This is the ninth post in a weekly series on my DC sabbatical (Sep 1 → Nov 30, 2026). Catch up on earlier posts if you missed them, and join my mailing list for future posts.
On Wednesday morning I sent my dad a list of frogs I intended to eat. If you’ve never heard of eating frogs, the idea comes from Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog, a book about biting the bullet and getting done the things you’ve been dreading and putting off. My dad pushed us to read it growing up (I will admit he got significant pushback at the time). In theory it’s easy, but in practice it’s a muscle you must keep building. It’s always good to have someone holding you accountable, and the idea of eating frogs makes it kinda sorta fun.
I did eat some frogs! I worked through logistics for upcoming trips (including the Pennsylvanian kickoff in Pittsburgh!), planned for the end of the sabbatical and the holidays, and made many, many connections I’d been meaning to make. There are so many moving parts right now that it’s easy to get behind, and putting everything on one list brings it to the front of my mind.
The biggest frog of all has been the fundraising pitch, and I am proud to say I have crossed a finish line. On Friday I met Alex Hensley at a great coffee shop (after a pupusa stop on the way) for a fundraising bootcamp, and she helped me polish the pitch into its final form. We’re raising $250,000 over two years to hire All Aboard Ohio’s first full-time executive director. You can read the pitch here, and if you or someone you know might want to be part of it, I’d love to talk. It’s going out to prospective funders now, especially businesses and foundations, and I’m hoping to gain steam with commitments soon. It’s so nice being friends with fundraising experts!
Alex wasn’t the only one who shaped it. Earlier in the week I met Christina Lotspike at P&G downtown and walked her through the drafts and my updates from the past month. Her background and passion for strategy are so helpful on this journey, and her feedback stuck with me, especially on making the ask to companies as clear as possible. The best way to build confidence is to show we know what we’re talking about and have an airtight plan for the money we’re asking for. I also called Chris Ott, fundraising legend and board chair of WisARP, to talk through my plans to fund AAO now and the national plan in the longer term. His perspective is always worth the call, and I’m excited to have his endorsement on the national plan.
In other news, Ryan Pecaut, Kaleb Neal and I got together on AAO Labs. Longtime readers may remember Kaleb from week two, when he showed me an app that links intercity tickets with Metro day passes. This time we were looking for a good first project for the team, and we landed on resources for riders: station information and a guide to riding Amtrak. Much of that information can be gathered with some technical work, and there’s a lot of room to improve on what Amtrak’s own website offers. If we fill that gap, it helps riders and brings new people to our site at the same time. Ryan and I also had a separate call on comms strategy and our next goals for social media. His passion is unmatched, and he’s one of the most reliable doers I know. I’m so thankful to have him as a teammate, and even more as a great friend.
Board recruitment is also in full swing. We have a few openings, and now that we’ve pinned down the traits we’re looking for, a long research and outreach process is starting. It’s good to be in close touch with Jameson Locklear from the Governance Committee on it. It’s really cool to find so many passionate and influential people around Ohio. The problem is that many of them are just as busy as we are! I also talked with Marla Jones, one of our board members from Columbus, about member training and development.
One of the more surprising calls of the week was with the director of the Ohio Railroad Association. ORA represents the state’s freight railroads, and we usually have some disagreements, but this conversation was quite productive. We focused on the missions and values we share and where we can work together in the future.
Over dinner at Navy Yard, Joe Black from WSP and I caught up in person for the first time in a while. Joe walked me through his whole career, which has been driven by curiosity and a passion for passenger rail. He has been all over the place, in operations, management, consulting and planning, and all over the country too. His lessons, his kind nature and a Pacifico made for a wonderful happy hour. Two days later I was back in the neighborhood for early coffee with Kyle Fields, Deputy General Counsel at the US Department of Transportation. Kyle is an Ohioan and a Miami grad, so we had a natural way into the conversation, but it didn’t end there! He knows this space forwards and backwards and has had a heck of a career over the past decade or so.
I reconnected with Yoni Preuss from Transportation for America, who works with John Robert Smith on passenger rail projects, to talk strategy for Corridor ID funding outreach. It was great to hear his backstory and brain-dump with him. We came out with a game plan for outreach and are now rolling it out, and I joined T4America’s monthly coalition call on Friday to keep the momentum going.
On Friday night I took myself on a date for a side quest. My Baltimore trip had been postponed, so I biked northwest to the famous Politics and Prose bookstore for a panel on the threats to American democracy, with William Kristol and María Teresa Kumar, moderated by Judy Woodruff. It was an enlightening, if disheartening, conversation, and I enjoyed it. I got to ask a question I felt was missing from the discussion. There was a lot of talk about what we should do, but not much about the organizational capacity needed to make it happen. I asked whether there was an equivalent to the Heritage Foundation doing that work to keep democracy strong, and I was less than thrilled with the answer.
Much of the organizational work we’re doing for AAO could apply to other movements too. It’s less about the specific advocacy asks and more about making the machine run as smoothly and quickly as possible.
Something else made me think about where our money goes. On Thursday evening I was reading in Malcolm X Park when I heard a loud rumble. Air Force One was flying directly over the city at around 500 feet. It was cool to see, but it also felt dangerous and disruptive. I wish the money that goes into flying that thing went into transportation that actually helps people.
Life outside of work was full in the best way. My sister Megan recently moved to Chicago, and we started Tuesday by co-working over FaceTime and holding each other accountable. I saw the blockbuster Elizabeth Holmes and Nathan Fielder documentary *You Can See Everything* with Felix and Blanca. I won’t say much here to avoid spoilers, but I’ll go on the record with an 8/10. I recommend it, but I don’t think it’s the craziest movie I’ve ever seen. Feel free to disagree. Saturday was, of course, Halloween. I went as Carmy from *The Bear* to a party hosted by India and Taylor. Carmy is known for his tattoos and messy hair. I got the tattoos down pat, but unfortunately my hair wasn’t long enough for the look. Before the party we joined our housemates handing out candy. Bloomingdale has tons of kids, so it was fun to see the costumes and feel the neighborhood’s vibe.
Sunday’s biggest lift was a run where I accidentally set a new 10k personal best, 45:22! I rode that runner’s high the rest of the day. I also visited the East Building of the National Gallery - which might just be my new favorite museum in the city! They focus on modern and contemporary art, and have a beautiful collection. But beyond the art, I especially loved the rooftop, and the view this time of year was gorgeous.
On the reading front, I finished The Gods of New York, and it really was excellent. It covers so many moments that made a huge impact on pop culture, politics and business, and many of them I didn’t know enough about. The AIDS epidemic, the racial strife of the 1980s and the city’s economic environment were big learnings for me. I’d recommend it to anyone wanting to get back into nonfiction. The author breaks the stories into bite-size morsels you can read four or five pages at a time, so it isn’t intimidating at all.
I also read *On Tyranny* by Timothy Snyder, which we got as a gift at the Politics and Prose talk. It lays out twenty lessons from the totalitarian states of the 20th century. It read a little “resist lib” to me. Like the panel, I wish it had said more about how to actually build the movement instead of lecturing me on things I already agree with. That said, it had some good tips and reading recommendations I’ll follow up on.
Checking in on my goals, the personal side had a great week, from co-working with Megan to Halloween in Bloomingdale to a new PR. For All Aboard Ohio, the executive director pitch is finished and going out, board recruitment is underway with Jameson, AAO Labs has its first project, and we opened a door with the freight railroads. For the national network, Chris’s endorsement means a lot, the Corridor ID outreach plan with Yoni is moving, and Friday night reminded me that building organizational capacity is a bigger idea than rail.
Coming up soon, I have the AAO board meeting on November 11, where we formally stand up the new committees. Then I head to Chicago for the High Speed Rail Alliance conference on November 13, back for our statewide meeting on November 14, and on to the Pennsylvanian kickoff on November 18.
But first things first… It’s election week and I am in DC. Time to go to a sports bar for an election watch party!