Wow, a lot's happens since I last posted.

Quick run-through...

I ended up having both my interview with the GOP and WITH the congressman. This congressman is actually a pretty high ranking member, so it was a great honor to get to meet him and just talk with him for a few minutes. Not many people get to do that, so it was quite the experience. Before that however, I had my interview in Harrisburg. That interview went pretty well, and I left feeling alright about it. During that interview, I got a voicemail from an organization in D.C. asking me to have another interview! So I called them up and arranged to meet with them later that day, rounding up my total to three interviews in one day. Crazy, I know. Another reason to always be armed with resumes.

That second interview went ok. Nothing to write home about. I wasn't thrilled with the position. Then I went on to the Hill to meet with the member.

Well, the next day, I got a phone call saying that I had not gotten the position with the member, which was disappointing, but I was alright with it. Positions will always open up on the Hill, and I was fine with getting the GOP job if I got it, which I found out a few hours later that I basically did. I still had a few more informal interviews to go through, but I had been chosen to go through the process for getting hired!

So now, I'm waiting for Sunday to roll around, when I am going to go to Harrisburg to a two-day training event for all of the people who are in my position around the state.

My position is a "Field Representative" for Chester County, PA. Basically, from what I've gathered, I'll be in charge of rounding up volunteers and making sure the grassroots effort is being pushed around the county. It'll be long hours and hard work, but I'm really excited to get started on it!

All of this goes to say, I've learned a lot about having faith in God's plan about my future. It's so much easier to accept a "no" when you realize that God has a plan, and that there's a reason why the "no" is a "no," and that the "yes" out there is so much better than you could have imagined, and will be much more beneficial to you in the future. When you focus on just getting what you can get, and wanting the first thing that pops up to be a "yes" (which is nice if it's the right thing), getting a "no" is almost devastating. That's why God is in control, and we aren't.

I've always toted the Christian line about "having faith in God's perfect plan" throughout my life, but that's been when my life's been easy, and the biggest choice I've had to make was what college to go to. When it comes to making life choices, like moving across the country for a job you don't have yet- that's when God draws the line in the sand, and asks you to step over in faith. And giving God that control is so relieving once you realize you've already done it. The funny part is that we're giving Him the control He already has. We struggle and push so hard to try to do things our way, when He's the one really operating things and watching us exert ourselves over nothing. Realizing that was one of the best things spiritually that's ever happened to me. Putting my faith to the test and giving everything up to God was easier than I thought it was going to be. It was like a "that was it?" kind of moment. The thought of it was a lot harder than actually doing it. And that's the struggle that Satan makes for us. I would posit that 90% of choosing to do something is mental, and the other 10% is actually doing it. Once you get over that mental hump, most of the fight is over.

So my encouragement is this: Proverbs 3:5. Live it.

So my interview with the congressional office went a lot better than I thought it did. I went home thinking it was an epic fail, but they called me up four hours later and asked me to come tomorrow to interview WITH the congressman. That's usually the last step! So I'm really excited.

BUT, I also have my interview with the PA GOP tomorrow as well. So I'm driving up to Harrisburg, interviewing, then driving down to DC and interviewing with the congressman. It's gonna be a longgg day. But hopefully a good one.

The World Cup is going on right now. One thing I've learned about living with this family is that only one person has to watch sports around here, the rest of us can go about our lives and know what's going on from hearing their reactions in the other room.

Also, there's always some kind of sports finale event going on. Last week it was the Stanley Cup and NBA Finals, now it's the World Cup.

I have one, possibly two job interviews lined up next week. These are legit job interviews too. More on that later...

I'm now an employee of Cracker Barrel. Woot, woot! Haha. I look like a cute-ish dork in my outfit, but it's ok. I may not even work there very long if one of these jobs work out.

So hopefully, something will work out. One requires staying, and the other requires quickly finding an apartment in DC. There's pros and cons with both, but I would love either one. We'll see how this goes..

I'm officially in PA! Woot woot! Love it here so, so much. I just love the countryside here! Don't be surprised if you never hear from me, and then hear that I've joined the Amish. Just sayin'.

So, the whole reason I'm here is to try to keep finding a job in DC. PA is so much more closer than Texas, and makes DC a lot easier to access, so I'm staying here with my bestie till I find a job... as long as that occurs in a reasonable amount of time. So I'm applying to jobs with a fury. If I don't find a job in DC, I would love to find a job around here and stick around here for a while, cause, like I said, I LOVE it here.

That being said, I'm tired. G'nite.

Okay, so I realize it's been a super long time since I've posted on here and all, but I've been busy/ I don't know who all really reads this, so I'm not sure if anyone cares much. I've been told to continue though. P.S. Comment if you read this... it gives me a gauge.

I graduated college yesterday: HALLELUJAH. So, so glad. So I now am an official alumnus of Liberty University and have a B.A. in Government-Politics & Policy. So I'm pretty psyched about that.

Also, I didn't get the position in the other office I had been applying to. I believe it was filled by someone from that district. However, they did really like me, and they told me to include them on my recommendations list, so that was good.

However, I have another interview with Focus on the Family on Tuesday, and hopefully that will be great. I would be thrilled to work with them.

I'm moving to PA right now, to visit my bestie for a while. It could be a very short while if I get this job, if not, I'll be trying to temporarily settle down there and get a job while still applying to jobs in DC.

So that's the update, folks. Hopefully I'll get back on the ball with updating again!

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. I've been working from 5:30-10 at The Loft, so when I get home, I'm exhausted and all I can do is stuff my face and go to bed.


I got in an elevator by myself with Barney Frank today. It was kinda funny.

I had the second interview with the office I've been talking to. They seemed to really like me, so I'm going back for a THIRD interview early next week. It sounds pretty good so far!! Hopefully I can stay here on the Hill, because I really do love it here, and I don't wanna leave. I just love being involved here.

Anyways, I'm exhausted, and I'm working from 11-4 tomorrow.

Thursday was my first day on the job at The Loft. I really like it a lot there. It's really nice and everyone's fun to work with.

*side note* There's a lot of Asians getting drunk and partying down the hall. This has never occurred before.

Friday, we had work. We went out that night and got dinner and stuff, which was fun.

Saturday, I had nothing going on. I went to Target and to go get my nails done... so that was all nice.

Today though, today was super fun. We got tickets to go to the White House Spring Garden Tour, which is where you get to walk around the White House grounds and look around. It was really nice and fun. There was minimal (obvious) security though, which surprised me. But it was really nice to just see the stuff you hear about all the time. We got to see the outside of the Oval Office, the swing set, the pool, the basketball court, etc. So that was cool.

I've started looking for housing. Pray that I get the job!! :D

Walking back from the Metro today, I saw some people hardcore mackin' at the Library of Congress. I was just about to mutter "get a room" when I noticed someone taking pics of them and kinda hiding... then I noticed that the girl had some BLING on her hand. I mean a huge rock. Apparently he had just proposed. So I became ok with the mackin'. The sun was setting behind the Capitol and everything. Good choice, sir. Good choice. He's a winner.

Today was a crazy awesome, exciting day.

It started off with me giving a tour that I ALMOST forgot about. It was for two people from our district. While we were getting ready to go, four people walked up and asked if they could tag along. They were from another senator's office, and they were about 30 minutes early and they just wanted to go ahead and go. Turns out, they were from Macedonia, so it was all very exciting for them. We went on our tour, and when we got near the Senate chamber, the door was open, so they were able to look down the hall from into the chamber itself, which was something I've never had a tour be able to do. So I told them "this is the best tour I've ever been able to give, y'all are lucky!" So we kept going on our way into the Statuary Hall. I told them the story of how I got to see the Speaker, and they were all wowed. We went to the stairwell to go down to the Crypt, and the Speaker herself walked under us! So I told them, "You know what? Back up! We're going to go look down the hall to her office and you'll get to see her." Right as we got there, she popped out of the stairwell! She saw our little group, stopped, looked at us, and said "Well hello, welcome to the Capitol!" And then she went in her office. Everyone was like "WHOA!!!!!!!" So we went back down the stairs. One of the ladies had double-knee replacements, so she wasn't able to go very fast. I was at the bottom, and I looked to my left, and there's Steny Hoyer. He was waiting for our group to get down. He noticed she was having trouble, so he went up the 5 or 6 steps up and took her arm and helped her down the steps. She had no idea who he was. When he left, I told her, and she was blown away. Even though I don't agree with their politics, they sure are nice. It was by far the best tour I've given.

Tonight, we had an awards ceremony with the Embassy of the Philippines. I was supposed to go get some of their delegation and escort them through security. Turns out, after much confusion, I had to go a couple blocks away to help them deal with the police and get them through the barrier. I helped them get in, and helped them figure out their way around. By the end, they loved me! They're so sweet! They were such kind people. They invited me to come to the Embassy and visit, so I think I'm going to go next week.

Also, I start working at the Loft on Thursday! It'll be good times!!

When it rains, it pours... in a good way.

Today I had two interviews lined up: one with Congressman Goodlatte's COS as an informational interview to learn about some opportunities in the district. Turns out, there are some that I would be a good fit for apparently. My second interview was with Congressman Linder's office for a staff assistant position. It went very well. I'm very impressed with the office, and the staff see

I'm genuinely content with working there. I'm also very impressed with the way the member is actually interactive with the work that goes on, and is involved- as opposed to some members who let the staff do all the work and just cast votes and attend meetings. The lady who interviewed me asked me to come back for a second interview next week, so they'll be getting in touch with me. It looks promising, and I'm very excited about the possibilities.

In between those two interviews, I got a phone call from... Ann Taylor Loft! The manager there told me a position "opened up" for me, and that they would love to have me work there! So now I have a part-time job for some extra income! I'm excited about that.

I also checked out some place to rent a room, and I found a couple of locations with some good Christian girls, so I'll be checking those out next week once I discover if I have a job/get my Loft schedule. Things are looking up!

Tomorrow, I might get to meet the president of the Phillipines!! We're having a reception so she can give Mr. Pitts an award, and I'm escorting her assistants through security so that they can set up and do a security sweep. Super cool stuff!!! I love my job!

Yay for my 50th post!

This has been a pretty decently good weekend. Yesterday, I was all by my onesies, so I went to Eastern Market and looked around, then I wandered around Chinatown for a while. It was nice to just get out in the sunshine!

Today, my friend Megan and I went over to Arlington National Cemetery and wandered around for a little while. We saw the Kennedy's graves and the Custis-Lee house. It was such a BEAUTIFUL view! Then we came back, made dinner, and gave Al her cupcakes for her birthday, which is on Tuesday.

When I got back tonight, I checked my email to find out that I got an interview with Rep. John Linder's office for a staff assistant position! So I'm very excited to see what comes of that. I'm really hoping to find a job before graduation.

So things are great! I'm so glad recess is over and that people are coming back all over the Hill and there's life here again! It's not just tourists here anymore! Yippee!

Today was slow/not slow and boring/not boring. Ironic, I know.

It started off with me giving a tour to 20 German exchange students who were here in the US for 3 weeks. So it was kinda interesting to see what they were interested/not interested in, or maybe just what I interpreted as non-interest was really just them not understanding a word I said. I dunno. When I got to the statue of Ronald Reagan in the Rotunda, I showed them the big chunks of the Berlin Wall in there, and they thought that was pretty cool, seeing as they were from East Berlin,... minus the whole not-knowing-who-Reagan-was thing. Minor detail. I honestly figured out of all the presidents in the 20th century, they would know Reagan, but they didn't have a clue. They were asking me for cool places to go in DC, and I almost had a faux pas and told them to go to the Holocaust Museum (cause it's my favorite museum here)totally forgetting that they're GERMAN, and EAST German at that. Oh geez.

After that, I came back to the office and did different odd jobs like researching things, and fixing email addresses that were obviously mistyped for our online newsletter that people can subscribe to. You know how sometimes when you fill out an online form, how you have to put an email address? Well, when I do that, I never think that an actual human would see that- I mean, obviously the computer just knows if it's valid or not and sorts through it because that's what computers do, and usually, yes, that's what they do; most don't ever have humans do anything with the process. So, it cracked me up to see what some of the email addrsses were that people put in... like: no@youcanthavemyemail.com or stopspendingsomuch@nomorespending.com . I assume most people are like me and don't think that a human eye will ever see these addresses, so why they heck do they try to send a "message" through them? I'd just put some old email or something or leave it blank, but they actually write something political. It just cracks me up that someone's sitting on their laptop somewhere thinking about what to put in Joe Pitts' online form to "send a message" through their phony name that they come up with. So lame haha.

Also, I had the most HILARIOUS letter come in the mail today. The best part is that it was a good-intentioned group of men in a Bible-study group sending a letter about things they were concerned about. The second paragraph of their letter said, "There are many issues we are concerned about. One of which is the right to bare arms." I don't care who ya are, I think Democrats and Republicans agree that we should all go sleeveless every once in a while... I don't know if the Amish do though... Maybe that's why they wrote... hmmmm.

I also went running tonight on the Mall. I went half-way down, then cut across and just stopped because the view was incredible. If I looked one direction, I had a perfect and clear view of the Washington Monument, and in the other direction, I had the Capitol. It was breathtaking, and it was one of those things that just gave me a "wow" moment. It was beautiful weather too. 80 and breezy. Al nearly died... apparentloy it doesn't get "hot" like that in New York. HA.

I feel so bad for not updating this as often as I should. But I'm busy, people! Busy!

I left at 3:30 on Friday morning for Union Station to take the train with my roommate to Utica, New York. We had a layover for about an hour in NYC, so we popped our heads out to say we were there. We were at 8th and 31st street. Remember that for later. So we took the train up to Utica, and got there around 3pm. After that we went and said hi to a bunch of family members and all. Then I went and hung out with Al's twin and her cousin while Al did some stuff with a couple of friends. We had lot of fun shopping and all. By the way, TJMaxx has a great selection of sunglasses right now. I shoulda got some. We finally got to bed around midnight. So we had been up for 40 hours by then. We got up the next morning at 6:30 to go to her mom's house to go have breakfast and pick her up to go to her salon. She gave us both highlights and they turned out soo good! Her mom is the best hairdresser I've seen. After that, we went home to get ready to have lunch with Al's friends at a place called Cavallo's. It's really good. I had a covered meatball sandwich. I thought by "covered" it meant "with a top" as opposed to "open-faced." Makes sense in my mind. Noooo to Italians it means, "with lots of marinara on top." So that was a new experience. It was good though. Everything is SO Italian up there. People, food, everything. And they all have heavy accents. I even picked it up. Sheesh. After that, we went and hung out with her family some more, then went over to her mom's house for dinner. It was super super good. More Italian food, of course. Then we went to another friend's house to hang out for a little while. When we got home, it was about 11 o'clock or so... by the time we got to bed we had been up about 20 hours. On Sunday, we got up around 6 to get ready for church, which was an hour away in Syracuse. After church, we went back over to her Nonnie's house for Easter dinner. We had cuppalettes (spelling?), which is a soup with handmade dumplings made from handmade pasta... it's a family recipe from 5 generations back in Italy. Along with that we had antipasta, fillet mignon, asparagus, scalloped potatos, pusties and canollis, and three layered cheesecake. SO good. I asked them to find me an Italian husband or adopt me. They could pick.

We left around 6 or so for our train, which was supposed to be at 7. The train didn't come till 7:45. By the time we got to NYC, it was after midnight. It was supposed to be 11 when we got there and we had had plans to go to Times Square and check it out since we had such a long layover. We didn't though because it was so late. Turns out, it was a good thing too because that night annually is notorious to being the Blood's initiation night in Midtown. There was someone shot right at 8th and 31st street, where I had been 2 days before. Something like 55 people were arrested between Penn Station and Times Square. So it was DEFINITELY good that we didn't go!

Our train out of NYC didn't get to the station till 4, so that pushed getting back to DC till 8. We went to bed as soon as we got home around then, and I slept straight till 4 o'clock this afternoon. I was SO exhausted. All in all, since Thursday morning at 8am, I only slept 12 hours till I got home. Talk about being wiped out.

I'm about to go back to bed...

Ok. I'm tired, but I feel super guilty for not posting much. So I'm doing bullet points.

*The majority of the week, I didn't do much. Lots of facebooking.

*I did give two tours back to back though. If you want some good stories, ask me.

*Because of said tours, I'm getting a sore throat from yelling.

*Laundry frustrates me. I had to run my clothes through the washer twice because the first time they didn't even get wet... I don't know how. One of the dryers didn't work apparently either, so I currently have one clean and dry load and one soppy wet load going through the dryer.

*I'm leaving for New Yawk tomorrow morning at like 5:30, which means leaving here at about 4:30, so I'm not doing great on the whole getting-sleep situation.

*I haven't packed for said trip.

*I'm exhausted.

*I applied and got an interview at Ann Taylor Loft in Chinatown. The manager really liked me and said I'm very "Lofty." But there's not a job opening. So pray for a job opening there so he can call me, k? Thanks.

*I'm going to Times Square tomorrow. Be jealous.

*I'm gonna rent a movie for my ipod tonight I think.

And I'm out.

So I got to be a tour guide yesterday. That was fun. I had the group of friends I was meeting meet up with me at Reagan Airport so I could drive them into the city because they would get lost and probably freak out over the traffic. It was good that I did. I got to swing by and show them a few things here and there before we went to Union Station to park.

We started off by going to the Capitol so I could give them the grand tour. Half of them had never even been to DC so it was fun to start it off with that. After that, we went to the Holocaust Museum, which is still the best museum in DC. I'm definitely a fan. Very, very moving.

The plan after those two things was to go to Mt. Vernon. This all sounds great theoretically, but by the time we had gotten to the bus stop at Huntington station, it was 3:50. There was no bus, it was a 20 minute ride to Mt. Vernon, and they start kicking you out at 5:30. So, that plan was nixed for Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum. Same price, and open later. OH! But, I lost my badge somewhere between the Holocaust Museum stop and Huntington stop... which means no discount for me and my friends. So, no Wax Museum. Actually, I just realized that I had my temporary id on me from Friday, when I left it at home. That probably coulda worked. Oh well. And seriously, I've never left it at home except for Friday, and it's never fallen off except for Saturday, so this in no way implicates faulty placement on my part. Just clarifying that. We went to the White House instead though, which was cool for them cause a few of them had never seen it. After that, we went by Union Station to get their car, and then go by my place to fill up Sabby's truck with some of my unneeded junk so that we have more room in May.

I got home, and immediately started coloring my hair so that it would be okay looking for pictures, and right after we finished it, Al and I started talking about how we would like this or that from the store. The store would close in about 10 minutes, so I was just like "Heck with my hair. I'll just go like this, let's go." So we went to our little corner store, where people obviously stared me down because I looked like had pink/purple shampoo still in my hair. Finally, this middle aged guy who was on his second or third alcohol run for the night asked me about it. He said "Your hair... it's.. red... and so... soo... yeah. I really appreciate that and I wish more people did that... don't change... and your hair..." and kept talking like for a couple of minutes, which using crazy hand gestures. At the end of the conversation he told my roommate "make sure she irons her hair out and get it all.. like.. make sure." After we left, I was like "I think he was confused about what color my hair was." Al was like "NO! No no no... he meant to tell you he liked how you STYLED your hair. He thought you left it all goopy on PURPOSE!" I cracked up. It was too funny.

This morning, I went and met Kalea down at the Washington Memorial to take pictures with the cherry trees for graduation. There were so many tourists everywhere! It's kinda annoying at times. I interupt this program to give some guidelines for tourists:

1.) Walk left- stand right. That's the escalator rule. It is meant to never be broken.

2.) Don't stop as soon as you get off the Metro. There are people behind you who also would like to get off the train, especially before the unstoppable doors shut. Walk 20 feet, then stop to figure out where to go.

3.) Don't expect people to walk around you if you stand back 30 feet to take a picture. People have places to go, and won't walk into the street to allow you to have a minute of clear picture-taking. Sorry. It sounds rough, but that's how it goes.

4.)Have your ticket out before you get to the Metro exit. Those of us with Smartcards have them so we can leave fast, and would appreciate not waiting five minutes for you to dig through your wallet.

5.) Pick a side of the sidewalk to walk on; please don't walk 5 people across, especially if you're slow. People in DC walk fast, and want to get around you.

Back to where we were. So Kalea and I went to take picture with the cherry trees. We got some really good pictures, so we were satisfied. Of course, it was about 40 degrees outside, so it was kinda hard to pretend like I was happy in 70 degree weather, but I pulled it off. It was neat because our freshman year, we took pictures with those same trees, so that was kinda sentimental.

So that was my two days in a nutshell. Very fun, but now I'm ready to relax!

Ok, it was SO very boring today. I Facebooked for about 2 hours, then I decided I couldn't take it anymore, so I went to go get lunch, even though I had brought soup. On my way, I stopped by Al's office and her manager said she was with some constituents downstairs near the cafeteria, so I went to go find her. We ended up hanging out with the couple she was with for about 20 or so minutes, and they bought us Starbucks, which was awesome. I love old, rich people.

So I ended up having a tour at 2 for Rep. Lamborn's office, so that was nice. Only thing was, I wasn't expecting to give a tour, so I just brought heels, no flats. And I wasn't wearing hose or socks or anything, so my shoes were rubbing hard on my feet.

Note to self: always bring flats, even if there's NO way on earth you're gonna need them- because, chances are, you'll need them.

But I had my nail appointment tonight, so that helped.

I also made an AWESOME dinner tonight. From scratch. From my head... with my very own creativity and without buying anything besides what I had. I baked chicken with salsa on it, and then melted provolone on top and I served it over rice. So so good. Gotta say, I'm proud of myself.

I have spent the last two days doing absolutely nothing. Nothing.

Ok, actually I called some schools to plan some meetings. And....besides that I've done nothing. Congress is going into recess starting tonight, and will for the next two weeks. So, there's still nothing going on for that whole period of time. There will be lots of web-surfing and Facebook stalking going on. Unless I'm doing the random odd-job.

Two more days till my buds come up to visit! Can't wait!

Also, I sent out my resume to about 25 people today. I should be getting SOMEthing back. It'll be ridiculous if I don't.

Today I got to shadow Mr. Pitts for the day. It started around noon when I went with him down to the floor to watch him give a one-minute. The people at the check-in desk up at the gallery must hate their jobs. It must stink to work right next to the largest body of legislators in the free-world *sarcasm*. After that, we headed over to a luncheon for an essay contest. A kid from our district won, so we went to congratulate him... and get free food. You can get free food a lot where I work. And excellent food at that. Then we went to an Energy & Commerce hearing, where I sat right behind Mr. Pitts. I was on TV... close-up. CSPAN, but hey, it's TV.


My dad saw me, so it counts. We then ran over to the Human Rights Tom Lantos hearing on Vietnam, and that was super interesting. Between that, we had meetings with different people, like the AIPAC groups and the CEO of Heinz ketchup. Yes, we discussed ketchup. We discuss everything. You name it, there's an interest-group. And they want money.

So all in all, it was an interesting day. Had a lot to do...

Today I got to experience something extremely historical. Today we had the first church service held in the Capitol for 130 years. It was for members and staff only, and it was fantastic. We had it in Statutory Hall, and we were the first ones there. Almost as soon as we got in the room, Speaker Pelosi walked through! She did not look happy.

After the service, we were able to go into the Rotunda and take pictures in the empty room, which was great. We also went down into the room underneath the Crypt.

Then I got Subway, ate it and watched the protesters, and then went in to work. I worked till about 7:30, and then I went into the Chamber Gallery to go watch the debates. I got to watch a couple of hours of debates today. I saw Nancy Pelosi, Charlie Rangel, Barney Frank, Paul Ryan, Bart Stupak, Joe Pitts, Tom Price, and a TON of other congressmen. You name it, and I saw them. I was in an elevator with one of the members who got spit on by Tea Partiers yesterday. I've been in the thick of it the whole time. It's been FANTASTIC. I couldn't have picked a better semester to be here.

Oh good gracious. Today was probably the most interesting day I've had here in DC so far. We just had plans to go shopping and all, but then that kinda got shoved in with other stuff once we turned on the news. When we turned on Fox News around noon, we saw that there was a HUGE Tea Party rally at the west front of the Capitol, so we hurried up and went over there.

As we walked over, we could hear Jon Voight talking, but we didn't really get to see him. The crowd was enormous. So we kinda worked our way into the crowd... a little here, a little there. Ten feet at a time, inching closer. The people in the crowd were generally nice, since they were all united in one cause and all, so they kept letting us get in front of them. Suddenly, I realized that we were only about 5 people back from being in the front, so we finally worked our way up and popped out in front. There was a big semi-circle around the podium, with about 25 feet or so clear between the podium and the crowd... but there were press in there, and random other people, so we just though "oh heck, why not." So we just went up there too. After about 10, maybe 15 minutes, this random guy comes up to us and goes "oh you're not press are you?" And I was like, "well no, we're not... why?" And he went "Well this is a press only area." (this guy didn't look like press at all), and he said "the police told me to go around and tell people that." So I looked at him and said, "Sir, we work here. We have badges." And he just kinda stood there... I'm pretty sure he didn't have a badge. And he was like "oh, oh I see. I'm sorry..." and walked off. It was pretty funny.

So the Tea Partiers allllll went over to the House Office Buildings to go talk to their congressmen and crash their offices, so we thought we'd go over there too. Another nice thing about badges is that you never wait in lines, you just walk to the front and cut. So we passed up the half mile line and just went straight into the door and were like "Excuse me, ma'am... excuse me... pardon me..." while flashing our badges. When we squeezed through the door, someone yelled "hey! what do you have that let's you through?!?" And I just turned square around with a smile and said "Excuse me, I work here." and kept on cutting haha.

So I got to my office eventually, and it was PACKED with people. So I offered to stick around with my roomie and answer phones and quell chaos, and so we did for about an hour. I'm going tomorrow too. It was nuts. Down the hall, one of the undecided congressmen had a mob of about a hundred people outside his door banging on it because his staffers had locked themselves in. They had to call the police because they were afraid they would knock it down. It was crazy! So we kindly offered notes and pens for them to write notes and push them under the door.

Then we shopped. I got cute shoes and spring clothes.

Then we came back and decided to go around to the Capitol to see what was going on. We saw a candle light vigil of about a hundred middle aged people singing "This Little Light of Mine" off-key. So we kept walking. We went to the West Front of the Capitol and just sat there at the base and talked for a couple of hours and chatted with the police there. It was so peaceful and nice and quiet and beauuuuutiful outside. We're gonna do that about once a week or so. This was the best Saturday EVER.

Note to self:

Either:

A) Double-dose on the allergy meds. Possibly triple-dose.

OR

B) Come up with a really good sob-story to tell the people on the packed elevator as to why you're crying.


Also, there's a new ice cream stand set up outside the Supreme Court. Spring is here. Oh happy day!

Still sick. Dragged myself into work... definitely wasn't the peppy lil' front desk girl that I usually am. My boss offered for me to go home early so I could be there tomorrow...I think she was afraid I'd have to have another sick day tomorrow haha. It stunk to answer the phones all day sounding like I pronounced my "t" as a "d." And of course, the phone rang off the hook all day. It was ridiculous again.

It was SO stinking nice outside tonight! I wished I was feeling better cause a couple of my friends went for a run, and I couldn't go because I knew I would DIE.

Also, there was a bagpipe player outside my office window for about, oh, say, SIX hours today. When I got off work, I went out there to find him and end him. But it was in public, so I decided to let him live. I'm trying to start a career and all... bagpiper slaying isn't the best resume stuffer.

I'm sick. Ick. Gross. Hate this. A couple of times a year, I get a whopper cold that slams me, and then I sleep it off for a couple of days. This was one of those days. I wasn't able to work today, which STUNK cause today was the day our Youth Advisory Council took a bus trip down and I was gonna give them a tour and escort them around the Hill to different places. ANDDDD today was the huge tea party that made the news, and I totally missed out on seeing that. UGH. So much going on and I had to get sick.

I still don't know if I'm 100% going to PA this weekend. The people I'm supposed to be interviewing with still haven't gotten back with me yet, and I've been pretty anxious about this. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping they'll get back with me tomorrow.

And it's really hitting me that I don't get a Spring Break right now. All of my friends are on Spring Break, and I'm still here. Don't get me wrong, I love it here. But I'd really love to go to the beach or on a small trip somewhere, where I actually got to spend a few days. That'd be nice. Not having a car here really limits you when you want to leave town. That seems obvious, but the truth is that you don't think about not having a car when you're in the city because you don't need one. In fact, it's almost beneficial to not have one. But when you want to get anywhere outside the beltway, you need a car pretty much. And that's annoying.

Anyways, I'm gonna go pretend I'm in a Nyquil commercial and go to bed.

I had it pointed out a few days ago that my blog didn't allow for random people to comment who didn't have an account- I fixed that. Comment away.

I went to a REAL house yesterday and cuddled with a REAL cat. I haven't done that since I left my own house back in January. Kinda weird.

We checked out the Eastern Market on 7th and Pennsylvania earlier today... it was pretty cool. They were all starting to pack up, so we didn't get the full effect really, but I'm looking forward to going back.

Daylight Savings started (or ended?) today. I'm so ready for it to be lighter later. So ready.

I got to meet my roomie's twin and her grandma on Friday. I'm so glad she got to hang out with them. They're super fun it seems.

Also on Friday, I gave a tour to two men. I asked where they were from, and one said he was from Baltimore, but he had some kinda of European accent. I know Baltimore accents, and that ain't it. But I let it slip...

Thursday, I spent the entire day answering those dang BarackObama.com phonebank calls. Those are so darn irritating. Like, really?!?

Ok, yesterday....

Woke up at SIX (yeah, the one in the morning), and went RUNNING (yeah, the kind where you move your legs back and forth real fast) down around the Capitol for a little while. Then we came home and took showers and got ready for work. So by the time I got to work, I had been up for 3 hours. Craziness. At 1, I had a tour of the Capitol that I had to give. The tour was great: it was a mom and a 10 y.o. boy and a 6 y.o. girl. The little boy asked a ton of questions, which makes the tour so much more fun. After that I went to a briefing on Adult Stem Cell Research. After hearing the facts, it makes you realize just how much the stem cell debate really centers around the abortion issue. It all comes down to that, because there is NO scientific research that says that embryonic stem cell research is promising at all.

Today, I got to the office, got stuff all settled and answered phone calls. I had to get all the nomination/appointment certificates lined up and arranged for the Service Academy ceremony/meeting this weekend in the district. Then I had to run reports to the RSC meeting for the congressmen. Then I came back, had lunch, and worked on calling a restaurant in regards to catering something next week. After that, we had two Amish constituents come in for a meeting. AND I MISSED MY CHANCE TO MILK A COW!!!!!!!!!! Turns out, they were dairy farmers! But I didn't know about it till they left! DANG IT! I also met an ambassador today. That was cool.

This afternoon, we had a birthday/welcome to the office party for two of our staffers. It was good times had by all. Of course, awkward questions were asked and grilling occurred. The congressman was there, and he was loving getting to hold one of the staffer's baby, who was a little angel! It was so fun.

I got to go to Lynchburg this weekend! It was FANTASTIC!

It was the first time I had ridden a train, and I've decided that I like it WAY more than flying. For one, you don't have to show up 3 million hours before you leave to go through security. That's because there IS no security. You literally just walk up to the train and flash your ticket and you're on. Another reason is that you get to keep your bag with you, which is super nice. However, a down-side is that someone can just grab my ticket and pretend to be me (cause they don't ask for id) and bring whatever they want in a bag and blow the train up. But I try not to think about that kinda stuff. I just enjoy the ride. It didn't feel like a 3.5 hour ride to Lynchburg; it went by pretty fast. The seats are so comfortable that if you're smart/lucky and get both seats on your row, you can curl up and sleep.

So I got to Lynchburg and discovered that Sabby and David were waiting there with a lovely blatantly yellow sign and smiley face balloon. Just in case I couldn't pick them out from the crowd.

We went to go get Chinese food, cause I hadn't eaten that day hardly, and I can't just go to Lynchburg without getting my favorite Chinese in the whole wide world. After that, I had to go change from my work clothes in Sabby's room, and go get in the car with Sabby, David, and Sarah. They BLINDFOLDED me and apparently drove me alllll around campus to get me disoriented, and brought me up to Snowflex. Jerks. When they let me look, I discovered that I had a whole bunch of friends up there waiting for me and they had a cookie cake and stuff! It was so sweet! We had a good time, which is unfortunate, because I still am against Snowflex. However, I guess I can take advantage of it. Ugh.

The next day, I woke up to go get my nails done at California Nails on Candler's Mtn. Road and Wards. They did the best fill I've ever gotten. It's definitely worth the $28, which is so much cheaper than what I pay in DC. After that, I went to go meet up with Jessica, Kalea, Karissa, and Amy at Panera. It was so good to see them! It was beautiful outside, for the first time this year, so we ate outside.

After getting back to Sabby's room to pick her up, we decided to just go drive around Lynchburg. After about 10 minutes of driving, I made the off-the-cuff remark of "Ha, if we left now, we could go to Captain George's in Williamsburg for dinner." And Sabby said "Turn the car around." So we drove off to Captain George's. It was DELICIOUS! I just love that. It's my favorite place in the whole wide world. It's been a year since I've been there, so I was ready to go back. Sabby loved it too. We got back around 1am this morning. I did most of the driving, which was GREAT because I haven't driven in two months. I got about six hours in yesterday, so I think I made up for it.

This morning, I left at 10 for DC, and I slept most of the way. I was home by 2 this afternoon. So I swept and unpacked and took a nap for about 45 minutes. It felt like I had some of my day left still.

Now the Oscars are on! It's great... I just love it.

Tomorrow, a group from Christian Heritage in Longview is coming to do a tour of the Capitol, so I'm going to meet up with them and say hi and talk to the kids for a few minutes before I start work. It'll be nice to see people from home.

Ok quick post, cause I'm exhausted.

We had a intern summit at the Capitol Hill Club today. Got to hear from Congressman Roskam, Congressman Schock (youngest congressman who's 28), and Minority Whip Eric Cantor. They were all SO inspiring and motivational. After going to things like this, it makes you realize WHY you're getting into politics, and WHY you want to keep doing what you're doing, and how easy it really is to start a movement, if you just put your back into it. So so so motivating. It's making me consider different avenues and all for my career. More about that in the coming days & weeks.

Also, we went to church tonight. It was great again. I really like it there.

And my feet hurt. But Dr. Scholl is a very wonderful man. Bless him.

Our new Staff Assistant began work today. It'll be so nice to share the workload with someone again! We're still munchin' on chocolate. Still. Will be for a few weeks probably. I had this random guy call and ask me to read him the Stupak-Pitts Amendment word for word. When we finally pulled it up, he asked I could just email it to him, which is against office policy, so when I said no, he had me read it to him slowly so he could write it down... word for word. I read it slowly, and then he would tell me that he stopped writing a few sentences ago, and to start over again. And that continued for about 10 minutes. Talk about wanting to slam your head against a wall!

Our yeller didn't call today; I just realized that and my day just doesn't feel complete. She did leave a voicemail though... so I guess that counts.

I had a very awkward elevator experience this afternoon. For some reason, people just feel compelled to make comments and break the deadly silence on elevators. I'm not one of those people. I can ride in an elevator in complete silence and enjoy every second. I think I'm becoming northern... shoot me. So anyways. Me and this other guy are waiting for an elevator, and this middle-aged congressman comes up and waits along with us. You can tell who they are by the way, because they wear a special lapel pin. So this congressman is waiting with us, and when we all three step on the elevator and turn around, he glances at me and goes "That's a very nicely colored shirt..." To which I respond "...Thank you." And he finished up the compliment with "...Fall colors." "Yes sir." *insert smile and nodding of the head* Awkward. I suppose you could consider them fall colors, but I didn't think navy blue and yellow were associated with a season.

It's cold. And rainy.

Also. My right eye keeps twitching. It has been for a month. This is getting really weird... I think it's karma coming back to bite me for all those times I made fun of twitching eyes while growing up.

When we came back, we discovered that we had two lamps brought into our room. That was super nice. They definitely add a homey touch. LOVE it.

Oh good gracious. Oh my lanta. Today has been quite a day. I learned a few things today.

1.) Snoop Dog is more country than Tim McGraw. Allow me to explain. There is a long-running debate over who is better in our office: Johnny Cash or Stevie Nicks. Honestly, I don't have a dog in the fight, other than actually knowing who Johnny Cash is for the majority of my life, and not knowing who Stevie Nicks was until the Grammy's when she sung back-up for Taylor Swift. So, one of our staffers is OBSESSED with Stevie Nicks, and the one with a desk next to hers is a pretty big fan of Johnny Cash... and the saga continues. There's always an ongoing debate. Johnny Cash ends up being a big topic of conversation about every other day. My Chief of Staff started talking about it today with a couple of us, and he came up with five subject criteria that are required to be considered a country singer:
1.) Drugs
2.) Jail
3.) A 100 year old truck
4.) Heartache
5.) Jesus
Apparently Tim McGraw doesn't fit the bill. However, Snoop Dog did a cover of one of Johnny Cash's albums, so technically, he does... and he sings about a lot of drugs and jail time on his own too. So, according to my COS, he's much more country than Tim McGraw.

2.) Mars Inc. is a wonderful thing. And it's located in Lancaster County. Which means it's not a bribe for them to send us boxloads of chocolate for free. Which means I have six cardboard boxes CHUCK FULL of Dove chocolate, Milky Way bars, etc. in my office, free for the eating. Like I said, it's a wonderful thing.

3.) We are zombies. Let me clarify, we are "zombies" being mind-controlled by Intelligence officers commissioned by the United States, who can control every thought, subconscious and conscious, and can give you every symptom under the sun, from causing you to break bones to hot flashes. We didn't know about this until a lady informed us kindly by letter today, as she did with the other 534 members of the United States House and Senate. It was quite incredible. Actually, she didn't inform us, her Intelligence officer did through her. Or at least that's what it said at the end of the letter. I suggest that for your safety you check out her website. You never know when you might need to tell the people controlling YOUR mind that you know they're controlling your mind.

http://www.mindcontrolusa.com

I actually was productive today! I woke up, finished my DLP class stuff, and took a shower. Then I went out on my own to Target in Columbia Heights. It was SO nice to just get out and go... and do ya know what? Walking in worn-in Sperry's is SO much more comfortable than walking in heels. Weird, I know. Today was the first day, besides when we braved the blizzard, that I've gone out wearing comfortable clothes- aka a hoodie and jeans. It was so weird.

On my way back, I was gonna pick up some roses from a street vendor, since they were on sale $2 for a half-dozen = SUPER cheap. So I stand there for a couple of minutes, looking around at the roses and looking for the actual vendor guy, since he wasn't there. Then, this random kinda sketchy guy comes up and goes "You wanna buy some roses lady?" Obviously, he didn't own the stand. So I declined and walked off, just to turn around and watch him keep walking and cross the street. Seriously, did this guy think I was an idiot? Ugh...

Anyways, after that, I came back and watched the Gold Hockey game.... such a disappointment. After that I ironed and made dinner. I feel so domestic. Feel, not am.

Work week starts tomorrow...

I definitely did nothing productive today, until just now. I just did one of my two DLP classes.

Side note: We just started watching Robin Hood Men-in-Tights... Wow. That's all I can say.

Back to my unproductive day. I slept in, did a little eating, a little movie-watching, and a little more sleeping. Then my mom called and was like "HEY! Watch the tsunami!" So I watched it... I think. It was pretty unimpressive so I couldn't really tell if it was there or not.

We decided to get out so we went to Potbelly, where I was called "baby" by the guy making my sandwich more than anyone else in my entire life within a 2-minute time span. Just livin' the dream.

The last two days have been c-r-a-z-y... until today. It's as dead as the grave here right now. Votes are over and members have all gone home. Plus we have 2 sick staffers, two at home, the COS is out, and others have been in and out. So I've been the only one consistently here right now.

I've had some possible job connections come up in PA. I'm working on that right now. All I gotta say is networking is king in politics. Definitely. None of this would come about without my internship.

Also, for the record Joe Pitts is not going to vote for public funding of abortion through health-care. We've had a lot of constituents call about that, and obviously none have heard about the Stupak-Pitts amendment. That works out great for publicity though... they become major fans when we tell them about that.

It has been ridiculously windy outside. Like, there's gale-force winds out there. I've never seen anything like it, and I'm in love with it. Wind is so amazing. It kinda reminds me of God actually in that when you wait for things to happen, and life feels so still and stagnant, sometimes it feels like nothing is going to happen. Then, all of the sudden, out of nowhere, this incredible force comes and has the strength to move unmovable things and push you in directions you may not want to go. All of this power comes from something invisible that you can't see, and you don't know where it came from, and you have no control over it. It's pretty crazy to think about.

It's also officially 10 minutes away from the weekend right now. Woot!!

Today was such a CRAZY long day.

It started off with my (now) daily Starbucks run. Lest you think I'm made of money (which I'm not), I'm letting you know and setting the record straight in saying I get a tall drip coffee. Enough to jumpstart me, and I get to walk around with a fancy cup and look good for $3 less than everyone else probably pays for their soy, skim, no-foam junk.

I got to the office and spent an hour or so doing piddly work around the office, and then remembered "Oh yeahhhhhh... the Toyota hearings are today... I should check into that." Lo and behold I was allowed and able to go, so I met Alex down in the tunnels and we went. It was a MOB down there. Nobody knew where anyone was supposed to be, especially where staffers were supposed to go, and the press was going buck wild. Then there was a whole line of Toyota dealers and homeless people waiting to get in. Turns out, people PAY homeless guys to stand in line for these kinds of things so they can just walk right up. I'm not a fan, personally. So after standing in that line for about 30 minutes, a homeless guy got a little obstinate with me and Al and was like "Did you cut in line??" which we kinda did, but there wasn't quite a straight, single-file line so it didn't matter in the long run, and a Toyota exec turned around and was like "Oh they're ok, they're staff. You do know you can just walk right in, right?" Ohhhh weird. Cause when we tried that they told us to get in line. Hm. So we go into the Committee office, and they were like "um, let's see." Well, by the end, we were in a couch in the office next to the hearing watching it on TV like in the overflow room, except we had a couch and A/C and they didn't. So we still kinda won. Kinda. I did almost get on CNN accidently... I was standing next to the girl on TV.

After that I got back to the office where I was immediately sent to the Capitol to go get prescriptions. Bet you didn't know there's a pharmacy off of the crypt hm? Random place, I know, but it's there. On my way there, who do I run into but MY congressman! I stopped him and introduced myself, and he was the nicest guy ever. He was like "Why didn't you intern for ME?!?" and I explained how he was already full when I applied... but that I'd LOVE to work for him here in May, hint, hint. He seemed open to the idea, so we'll see if anything opens up!

Also, we had some random Canadian senators come by our office today. So technically, I met some foreign dignitaries. They were super nice. I didn't mention how we beat them in hockey though... it wasn't the polite thing to do.

Today we slept- alot. Till like, noon. We were wiped. Then I woke up.... lounged around..... read a book...... and took a nap. For like, two hours. It was ridiculous. We had great plans of going out to dinner and going shopping at Target and stuff, and we totally canceled it because we just felt like sleeping. And it was a great nap.

So we woke up around 6pm and felt convinced of being the bums we are, so we decided to go grab late dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. So we got there around 8pm, and there was a wait for a little while so we sat outside on the steps of Ford's Theatre (where Lincoln was shot), and stood in front of it. Then this super-sketchy guy came and stood about 10 feet away from us. So Al suddenly acted all excited about going inside and was like "Hey! Let's go check out the shop inside the cafe!" So we started walking towards the restaurant. The guy was wearing swishy pants, and so we could hear that he started following us, and that his steps were getting faster behind me and to my right. I realized that this guy was going to go for my purse on my right shoulder, so I whipped around and looked right at him... and scared him off I guess.

After that, we went back home, but we ran into Chris and Danny at Union Station, so we went and hung out with them at McDonalds for a while. On the way back, Chris and I passed a tie shop, so we started talking about how we're both tie fans. He mentioned that he just got a sweet tie from the House Gift Shop. Later, he stopped by my room to show me, and we decided to learn how to tie it. Thirty minutes later, he still couldn't figure it out, after I showed him a million times. Al is standing there holding the floor length mirror for him and we had a youtube video up. So the one random non-LU guy on our hall walks by, and we asked him if he knew how to tie it, and he said "No! But my boy Keith does down in 410. Go down there right now and ask him, and tell him Anthony sent you." I was pretty sure we'd get shot or Keith had just lost a bet or something, but we all four went down there, and Keith and 2 of the other people in the room answered the door, wine glasses in hand, and showed us how to tie it! It was hysterically awkward, but they were super nice... and tipsy. The best part was at the end, when we awkwardly introduced ourselves... the girl was like "so what are y'all up to up there?... you seem awfully.... sober...." and we were like "yep. we are." And one of the guys goes "Y'all can't drink at Liberty right" And we were like .... "yeah... LU tends to frown on that...sooo... Thanks! See ya!"

The Pentagon tour today was AMAZING. We got lead around by a few young soldier guys, who walked BACKWARDS the ENTIRE time, without missing a beat. Never tripped, never got lost, never bumped into anyone. That was incredible in itself. It was a 2 mile tour and they did it perfectly. We got to go into Ground Zero where the plane crashed into the building. That was pretty interesting. There's a memorial room there. They also showed us the magnitude of just how much damage was done, and it was monumental. So much more than what you would expect. It looks like a hole in all the pictures, but really, it was an entire side of the building. Also inside, they have fun stuff like we do in the tunnels at the Capitol, but their stuff is way cooler. They have an entire Redbox ROOM, full of them. They have a chocolatier, 27 (I think? Maybe 23) restaurants, huge gift shops, a Best Buy, etc. It was pretty swank. The courtyard of the Pentagon is pretty interesting. There's a hilarious story about a hot dog stand that was great, and an interesting fact is that it's the largest no-hat/no-salute zone in U.S. territory. It was made so people could get away from the military scene and go call their folks or eat lunch without having to stand up and salute a superior officer.

Anyways, my pizza is here.

I didn't have to work yesterday. So I slept in, lounged around, watched some teeny-bopper "turn a loser into a ladies man" show on MTV. That's embarrassing to admit. And I knocked out some of my school. Then we had this intern/alumni reception that we all went to. There were some interesting alumni there that we got to network with and talk to.

I had to go back to work today. I'm kinda liking this temporary Staff Assistant thing. It's giving me an actual challenge. I have stuff to do for the whole day, constantly. I'm getting a real handle on working on the Hill, as opposed to kinda sitting around and observing it.

After work, Al and I went to Barnes and Noble and read tacky gossip magazines and drank coffee, and then we got her an LSAT book to get her ready for the LSAT in June. It's kinda good that I took it last year, because now I can help her figure out what she needs to do.

Tomorrow= Pentagon Tour!

Oh my lanta....

I am SO exhausted. Good night. Today was my first day taking over the Staff Assistant duties, and it was insane! I had to figure out a whole bunch of stuff on my own, which wasn't bad, but I had to multitask while doing it. UGH. And when I got to the office to unlock it, the new intern was there, so I had to start training him in everything WHILE doing my multitasking, and when I trained, I basically had to do the work to show him what to do. If I can get him trained fast, that will take a load off my back for sure.

It's supposed to snow next week. Poop.

And I don't have to work tomorrow! Staff Retreat!

So I'm sitting here in my room with the roomie waiting for the awesome older Chinese couple to skate again. A Russian couple just went, and the commentator mentioned how the girl is actually Japanese, and that she revoked her citizenship and moved to Mother Russia and became a Russian citizen so that she could live near a coach. Silly girl. It's gonna stink for her when she's old and living on a Russian pension and not getting star Olympian treatment.

I spent all day doing nothing. Actually I read. I've been reading "A Voice in the Wind" by Francine Rivers. It's super good; I'm really enjoying it.

I also cleaned the bathroom, so I did something productive. And baked brownies.

Work tomorrow...

We tried out a new church today- City Church up in Tenleytown. We loved it! It's a super great church. Worship was great, the message was relevant... I really liked it. Looks like that's where we'll be going. Al's manager came and picked us up this morning. It was the first time I had been in a car since January 18th, so almost a month. I thought her husband was speeding until I looked and saw we were going 35mph! I guess that seems super fast when you're used to walking everywhere and only going fast in dark tunnels. So weird.

Weird thought for the day: It will be a full four months that I don't go to Wal-mart. How odd is that?

Besides that, how did I spend Valentine's Day? I napped. And ate chocolate. And watched Glee. Not too shabby.

President's Day tomorrow!! I just love working for the federal government!

It's a 3-day weekend!! Actually, it feels like it should be Monday and that I just had the LONGEST weekend ever. But nope! And I also don't have to work on Wednesday because our office is having a staff retreat... so I'm working a grand total of four days out of eleven. Not too shabby... Our Staff Assistant had her last day today, so we had a cram session and she taught me how to do some stuff like flag requests. I also now have posession of the office key... which is super cool.

After work, Al and I went over to Chinatown to go see Valentine's Day at the movies and grab some Chinese food. The movie was pretty good! Tons of little twisted plots going on, but it was enjoyable. And I finally fulfilled my Chinese craving, which was amazing too.

When we got home tonight, we found out our parents had sent us Valentine's day stuff! Yay for that... we're all stocked up on chocolate now. :)

The snow finally stopped last night! Today, we actually got out and went to the corner store for some ice cream... ironic, I know.
We have to go to work tomorrow! So much for my 11 day streak... oh well! One day out of 9 ain't bad... There's a ton of snow out there. It's ridiculous. I'm basically in Antarctica. Sooooo... besides that and sleepin' in, that's been my day.

So this is nothing new... but... it's snowing again. Actually this is Round 2 of Snowmageddon. It's pretty bad out there. There's 50 mph winds going on, and they're saying there's snow drifts up to 10 feet. There were points today when I looked outside and you literally couldn't see anything past 50 feet. It was SO cool.

Yesterday I had planned on sleeping in, and bumming around the apartment all day. But I got an offer to go out to Pentagon City Mall with one of my friends, so I took her up on it, because honestly, who knows when I'm going to be able to get out of here again. So we roamed around the mall and looked around for stuff for her boyfriend for Valentine's Day. I haven't been to a mall in forever, so it was great to find one. By the time we got back to Union Station, it had started snowing again.

Today, I woke up around 10 because it was SO bright in our room from the snow outside. So Al and I watched Pride and Prejudice for a couple of hours, and made hamburger helper... She's NEVER had hamburger helper. She thought it was the same stuff as Manwich!! I enlightened her. After that.... I took a shower and a nap. It was a gooooooood nap too. I was out. I woke up around 6 or so. Now we're watching Miss Congeniality. We've done a lot of movie watching. We're basically movie experts now.

We ventured out into the city today... everything's just a mess. Messy sidewalks, messy streets, and the metro takes FOR-EV-ER. We waited over 20 minutes for one just to get home.

We went to Chop't at Gallery Place/Chinatown for lunch. It was great, just not as great as the other one off of Metro Center. I just love their salads!

After that, we went to go see Dear John. It's good! I'm not a Nicholas Sparks fan usually, but I really like this movie. The ending's awful though. Doesn't do it justice. It's definitely a tear-jerker, sob-story.

No work tomorrow! We're getting another foot of snow! Yay! Probably not on Thursday either I'm guessing...

I'm just posting real quick while my roomie cooks her eggs. I like scrambled, she likes over-easy, so we cook our eggs separately. We're having breakfast for dinner cause we have breakfast food AND time, which hardly ever happens. We're gonna do that and watch Superbowl commercials. Geaux Colts! I really don't care one way or the other, but I'd rather the Colts win. Actually the only reason why I know who's playing at all is because there's two offices down the hall whose doors get more and more extravagantly decorated every day.

In other news: we slept ALL day. Literally just ate and slept and ate and slept till about five when we got our lazy butts out of bed. It was delicious.

Ok, dinner time.

The snow finally stopped about five hours ago... took long enough!! It snowed for a straight 30 hours pretty much. We got somewhere around 25 inches of snow. RIDICULOUS. There's literally humps of snow that you discover are actually cars. You can't tell the difference between snow drifts and cars actually. A group of us went out to the National Mall today to go exploring. It was crazy hiking around! We went through the Capitol grounds to get there, and at some points literally had to wade through the snow just to get through. The bushes were all frozen solid, and we saw a snow drift that was a good 15 feet high... and we climbed on it. We also got on CNN, the guy pointed to us and said we were gonna go play snow frisbee. We just had the disc, we didn't actually play. There's no way you could play in that. We did have some crazy fun snowball fights though.

It doesn't look like there will be much work going on this week.... hopefully not till Wednesday or Thursday!!

Holy cow, I'm in a blizzard.

A record-breaking blizzard, at that.

This is insane!!

Who woke up at 7 and got ready for work by herself (cause her roomie got off work today), walked to the HOB in the freezing cold by herself, and got to work only to find out they emailed her (at the wrong email addy) to say "no work today"?

THIS GIRL!!

Upside? No work today. Duh. And I re-slept in till 2.

Downside? I got up at 7.

I'm also off on Monday. So it's a four-day weekend right here baby!!! So happy.


We're supposed to be getting upwards of 30 inches of snow in the next 24 hours. This is gonna be insane. Definitely going to be the most snow I've seen in my life period. I'm already planning on making a snowman army on the mall and snow tunnels. Its snowing right now, but it's not sticking. That's kinda gross.

I'm super super hungry, because I haven't eaten today. So I'm gonna go eat.

Today was a TON of walking. I only sat at my desk for about an hour today, tops.

I had to bring something to the congressman at the House floor.

I had to bring something to a staffer next to the House floor.

I had to go all over kingdom come (which means all 3 HOB buildings), and get signatures for a letter we're sending to Thailand. Apparently they're being mean to Burmese people.

I was able to get all of the signatures I needed except four. So I was sent back to go try again, as well as get about 5 more signatures. As well as the occasional phone call to give me more names to get.

So I got those, except for ONE signature, the MOST important signature, and I had to go back and get that. TWO buildings over. As well as a few more signatures.

This took about four hours. I didn't get lunch today. Now that's dedication, folks.

Soooooo, needless to say, my feet hurt.

MEANWHILE:

I get an email at work saying that the power will be out for about six hours. That turned into about 8-9 hours. The power just came on a few minutes ago, actually. So we weren't supposed to come back till around 7. Al and I found this awesome restaurant called Chop't off of G and 12th. It's so amazing. It's like Cold Stone for salad. Love it. We also found a Barnes & Noble, which is good stuff too.

So we got back to the apartment, and it's PITCH black inside. So a whole bunch of us interns got together and talked and all in the hallway. And some random kid from another hall that we think was high. We don't know why he wanted to hang out with us...But we had lanterns that the power people gave us, and it was good times. Lots of laughing...

I gotta go to work tomorrow. Al doesn't. Poop.

Some of the snow melted today... bumm-o. I spent my entire walk to work making enormous snowball and chucking them at signs. I missed a lot.
1.)Because I'm a lousy pitcher and
2.) I'm from Texas, we don't throw snowballs. Give me a break.

We're supposedly going to have another "blizzard" like the one back in December. It's gonna be a *minimum* of a foot of snow, up to 20 inches. So I'm satisfied. That will be just fine with me. I think I'm going to go build a snowman army on the Mall.

Tim Tebow was in my office building today. Did I casually/frantically go walk around and look for him? You betcha.

I learned a lot about the Amish today, seeing as they're in my district. I got to read a 2008 copy of The Budget, which is their newspaper. It's so cute! It has little articles in it from tons of little Amish communities all around the country, and they say things like "Fall is beginning to show its face around these parts, the ragweed is starting to show. Ada Hostetler wasn't able to make it to the church function this week because she was feeling poorly; Mabel Stoltzfus went and brought her some chicken stock for dinner that night." TONS of things like that. We call it Amish Twitter.

Also, I had to try to explain a bill to an Amish man today. It was about milk producing. He called because he was wanting to know what it was about since he was told to vote yes on it. So I pulled it up on our handy dandy little congressional site that tells us cool stuff about bills, and got the summary for him. I figured, "he's Amish, he'll know what this stuff means..." Stuff like Class II milk producers and all. If you're in the business, you'll know that right? Nope. He was just a nosy/curious Amish man who had no concern for the bill really, he just wanted to know what it meant. He had nothing to do with dairy. I have nothing to do with dairy. It was the blind leading the blind. Made for a good conversation though.

It's snowing... AGAIN! We got about six inches of snow a couple of days ago, and we're supposed to be getting about that much again tonight. If we're lucky (and Al and I are wearing our pj's inside out tonight for good luck), work will be taking off tomorrow. That would be AMAZING... snow day!

Last night, I suddenly realized just how long this internship's going to be. I mean, I love it and all, and I love the office I'm in. But I really started missing some people last night, and I really want to just get out and expand my horizons a little bit. Yeah, it's great practicality-wise to live right next to the Capitol and where I work, but on the other hand, it feels a little contained because I go to work, go home, and stay within about a mile of the same spot ALL the time unless it's the weekend. I see about the same 10 people all the time, and I love being with them and all, but at the same time, four months of 10 people feels a little like a reality TV show.

Also, on a lighter note, don't take things for granted. Today the blind people's association of America or something came by and there were literally dozens, maybe hundreds of blind people roaming the hallways of the buildings. They're all super nice people and all, but they're not all completely blind. Some of them can even read. Going with the assumption that they're completely blind just leads to some awkward situations. Not that I had any... but I experienced/heard some...

IT'S SNOWING!!!!!

Actually, I just looked out the window and it's stopped now. But it's been snowing all day. We have about 5-6 inches or so... enough to make it super super white outside! Al and I went to the White House today to take the tour. I LOVED IT. I'm already planning on going back a few times this semester. Obama apparently was there getting ready to go to the Georgetown/Duke game in a couple of hours because his whole motorcade was getting lined up outside the door.

After that, we headed to the metro to go to Chinatown, by way of Starbucks. Starbucks is a wonderful thing, and DC is a wonderful city for having one on every block. When we got down in the Metro Center stop, it was PACKED. Then we realized... it's the Georgetown/Duke game today. EVERY time we want to go to Chinatown, there's a game going on at the Verizon Center. So we got to Chinatown after struggling through the masses, and realized people were going UP the DOWN escalator because there were so many people. We're always up for adventure, so we went with the crowd. Of course, the people WOULD stop right in front of us right at the top, so that threw us off, which throws off the WHOLE escalator full of people. And I would be the one person who tripped. Yeah, that was fun....

We went and got Chinese food, which was delicious on a cold, wintry day. After that, we decided to look around for a bookstore, but ran across an Ann Taylor Loft store with a 50% of already-reduced clearance sale. Yeah, we hit that up and got some cute cute cute stuff. By the time that was over, it was time to go to the movie theater right next door, where we were gonna see When in Rome.

Word of Advice: GO SEE WHEN IN ROME. NOW. DO IT.

By then, we were just about tired of snow and walking, so we headed back home. It's cold, and now I'm sitting on my bed, wishing I had a snuggie right about now. That would be nice...

Out of the entire two weeks that I've been there, today has been the most un-productive day I've ever had. Congress wasn't in session, and there wasn't a republican member in town, so everything was DEAD. So there was a lot of facebooking and people magazine-looking going on. I did help lead one tour. That was interesting. It was a couple who were probably both around 50 years old and their 10 year old neice. They knew NOTHING about politics. I had to explain to them about the Clinton Scandal because they didn't even know he was in the process of getting impeached back then. Or that it had anything to do with the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Incredible!It's like they skipped the 90's! Sometimes, I feel like maybe I didn't really learn anything much of any importance during my 3 years of college, but when I have an experience like that, it reminds me that I did!

I had one of the most bizarre phone conversations of my life yesterday. A homeless constituent called and gave me his life story (all 60+ some odd years) including his heart condition, and his views on how TV should be like it was in the 50's, when "kissing wasn't even allowed on TV!!!!" When I asked for his name at the end, he said "Jenny... I'm transgendered." WHOA. That was a shocker. I had NO idea that I had spent the last 20+ mins talking to a... woman? Man? I don't know. It was certainly bizarre.

So I'm watching the State of the Union right now on CSPAN. As much as I love me some Fox News, you can only count on CPAN to not have interruption. There's a whole bunch of helicopters flying around outside, and all the streets around here are shut down. And I'm definitely seeing people on TV that I see all the time. Like that one lady I rode with in an elevator today. Pretty sweet. I was just in there a couple of days ago too.... and I just noticed that the First Lady kinda looks un-thrilled about the whole thing. Weird.

Today was crazy busy. Ran to Rayburn, ran to Longworth, ran to the cage, ran to the basement to do errands... it was a lot of running. My poor lil feet. By the end of the day, I gave up on all fashion couth and rolled my pants up and wore flats. Flats that didn't even match. Apparently I can pull it off. If I can't, I didn't care.

Anyways, I'm gonna watch this...

I ended up getting to go to two briefings today. One was about the Congressional Art Competition, where highschool kids from each district compete. The winner from each district gets their art displayed in the Capitol tunnels, where hundreds of people walk by every day. It's pretty cool. I'm surprised they don't make such a big deal out of it back home. The winning kids even get flown to the Capitol by Southwest airlines for a reception. It's pretty sweet.
The second briefing I went to was about energy. It was about oil drilling and the RPSEA Statute 999. At first, I thought I was in the wrong place, because all the staffers there were 50+, and for a while I was the only girl, AND the only girl under 50 at that. So there I am, sitting there for 10 minutes in my hot pink sweater with the big flower on it, waiting for a briefing to start with a bunch of men whol looked like they just walked off Wall Street. Finally, some other young'uns got in there though. At the briefing they talked about unconventional drilling etc., and a lot of it was over my head. The part that interested me though was when they talked about different places in Texas. Apparently they want to start drilling in PA, and this briefing was about how people would be concerned about that. I almost laughed out loud when they talked about how people might be disconcerted by having an oil rig in the lot next to their house. There's one in every neighborhood back home! It cracked me up.

Tonight, I went for a run with Al around the Capitol and down the Mall a little ways... it was so crisp and chilled outside that it was great! It was a good run, and it felt amazing. And of course, it was an awesome view the entire time. It was super nice seeing a couple hundred police the whole time too... it felt super safe.

Tomorrow, I'm gonna see if I can go to a briefing about the Fort Hood shooting. That should be interesting!

Right now, I'm downstairs waiting on my laundry. Thankfully, the laundry here is F-R-E-E!! That's unheard of. I'm especially glad because I have 2 loads since I haven't done laundry since I left home almost 2 weeks ago. So this is nice...

Yesterday was super fun and relaxing. Al and I slept in till around noonish. Kinda. Our window faces east, so we woke up around 9:30 thinking it was noon, and then rolled over and went back to sleep. That has to be one of the best feelings in the world. After that we got up and got ready to meet up with her cousin who lives here in DC somewhere, and we hung out with him and his friend for the afternoon. We went to the Air and Space Museum, and then went to Chinatown to grab some dinner. The museum was okay; aviation runs in my family, so I've seen a lot of it/planes just don't fascinate me. We had planned on going to this restaurant called Matchbox in Chinatown, but once we got there, we realized there was a Caps game going on, and that it was worthless to even try. So we went to Potbelly instead. I've found a new favorite sandwich place now. It's delicious. And apparently they have great shakes too. After that, Al and I went home and brainlessly watched TV for a couple of hours since we were tired. We had wanted to go to church at Ebenezer coffee shop, but we didn't know where it was and what time it was at, so we didn't go. Next week.

Today we slept in, woke up, and went out to Chinatown again. This time we DID go to Matchbox and get pizza and soup. I got the Crab Chowder soup and it was to DIE for. It's worth it to just go and get that. It's got huge chunks of real crab in it. So good. The pizza was pretty good too, but it was definitely overpriced. We found an Urban Outfitters near there too, which was exciting. They had tons of cute stuff on sale... for $30. What's with it and overpriced stuff here!? Sheesh.

And now I'm sitting here on the floor, waiting for my laundry, so I can have spiffy clothes to wear for the next couple of weeks. Clothes are good. Clean clothes are really good.

Weekend!

Today, I got to work a little bit early, and immediately began sorting the mail. It’s becoming more and more clear to me what issues go to whom. I also had to answer a lot of phone calls and deal with some constituents and pro-lifers who came in today because of the March for Life. A couple of men came in asking to use our copier, and since it was being worked on by maintenance, I offered to go to a nearby office and just casually ask to use theirs, even though they were Democrats, and the paper was a pro-life paper. It worked! My badge is good for something! At 2pm, I went with our Staff Assistant to go give a tour of the Capitol. I was actually able to contribute a lot of information to the tour, and I know that it will be easy when I start doing it by myself in the next couple of weeks. Apparently I’ll give 5-6 tours a week. I’m starting to figure out the tunnels now took, somewhat. It’s so complicated underground! I don’t understand it! Later on this afternoon, I went over to Rayburn to the Gold Room to help with a reception for a little while. The reception was basically just to refresh the pro-lifers who were marching. They stayed for about 30 minutes longer than we were planning. Something like 400 people came though in a couple of hours. I also had a woman come in who wanted to talk to our energy LA, and when she wasn’t available; I basically had to do that job and listen to her, and take her message down.

After Alex and I got off work, we decided to go out to dinner, and we went to Good Stuff off of Pennsylvania SE and 3rd street.... it was okay. Pretty good burger, okay fries, and a shake I couldn't finish. And it was packed so there wasn't seating and we had to stand and eat at a counter. It was also overpriced. I don't know if it was worth going back or not. Then we went back to the room, and were told by some girls down the hall that a mouse ran from their room to our room at 2am this morning. GREAT. So now there's a mouse on the loose. We had a guy from our hall come with us to Georgetown tonight; neither one of them had gone and Alex was AMAZED. They have some super good shopping there: H&M, Coach, American Apparel, and a lot else. We're going back with time and money sometime haha. We just got home about 45 minutes ago, and we're wiped.

Definitely sleeping in tomorrow!

First of all, my feet hurt. I just had to get that out there. Yes, I'm less than a ten minute walk from the Cannon, but gosh that's a long ten minutes in heels. Even in flats it's a long ten minutes. And it's always longer at the end of the day for some reason.

Basically, my day starts with getting up at 6:45, getting ready while watching Fox News to get ready for the day politically, and leaving by 8:45 to get to the office at 9. At the office, I start off my day by dividing up the daily reading. It's ridiculous how much that is. For 10 people, everyone gets a copy of Roll Call, The Hill, and Politico. They also all get CQ daily and the Congressional Daily. Then certain LA's and all get different magaszines like Newsweek and World, etc. It adds up to a TON. And we fill up an entire recycling bin with just readings we don't want because we can't use it all. Then, I check the voice-mail, and take down the messages. Then I go through the faxes... somedays there's over 200 from 5pm-9am. Usually by then, the first batch of mail arrives. Because of the anthrax scare a few years ago, the mail is all pre-opened. My job is to re-open it, and decide which staffer certain issues and letters go to. Meanwhile, I'm answering constitutent phone calls and taking messages. I also do errands and gopher work, including running over to Rayburn via the tunnel system, which is like 6.8 million miles away.

Anyways, my feet hurt and I want to soak them in the tub...

I started work yesterday! It's really great. Everyone in our office is pretty young... under 30 except for 2 of them. So that keeps our office pretty moving. I've been having to do busywork alot, but that's okay with me. So far I've gotten things from cars, gotten things from storage, answered constituent calls, dealt with mail and people's daily readings, brought reports to a Republican strategy meeting, and done data imput. Tomorrow I'm taking the grand tour of the Capitol building so I can GIVE the grand tours of the Capitol. I've walked all around the tunnels under the Capitol and the House buildings... there's SO much under there! There's a Starbucks (of course), a dry cleaners, a gift shop, a shoe shining place, a cafeteria, a take out food place, and this really cool "store" where you bring a special pass from your office and you have your run of ALL kinds of office supplies and odd stuff. It's fantastic! Also, did you know there's a pharmacy off of the Hall of Columns in the Capitol? It's not marked, but there is. I got my badge today too... the FIRST thing the people in my office told me was to not take the lanyard option at ALL costs, but to take the clip option. Interns can hide their clippie badge, but the lanyard screams "newbie!" I also have a House email account now... if ya can figure it out, you can email me. ; )

So here I am sitting on my bed again, wishing that when I looked out my window that it looked like what it looks like across the hall when they look out THEIR windows. They have a full-blown view of the Capitol building in all its glory over there! Sigh.

Today, Al and I went on a little tour/survival trip. It started off with her first Metro ride from Union Station, which is all of 5 minutes away from our dorm. We went to the American History Smithsonian, and took all kinds of good pictures. After that, we were hungry, so we went over to Old Post Office, where we ate and overlooked the city. Then, we went to the Archives, so Al could see the documents; she was ecstatic. By then, our feet were KILLING us. Rule #1 of walking in DC: go ahead and carry flats with you always. Heels will fail you. Every time. Even boots. So we went to the Target off of the Columbia Heights stop, which was INCREDIBLE. I've never seen a 2-story Target that starts on the second floor of a building, which also houses a Best Buy, Payless, and Marshalls. Craziness. This Target had a contraption where you put your buggy on this thing, and it brings it down the escalator with you from the 3rd to the 2nd floor. Fancy big-city stuff, right there.

After our big adventure on our second day in DC, we went home and crashed. I went ahead and did my DLP work, which I got 100's on. So I'm done with classes for the week, AND I have straight A's so far. Hallelujah! Makes the rest of my week so much less stressful!

So here I am, laying on my bed in what's to be my home until May 1st. If I look outside my window, I can see the backyards and patios of the row-homes on the next street down. Apparently a senator lives in one of them- Rear Window, anyone? If I walk out the door and go about 3 doors down, I'm at the ACLJ; across Constitution street is the senate office buildings, and across 2nd street is the Supreme Court. Housing can't get much better than this!

I moved in my room (or... apartment... it's debatable.) yesterday. It's simple, but spacious... especially for two people. We have a room the size of a dorm back at LU, with a kitchen off of it, and a closet off of the opposing wall with a bathroom off of it. For 2 girls used to living in a dorm with 3 girls, this is the Taj Mahal.

This morning, we tried out Capitol Hill Baptist Church during the first of what will be, I'm sure, many church visits. The service was all right. Doctrinally, I was impressed by what I saw. However, the service was 2 hours long and the message, although very informative and great, took 45 minutes just to get through the first point. So, it might end up being a fallback church, since it's so close and all, but I'd like to look around some more.

Tuesday's my first day of work! I'll be interning for Rep. Joe Pitts out of the 16th district of Pennsylvania, which consists of Lancaster Co., and parts of Chester Co. and Berks Co. I'm very excited to start working, and I have a feeling it will be a great experience. I'm not quite sure what to expect, so that part just builds up the anticipation. My roomie, Alex, and I are both working in the same house building, so we'll get to walk together to and from work every day. Even though we live in what is the safest part of DC (we have a cop literally right outside out building 24/7), it's still just smarter to travel together after dark.

Anyways, it's raining, I'm tired from unpacking till 2am, and the Cowboys are playing what looks like their last game of the post-season (pray HARD). So I'm off for now...