Ask Big Daddy

Dear Big Daddy,

I’m a Capitol staffer in my mid-20s, and when I got my job I left my significant other in another state. I was hoping the Capitol would be a bevy of bed-hopping intrigue, but maybe I’ve just seen to many West Wing episodes. In fact, several other staffers have told me, and I quote, “I don’t date in the Building.” What is there outside the building in this town? Is one’s choice around here to be married or frustrated?

–In the Building

Dear In the Building,

When someone tells you they “don’t date in the building,” they probably mean whatever building you happen to be standing in. Lots of people give lip service to keeping their work and personal lives separate these days, but for a staffer in during session, work is your life.

Given enough incentive, (and by incentive I mean that particular feeling in your pants), people will date at work, in the Building, across a minefield, in a one-yard glass cube held down with weights to the bottom of a swimming pool