What a weekend!

This was a wonderful weekend! Lauren came up to visit me and I went to pick her up at the airport at 9 AM, we got a little lost, and eventually wound back up here. We did all the monuments in two days. National Archives, Capitol tour, T-Coast, all sorts of fun ness! We rode back around and looked at the monuments at night. We had a total blast. Monday I went with Matt (from work) to the Nationals game, vs the Braves. Braves LOST to the nationals. what's up with that? all in all, weekend was great!

Tuesday at work was great. Sorted papers that i started sorting friday, SHOULD get done tomorrow, if not, Thursday. Thank GOD! Eventually I'll get past the the 'bitch work' and do fun stuff! Don't have the front desk this week, so I don't have to get to work until 9!!! Yay! Looking forward to an extra half-hour of sleep. great night y'all.

Missing Georgia, but LOVING DC!!!


Random thought of the night: Is there a situation where there isn't a Sarah McLachlan song or Collective Soul song to get you through it? the answer: NO!!!

Run, Run, as fast as you can!

Today was a great day! Jim introduced an ammendment to a bill that is going to comittee today. 55 copies of the bill have to be somewhere in the capitol by 10. I had to get it there. at 9:45, bill wasn't ready. I had to RUN to get there, luckily, we had a placeholder, and everything was fine, but i did my evening run at 10 in the morning! Yay. Other than that, the day was uneventful, had lunch with Mike Lynch (friend from Athens) and that was great too, ate at Tortilla Coast, a local rest. Went home, in the rain and crashed. ready to do it all again tomorrow!

Weekend

Friday was uneventful at work, apparently, it's casual, since for the majority of the time, there are no votes on Fridays, so the Congressmen can go elsewhere. Gotta love that. I'll know for the next time. I went out to a country club Friday night. Was very interesting. Not really my thing, but fun, nevertheless. I may go back, I may branch out, who knows. I got back to the dorm around 2 AM and did the bed thing. Woke up around noon Saturday, did some things around campus and went shopping in Friendship Heights, kinda like downtown athens, but with chains. Was great. I came back home, and modeled what I bought for myself (j/k). Really, I ran the same route as the ohter day, Just not as fast.

Sunday, slept until about 10. Roommate moved in. Ate Burger King, booked my flight for the cruise (yay!) and am going running later! Good first weekend, gotta work harder on checking off things on that list!

Ok, so I missed a day. Sue me ;-)

I'll cover both days, although, it's about the same as the first two days. Wednesdays are (apparently) when all the votes are scheduled, so lots of people came in the office. There's a HUGE gift basket from the people of Dooly county, chock full o' nuts (not the coffee). haha. We gave them a tour of the Capitol, which was fun, considering it was my first tour of the capitol as well. Learned much, much more about protocols, etc. Was a pretty uneventful day!
When i got back to the dorm, I went to eat with HEather, et al...Tried a very good pizza place, and then went to maryland (twice in two days). Finally found somewhere to shop....helloooo saturday!

Ok, so today...currently working hard. The bills/amendments that didn't get voted on yesterday are voted on today. I've had 400,000 phone calls from people giving their support (or lack there of) to amendments to the interior appropriations bill. It's tiring, but, I only have an hour, and then....Star Wars.....if somebody could brief me, that would be wonderful. Talk soon

"you can lay the washington monument on it's side..."

Ok, so today was much better. I got to work (on time) at 8:30, and opened the office, yes, i have a key that opens the office, of a United States Congressman....whoa. So i get in and sort the mail, and do my other inernly duties, and go back to work scanning when everybody else got in. Luckily, that wasn't too long, and I'm getting used to who gets what mail. It's very confusing. Bradley gets this stuff, while Mike gets this, but Toby and LaTisha get this stuff. I'm learning.

Vernon Jones (DeKalb CEO) sent us coffee and danishes this AM.....So, me + free coffee = wired Bob (not to mention the coffee i had before going to work). I could have cleaned out the cage and danced all night.....of course, that feeling wore off by 11. I realized that scanning stuff is helpful because I get to read the letters that constituents write as well as Jim's replies. this helps me to learn alot about who I'm working for. All i know is that he's a South GA Democrat (read: Dixiecrat, read: Republican). I don't necessarily agree with him on every issue, but, I think his heart's in the right place, and he reminds me a lot of Congressman Santos on, you guessed it, The West Wing. He pretty much does what he wants to, wich about 50% of the times lands him on the left, and 50% on the right. Which, I believe is a little better than voting with your party all the time.

Also today, the national something of air traffic somethings had a reception, that I went to. There's not a bottle of Riesling in teh damn Capitol! I settled for Chardonnay and a roast beef sandwich (white wine, red meat, sandwich...lord). Then I left. I realized when I walked in my dorm room (at 8 PM) that I had been gone from my dorm for 12 hours and 30 minutes. This is the best job ever! I LOVE it so far!

When i got done, i ran...i ran so far away,.....well, at least to National Cathedral. It ended up taking me a total of 45 minutes to run there, around it and back. I'm trying to pick something, like that, and run to and from it....Or just to it and metro back....I don't know what I'll try next, but, i'm betting that my run was much cooler than Brad's.......now, washing the coffee pot, and starting it all over again.........

First Day!

Today was my first day. I got to work a whole hour early. Unfortunately, I thought I was right on time. Congressman Marshall was the first person I met. I then filled out a plethora of paperwork. I learned how to answer the phones, to scan constituent mail, and organize cokes. Coke gives the office free sodas, so I'm gonna have to have HUGE will-power. Trying to limit myself to one non-diet/day. Luckily there are diet cherry cokes!
By the time I got home, I was pooped. I took a short nap (it was 7:30) and then went to find food....I got lost. I went through Georgetown, and then Maryland. I finally made it back home....around 9:30. Missed most of 24, unfortunately, and did something I haven't done in YEARS....i ate at McDonalds....the one on campus, after driving around for more than an hour, I ate at the place a block from my dorm. yeah, I know. About to go to bed and do it all again tomorrow (well, not the getting lost!)

Airport.....blah

Today I took mom to the airport. We were late. We arrived at Dulles only an hour before Mom's flight took off. We stood in line at the United counter, and finally checked in.....Luckily, our prayers paid off, the flight was delayed half an hour! Mom made it, and everything was OK....She later said i put her on the smallest airplane she'd ever been on! Was still a jet, and she was in front of the wing, but she still asked her neighbor "where's the rest of the plane?"

Soo, mom's story isn't as good as mine, I missed the road to get back to DC from Dulles, and got a little bit lost. Luckily, I hadn't taken the VA map out of the car and I found my way back. I took the scenic route in and saw GWU and Georgetown U. But found my place, no sweat, once I got back into DC. Then took a well earned nap....went for a short run, and had so much fun people watching while i did it. The houses up here are ENORMOUS! Tomorrow's a big day!

Super Tourists!

Yesterday and today, mom and i were super tourists. We took the Metro to Capitol South (a stop that i'll get well acquainted with). We saw the building that I'll be working in (Cannon) as soon as we got out of the station! That's good to know for those rainy DC days! I thought i had seen one of the difficult things on my list to see (presidential motorcade), but alas, was just a short motorcade, definately unlike those seen in The West Wing. In the process of two days, we did the Mall, most of the smithsonians (spent waaay to much time in the bone/rock museum (museum of Nat. History)). Also did the spy museum, which is now on my list for a must see. Clayton (step brother) would love it! It took us nearly three hours to get throug it! I'm still in awe...
Did alot. Can't wait for people to come visit me! let me know when you want to come!

Getting to Washington

Today, Mom and I left Athens at 7:30 and got to Washington nearly 11 hours later. Was a good trip. We stopped at every state welcome center to steal maps, as bible school this year is Ramblin' Roadtrip. We were also stuck for 45 minutes in North Carolina for road construction, barf. But we made it, and no roommate, later foudn out that he'll be here May 22. I hope he's a democrat.....