I wish I took a better Washington picture but instead this is one of my collection of 'Washington, D.C. Unicorn' pictures.

(Sunday Paper, Volume II, Issue 31)

I'm starting to feel like a visitor in my own home here.

I'm thrilled to see how well-received all of the guest posts have been these last couple of months...but I'm starting to worry people are going to be disappointed when I'm the one doing the writing.

But here's the deal: I'm going to have a few more guest posts from the 'friends and family' category in August, then I'll be back on regular Sunday Paper duty for most of the fall, and I'm hoping in the winter to get some voices from the Boston comedy scene to contribute here.

As for this week?

I just want to catch you up on a few things, including what happened this week, because it was a pretty great week.

I just got back from Washington, D.C.

This was a trip I had my eye on for a while...originally I was going to go with a friend, but we couldn't quite make the timing work, so what ended up happening was I went with my dad. And we spent Thursday and Friday in the nation's capital.

There were a few things I was hoping to do while we were there - I wanted to see the Smithsonian Museum of American History, because it's been years since I was there and the last time we were in D.C. I am pretty sure it was closed for renovations. I thought I should go to the Newseum because of my journalism roots and the rave reviews I've heard about it. And, of course, I wanted to hit a Nats game.

But the main impetus for the trip was to visit with my friends who live there and who had a baby back in March.

Joyfully complicating matters, though, another couple of friends (friend couple? I don't know how to express that) had a baby a month early (on my birthday, no less! But we'll deal with that complication when she's older), and they live in New Jersey. So instead of just going to D.C. to see one baby I drove back home through Jersey and saw two babies.

I was hoping to work some comedy into the original trip but as this one took form it looked like it would make the most sense to maybe scout out the comedy and do that part of a trip to D.C. another time.

So here's how it turned out: We didn't hit the Newseum. We did go through the International Spy Museum. (Pretty good.) We did go to the Smithsonian Museum of American History (It was everything I hoped it would be) and even went through the National Archives on the way there. (Something I did the last time I was here and I enjoyed both times.) And it rained pretty hard Friday afternoon in Washington so we did not go to the baseball game...which ended up being postponed anyway. (We really lucked out too - every time we were settled in a museum it rained hard, and every time we walked from one place to another it either stopped completely or let up enough so that we didn't get soaked.) And instead, on the way to dinner, we popped into the National Portrait Gallery and spent a half-hour in a place where I could probably spend days.

To say the least, I'm not crazy about the current state of affairs in Washington, D.C. This trip, though, was an opportunity to ignore the present (other than the fact that what I'm sure was the presidential motorcade drove by us Friday morning on the way to the airport).

Instead, with the (almost overwhelming amount of) history we saw at the museums and the chance to meet my friends' children...it was a great opportunity to spend some time in the past and think about the future.

Writing

*The good news is I've been very busy with work, which is always a good thing. The bad news is that I haven't quite figured out a summer schedule - the girls' camp schedules are different than what the school schedules were like, and in August there will be no more camp. So I just need to figure out a way to get all of my work done. It'll happen...I'm not complaining. Just stating fact: I work better when I have a regular routine, and this past month (and upcoming month, for that matter) has not been conducive to my regular routine.

Comedy

*I've happily maintained a pretty good pace of comedy even during the potentially slow summer months. Other than some flat-out time off at the end of June I've been getting out quite a bit. (Remember, in 2017 I wanted to make a concerted effort to do that, and I'm sticking to that resolution.) It can be a roller coaster at times - I had a couple of real clunkers earlier this month - there were two consecutive shows where I actually misspoke on a joke and didn't fully realize it until I listened to the recording afterwards. Luckily that weird streak came to an end and I had a great Friday night set (in front of a couple of old friends who I was thrilled came out to see me!) at The Comedy Studio last week.

*If you'd like to come out to a show, I'd love to see you. I have a show in York, Maine on Thursday (Tony V. is the headliner and that's a reason to see the show even if I wasn't on it), and shows in Manchester, New Hampshire and Boston later in the month. Check the 'Comedy Shows' link for the details.

What I've Been Enjoying

*I know I've said this before, but I'm so thrilled with how these guest posts have gone. Part of me thinks, "Are people really going to care what my family member has to say?" Then I think, "Do people really care what I have to say?" But, starting with my daughters, each and every one of these guest posts have been awesome. I've loved reading them. I hope you have too, and if you haven't seen them all, click this link and go back through all of the posts.

I'm looking forward to the next few weeks' versions and then - as I told you a few weeks ago - getting back to doing this regularly.

Notes

*As always, if you're new to the Sunday Paper because of the guest posts and you found your way here without going through the Facebook page, please give me a 'like' at the John Sucich Facebook page. I appreciate it!

*I'm going to start making an effort to put out more comedy dates on the Facebook page as well...seems like I should start transitioning that into a Writing/Comedy page just to keep you all aware of what's happening in both areas.

*Pretty proud of the baby gifts I delivered this weekend. These were college friends who had the kids so we cobbled together some BU stuff and threw it together in a BU tote.

*I was just over the moon about some of the pieces of history I saw in DC - the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights always thrill me; the Francis Scott Key 'Star-Spangled Banner' flag; a bunch of artifacts from George Washington - some clothing, his sword, some personal belongings; the gunboat Philadelphia. But I am conflicted about the historical artifact I spent the most time with - my dad's travel toothbrush, which was in its original 'Genovese' case...and Genovese went out of business at least a decade ago, if not more. And...I'm guessing that travel toothbrush wasn't even new then.

*What with my trips to Pittsburgh last year and Washington this year and Kathy's upcoming (and well-documented in these guest posts) trip to the desert next month you might be wondering if we've become one of those couples that always does separate vacations. Not really. I think this was just a series of circumstances that created little trips that were easier for us to take without the kids and one of us was left behind. But, to be honest, I always thought the separate vacation phenomenon was a little unusual. That viewpoint has changed. I still enjoy traveling with Kathy and a good family vacation, but I get the appeal of traveling separately as well.