I should be a biker chick.

Hooray for having a really long first post.

Well, today was eventful. My friend Faith and I ran around town for about 12 hours. We are sunburned, our feet are filthy and sore but we had a great time. We both did stories on veterans since this is such a huge Memorial Day weekend here in DC. She wrote about two Vietnam veterans who made the trip here to see the wall for the very first time. We had to track them down, which was hard to do because everything was blocked off for the WWII Memorial dedication. We had to take a huge detour and finally, after a lot of walking and sprinting and sweating, caught up with the Nam Knights. About 100 or so Vietnam vets on motorcycles. We got there just in time to jump in the back of an expedition and join a motorcade through the streets of DC. Wives of the vets were in the car, and they were some tough women. They could kick the crap out of me just by looking hard enough in my direction. Some of them had matching vests with their husbands, but the back had Ladies underneath Nam Knights. I think ladies is a term to be used loosely. The woman driving was kind of scary, and would stick her arm out and make people in traffic stop for her. This one vet who wasn't a part of the club tried to ride with them, and she rolled the window down and told him to get out, he doesn't belong, he can't just do that, etc. Crazy. They were all very nice though, very polite. The vets called us ma'am, shook our hands and gave us hugs. I was wearing a pink shirt and Faith has long blonde hair and had a skirt on. Here we were hanging out with tatooes, long-haired, vest-wearing, motorcycle-driving Vietnam vets, and it was awesome. People on the streets were waving as we drove by. It was hilarious that we were a part of it all.

We sat on the mall area in the afternoon to watch a live broadcast of the dedication. About 100,000 of our closest friends were there. We sat next to a WWII vet and there were a lot of them who didn't get in to the actual dedication ceremony. If you happened to see it, you saw the speakers with the Washington Monument behind them. We were on the other side of the monument. I think they panned the crowd a few times, so I was one of the many. We tried to get press passes but they said they were only for "working journalists." So many people tried to get in but everything was blocked off. For some reason we underestimated the security measures of DC. People that had their special passes to get in left them hanging around their necks the entire day. Our joke began to be "Alright, so you're soo special, you got into the dedication, whoopeedeedoo, stop rubbing it in and take the freaking lanyard off!"

My first story was published in the Reporter-News today. It could have been better but my editor gave me a short word limit. Jerk. But seriously, I interviewed a vet of both WWII and Korea at Starbucks the other day. He talked for two hours and told countless war stories. It hurt so much that I couldn't include most of what he said in my story. I wanted to devote a page to him. It was exciting that I got published and got my first Washington byline. I love this city.

The WWII memorial is not as good as the other war memorials in my opinion. When we went to the Orioles game we happened to sit next to a guy who helped design the Korean War memorial and was up for designing the WWII one. I think the Korean memorial is one of the most haunting things here. That and the Vietnam wall are much more moving because I think they are more subtle. The WWII has lots of pillars and a big fountain and bronze and all that, and it just doesn't evoke the same feelings. The Vietnam Wall gives you a list of names and the Korean Memorial gives you faces, both of which humanize the wars.

Seeing all of the veterans walking around is humbling. My friends have been going to the memorial this week for interviews and keep describing how they see these 80-year-old men walking around with tears in their eyes. Their comments would be about their buddies who never made it back, or didn't live to see the memorial. Something about seeing the toughest looking motorcycle guy whiping a tears out of his eyes at the wall just breaks your heart. Some of the WWII vets are so frail it is a danger to their health to come to the memorial, but they wouldn't have it any other way. Red Cross people were walking around and there was a ton of free bottled water. They were preparing for "mass casualties," and since about 1,100 WWII vets die a day, doing the math in your head there are some here this weekend that are bound to die.

Our generation has no idea. I just don't think we can compare. I think as I was driving in the motorcade it hit me that this is one Memorial Day weekend I will never forget.