So today was one of those days where you wake up and think “Either everything is going to go perfectly and today is going to rock, or it’s all going wrong. No in between today.”

And boy did it come through. I took the Metro to Capitol Hill to cover a senate hearing on port security. I was also interviewing a representative for the same story. So that required a lot of walking between the two sides of the Hill as I tried to get both of those things done as quickly as possible so I could get back to campus, edit the story and anchor the show.

Well the hearing went well, took a lot of good notes and had a script written by the time I left. The only thing that could have derailed me was not getting a tape from the hearing from FoxNews, who had the pool camera there. (sidenote: at hearings or events where it’s expected to be very crowded, a “pool” camera will provide video for all of the networks so that they don’t all have to try to fit in there).

So I go to the lawn area in front of the Capitol to shoot my little reporter standup. I’m all set to go when I hear the rumble of a U.S. Capitol Police motorcycle. “Excuse me, do you have a tripod permit?” I’m sorry, WHAT? “Do you have a tripod permit?” I’ve never heard of that. I need a permit to use a tripod? “Yes, on the Capitol Grounds you must have a permit to use a tripod.” Oh. Ok then.

The conversation about this tripod permit was about 10 minutes long, and perhaps the must utterly idiotic thing I’ve heard in my life. Apparently years ago there were problems with tourists tripping over tripods and hurting themselves as they fell to the sidewalk. Now I’m all about safety, but it was about 37 degrees, borderline raining and the beginning of March. There was not a tourist within a half-mile of where I was. But still, I needed a permit to use my tripod.

So without my standup, I head off to interview the representative. As I wait for him to finish another meeting, I call about getting the tape from Fox. No dice. Awesome. No story for me today. I get the interview, and 13 seconds of it ends up on the newscast. So if you’re scoring at home, that’s leave home at 6:30, spend 3 hours in a hearing, leave the Hill at 2 pm, and have 13 seconds of that time end up being worth the effort.

Oh and there was the extremely witty and helpful gentleman on the elevator ride down from the representative’s office at the end of all of this. He sees me carrying a backpack that weighs like 15 pounds, a tripod and a camera that I have been lugging around all day…”That looks heavy.” Yeah, it is.

Thanks buddy.