Whew!!!

Hello my fine people. I have had an eventful day so I thought I’d share it. I see lots of famous politicians and really smart people, so I thought I should start keeping track. The opportunities here to go to committee hearings and lectures are endless, and I try to soak in as much as I can. Ok, let the name-dropping begin! Starting off this week, I went to a lecture by Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer. It was interesting to see him but considering he didn’t have many hot topics to cover (the best he could do was tomato salmonella), it got boring pretty fast. Today was quite a good day for events, though. I started off the morning with a tour of the Capitol with some Casper folks (and yes, I did have a connection to them-they work with my aunt Sherri). We got to see Cheney presiding over the Senate, Harry Reid (Democratic Senate Majority Leader) and a Missouri senator sniping at one other, along with some heated debates about energy in the House. Then, we saw Cheney, Leahy, and Gates (Homeland Security head) all leaving the Capitol at once.
Then at noon, all of us went to have our picture taken with the big man himself, VP Dick Cheney. They brought all of the interns from our office and the HELP committee. It was kind of a bizarre experience. They lined us up outside his office, and one by one we filed in the room, shook his hand, a photographer snapped a pic and we were ushered right back out. It was probably less than 30 seconds. To his credit though, he asked each of us our names and where we were from.
Later that day, I attended a committee hearing about the “Iran problem.” The Foreign Relations Committee (which John Kerry heads, but wasn’t there even though I saw him later that day) talked to the ambassador to Iran and asked him a lot of questions. It was pretty fascinating. To be honest, everyone sounds pretty eager to do something about getting rid of the Iran regime. The ambassador, along with Sen. Biden seemed to be pushing some hard-line diplomacy coupled with sanctions. However, they made clear if that doesn’t work, they want to push (multi-lateral!) ‘engagement.’ Whew, there is some political-speak for you, but I thought it was pretty interesting to have a front row seat to all of that.
I finished off the day with a BBQ in which Senator Brownback (R-Kansas) dropped by. I shook his hand and said hi. Not really my type of politics, but I always like to meet people. ;-)

Independence Day!

Hello! I hope you all had a good Fourth of July! Mine was pretty exceptional, being in our nation’s capital and all. It started with the Independence Day Parade on Constitution Ave (pretty patriotic sounding, huh?) at 11:45am. Mindi and I went and staked out a spot amongst the HUGE number of tourists. It was definitely one of the largest numbers of people I have ever seen in one place. The weather was really hot and humid (as usual) but the parade was worth it. It was two wonderful hours of balloons, floats and guys dressed up like the Founding Fathers. Then I came home and ate a lunch of hot dogs and potato chips to be as American as possible.
After relaxing for the afternoon, we made a long trek out to the Iwo Jima Memorial (that’s the statue of the group of American soldiers planting the flag in Japan during WWII) in Arlington National Cemetery. It seemed kind of weird to be actually going away from the fireworks, but the National Mall is a total zoo on the Fourth of July and I thought that would be a special place to visit, too. Despite the nearly constant rain, Mindi, Darren and I went up and met up with another HELP intern named Amber and one of her friends. It ended up being a really touching experience. We sat on a hill at the base of the Iwo Jima Memorial with all those haunting white headstones behind us as we faced the Washington Monument and the rest of Capitol Hill. The fireworks show was pretty stunning. I tried to get some pictures, but that is hard to do. After hanging out at Amber’s apartment for awhile (it is adjacent to the Cemetery and a nice place to wait out the crowds getting on the Metro), we made our way back home. I went to bed exhausted and feeling all happy and patriotic.

Big Al

Hello people! Life is good right now! We are going into recess next week, so everyone is in a good mood. Since Congress won’t be in session, it means we can all dress down and relax. There will be a lot less work and a lot of people will be going back to Wyoming.
I have been having a blast, lately. This place is so full of random surprises...Last week, I got called over to Barasso(the other Wyoming Senator)’s office to help with a tour. They told me that had an experienced person leading the tour and I just had to go along and make sure everyone stayed together. I was a little anxious until I met up with the group and saw that the ‘experienced’ person was none other than Wyoming’s prominent former Senator Al Simpson! I had briefly met him before since I took many of his brother (Pete Simpson)’s classes at UW. I knew him to be a great and friendly person. He and his entourage (which included candidate for Congress Mark Gordon) were extremely nice and asked me about myself (most people in DC would not give a crap about getting to know interns). It was harder than I thought to keep the group together because Al has no problem going into restricted areas. At various points, we all walked into the background of an interview with a Representative and barged into the Vice President’s office. Al stopped to talk with just about everybody, and told us all kinds of interesting stories. I had a great time and all of them shook my hand and thanked me for accompanying them. That is what I love about Wyoming people, they are so friendly and take the time to get to know people. More often than not, you have some connection to the people you meet. Most of them, for example, were big CJ Box fans.

Bonjour...?

Hello my loyal readers (aka Jeff)! Just kidding, I know there are many readers out there, but Jeff is currently my favorite family member for all his comments, even if they are Republican and PC-loving ones.
Well, I had another fun-filled DC weekend! It started with a trip to the National Zoo on Saturday with Mackenzie, Darren Mindi (Enzi interns) and Tony, my uber conservative friend from Heritage. We saw some cool things including this crazy orangutan swinging through the air over our heads, sea lion training and octopus feeding. We also went to see the giant pandas (this is apparently only one of 4 zoos in the US that has them). If you didn’t know, I have a personal vendetta against pandas, but still
wanted to go see them anyway. We walked past what seemed like miles of empty panda enclosures in the baking heat and crowds before we finally found the animals. One was sleeping, but we got all excited when the other panda walked past all the other people directly up to where me and my friends we standing. Then, he proceeded to turn around and poop right at our feet. Priceless.
Later that evening, I went to the Fete de la Musique at the French Embassy. I got a ticket earlier that week and went with a couple friends. There, we got wine, pain chocolat, baguettes and all those other little things I miss about France. There were also various stations through out the park surrounding the embassy that had things like face painting and raffles. They also had different bands playing at various times and places (hence the Musique part) throughout the park. The bands were all totally different and played everything from French/African tribal songs to Jack Johnson covers. They also had a random guy who did tricks with fire and a giant balloon woman walking around. In typical French style it was eclectic, disorganized and incredibly fun.
On Sunday, I continued my solo museum excursions with a trip to the National Portrait/American Art Museum. It was gigantic, and I barely got through it. It had tons of various things, but most interestingly has the originals of all those portraits you see of the Founding Fathers in textbooks and such.
Not bad…

Scalia!!!

Hey there! So much stuff has been happening that it is hard for me to keep up recording it! For starters, this last weekend I went with a bunch of office people to a DC United soccer game. Apparently they were playing their rivals, the New York RedBulls. It rained in a bone-soaking downpour for almost the entire game, which wasn’t too bad because then I hardly noticed all the beer being thrown into the air (which is DC United traditional whenever they score a goal). I also realized that the raincoat I have had for three years has never actually been in the rain before. Good ole Wyoming. It was a pretty wild game, but a really fun experience too!
I also hit up the Smithsonian American Indian Museum, walked through the Gay Pride Festivities going on in front of the Gallery (getting a couple sweet pictures of a drag queen and a concert in front of the Capitol in the process) and did a few sketches of Degas and Rodin sculptures. I am creating my own little tradition of going to museums by myself on Sundays. In my busy and crowded work and living environment, the few hours I get to myself are wonderful. Plus, I get to go see what I want for as long as I want. I'm a nerd, I know, but I like that about myself.
This week, the highlight was a private lecture by none other than Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He spoke to a small group of interns (Mackenzie and I managed to sign up before it filled up in less than 20 minutes!) in the actual Supreme Court. The security and restrictions were, of course, incredible, so pictures where out of the question. However, it was well worth it. The Justice set it up like a Q&A session, covering topics from interpreting the Constitution to water-boarding. I was blown away by two things: 1) that he was operating on a level of intelligence I think I have never even encountered before and 2) that he was very good at conveying that intelligence in a way that was easy to understand. He was also a great speaker on top of that, and even cracked up the audience several times. It was a once in a lifetime experience! This internship is so amazing because I am working a full-time job, but I get to regularly go on “field-trips” and have a front row seat to all the Washington goings-on.
Oh, and Matt called me this week and he is going to be able to come visit next month! I am uber excited!!!

Week

Hello All! I can’t believe this week has flown by, and what an eventful one it has been. While I did nothing but work, that in itself was pretty interesting. To start the week, the fire alarms at my Heritage dorm went off at 6:30am and I had to stand on the lawn in busy, downtown DC in my pajamas, glasses and scary slept-on-humidity hair. Oh, and lost my last hour of sleep. I was pretty grouchy that morning. Then, the very next day my building actually did catch on fire! I wasn’t home at the time, and one of my friends from down the hall in Heritage actually came all the way to Enzi’s office to tell me. Fortunately, the dorms weren’t damaged, and the Heritage Interns even got the day off (hence the visit over in the Senate offices).
The highlight of the week was a lunch with Senator Enzi, his wife Diana and the interns from his office and the HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, of which he is the chair) Committee. Everyone was a little nervous eating with our big boss, but he and Diana are such great people that we all relaxed pretty soon. They took us to the expensive Senate Restaurant, and I ended up sitting next to the Senator. Believe it or not, we spent a good amount of time talking about fly-fishing! What a guy, huh? Also, they told us amazing stories about all their travels and experiences, especially in Africa. I respect him to no end for the job he is doing. If only all Senators and Reps were like him, I think this whole country would work a lot better! Oh, and sitting at the next table over was Joe Lieberman. This is certainly a crazy job.
The week has been one of settling in. I have been getting assigned bigger and more interesting tasks (researching legislation, reading and responding to constituent mail) as well as continuing with the grunt work (answering phones, running errands, Capitol tours). I am getting to know the people in the office better and am getting more comfortable everyday. So far, I haven’t screwed up anything!

Art!

Hello again!
I have been doing lots of blogging lately, because I have been doing lots of stuff. This Sunday (despite the oppressive +100 degree weather) I went to the National Art Gallery, which, being the nerd that I am, is like crack to me. I figured out that it is within walking distance, so I fired up the iPod and headed out. I wanted to go by myself so I could spend as much time as I wanted. It was awesome! The gallery is two different buildings. The West building is three times bigger, but full of pre- and post- Renaissance paintings that are a dime a dozen and done by largely unknown artists, unless you are into that. I navigated up to the 19th Century Frenchies (think Monet, Cezanne and van Gogh), which is my personal favorite. Then, I swung by Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec on the way out. My family should remember all these guys from the Musee D’Orsay. The East Building, while much smaller, was way cooler in my opinion. There, I ran across O’Keefe, Warhol, Pollock, and Picasso
just to name a few. I looked at every piece in the place, even a cool exhibit on loan from Kabul, Afghanistan. The only thing I don’t love about Washington museums so far is the number of people. But I’m realizing how to escape the crowds or just ignore them to see what I want to see.
Oh, and outside the museum they had these odd slate sculptures. Apparently, the artist put black fabric on top so they look hollow, even though they aren't.
The reason I am here is to experience this city and do my internship. So I figure I should soak in as much culture as possibly in the next 2 and a half months!