Raising Political Spirits

And now?

"I didn't even watch the State of the Union," she says. "I didn't even realize it was happening until I logged on to CNN" in the morning. And: "The night of the SOTU, I actually spent the whole evening watching DVDs -- of 'The West Wing'!"

The irony, the irony.

Was her time in the District all just a dream? Did she really -- really -- think that asking her friends to donate to John Kerry was an acceptable social activity?

When she hears from old friends whose Saturday nights still revolve around politics, "I'm glad to not be a part of that." But at the same time: "Not being in D.C. for the presidential election seems ridiculous. I'm already thinking about booking my ticket."

It's like Stockholm syndrome.

The love and the hate of the political social scene. The awareness -- tinged with longing and disdain -- that there are movies to be seen, and sports to be watched, and a whole myriad of social activities to be done that do not involve the word "earmarks."

"In 2006 when the Democrats took the House, some friends and I totally crashed the DNC headquarters," says Nick Kolakowski, who worked for the Magazine Group in Dupont Circle before relocating to New York last fall. "On weekends we'd walk into Top of the Hill and then crawl out after watching political coverage all night."

He's recovering from all that now.

His new job is with Trader magazine; he writes about money and has a whole new culture to be immersed in. Still, he did float the idea of hosting a State of the Union or Super Tuesday party in his Brooklyn apartment. "But people didn't exactly light up and say, 'We should totally do that,' " he says. "They thought it was kind of odd."