If you go into public life or if you are prominent in some other way. You will from time to time be asked to attend an event. You would like to go to that event for as short a time as possible. Because you have to be there but, you don't really enjoy it. Now, you often hear people read letters, 'Oh, I cannot be with you in person, but I am here in spirit.' More often if you go into politics, you will be places in person where you are not in spirit. But when you do those things I have one important piece of advice: Never let anyone take your coat. Because the time will come when you want to sneak out early, and through the room will ripple the cry 'Where is the Congressman's coat?'

Had an excellent adventure to Theodore Roosevelt Island on the Potomac yesterday. The trails were nice enough, and at the center of the island is perhaps the strangest presidential monument I've seen. In addition to the Stalin-esq statue of Roosevelt, there were giant stone tablets devoted to State, Youth, Manhood and Nature. There were also giant non-functioning cement fountains. It's definitely worth checking out, just keep your eyes out for ridiculously huge snakes.

I know a lot of people have been asking me what happened last week and if I'm OK (I am OK, and I truly appreciate everyone's concern). So here's a summary of what happened and some updates on the aftermath:

Last Tuesday I was robbed at gunpoint a few blocks from my apartment by three teenagers. A lot of my stuff was taken, but nothing that couldn't be replaced. I'm just happy to be unharmed. My neighbor, R, was jumped at the same time — I hadn't met him before, talk about a weird situation to get acquainted with someone. We were separately walking home from the Metro around 9:30 and the kids followed us. I was on my phone talking to E in Minneapolis and I was not paying attention to my surroundings as I walk. Then it was too late and there was a gun to my head and in 20 seconds it was over. I'll hold off on some of details about the kids and the weapons since the investigation is still open and ongoing.

Since both of my mobile phones were taken, I had to call 911 after borrowing a phone from K, my next door neighbor (she was incredibly helpful too). I gave the police a report — they were very quick to respond to the scene, showing up at the front door before the dispatcher was finished taking my info. I went to bed a bit shaken and paranoid since they had taken both my keys and had my address on my driver's license. I've since changed the locks to my apartment.

I had the distinct pleasure to observe as my friend S was meeting potential roommates to fill a spot in her house. Not to be overly mean, but one of the guys who came by clearly had a lot to learn about this process. I knew something was wrong when I saw he had on the trifecta of eye-roll-inducing accessories:

• a blue wristband (which has a half-dozen meanings, according to The Internet),
• a poorly placed gold ribbon lapel pin,
• and a large class ring.

He played his strong suit first by saying he's unemployed and he's trying to get out of his apartment because he keeps fighting with his current roommates. He bluntly asked if either of them are vegetarians (my friend's housemate, M, is) before explaining that he despises his current vegetarian/vegan roommates. He volunteered that he had a thousand dollar futon (??) and a toaster oven because he hates slot-loading toasters (Philistine). He then hit me up for a job (heh) and made a fool of himself by mimicking the cat (don't ask – it was too painful to write about). I kinda feel bad for the guy because he's got to keep looking and I feel like he's not going to catch a break anytime soon.

I've come to realize that it's a lot harder to buy food at Costco for one. I just don't seem to hit that sweet spot anymore where it's the perfect tasting food for the exact amount of time before it goes bad. It's kind of a downer for my general Costco limerence.

When I cohabitated with KP it was infinitely easier because we had similar Costco palates. Now it's hard for me to get through the entire 32 oz Sabra Hummus with Pine Nuts before it gets a little too dry. It's foolish for me to get fresh produce there now because unless I eat salad daily, I cannot get through it all before it starts going bad. Frozen and dried foods from Costco are much easier; I'm still making my way through my giant bag of World's Best Fish Sticks and my metric ton of basmati rice. They'll both last me until the next presidential election.

Today was exciting. I got to go to the CIA "headquarters" in Langley (we all know the real Agency headquarters are actually below the sub-basement of the Longworth House Office Building).

I went with with the Congressman and a few other staffers in our office. They have some sort of a strict rule that they could only allow U.S. citizens in our office to participate in the tour. Turns out they didn't even check once we arrived (after I spent the whole weekend memorizing the answers to the U.S. Nationalization Test). To be fair to their procedures, the officer (he's an officer, not an agent <groan>) leading us around did personally know everyone on our staff, so I sorta doubt we could have smuggled in our Thai APSA Fellow in.

I just spent the last hour reading through and searching for my favorite ones. It's a searchable database of 25 years of the Harper's Index. So very cool: http://harpers.org/index/

Share your favorites in the comments.

I've just started a very painful transition from having Mobile Me handle my iPhone contacts to using Google's free alternative, just released today called Google Sync for the iPhone. There needs to be an easier way to bring Apple Address Book contacts into Google. I love the idea of having my GMail and iPhone contacts living in harmony, but it may result in me having to manually enter and clean up the files.