Life Behind the Curve

Ever since I moved to Sacramento from Washington, DC, I’ve had people ask me if I miss DC. Usually my response is, “Oh heck no!” Why? Well…let me count the ways:

• Hot, humid summers
• Long, cold winters
• Winters not long or cold enough to teach drivers how to drive in snow
• Commuting on 395
• Enduring 9/11 and the Beltway Snipers
• Getting on the Beltway going in the wrong direction and going the ENTIRE way around to get to where you need to go
• My ENTIRE family in CA
• Every vacation day spent visiting family which does not always equal vacation

But ask me that question when I’m in a very honest mood this week and I’d probably tell you that I have a wee bit of yearning right now. Why? Well, because I’m a total dork.

It’s not the cherry blossoms, the history, the fact that Barack Obama is President, though all of those would be great reasons to be there. It’s health care reform.

*Record screech*

“What did she say?”

Yeah, I said it. I admit it. I’m a complete and total dork.

I’m going to miss being in DC for this summer’s health care reform debate.

I got my master of public policy degree from Georgetown because I wanted to be where the action is. I wanted to learn from people who actually make public policy every day. And I wanted to know that what I was doing was meaningful. That was the kicker for me. I wanted to be in the trenches DOING something…not just being an academic (like I thought I would if I pursued a law degree or a PhD).

I’ve been through this whole pass-major-health-care-legislation-during-the-summer thing once. I worked at the pharmaceutical industry’s trade association during the debate and passage of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. Why Congress decides to pass “good” legislation during the summer I’ll never understand, but I spent that summer working 12 hour days (Side note: I was totally pregnant during all of this…imagine how fun that was!), watching C-SPAN into the wee hours of the morning, and talking about amendments and floor debates and cloture. Say what you will about the bill itself, those of us who are policy wonks or political hacks LOVE being in the middle of a good fight debate.

Don’t get me wrong. I was just one of a very large group of people working on this legislation. But man, that stuff is fun. You don’t go to baseball practice and not get excited about a game. You don’t become a surgeon and not get excited about a surgery. You don’t become a cop and not get excited about arresting criminals. And you don’t go into policy and not get excited about analyzing and advocating for policy.

So, I’ll just say it here and now for the record. Yes, DC, I’m going to miss you this summer, as hot and muggy as you may be.