Employees sit in chopped up little rooms, desk-to-desk, nose-to-armpit, hearing each other's coffee sips and phone conversations. Visitors file out, visitors file in, waiting on their feet because there aren't enough chairs. The offices are broom closets with no room for brooms.

Freshmen members of Congress rarely merit more. Four floors apart, Kilroy and Austria aren't complaining. She's 60 and he's 50, and they spent careers climbing their way to Capitol Hill.

Kilroy, still learning the maze of tunnels connecting House and Senate office buildings with the Capitol, is happy to be across from a stairwell; one flight down the steps and she's out the door, preferring to walk outside, especially now.

"The flowering trees are incredibly beautiful."

Austria, in good shape, sometimes doesn't wait for the members' elevator and hurries down six floors of steps on Fridays en route to Reagan National and a flight home for the weekend to be with Eileen and the couple's three teenage sons.

"It's been an adjustment for the family."

Life in Congress is glamorous from the outside and hard on the inside. Sure, you'd trade places with Kilroy and Austria in a heartbeat. But go in with eyes wide open to the reality that your eyes always would seem to be wide open because sleep is a luxury.

Long weekdays in Washington are extended by working weekends back home, traveling the district to raise campaign funds, meet with constituents, speak to civic and political groups, update editorial boards, appear on radio and television programs and somehow be a wife or a husband and a mom or a dad.

A little more than 100 days into her first term, Kilroy said she was surprised most "by how hard Congress works."

She and Austria represent abutting districts and share the congressional experience, but they are worlds apart politically and philosophically.

Kilroy, a Columbus Democrat, has a tougher road ahead. After narrowly losing in 2006, she won the 15{+t}{+h} Congressional District seat by less than a percentage point against Republican Steve Stivers, who likely was hurt more than Kilroy by the combined 9 percent of the vote won by two third-party candidates.

The 15{+t}{+h}, including all of Union and Madison counties and parts of Franklin County, is Ohio's most politically even congressional district. Stivers and state Sen. Jim Hughes are contemplating GOP challenges against Kilroy in 2010.

With Democrats controlling the House, Kilroy said she is in a strong position to help improve health care, education and the environment and to bring jobs to her district. She said she will fight hard to retain her seat.

"It took me two times to get here, and I don't intend to go away after having spent so much effort to get here," Kilroy said. "You can't change everything that needs to be turned around overnight. It takes a sustained effort. I want to be part of that sustained effort, and I'm going to do what it takes to win re-election."

If he does his job diligently, Austria, a Beavercreek Republican, probably can represent the staunchly GOP 7{+t}{+h} District -- stretching from Perry County on the east to Greene County on the west -- as long as he wants. He provides more conservative representation than constituents of the 7{+t}{+h} were used to for 18 years from pragmatic Republican David Hobson.

After serving 10 years in the Ohio Senate majority, Austria is chafing under the Democrats' control of Congress, complaining that Republican ideas are ignored or rejected.

"Our side of the aisle has been excluded as far as any input. It's frustrating, because we have alternative plans."

Being a member of Congress is harder than it looks. But it's not so hard that Austria and Kilroy won't run like crazy next year to stay there.

Joe Hallett is senior editor at The Dispatch.

jhallett@dispatch.com