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,

Washington

Hello folks. I realized I used to write a lot of blogs on the weird little goings-on of France, and I have yet to do much like that about DC. I think it is because I have so many big, exciting things to write about, I forget to add the little things. This is a shame because if there is any city with a lot of absurdity, it is Washington.
The constant competition among people is ridiculous. By far the worst are young, male interns from the Northeast. By comparison, all of us in our office are from UW. We all are fairly normal, sociable people. We know we are in a work environment but know when to chill out too. On the other hand, most interns I meet here (particularly male ones) manage to brag about their Ivy League school, grades, awards and how their parents are paying for their law school in the first five minutes of conversation. I just roll my eyes and make an excuse to get away. Also, one of the most bizarre things to me is the idea of rank. You’d think we were working in the military or something! I am constantly reminded (outside of my office, I mean—Enzi’s office is amazingly kind and respectful) that there are many people see me as completely insignificant because of my ID that glaringly declares me an intern. I grew up believing people should show each other common courtesy (particularly in male/female roles) and that is not the case in this male-dominated atmosphere. Probably one of the weirdest was I had a grown man shove me out of the way to get off the elevator before me. That was a hard one for me to take...
Not to sound like I dislike it here by any means! For the most part I love it the egocentric bubble of DC. It is beyond weird to be in the actual center of policy. I physically see everyday what is on the news later that night. Like earlier this week, I was going to attend a hearing about internet competition (because I didn’t have a lot going on), and decided not to go when I saw the line wrapping around the hallway. The next morning, there was a headline on the Drudge Report about how heated Google and Yahoo representatives were in that same meeting! It’s almost desensitizing to see so much everyday. I see limos pull up outside, and check Fox News to see who it is (Oh, and the person who has gotten the most excitement for being in my office building lately has not been McCain, Obama or Hilary, but rather Jennifer Lopez). Oh, and if you happen to see anything about T. Boone Pickens and his new energy plan, I was sitting right behind him in the committee hearing!
The coolest thing though, is the example the Wyoming people set for me. Through them, I see that it is possible to live and work in this place, and stay yourself. That is a pretty comforting thought to me.

Visit!!!

Hey folks. I am a little sad right now. Matt (my boyfriend) left not too long ago. He was able to come visit for a long weekend and we had a great time. He got here shortly before I got off work on Friday and flew out at 5pm on Monday. We started off my seeing the monuments and memorials Friday night. I heard they were really cool all lit up at night and we weren’t disappointed. The Capitol, Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial practically glowed in the spotlights. Even though it was still really humid and hot, there are less tourists and cooler temperatures at night. On Saturday, we spent nearly the whole day at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I was glad I went with Matt because he really knows airplanes and was able to make it much more interesting for me. I thought it was really cool to see the
Spirit of St. Louis and the Wright Flyer, though. That is what is so cool about Smithsonian museums… you can see significant pieces of history around every corner. They are so big though! We spent almost all day there and then went and saw an IMAX movie about fighter pilots. On Sunday, we visited the National Archives and saw the Bill of Rights, Constitution and Declaration of Independence. It was kind of weird seeing something that is in some ways so familiar (since I have seen so many images of the documents), even though we were seeing them for the first time in real life. They were really strict about flash photography; both of us got in trouble ;-). We also went to the Natural History Museum and the Hirshorn Modern Art Museum. Matt was really open to the weird modern video art pieces, which I thought was cool. On Monday, we went over to the Capitol and I gave him a tour. It was really fun, but I was having a hard time not thinking about him leaving. We also had lots of good food and drinks and just enjoyed each other’s company. Matt is the perfect travel buddy, and it was fun to show him the city I’ve been getting used to for the last couple months. After bidding him a tearful good-bye at the airport, I came home and have to get ready to go back to work tomorrow. Thanks Matt, for the awesome vacation. (PS Now you have to post a comment because I wrote a whole blog about you!)

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!

White House and Natural History

Thanks for making some comments. It is no fun to write when I feel like no one is reading.

I am officially finished with my first week of work! I guess because I am so used to crazy waitress jobs, I keep expecting to get overloaded with work. But so far it has been a very nice, fairly relaxed atmosphere. Of note, I took my first group on a tour of the Capitol this week! I had a group of 11 from Sheridan. They were part of a larger group of 70 that we all split up. Amazingly, it went really, really well! I remembered all my facts and answered all their questions (and most importantly, didn’t get lost!). I had one smart-alec kid who kept trying to contradict me, and I wanted to smack him, but then one of the chaperones did so all was good. The hardest part was keeping my group together and moving. It was seriously like herding chickens! But afterwards, when I told them that I had only been here since Saturday and this was my first tour, they were blown away. Besides one weird, spacey woman who wandered away from her group (and was later found by another intern), the whole thing went flawlessly and our intern coordinator even let us go get ice cream afterwards. ;-)
We even finished off the week by an apparently traditional Friday Enzi office competition. Everyone in the office puts in a dollar and then throws a quarter from the back office towards the front door. Whoever gets the quarter the closest to the door wins the money. I really doubt Kerry’s office does this sort of thing. I did alright, and fortunately one of my fellow interns won! The more people I meet, the more I am realizing how much I love Wyoming people.
This morning, Mindi and I took a tour of the White House. The temperature is already in the triple digits and I was dripping sweat by the time we got there. The tour was interesting, but I must say not very impressive. It was really short, and there was virtually no information available. I guess that’s what happens in a still functioning building.
Despite the heat though, we met up with David Crow (a guy I knew from debate back in high school!) and all three of us toured the Smithsonian Natural History museum. Not a bad Saturday, huh?

Work

Hello! If my family does not leave comments so that I know you are reading, I will quit posting! I mean it!

I have had two full days of work. I am very, very tired.
This is my office building. It is the Russell Senate Office Building. There are two more. Our first day was lots of meeting people and orientations. We did get to see Senator Enzi, but only during a staff meeting with Wyoming. They teleconferenced in. They let us sit in on it and introduce ourselves. Later, I got a little desk in one of the offices. The craziest thing was that they sent us on two teams on a scavenger hunt (in which we had to get everything from business cards to pamphlets) of various places through out the Senate Office Buildings, Capitol and House Offices without any clue. It was kind of brilliant though because we ended up learning where everything was all on our own. It is still kind of shocking to actually be in the Senate! I have a big ID card I have to have visible at all times. The only problem is I wore a new pair of high-heeled shoes that literally cut and rubbed my feet until they were bleeding.
I found out that we have to start giving tours of the Capitol on Thursday. The only problem is that I’ve only been in there a couple times! We have to give tours on our own routes with our own research in just a couple days. I spent almost all day though walking around and memorizing facts from websites. Wish me luck, I already have two tours scheduled on Thursday and two on Friday… Also, the people in the office give us various errands to run. Once I get over the initial panic of having no idea where I volunteered to take something, I am pretty good at figuring it out.
The coolest thing though is the environment. I walked around a corner today (after spending all day admiring the Capitol) and very nearly crashed into John Kerry! Being a lowly intern, we are not supposed to run into the Senators. He is as tall and craggy as he appears on TV. I am surrounded by so much history, I have to stop rushing and take it in. I get to walk the halls that many of the most influential people in our history walked!

Sightseeing

Hey all, Today ended up being a random sightseeing day! I met up with Mindi and Tony (a guy who lives on our floor and knows the DC area well) and went out to see the major monuments. We found the office I will be working in (the Russell Senate Building), which is only two blocks away!
Then, we ended up walking and metro-ing around to the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, the Washington Monument, the WWII Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam War Memorial. I saw the Capitol and the White House from a distance (I will be getting tours of those later on), as well as the various parts of the Smithsonian and the National Archives. So much history in one day! The best part is that I figured out the metro, as well as the closest stop (Union Station) to my dorm. Now, nothing is stopping me from touring all the museums I can stand. What a fabulous day! Then, I came back for a mandatory dorm meeting. Living in a conservative dorm, I don’t think I have ever seen so many polo shirts and khakis (with belts!) in my life…

I'm here!!!

Hello all!
Happy birthday to me, I am in our nation's capitol! What a crazy long day it has been! It started by flying out of DIA this morning around 11:30am (our time) and getting here at 5pm (DC time...I lose 2 hours). Because of all the new flying regs, I had to pay a whopping $50 for one of my bags that was only 8 pounds over the 50lb. limit. I could have pulled out 8lbs, I suppose, but what an incredible pain. At least Frontier still lets you check two bags.
I had a very hard time leaving Mom this morning when she took me to the airport. She is so sweet, and seeing her get all choked up at my departure just made it harder to go. But, then I met up with my fellow intern, and we had a pretty bumpy flight to DC. The first thing I noticed getting off the plane was the overwhelming humidity. I felt like I was drinking the air rather than breathing it! But we took a cab to the Johnson Building and got all checked in. On the way, I saw the Washington Memorial and the Capitol Building. The rooms are incredibly nice, with a TV, kitchen, Internet, etc. It is also 2 blocks away from the Senate Office building! What a stroke of luck to find this place.
As soon as we got here, we went out to get food. After walking almost 3 miles in the intense humidity to a Safeway store, we came home to find that there is a grocery delivery service at a local store. Oy.
But, after unpacking, grabbing dinner and beginning to settle in, I am feeling alright about everything. Already, I am realizing all the skills I have learned (mostly from France!) about surviving on my own. I feel totally at ease striking out and finding what I need in a totally new place. I am so grateful to have lived the life I have and been surrounded by people and environments that have taught me how to take care of myself, no matter what the world throws at me. So, with that, I think I will take a shower and crash.
Oh, and as much as I wish I had taken this picture, I haven't had a real chance to take any yet. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Tornadoes in the MW?

Hey folks, I leave for DC in one week! Shocking, isn't it?
I like writing a few blogs before I go just to get in the swing of it, obviously. I assume all of you in the Mountain West region are all still reeling from the craziness of the weather lately. Can you believe all these thunderstorms and tornadoes?
My mom and I spent the afternoon hunkered down with our family friend Henry Tanner, and his wife and their toddler (they were on their way to Denver and wisely decided to wait out the storm with us). We had nothing but think fog until about 4 and then the fog instantly cleared and the rain began pouring (Meanwhile we were watching all the destruction going on in poor Weld County and getting updates from friends and family in Laramie and Denver). There were tornadoes touching down all over, but seemed to clear out pretty fast. My mom and I even though it would be cool to run into town so I could buy some shoes.
Then came round two. As we were leaving Kohl's, the rain began coming down in sheets. We stood at the windows debating whether to run to the car when we saw a large funnel cloud dipping down and back up. Rox was home by herself, so we decided to try to make it home, since the cloud was east and we live north. As soon as we got to the car, however, the tornado sirens came on. So, we ran back in and spent a few damp minutes back in Kohl's before deciding it was safe to head home. All, in all, tornadoes touched down in Laramie, Cheyenne, Wheatland, Winston and Ft. Collins among others. So crazy... Even today you could still see those odd, almost greenish clouds that signal tornadoes.
But, we shouldn't see many more twisters soon, and as Becky said to me from Chicago last night, "I'm glad you didn't get blowed away!"