Sooner or later it always happens--you bottom out. For me it happened this afternoon at 3 p.m. I didn't feel I'd made much of an impact at all today. There wasn't much traffic in and out of the Rayburn House Office Building, and the only serious dialogue I'd had was with Craig, the U.S. Capitol Police officer who was handling traffic in front of the building. We'd had an interesting discussion in which he'd said that he thought the American people had just about had it with war, and, of course I appreciated hearing that. Oh yes, earlier in the day there had been an older man from Vietnam who had said to me, "Thank you for raising the voice." And David from the American Friends Service had brought a visiting Iranian academic to see my sign. He'd been most grateful and had taken a picture to show people back home. But most of the day had been quiet to the point of boredom, and being bored is not my style. I guess it was a natural letdown after yesterday's excitement, but when I took this self portrait at 3 p.m, I was seriously considering hanging it up for the day. That's when the idea came to scoot over and try my luck in front of the White House.

What a change! Over there, there were crowds of people, many of whom read my sign, gave me the thumbs-up and took my leaflets. They also photographed me like I was some sort of rock star. And to add to it all, I met Aaron, an attorney from NYC who had come directly from a meeting with a hand-lettered sign that said, "George Bush doesn't like gay people." He said he was there because he was angry, but his energy wasn't negative at all. I found him to be utterly delightful. It even turned out he'd been born and raised in the Metro Detroit area! For much of the time, we were being photographed by a man who had very professional equipment. He must have taken hundreds of photos. I finally asked if he was a freelance photographer and that's when he told me that he worked for a Russian news service. His name is Alexey Berezin and I've posted two of the photos he took with my camera of Aaron and me. I took the photo I posted of Aaron.

I also saw Joan, a homeless woman who'd become my friend during last summer's 18-day solitary vigil for Lebanon, and Danielle, a peace activist I'd gotten to know last summer as well. I felt like I was home again. And I'll return there tomorrow with fresh enthusiasm. Yes, I still have more to contribute!

As always, you can see my newly-uploaded photos by going to my Iranian Vigil for Peace gallery. CLICK HERE to see them.