Highlights!

To hit the highlights from the last couple of weeks:

The $700 billion bailout has been the focus of my life the last week. It has been exciting/interesting/frustrating/confusing/awful/every other adjective! We've logged around 1000 emails and phone calls since Thursday. So many people are angry either way...whether the boss voted for or against it. By the way, he voted against it. However, GEORGE BUSH called our office Friday morning! I didn't get to answer the phone when he called, but I got to listen to him on speaker phone through the boss's office door. How exciting! Now I've heard George and Laura via speaker phone. I heard Laura on speakerphone in the Chancellor's office one day. My dream is to meet her before I leave DC!

Other updates: so far I've gotten to travel to Annapolis, MD with the Tech roommates. We spent the afternoon on the harbor and walked around the Naval Academy and some cute shops in the town. I also went to the mountains at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Virginia is one of the prettiest places I've seen! There's so many hills and trees and mountains! How will I ever be able to come back to Lubbock???

The boss signed my copy of Captive Warriors- his book about his experience as a POW in Vietnam- and he wrote "To Haley: a super intern and a great cookie maker! Thanks for all you do!" haha, I'm so glad to be remembered as the cookie maker! He called today from Texas and told me that I better not eat all his cookies while he's gone. This man has such a sweet tooth!

Plans: This weekend, Ross is coming to visit me, and we're going to New York!! More stories about the boss to come! There are plenty-he is quite the character! Be sure and look at his web site under "news" and "press releases"...that will give you a good idea of what I'm dealing with every day. 

Session begins!!

I am really behind on my blogging! 

Congress was in session this week, so we were all kinda nervous come Monday morning! We were all going to meet our bosses, so everyone definitely dressed up for work. Mr. Johnson came in Monday afternoon and he was so sweet. I've been slowly reading his book, Captive Warriors, so it was like meeting my hero when I first saw him. At closing time, all the staff and Mr. Johnson sat around the round table (where everyone hangs out to eat or watch TV) and chatted for a while. He was talking about Krispy Kreme doughnuts and how he wanted a cookie maker in the office. A huge difference in topic than his book about his experience as a POW in Vietnam. I didn't know, but he has apparently made several mentions about wanting a cookie maker so we can have fresh cookies any (and probably every) day! I was put in charge of finding a cookie maker to buy and found out he was referring to a toaster oven, haha! Sooo I believe that will be his bday present from the office!

Session is a little bit busier than the first two weeks, but I still basically run errands and get mail sent. I'm really really enjoying the office though. Everyone is such great friends and they're so entertaining! 

Wednesday morning was definitely the greatest experience so far! I went to breakfast WITH THE BOSS! Mr. Johnson, the other intern, the scheduler and the staff assistant (all under age 24 except for the boss!) went to eat breakfast at the Capitol Hill Club. It's right across the street from all the House offices. Many other representatives were there, too. I had belgian waffles with whipped cream, strawberries, maple syrup, and 4 cups of coffee! YUM! Mr. Johnson paid for our breakfast, too. When we got back to the office, several staffers asked how the breakfast was, and he pointed at me and said, "Well she ate so much she can't even stand up!" haha! He's so adorable, but also so brilliant. I really enjoyed his comments on current events and such at breakfast. We also discussed that our football teams (he's a big SMU fan) would be playing this weekend, but he admitted that Tech would win!

Thursday was pretty fun. Several of my Tech roommates decided to go Kay Bailey Hutchison's weekly coffee she hosts at her office. We didn't know that there's also a photo op, so we each got to take a professional picture with her. Later that afternoon Mr. Johnson spoke on the House floor. He did great! We all watched him on CSPAN, but it would have been really cool to have seen him in person. Hopefully I'll get to sit in the gallery or something if he speaks again.

He's so friendly every time I see him. I love answering the phone when it's Mr. Johnson because it's the sweetest "hellooooo" every time! Today when he called (Congress is recessing today, so he went home to Texas) he asked what the staff was doing. Honestly, we weren't doing a single productive thing, haha! We were sitting around the round table drinking coffee, eating breakfast and watching Charles Gibson's interview with Sarah Palin. Well, Mr. Johnson LOVES Sarah Palin, so I informed him that we were watching it. He laughed, but insisted that I tell him how to get to the Web site so he could watch her.

I love DC for more and more reasons every day. After work, I went for a run: around the Capitol, down the side of the national mall, around the Washington Monument (said hi to the White House to the right of the monument) and back home. How wild is that? Definitely beats running around in circles at Higginbotham. After the beautiful run, I sat at Starbucks for a few hours to read Captive Warriors at a table outside. It's in a fairly busy part of town, but it's on Capitol Hill, so I thoroughly enjoyed the scenery of people walking by and the pretty buildings all around.

Tonight is a girls' night! A few of us are going to eat at a nice seafood restaurant in Chinatown and then go see a girly movie! The plan is to go to Annapolis tomorrow since the hurricanes are going to hopefully not hit around DC this weekend. Pictures to come soon!

Second Week!

Goodness, the last week has been crazy! I have definitely gotten settled into the internship. I followed Jed, the other intern, on several tours of the Capitol so that I could find my way around before I start giving tours. My office often lets me go early since it's very slow, so I've been going through the Capitol by myself because there are so many twists and turns that I'm afraid I'll get a group of tourists lost one of these days! 

I followed Jed because not only was it the tour groups' first time through the Capitol, 

it was also mine! I was in awe of the rotunda! It's such a beautiful building inside and out. I can't believe how pretty the West side of the Capitol is with all the steps and flowers outside. When I run, I always run by the Capitol. Partly because it's pretty and partly because there are police on every corner, so I feel quite safe!

On to my weekend: Virginia Beach Marathon!!! 

I had a crazy first Friday night in DC, let me tell you. Everyone in the Tech house had fun, exciting plans. I, however, sat at home making a playlist on my iPod and got in bed at 10, haha! Saturday morning I took a train to Virginia Beach to meet my bro Ross, my cousins Melanie and Melissa, and our friend Erica for the half marathon. 

It was so much fun! Even though we had to wake up at 4:45 am Sunday morning, the morning was exciting. There were SOO many people! Around 16,000 ran and I found out today that I finished around 8,000th! haha. Melanie and I kept passing each other and finally decided that we were running the same pace so we should just run the rest of the race together and finish at the same time. We finished in 2 hours and 27 minutes, which was 3 minutes under the time I was 

expecting.

After the marathon, Erica went back to Arkansas and the 4 of us came back to DC for some vacation time! The 3 of them stayed in a super nice hotel with amazingly comfortable beds, so I couldn't resist staying a night with them. We accomplished quite a bit in a short amount of time! We visited Arlington National Cemetery, the Holocaust Museum, the National Archives, the Washington Monument, the White House, and several great restaurants! 

We timed it great at Arlington National Cemetery because it was on the hour, which is when the changing of the guard occurs at the "tomb of the unknown soldier."

I had to work Tuesday morning while they went to the Library of Congress, but they came to Sam Johnson's office around 2 pm for me to give them a tour of the Capitol. It was actually my first tour to give without Jed helping or me following Jed, but I didn't get lost once! I think they enjoyed the tour, too.

It was really really great to see them all weekend, and I'm actually pretty sad they're gone. It was nice to see a familiar face. 

On the bright side, I get to meet Sam Johnson here in a few days! Congress is about to be in session and things are going to pick up around the office so hopefully I'll have more interesting stories involving work pretty soon! I did find out that Sam Johnson (I will probably be referring to him as "the boss" often...it's what my office calls him) will be taking me to breakfast when he gets back to DC! He likes to meet with his interns and get to know them fairly well, so I absolutely cannot wait! I'm also terrified and nervous. 

Washington Monument at night

The original Constitution of the U.S.!

Good ole Abe Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial

First Day!

My first day of work was wonderful! I got a little nervous walking in to Longworth with all the people who knew exactly where they were going, but I found my way to Sam Johnson's office just fine. It was also strange to walk through security and put my tote bag on one of those scanner conveyer belt things like at the airport. Women who wear heals have to step aside and a police officer scans them since the nail in the heal of high heels makes the metal detectors go off. Haha, I definitely will not be wearing heals for this job. 

I walked into the office, and everyone was so nice and surprisingly young. There are 3 staffers in their 20s, two in their 30s and maybe two or three a bit older than that. They spent most of the day talking about fantasy football and Obama's decision to choose Biden. I kept my mouth shut on both subjects.

So far my duties are to make coffee, sort mail, answer phones, run small errands, and a help with correspondence. It's a comfortable office so I'm really looking forward to this! The summer intern is still working until labor day which is great because he helped me out a LOT today! They really encouraged me to ask a ton of questions today, and I asked about 500 questions about transferring phone calls. That phone makes me so nervous! Thankfully some of the staffers have messed up before and hung up on important people or the congressman's wife, so I'm sure I will have some good stories before this is over.

I'm kinda sad to not be home living with Jessi and Kristen! I actually miss the first-day-of-school jitters and getting closer to graduation, and I missed eating lunch with Holly on the first day of school like we always do, but I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be in DC and work in such a great office. 

Moving Day!

I am now officially living in Washington D.C.! The travels went pretty well. I took a bus from the airport to the Metro system (mind you, I had a HUGE suitcase, a small suitcase and a large shoulder bag). I managed to make it straight to the Tech house!

I put my stuff up in my room, said hi to the roommates then went for a walk. I had my map and decided the best way to spend my first day was to see the White House...so I did! 

I walked in front of the White House, took some pictures, and enjoyed the whole neighborhood! I then went to dinner with my roomies to eat some sushi. 

I am currently sitting in the Tech house with my roommates who are all on their computers, haha. We are so cool. Actually, we're eating chocolate chip cookies and watching Legally Blonde on a Saturday night, so we are definitely cool.

Much more to come later!

Dates nailed down!

Hi all! Just a little update: I have my flight booked for DC. I'm leaving August 23 and will begin work on Monday the 25th. I've emailed Lindsey Ray, Executive Assistant to Sam Johnson, back and forth a few times about start dates, but mainly I've had to ask her questions about what to wear, haha! That doesn't give me long to get settled and figure out where I'm going, but at least it will make me hit the ground running once I get to DC. 

And on the subject of running, for those of you who don't know, I'll leave DC that following weekend to run the Virginia Beach half marathon with my bro and cousins! This is definitely going to be the craziest week of my life. I'm sure it will end up being the craziest 4 months of my life, too!

The plan right now is to leave DC on Dec. 17th and go to my bro's graduation in Nashville on the 19th. So I'll be back right in time for Christmas with all the fam!

A very early update!

To all of you who I promised I would blog...here I am! I found out who I will be working for this last week: Congressman Sam Johnson. His Web site is www.samjohnson.house.gov and I recommend you check it out. He has a pretty incredible life story!

I'm still not sure on exact dates of when I will be leaving or coming home, but I will keep you updated! I doubt there will be much need of me updating until I'm in D.C. doing blog-worthy things, but I am excited to finally know who I will be spending all semester working for, and I wanted to share!