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...