the beginning of spring.

pictures (favorite building in dc, the eisenhower executive office building and arlington)

so it is very strange to think that in a month i'll be back in nashville/athens and no longer living and working in this city.  i have grown to love dc and i can't wait to get back up here.  i'm still looking around at internships but finally got a response from one and interviewed on friday.  everyone pray that the interview was a success and i get a call back! i'm excited about springtime and hope the nice weather stays around for a while.  last weekend we went to arlington cemetery and got a great insider's look into the old guard (the soldiers that do ceremonial things at the white house, etc., funerals at arlington, and the guarding of the tomb of the unknown soldier).  it was a very special trip and we got lots of special treatment including a briefing from the lt. col now in charge and the arlington historian.  as time winds down i'm feeling the pressure of class and research papers that have yet to take form but am trying to continue to enjoy everything and get some last minute sight seeing/weekend excursions in.  this week (fingers crossed) i'm actually going on a dome tour of the capitol.  only congressman/woman can give this tour so it's been a struggle to get our member's schedule to open up so we could go but i think this time we're actually gonna do it! lots of pictures will ensue and i'm excited to get to go out on the top of the actual dome...crazy.  i love you all and can't wait to see many of you when i get back! 

the metro.

so i'm getting kind of bored with my blog posts and wanted to revert back to just telling you random stories from my days here in washington. here goes.  the metro is a magical tube that scoops you up at one place and pops you out at another in mere minutes.  the only problem about living here without a car is that i take the metro everywhere and thus have no idea how the neighborhoods connect to one another. this is not inherently negative it just warps the way i view dc a bit.  at any rate, the metro is also the best place in dc to observe humanity at its best and worst. mostly i love the metro because you literally never know what kind of people you will come in contact with or what they will have just been doing or if it will be ridiculously crowded or not.  today's adventure:

while lugging 15 pounds of groceries and other necessities back from target, my friend and i came upon the gallery place/chinatown exit where we had to disembark from the green line and switch to the red line to get home.  this detour found us on the red line platform surrounded by hundreds of children and their parents coming from...the circus.  that's right, barnum and bailey were in fact at the verizon center this weekend giving children of all ages in the DC Metro area the chance to watch the elephants walk around in a big circle, eat cotton candy and peanuts, and make their parents regret telling them the circus was in town.  there were cute kids with clown hats on, toy swords and light sabers, big foam hats, and then the middle aged dad who tried to entertain his young daughters by wearing THE creepiest clown mask/hat combination i've ever seen.  when the train came everyone rushed onto the metro and deciding it wouldn't be possible for us to sit down, my friend william and i awkwardly tried to stand by the door so we could get the heck off ASAP.  aside from being poked in the back of the leg with a little boy's light saber, there was surprisingly not a lot of drama with the circus crowd if you don't count the parents that were so clearly at the ends of their ropes you felt a little bad for them.  as we reached our destination and were able to escape the circus, i appreciated the way the metro brings people together and then spits you out again to go on your way.  there's a lot of shared experiences with fellow patrons that never go above ground.  i like it because you know there's always and x factor to your day. and that keeps it interesting.  

march.

when did march get here? seriously, i have no idea how this time has gone by so fast.  sorry i'm awful at posting but that just means you get longer, juicier posts when i do.  the past couple weeks have been insane on the hill and i'm so glad i have a front row seat.  with the stimulus package and the omnibus appropriations bill going through congress within a week of each other we've been pretty busy keeping up with all the news and calls from back home in the district.  i've been able to work on some special projects for staffers and giving some capitol tours which has kept the days interesting and busy.  this past week we got to go to the white house (just the standard east wing tour) but it was so great to go in and ask the guards to tell us what they new about each room.  they were also setting up a dinner in the east room and for the record the centerpieces and tables were lovely.  for those of you who have ever talked to me about the american president (best movie ever) i definitely got to see the staircase michael douglas walks down before he goes to the state dinner...so sick.  annette benning, however, was no where to be found. weird.  i'm still working on getting an internship up here for the summer (if anyone knows anyone that wants to pay me to answer their phones in dc for a summer let me know...seriously) and figuring out where to live if i do get to stay.  i am still loving the city and this past week i got a serious itch to work on the hill for awhile.  it may happen, you never know.  

like the rest of the east coast (and apparently atlanta and athens) we got about six inches of snow last weekend....the only difference between us and atl is that unfortunately we still have to trudge to work through the slush.  luckily i live 20 yrds from the senate buildings and was able to take the warm, dry tunnels to work that day.  it is now a beautiful 62 degrees outside and i wish it would stay that way forever.  yesterday i spent some time at the farmer's market and then went out to arlington for a dinner party with some new friends.  one of my brother's groomsmen, tanner, was gracious enough to invite me out to his house for dinner and it was really nice to get out of the city for a little bit and meet some new folks.  i'm still enjoying exploring the different areas around dc and know that there's so much more to discover. 

this week is spring break for the UGA kids and that means about half our program headed back south.  the rest of us stayed to work and entertain guests....i'm so excited to see friends and family that are coming to visit and show them where i live/work on a daily basis.  we'll also probably head to the white house for a quick dinner with the pres....just kidding, i don't have that kind of hook up.  

i hope everyone is doing well wherever you may be and that you're all happy and healthy (c:

recess vs. session.....the ongoing battle.

so of the many ups and downs of working on the Hill comes the love/hate relationship i have with being in session.  while it's much more interesting to watch on CSPAN and the floor of the House and Senate, it's much worse for staffers.  mainly for interns who have to listen to constituents call and complain about things they don't understand.  i'm all for democracy and being able to petition your government, but my gosh people do some research before you call your congressman's office and demand to know about bill X which doesn't exist/is not on the topic you thought it was on/has already been passed/never made it out of committee.  i've never heard so many people so passionate about things that aren't remotely true.  also, to all you readers out there....i know most of you are in college and/or adults but if you are, know someone, or have a child that is in high school and is about to take american government please make them pay attention and get an A...and retain the information before they call their congressman's office. it's really not that hard. 

anyway, i'm stepping off my soapbox.  the past couple weeks have been busy but great.  i've gotten to take on a lot more projects that are interesting and challenging at the same time and have been able to catch a few briefings/hearings along the way.  i have also added Capitol Tour Guide to my resume as my tour groups have not been disappointed yet.....you should all come visit, i'll give you the tour of your life.  the DC Dawgs alumni group (they're the largest outside of atlanta....go dawgs) are an amazingly nice group of young professionals who threw us a dinner last week and we had a great time getting to talk to them about their jobs and hang out and of course, talk about UGA football and how much we all love/miss athens.  a good time was had by all.  we also found out we'll be going on a white house tour in march; so after weeks of trying to schedule them for other people i get to go to the White House....i'll send obama all of your regards.  

this weekend i'm buckling down and finally doing some serious work on a research paper that i've neglected for the past 6 weeks.  it's crazy to think we're already half-way through our program.  while some days it feels like i've been here for years i know i won't be ready to leave come the end of April.  thanks for reading and i promise i'll try and post more! 

much love. 

at home.

you know that moment after you've been somewhere for awhile when it hits you that you don't feel like a tourist anymore?  maybe that feeling is only familiar to those of us who've spent years of our lives moving around...but i digress.  i got that feeling today on the metro.  as i stepped out of the turnstile and got on the escalator, this lady stood smack dab on the left and wouldn't walk.  for anyone who's lived in dc, this is a huge faux pas.  before i knew it i was saying "excuse me, excuse me miss" demanding subtly that she move out of my way.  normally i wouldn't have cared and i certainly wasn't in a hurry it was just the fact that she had the gall to stand on the left when it's so clearly not a kosher thing to do.  anyway, it weirded me out that i've adapted norms of the city i never really cared about and didn't even know it.  i'm such a townie now. 

today is the first day i've had off of my internship so i'm enjoying the free time and using it to catch up on school work.  the whole switching your brain back and forth between work and school mode is a lot harder than one would think.  but i'm desperately behind on research so i think my washington thing tomorrow will have to be the library of congress.  i suppose if i have to sit in a library all day it can't hurt that it's the LOC (sorry UGA libs...i still love you and will no doubt see you in the fall).  

i miss all of you dearly and can't wait to see some of you soon! as much as i love the city, it would be a $800 billion stimulus package better if you were all here. love. 

i'm the worst blogger ever.

so i realize that i'm not very good at this whole blogging thing...in regards to timeliness that is.  but i'm trying to get better.  the past couple of weeks have been ridiculously busy in the office due to the stimulus package and all that it entails.  that thing has taken over washington and i swear if i hear one more person call it the "porkulus" package i'm gonna freak out.  other than that, i've been sticking to my weekly saturday ritual of doing something "washington-y" and this saturday i ventured to chinatown and the national portrait gallery.  forgetting it was president's day i was surprised by the fifes & drums of virginia performing in colonial garb in the courtyard of the museum but it was a welcome surprise and the little kids looked pretty darn cute playing those drums.  i walked around for awhile and came upon a one day only exhibit that was drawing quite the crowd. no big deal it was just thousands of cupcakes arranged in a square that if you viewed it from one story up was a picture of obama and lincoln's faces in icing...i mean really?  i really have no idea how to even feel about seeing 2 presidents faces portrayed in cupcake icings; especially when was a great president who was just celebrated in washington on the 200th anniversary of his birth, and the other has been in office for less than a month.  i just hope somebody ate the cupcakes at the end of day....it'd be a shame to be a cupcake iced to portray obama's nose and never get to be enjoyed by anyone. 

i stole a cord to give you visual proof that i'm doing stuff.

so my gracious hallmate let me his borrow a cord so i could show you all what i'm doing. enjoy!

my favorite at the zoo.

for mom.

the blurry but beautiful view from my room.

my view of the capitol on inauguration day. 

zoom.

my lovely roommate and me. at this point we were freezing and about to leave.

so i was trying to get a picture of the 2.5 million people behind this fence. ridiculous.

despite the fact that my internet in this building is super slow i promise to be better at posting pictures on here. much love. 

friday night at the senate.

as the weeks pass in d.c. the experience has yet to become routine and i'm still not over the fact that i work here.  wednesday night was class at the u.s. trade representative's office where we talked to a uga alum who now works on trade issues with china. so sweet.  i've gotten to attend a couple hearings/briefings thus far and i love being able to get out of the office for a bit and get a snapshot of what's happening with a certain issue right now.  

i've mastered the art of riding the trains that go underground from the senate office buildings to the capitol and then to the house office buildings.....and it's always cool to look over and see roland burris getting interviewed by some reporter eating up his every word or see john kerry sitting in the train next to you.  tonight after a long week at work i thought all i wanted was to go home, change, and go out on the town.  instead, i went back to the capitol and watched the stimulus debate from the senate gallery.  i'm a huge nerd, but when in rome?  there were a surprising amount of couples......maybe its a good d.c. date night. nothing better to set the mood than listening to john mccain talk about partisan politics and watching john kerry pull up his socks and pop a piece of gum in.  

i'm definitely finding that i like the flow of domestic politics and american government way more than i thought i would and i'm glad i took a job on the hill for this semester.....i could see myself ending up back here someday.  i still have no idea what i want to do or what i'm going to do to get back up here but i'm sure it'll all fall into place.  the cool thing about washington is everyone has a completely different story of how they ended up here and in the end it's really all about who you are. i'm convinced it really is the ugly hollywood. 

soloing the mall.

so as is the plan every weekend, i was supposed to do something washington-esque.  i meant to go to the library of congress and do research but after waking up and eating a tasty lunch at Eastern Market (my new favorite breakfast spot on the weekends.....it turns into this really cool farmer's market outside and fresh meat and produce market inside) I decided to slack off today instead.  I ventured out to the museums on the mall by myself to enjoy a rare afternoon of solitude.  being on this program with so many new and different people has been great and i love the friends i've made, but after awhile of living in the dorm-like setting again it was good to be on my own in the city.  

work continues to be exciting and sometimes frustrating but i'm enjoying being surrounded by the politics and policy-making.  i can't wait to actually be here (hopefully) doing something i really love.  sorry there haven't been a lot of exciting pictures....i still need to buy a camera cord. but they will come. much love.

cityliving.

after two short weeks, i've decided that i love this city. i'm sure this incredibly rapid decision will alter during the course of the next couple months but for now, indulge me.  the lights, the sounds, the constant hustle and bustle of men and women in long black peacoats over suits....it all becomes a little intoxicating for a kid who used to want to be the president.  there's something about wondering who every person walking down the sidewalk works for and who they'll be someday...knowing that there's a chance they'll be a senator, congressman, or the next president.  i've definitely caught potomac fever...it's an epidemic.

saturday my roommate and i spent the day at the holocaust memorial museum, a place i've wanted to see for a long time.  it was a great memorial that gave lots of background information and history and also paid tribute to the millions of victims.  there was a certain room where it all came together for me....a hall you walked into after going through the section that was set up like a concentration camp.  the hall is only really lit by a skylight and on either side of you lie thousands of shoes. discarded shoes taken from jews as they exited the trains and entered into the camps.  on the wall is a poem and the rest of the hall is just filled with shoes.  the smell of the leather and musk and dirt overwhelms you as you walk in.  i spent twenty minutes frozen in that hallway finally feeling like i had one millionth of an ounce of understanding of what happened.  

i hope that some of you will feel the need to come visit me and i can bestow on you some of what i love about dc. miss you all and love you much.

inauguration2009.

so in case anyone wasn't glued to cnn today, the inauguration did in fact take place and i was lucky enough to be there. last minute i got a ticket from a fellow intern in my program and was able to join the 2+ million people on the mall watching the 44th president be sworn in. the experience was definitely one not to be forgotten and i'm so grateful to have been able to be there. after fighting through a mile and a half of lines my roommate and i finally got through the gates and to a spot where the capitol in all its grandeur could actually be seen. only one woman fainted near me so i guess that was a success and i'm pretty sure the economy is back on track with all the ridiculous obama-nirs that were being sold all over the city. i have never seen so many assorted items with someone's face on them being bought up...hannah montana would blush. aside from the disrespectful booing of past presidents that took place, for the most part everyone was just happy to be there and witness the changing over of the office of the Presidency. no matter what your party lines or political ideals, it was objectively one of the coolest moments of my life. i'm still waiting to get to a camera cord so i'll upload better pictures later but for now here's a taste of my point of view.

democracy.

so life on the hill continues to go at rapid pace and i'm running to catch up.  networking is the name of the game up here and it seems like everyone we meet up here stresses how important who you know can be.  so i'm working on being awkward and impressing on people that are far more important than me how good of an intern i am and hoping they hire me one day.  i put my networking skills to use today as a childhood neighbor from Virginia came into my office today.....she is now a press secretary on the hill so i thought she'd be the first person to try out my networking skills with.  she has yet to respond.  in other news, pretty soon i'll be cleared to lead tours of the capital so if anyone needs to know that the the original supreme court chamber is intact and lighted the way it was in the late 1800s you know where to go.  the inauguration is upon us and excitement fills the air as millions of people will flock the capitol to catch a glimpse of the change that's come to washington.  in case anyone was wondering, president bush leaves office on tuesday....a frantic caller informed me of that today. thanks for the tip, bud. 

urban groceries.

so aside from the obvious differences between washington, d.c. and athens, ga or even brentwood, grocery shopping is incredibly more difficult in the city. after having our fuse blow out in our kitchen for the 4th time we went ahead and ordered groceries to be delievered anyway. a message from katina at safeway told me that due to an error with the typing in of my credit card number she was forced to cancel my order and that i'd have to repeat the task...this was only after talking to every other employee at safeway and discovering that the online department only works 3 hours a day and if you call back when they're not there no one else can help you, period. it's an amazingly efficient system. our groceries finally came this morning but with the multiple orders there was bound to be some mishaps...after valentine (the al green of delivery men) left we found that we still needed some supplementary items so i ventured to the store. a metro ride later i ended up in trader joe's in georgetown with every other person in washington, d.c. after spilling a box of blueberries i was pushed into a lady and accidentally ran my cart into her ankle. in polite southern manner i apologized profusely and asked if she was alright. after assuring me she was NOT alright and limping/whining away i recieved death glares throughout my entire checkout. walking to the metro in the rain proved to be hazardous for the paper grocery bags i had and by the time we got out of the metro to walk the 5 blocks back to our apartment my sweet friend jake had to take over and carry one of my bags. all in all the experience was just that and in the future fabric bags will be required.

arrival.

so apparently becoming a cab driver doesn't necessarily require one to be familiar with the city in which one is taxiing people around. but after an hour and a half flight, a cab ride that involved me using my own GPS to direct the cab driver to my destination, and a rickety elevator i made it to my apartment with 100 lbs of clothes in hand. the congressional is a cool old apartment building turned into dorm style living for interns. Leanna (my roommate) and i's apartment is a little lacking compared to everyone else's but we're not too disappointed; looking out the window by our beds and seeing the capital lit up at night makes up for any thing we may be lacking. we're still working on getting our kitchen appliances (like the fridge and...oh wait that's all) to stop blowing the fuse on the right side of our room but we hope to soon have a fully powered apartment and ice cubes that are actually frozen. here's to efficiency apartments and new adventures.