ANNAPOLIS – The cure for Maryland lawmakers ailing from 90 days of policy, politics and pressure during the legislative session might be rest and recuperation – but for many more it’s groundhogs, Hollywood and more work.
After a packed party celebrating the end of Maryland’s 90-day legislative session at midnight Monday, lawmakers wasted no time getting out of town Tuesday.
Delegate Carmen Amedori, R-Carroll, is getting far out of town – she’ll travel to Los Angeles to help her daughter make a cross-country move – after catching up on some unfinished business.
“Immediately, I’ll be going home and going to sleep, for at least two days,” Amedori said.
Shopping is on the itinerary for Senate President Pro Tem Ida Ruben, D-Montgomery, before she heads south. She’ll look for a dress for her son’s May wedding in the Florida Keys, which she helped plan long-distance.
For others, returning home is a vacation in itself.
“I live in the mother county of Maryland,” said Sen. Roy Dyson, D-St. Mary’s, who commutes to his home district throughout the session. “I have no need to go on vacation. It’s just nirvana (there).”
Southern Maryland is also calling to Sen. John Astle, D-Anne Arundel. Astle will spend time on a friend’s farm hunting for groundhogs that dig dangerous holes across fields, tripping up cows and causing many to break a leg.
Astle and his wife are also planning a motorcycle trip before he returns to his day job as a helicopter pilot for MedStar, transporting patients between hospitals.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert, was cutting a bipartisan rug with Amedori in the wee hours of the Tuesday morning party, but he can’t find time to get away from his law offices in Clinton and Dunkirk.
“I gotta go to work now,” Miller said. Moments before, Miller lost his cup of “magic” beverage to the piles of confetti the Senate pages dumped over the gallery onto his head when he adjourned the chamber for the year.
Work also awaits Sen. Richard Colburn, R-Dorchester, who planned to be back in his home district by Wednesday in his role as town manager for Federalsburg.
“It’s hard to take a vacation from your real job when you’ve been gone for 90 days,” Colburn said.
When your “real job” is teaching, making time for the 90 days can be the hard part.
Though he taught night classes in world history at Morgan State University throughout the session, Delegate Clarence Davis will go right back to the classroom to share his legislative experience with his students.
“I enjoy this because I’m doing what I teach in my classes,” Davis said. “And I take some of it back to my students.”