CAPITOL LETTERS

1) Does it have to be that cold in the House? I understand it's probably necessary for most of those lawmakers to stay awake, but I swear I chattered for 8 hours straight.
2) I'm not sure when I'm going to stop getting caught in games of tug-of-war with those nice door guys. It's like a race to see if I can pull it open before they take the door away from me. And every time I come in, I nearly fall on my face because they pull the door back quicker than I can walk in. I'm sure this isn't this complicated for most of you.
3) Watching all these lawmakers scattered all over the floor like ants, I'm reminded what a messy process this is. And though they occassionally call for points of order, there's really not much order to anything else that happens on the floor. The noise level is ridiculous -- it strikes me as really rude that everyone's involved in their own conversations while someone's laying out their bill. No one even listens! And during any interlude, all the reps divvy up into their own little cliques. They look like knitting circles, or gossiping highschoolers huddled around their lockers in the hall.
4) Those phones at reps desks really need an upgrade. They remind me of the batphone.
5) My most important lesson from the day: It's amazing how the pace of a debate can change in the blink of an eye. One minute, the Jessica's Law debate was making great progress, the comments and questions were tempered. The next minute Rep. Debbie Riddle and Rep. Terri Hodge were shouting to be heard over each other. And a minute later, it was over, after more than 130 lawmakers quickly agreed with Rep. John Smithee's amendment to hold off on the entire thing until Monday. That'll teach me to write out my entire story in advance...