Leaving DC

Hello all! it is with bittersweet feelings that I write this blog. It is my last night in Washington. I have to get up around 5am tomorrow to get all ready and get to the airport for my 8 o'clock flight. This last week has been pretty surreal. All the interns have gone home, and most of the staffers left the office for the last couple weeks of recess. Yesterday, the remaining staffers had a small going away party for us interns, complete with ice cream bars. They gave us our pictures with the Senator and pens with the Senate logo. It was really nice of them, and they thanked us for our hard work this summer.
Today, however, the office was left down to a skeleton crew. Mindi and I took most of the morning to go throughout the Capitol, taking our pictures with all the things we spent the last few months teaching tourists about. It was extremely fun to cavort around and get sentimental. Sadly, as soon as we were done, we had to surrender our Senate ID badges. This meant we could no longer go into the Capitol unescorted, and all the places we were used to going were suddenly off-limits. I came back to the office for a short time, and left early to finigh packing. I had some sad good-byes with a lot of the people I have gotten to know, particularly the young Research Assistants.
After I finished getting my stuff together, Mindi and I went and had a wonderful 3-course dinner at a nice restaurant and sat on the roof of my apartment building looking at the DC skyline. We spent the whole time talking about Washington and the summer. I have learned so much in such a short period of time. I am very ready to go home to Wyoming, but have had great time here. The most important thing I pulled away is how transparent and accessible our government really is, and I'm not just saying that. I got to see it from the inside out. I walked the same hallways as the Founding Fathers and most influential Presidents. I got to be a part of the legislative process and directly communicate with constituents. I learned quite a bit about working in an office, and dealing with fellow workers, as well. All in all, it was an awesome summer, and I am so happy I put out the effort to do it. Thanks to Senator Enzi and his awesome staffers, and the opportunities they gave us.

Last Weekend in DC!!

Hello folks! The novelty of DC is wearing off and I am setting my sights on home. We are going to be the only interns that I know of still in Washington after this weekend. Why they keep us this long is puzzling to me...It is hard because all my friends have gone home and I am left to pick up all of their work. Recess can be a frustrating time for a lone intern. There are very few of us, and the people in the offices are too used to having interns to do their busy work. So, I am getting stuck doing the jobs and work of several people with very little help. This week, I was saddled with working the front desk, doing the Correspondence Manager's job, and trying to stay on top of my everyday intern duties. That, coupled with my temporary new intern coordinator (have you ever had a TA in college that was just starting grad school and wanted to prove how smart she is by making the class impossibly challenging for her students? Its very much like that), have been making my days pretty long. While my experience in Senator's Enzi's office has been incredible, let's just saying I'm getting tired of being the low man on the totem pole.
Not to sound all bummed though! The long days in the office only make my weekends more sweet. And my last weekend in DC has gone out with a bang! Friday night I went to the Washington Nationals baseball game because they were playing the Colorado Rockies. What luck, huh? I have heard that every DC intern should go to a Nationals game, and it was worth it to go see them play my home team! The weather was beautiful (despite a short drizzle) and I watch the Rockies beat the Nationals 4-3. I unabashedly cheered for the Rockies in the middle of the Nationals fans. Baseball fans aren't too rowdy, fortunately, so no one even gave us a dirty look.
On Saturday, I got myself up around six am to meet a bunch of people from my office for Wet Poke '08. Don't worry, it was a tubing trip down the Shenandoah River in Virginia. It was started by a few UW grads, hence the name (Isn't it interesting that the most fun times I've had have been organized by Wyoming folks?). We loaded up a bus, drove 2 1/2 hours into Virginia and floated for almost six hours down the river. It was long, but awesome! I lost my sunglasses though...I was yelling so hard at my friends not to tip me off my tube that I rolled over and accidently knocked myself in. Bah. But other than that, it was so nice to get out of the city and get some sun! I got a little too much, unfortunately, and am suffering with a pretty severe sunburn today.
Oh, and one more thing. This is Honey, the dog I am currently living with. When I got home last night, her owners weren't home yet so she was all clingy. While I was brushing my teeth, Honey went and crawled into my bed because she didn't want me to leave her by herself. Pretty darn cute, huh?

Various Updates

Hello people! I have had the most oddly adventurous weekend. It started by going to see The Dark Knight at an iMAX on Friday night. It was Darren (one of the other Enzi interns)’s last night in town, and we all bought the tickets way in advance. The movie was about 10 times cooler than I thought it would be. I am not a big Batman fan, but Heath Ledger’s Joker lived up to the hype. It was extremely dark and scary, and was even more so on the huge screen (and yes, Roxanne, I do like dark movies!). On Saturday, I went to the Crime and Punishment museum (which was kind of boring…it was like the poor man’s Newseum) with a couple other interns. It had almost all interactive exhibits, which I don’t really like. I prefer to just look at things, I don't feel the need to touch them. I'd rather look at historical things you could get in trouble for touching. I skipped through and went out to Virginia to meet up with another intern buddy, Amber. We ended up going to go play soccer (which I totally suck at). I thought it would be an informal game where I could learn soccer a little better, but it ended up being all these African/Middle Eastern guys who have been playing soccer since they could walk. I ended up sitting on the sidelines talking on my phone to Matt and my mom for most of it. Afterwards, though, I got cleaned up and we went out to dinner until way late. On Sunday, I spent the whole day moving. For some reason, I have to stay in DC until August 23rd, even though all the other interns go home by the 10th, which is when my housing contract expires. So, I had to find a new place to live for two weeks. I managed to find an apartment only a couple metro stops away from work. I get my own room, have a couple cool roommates, and live with a sweet dog named Honey. It made me feel a little sad and weird to be packing and moving, but not getting to go home. I only have less than two weeks though! So, the next couple weeks might be a wee bit boring, but I will keep you all posted on any further developments!

Newseum

Hi everybody! I had quite a good weekend. Our time is DC is starting to run short, so there has been a flurry of museum and site seeing amongst us interns. I have been pretty good about going out to see things this entire time, and have seen at least one new thing every weekend that I have been here. So I don’t feel a huge amount of pressure, but I still want to see all that I can. I did go to one of the coolest museums I have ever seen this weekend though. We all went to see the “Newseum” first thing on Saturday morning. Unlike the other museums in DC, this one charged $20 per person. Though pricey, it was incredibly worth it. The best way to describe what’s in it is to think of all the random artifacts you can think of that have a place in news history. More than likely it will be there. They had sections of the Berlin Wall, the Unabomber’s cabin (yes, the actual re-assembled cabin), Daniel Pearl (American journalist killed by terrorists)’s laptop, a door from the Watergate hotel, J. Edgar’s Hoover’s desk, Timothy McVeigh’s driver’s license, and the antenna from the top of the World Trade Center, just to name a few. I also got my picture taken with a cutout of John Dillinger. I almost wanted to have a notebook with me to write down all the wonderful little odds and ends that were around every corner. It was gut-wrenching (all the 9/11 displays) to fascinating (newspapers from the beginning of the press to present), to hilarious (displays of media satirists, like SNL and Colbert). We ended up spending 4 hours in the museum, and left after seeing the final display of all the Pulitzer Prize winning photographs since it began in 1942. Some pictures broke my heart, but were worth seeing all in one place. The coolest thing was how recognizable everything was. Everything in the news is such an inherent part of life that many of the images were very familiar, but had been years since I’d seen them. Recently forgotten news stories, like the DC Snipers (the museum had their actual blue sedan), or the Unabomber, or even the Monica Lewinsky scandal hit home with me. My whole experience walking through was like, “Oh hey, I remember when that happened…” If any of you come to DC, the Newseum is a must-see, particularly for fellow news junkies (Becky).
On Sunday, I walked all the way to the Holocaust museum, got in line, got a ticket, and then decided I had seen too many sad pictures of people from the day before. So I just turned around and went home. Maybe next weekend I will go back and check it out when I feel a little better about humanity.

I did have one moment today that made me realize how much I miss the lack of people in Wyoming. I was walking to Union Station and a giant dragonfly landed right by my foot. I really wanted to lean over and catch it, but couldn’t because there were so many people around. That kind of sucked. However, I had a great weekend and am ready for work tomorrow (sort of).

Cowpies and Luncheons!

Hi folks! I have been having a crazy time the last few weeks. Things certainly move at a faster pace here than they do at home. Last weekend we had our big once a year Wyoming celebration called C.O.W.P.I.E. (The acronym stands for something I can’t remember), put on by the Wyoming State Society. It was so much fun, but made me pretty homesick. They rented out a place right by the Capitol and had live music (playing lots of Chris Ledoux), dancing, free beer, and a mechanical bull. All the Wyomingites from the various offices came, along with plenty of East Coast folks. I felt like I was back home for a night, honestly. It felt just like Frontier Days in the middle of DC, especially when they broke out the cigars, of which I am a fan. Everyone dressed in that wonderful, casual, Western-y way that I am so used to. I had a blast cavorting with the interns and Enzi staffers. I could tell you some very crazy stories, but I must follow the motto, “What happens at COWPIE, stays at COWPIE.” Work has been going very well, too. Today I finished up the Stennis Congressional Internship Program. It is an intensive, bicameral, bipartisan program you can get selected to participate in. I was picked as the candidate from my office, and had to submit an application and was fortunately accepted. It was one of, if not the most rewarding, part of my DC experience. I got a front row seat to listen and actually talk to major political and media figureheads, or as one intern put it, “The important people who never have time to talk to interns.” For example, we learned about the legislative process from the woman who teaches freshman Senators and Representatives how to make laws when they get elected. We worked in groups all semester on what we thought the model internship program is, and were able to present it to people who can actually implement our suggestions. At our concluding luncheon today, we also discovered they would be submitting all of our names as a Statement to the Congressional Record (which is presented on the floor and published and sent to all the offices). Also, our names and pictures should be up on Stennis’ website soon if you guys want to check it out (I can’t remember the specific site, but if you just put ‘Stennis Congressional internship program’ or something of that nature into Google, you’ll find it).
Oh, and I had to deliver a wedding present to one of Ted Stevens’(he is the longstanding Republican Senator that just got indicted for accepting illegal gifts!) staffers today. I actually had to dodge reporters that were camped out outside his office and told not to say anything, which I accomplished. It is so weird to be in the heart of the beast!

Life on the Hill

Hello my loyal readers. I had my first sick day last week. I woke up all nasty and sick and decided to not push it (like I usually do) and just take the day off to relax and get better. I think I have been going pretty hard and opening myself up to sickness. The night before I went to some conservative group meeting. I am enjoying the constant political-ness of DC and am more than willing to go to anything if there is a possibility of free food. With this one, I wasn’t disappointed. There was a mini-buffet of appetizers and an open bar. The speaker ended up getting delayed in traffic and they encouraged everyone to just keep drinking until he got there. By the time he showed up, I’m not sure if his speech was exceptionally funny, or if my free glasses of wine just made me think so. I am noticing that there are so many meetings, receptions, hearings and briefings, that you could probably come here and spend a full 24 hours attending everything. Some are ways for the government and the public to exchange information (committee hearings), others are for like-minded politicos to have drinks and complain about the rival party (meetings) and others are groups trying to get the politicos to come by and hear about their issue (receptions). One thing that is weird to me, though, is that everything is pretty official. If there is a flyer saying an event will go from 7pm-9pm, it is literally over at 9pm. With everyone’s schedules, it is generally understood that there will be no loitering. I am used to running into people I know and standing and talking for hours. These things are designed for people to meet people, and then leave. It’s a little odd to me because I am used to forming friendships, not just connections. Is almost like speed-dating; you talk to someone just long enough to see if they match you (“You support oil shale drilling? Me too!!”) and then move on to the next one. Either way, I am having a blast going to everything, even though I’d rather talk about Cohen Brothers movies or fly-fishing than rant about policy decisions. The only thing is that I’m still a little intimidated by the size and scope of DC. Many people from the New York area, or even friends from Texas, tease me for my small-town mindset. I am used to knowing everyone and being familiar with all that is expected of me. I still feel like I dress a little more casual than most, and prefer conversation to be easy and friendly rather than intense, angry policy discussions. However, the atmosphere is fun for me and I really enjoy checking everything out.

Arlington National Cemetery

Hello people! I also had a pretty good weekend I haven’t written about yet! I went out to Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday. I had gone out there for the Fourth of July but didn’t get much of a chance to visit the whole place. It was brutally hot (I think I sweated out half my body weight in the first few minutes), but was still worth it. I went with a couple of the other interns, and we went to see all there is. Besides seeing
the rows and rows of white tombstones, we went into the Arlington House (Robert E. Lee’s house), JFK, RFK and Jackie’s graves, the Eternal Flame, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (and managed to catch the changing of the guard!) and the various memorials. It was pretty cool and pretty touching. The next day, I went back to the National Gallery (you’re right Jeff, I am starting to run out of museums!) to do some drawing. You can learn a lot about famous artists’ techniques by sketching their work. So that is what I like to do when their stuff is nearby. I grab my sketchbook, some pens or charcoal and my iPod and find a place to draw. I found a whole room of Degas’ models of horses and ballerinas, and drew a lot of those. Its kind of weird drawing in public places, though. People either watch me over my shoulder, or totally steer clear of me and what I’m drawing. I have noticed a new phenomenon here that I never experienced in Paris though. People will come up, look at what I’m drawing, and then go stand directly in front of me and what I’m looking at. I’m not sure if they want me to draw their portrait, or what. I usually just give them snake eyes until they move. The problem with the Gallery though, is there aren’t a lot of places to sit, and drawing while standing is pretty hard. But, I asked the security guards if I could sit on the floor and they said I could. I couldn’t really tell if they were irritated or amused by this, but I think it was more the latter. Either way, I had an awesome time and want to keep doing that on my Sunday afternoons, too. Oh, and I got this sweet picture of a bird taking a bath in a fountain,