Good day
My advice is that one should always start the day with a therapeutic massage, grab a cup of Starbucks on the way in, then arrive fashionably and casually late to a meeting on philosophical issues (as opposed to actual crises). This will, in my experience of the last several hours, set you up for a very pleasant day.
Transitions around here, which will be going on for a while. Last night was the sendoff for a treasured colleague, of the sort they don’t make ’em like any more (and if they did, they’d be subject to any number of lawsuits, I’m sure), a great person to shoot the breeze with, and one who always reminds me to get home to the kids. Lots of nice tributes of just the right tone. I was going to say a few sarcastic things but I just couldn’t do it. The Governor came for a bit, which was very touching and a real testament to how important this guy has been to our program here for the past several years. Real shot in the arm just to listen to the Gov for a few minutes — he has a tremendous ability in a few words to remind us why we got into this and what we’re trying to do here, the legacy we want to leave for New York’s environment.
AND, even cooler than that, other of my treasured colleagues brought me a signed copy of the bill we got through Congress late this summer, which just blew me away. For one thing, nobody can even remember the last time we got a stand-alone bill through, and it was against tremendous odds, caught up in various national political agendas, and a very tricky thing to craft. But we got it done. And while these days it may not be all that hugely impressive to have something I worked on signed by W, someday the politics of it all will have fallen away and the idea that I was an integral part of that process will be all that remains, and I think that’ll be cool. How many people get their work signed into law? And I got paid to do it… And now it’s hanging up in the dining room — Stephanie had it framed for me. She’s too good to me.
The absolute key moment, when I knew we had the wrapped up, I wasn’t even in D.C. I was at home, talking on the cell phone while herding the kids to the school bus on one of the first mornings of school. I don’t like to divide my attention when I’m with them like that, but sometimes it’s necessary, and since I couldn’t be in DC at the time, it was the only way to get it done. Felt very odd to be negotiating legislation while standing on the corner with the neighborhood kids, waiting for the bus to come on a sunny September morning.