her as the moderator of the last two vice-presidential debates. Last trip of the day was to meet Dan Balz of the Washington Post. He wrote an amazing book on the 2008 election called The Battle for America. It took me about 2 days to read it. It was really good.
There's Gwen Ifill

On Sunday, I headed over to Georgetown to walk around a bit. I also really wanted to try some famous cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake. They're supposed to be legendary. They were closed unfortunately. However I discovered a great little section of the city called Washington Harbor. It lies right on the Potamac and has a beautiful restaurant and marina. I also had dinner at one of my favorite burger joints: Fiver Guys Burgers and Fries. My family and I love it so much, we actually went there for Father's Day this year!

On Monday, I had some Washington Center events going on. In between, a few friends of mine got lunch at Union Station (a big mall, food court, and train station right near Capitol Hill). With our smoothies in hand walking to the next event, we see some cameras. Peering in for a closer look, we see that it's comedian D.L. Hughley! He was filming a segment for Jay Leno and was talking politics with people. He ends with one group and comes over to us. We think it is just to say hello, so we start talking to him. Then, all of a sudden, lights go on and BOOM!: we're being filmed. He starts talking to my two friends about being a Republican and a Democrat. All while we're in front of the camera! It finally ends and they tell us that it will probably be on either Friday or Monday. Look for me! I'm not sure how they edited it, you're probably going to be able to see me. But just in case, I'm the guy with the blue tie and pink shirt!

For this Capitol tour segment, we take you into the Visitors Center. It was just completed a few months ago, yet it took forever to build! In fact, they first started talking about adding a visitors center in the mid-1970s! That's Washington for ya! The picture is of the Statue of Freedom. It is the statue that is on top of the Capitol. I thought for many years that the Washington Monument was the highest point in D.C. Not true! It is the Capitol. The Washington Monument is technically the tallest, but according to the planners of the city, in a democracy nothing is of higher value than freedom...

That's all for me! Take it easy!