March 13-15

The funniest part from my trip to D.C. would have to be this. It was around midnight my first night there and I was sketching outside the White House in front of this James Garfield statue. I couldn’t see anyone else out there. It was just me, which is a weird feeling, being outside the White House lawn in the middle of the night. The lights are on and the streets seem peaceful, but you see no one. It feels like you’re all alone, but in your head, you’re thinking, ‘this has to be one of the most heavily guarded places in the world.’ They know you’re there, and they’re probably watching everything you do.

Anyway, I’m doing this really complex sketch and kinda tired, when these three guys come rolling up on 3 electric scooters. One man is probably in his 50’s, while the two younger looking guys are in their 20’s. They’re all in suits, and they’re all obviously very drunk. They come flying up like they’re gonna try to ride directly onto the lawn of the White House when the older guy, hits this pole sticking up about waist high and goes flying off the scooter, slamming his face onto the concrete. When he gets up, he’s got blood all over his mouth, and he’s pretty dazed.

The whole time this is happening, I’m less than 10 feet from it, but they never even notice my presence. They spend the next 20 minutes in a drunken stupor trying to figure out how to get home. It’s funny because no one else is out here the whole time, and they never even noticed me. So the whole time, I’m just drawing this statue while simultaneously watching 3 grown men in suits, try to find out a way to get home on tiny motorize scooters. It kinda felt like I was living a scene from a movie. Finally they ended up putting two guys on one tiny scooter together and drove off into the night.

I stayed a bit longer and finished the sketch.