Last you heard from me, I was in muffin misery at the Russell Senate Building, listening to Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) share stories of playing golf with Tip O’Neill (to be accurate, he shared only one such story). After the senator passed the mic to a Cato scholar, Sonal and I peaced in time to avoid what promised to be a truly riveting PowerPoint presentation on Part D premiums.

We began to head back to the office, but I couldn’t start my day right without some scrambled eggs and home fries. We parted ways and I headed to the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet that is New Jersey Avenue. Home to the Holiday Inn, the Hyatt Regency, and the Washington Court hotels, this Jersey is far from the Armpit of America.

First stop was the Washington Court where the Cruise Industry Charitable Foundation’s summer youth program was sitting down to hear a Hill staffer deliver the morning address for today’s program, “Democracy In Action: The Congressional Seminar.” As I ventured through the atrium to the room reserved for CICF’s Washington Workshops, I felt the suspicious glares of concierges and counselors. They were on to me. I was no 16 year-old looking for 5 fun days in D.C. to split up the monotonous routine of sleepaway camp. I was an intern and I was here to crash their buffet. I made a false move to the door, and then I heard a voice. The voice [suspenseful pause] of Eminem. “Lose yourself,” he said. “Lose yourself in the music.”
There was no music in earshot, but there was a damn tasty looking breakfast spread not more than twenty yards from where I stood. Let’s just say I lost myself. I jumped in line after a young man who looked unsatisfied with his first attempt to tie his tie and grabbed a plate of piping hot eggs, sizzling turkey sausage and crispy Canadian bacon. Spotting a group of high schoolers who seemed more concerned with their hair and nails than the fact that there might an unfamiliar face at their table, I took a seat and devoured my delectable breakfast. I probably would have made the eggs a bit looser, and the bacon was a bit chewy, but I was in no mood to be picky. “Eggcelent!” I exclaimed and left the premises before security could catch me.

Taking pictures of teenage girls at a breakfast at which I had no business being seemed, at best, a one-way ticket to losing my free sausages. I lingered outside until the high schoolers I ate with were done their meal so I could take some pictures with my new friends. Here's one of them and his sweet backpack.