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.