24 Hours in Washington, DC

A snapshot of the world in a day.

11:00am: The Acela, train number 2155, leaves Penn Station on time with remarkable normalcy. My only note is the train is crowded. 

11:18am: The train stops. We are somewhere south of Newark. Feint traces of the NY skyline to my left. Industrial wasteland to my right. Hurricane Ian in my ears as I listen to news. 

11:31am: An announcement over the PA system: “This is your lead engineer speaking. There’s been a derailment in Trenton. We’ll be here at least 30 minutes. We’ll inform you of our progress. Thank you for your patience.”

Derailment? My first thought is post-Covid malaise. You know how everyone these days is just a little bit rusty at what they used to do with ease. 

My second thought, terrorists. 

12:43pm: “Hello, everyone. The situation has been mitigated. We shall be all-clear in a few minutes. Thank you for your patience.”

I had been scanning Twitter for any nefarious behavior. Couldn’t find anything regarding trains. But there was plenty of other activity from Russia to Mar-a-Largo. 

We are moving.

3:10pm: After what seemed like forever I arrive at Union Station. As I leave the train I notice a crowd of people gathered at the platform. I think our delay in Trenton must have messed with the arrival schedule so lots of trains have arrived at the same time and we’re bottle-necked at the exit.

I am wrong. 

Turns out there is a rumor of an “active shooter” in the station. What’s remarkable is just how calm people are. Almost non-chalant. I check Twitter for “gunman at Union Station.” No tweets about that. Lots of tweets about Hurricane Ian.

4:08pm: Finally cleared to leave station. Made it to the hotel with little incident and checked in. The Hay-Adams hotel is teeming with well-dressed people. DC is buzzing. 

6:03pm: I head down for dinner. After cocktails and shmoozing we sit down and tuck-in to our rubber-chicken dinner.  The guest speaker tonight is a journalist from the New York Times. Smart and engaging his remarks boil down to this: the Mid-Terms will tell us a lot. Most likely the House will be taken over by the Republicans. The Dems will hold the Senate. And if Putin doesn’t launch his nukes and the world hasn’t been destroyed by tropical storms, we’ll be looking at a Biden-Trump rematch. I’m depressed after hearing all of this and decide to eat all the comfort-carbs in front of me. 

9:37pm: Back in room. I check Twitter before reading a little and going to sleep. New York Yankee Aaron Judge just tied fellow Bronx Bomber Roger Maris’ single-season home run record — the old “61 in ‘61.” Judge homers against Toronto sixty-one years later. That’s poetry. (Even his name recalls Henry Aaron who broke Babe Ruth’s Home Run record.) I hope Judge hits only one more HR this year so there’s a poetic “62 in 2022.” Ok, 72 also works, but I’m actually a Mets fan.

6:30am: I wake up. I turn on the TV to watch the news. The “I’s” have it. The twin I’s of Hurricane Ian and Inflation. 

7:45am: Seated at breakfast for our next speakers. Two political consultants. One Blue. One Red. They cover the key topics on the mind of voters. Number one: Inflation. The talk is informative.

There is some optimism here. They close their discussion by saying: “The two of us have very different political priorities, but we really like each other and work well together.” I leave the room a bit more sanguine and head up to our board meeting. 

10:00am: We get a financial outlook from a professional from a Wall Street firm. She covers the economy and the markets. You’ve heard it all before: inflation, war, pandemic, recession, interest rates, supply chains, earnings, bulls and bears. One hot take? While there is lots of “unprecedented” stuff in our world, the financial modeling looks somewhat similar to World War 1/Spanish Flu days. That moment yielded the “Roaring 20’s” so there’s that. 

11:45am: Another speaker, a professor from a prestigious university. Her topic? College recruits and young talent. The good news: these kids are smarter than ever and truly want to change the world. The bad news: Google and the consultants are gobbling up the best and brightest. The Advertising Industry has lost its “Mad Man” desirability. 

Time for another coffee. 

1:01pm: The meeting adjourns. We end on a positive. We have satisfied customers and we have some funds in our treasury. I say my good-byes to my colleagues and make my way to the train station to board the Acela north. 

2:27pm: I get a txt from a contact. A new business lead. I follow up and have a meeting with the client scheduled for tomorrow at 9am. They want to move fast. Do great things. And yes, they have budget. 

All things considered, not a bad day.