February 7

I have a lot to catch up on. this week has been busy. This weekend was pretty good. Friday night, after going to the congress club or whatever, i just stayed in and watched some tv with my roommates. On saturday, i made the dreaded trip to Target. I got myself some wellies, returned unworking stuffs, and bought other little necessities. Kelsey has a winter lining in her boots and said she got those at target. I wish i had gotten some but i'm not going back out there if i can help it. My wellies are really cute, though. It's a floral pink and really cute. On sunday, my ride to church was sick. I was up just in time to get picked up by her, but since she was ill, i had to take the metro to the end of the green line. i was really late so i missed sacrament meeting. someone had to go to the metro stop to pick me up cause it was still really far away. After church, there was a little get together with pizza and everything. It was good to get to know everyone. Again, going to church has made me feel like i'm lazy compared to everyone else here. Good grief, all i want at this point is to have fun on this internship and graduate from college. I have no idea what i want after graduation still.

On my metro ride back home, this black guy stopped me and said "you're cute! my name is..." and asked me if i wanted to donate to the Boys and Girls Club, which i said i couldn't. i was walking away and he called out "hey, do you have a boyfriend at home?" which i replied that i did and his friend that was with him started doing a little dance. it was really funny, and quite flattering.

Riding the metro does bring back memories of being in paris. especially when i'm switching lines. There's something kind of robotic and calculated about it and i enjoy it. i have no idea if that makes any sense. but i love sitting on a metro car and kind of turning off in a way. There's lots of things i miss about the paris metro, though. the paris metro is a lot more extensive than the DC one. even though Paris is so much bigger than DC, it takes the same amount of time (If not shorter if you take the RER) to get from one side of the city than it does here in DC. for some reason, it just takes forever! Also, i wish the DC metro had all the stops on the line written in the cars of the metro like in Paris. Also, if you buy a pass, it will get you anywhere in the city, or if you get a three month pass, you can ride as much as you would like. Here in DC, the farther your metro ride is, the more it costs. their little smart card pass works the same way too. you always have to put more money on it depending on how much you ride. It's really annoying. Also, each metro stop looks the same here. In Paris, many metro stops had cool decorations. One good thing is that there aren't as many beggars or homeless people riding the metro as there were in Paris.

On monday, I don't remember doing a whole lot. i took care of the phones. a lot of people who call in expect me to know everything. one caller just expected me to know the title of Barrasso's new bill. I honestly have no idea. she was all "you don't keep track of that?" i prob should, but at the same time, i think it's a little silly for people to expect the girls working the front desk to know EVERYTHING. I guess they also don't realize that a lot of front desk people are interns. Anyways, if you ever call your senator's office, don't expect the front desk people who answer your calls to know everything. especially little details like what the official title of his new bill is. Also, i will pick up the phone and someone just starts ranting and ranting and then hang up. do they really expect that to get their point across?? what's the front desk girl going to do about it? we need a name, and to know they are from WY to get the message sent forward. i just don't understand people. A lot of liberals who aren't from wyoming call in to tell Barrasso what they think he should be doing. He's representing Wyomingites... who are conservative. I can't get anyone's message across if they are not from WY so idk why they even try.

Anyhow, This week, i've done a lot of little chores. Amber B. had me make a briefing portfolio for Barrasso for a foreign affairs hearing that he is going to. I had to make a binder with separators and tabs. I then printed out memos, testimonies, statements, country profiles, and maps and put them in the right tabs for him. Amber then had me make country profiles for all the countries in Africa. I'm still working on that. it's taking forever, but it's something to do. It's not that hard. I just have to copy and paste  information, change the format, get biographies of presidents, maps and flags. Brian also had me make a hearing portfolio for an energy hearing.  I kind of like doing that. it's easy, and it's kind of fun organizing stuff like that. maybe i'll actually be good about it when i get back home. The only problem is that he kept sending me the wrong stuff to print off, or not all of what i was supposed to put in. I felt bad but there was only so much i could do. He thanked me for it this morning, though, which was nice. Brian also had me drop off a bill at the Republican cloak room in the capitol. that made me feel important. he warned me that the guards of the cloak room could sometimes be jerks, but they were nice to me. He joked after that if they were giving me troubles, i could just cry and they would leave me alone. Elisabeth also took us interns on her version of the Capitol tour so that we could do a good job giving tours. I also had to buy a thank you card for the lady who spoke to the staff on Friday that i had to miss cause i was in the front desk. Her name is Liz Brimmer. you should look her up if you can. she's a pretty interesting lady.

I followed Welchie when he gave his first tour. i think he was nervous.One painting in the Rotunda is of the British surrender to the americans. The second in command of the english army was sent, so Washington sent his second in command to receive it. Welchie asked who the american receiving the surrender was, expecting them to guess wrongly that it was Washington, but the lady shouted out "Napoleon!" I had to look away because i KNEW i was making a face. And she thought Napoleon's army was sent to help the americans... but i guess i can forgive that, but thinking that the american was Napoleon? good grief. They also took pictures of every statue in the capitol. There's more than a hundred in there... but they enjoyed it a lot, which is good. I think when i give the tour, i'm going to try to get them involved a lot more. I will ask if any of them know who Ester Morris is and things like that. It was a good experience for me because i think i will know how to give a good tour, now.

Kelsey, Jon and i went through the capitol again yesterday. We were just wandering around like lost ducks. It was really funny. i love the paintings of the hallways and the huge marble staircases reminiscent of ones i saw in France. There are also great big paintings and gaudy ceilings. It was fun. There's also a painting of wolves eating a deer on the wall. If you guys come up to visit me, call Barrasso's office and set up a staff-led tour and request me to give it. :) it will be amazing, i promise.

Kelsey and me where Senators give press releases again.

Some pretty conference room

A beautiful staircase. I took a picture only to find out that around the corner it said that pictures were forbidden. Oops. :)

 I'm making those country report thingies for Amber. I just found out that Liberia has the first freely elected female president in Africa! I think that's pretty neat. Her name is Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. sheesh, america hasn't even had a female president yet.

Man, i think i must be the busiest intern here. Jon is the press intern and he gets to do things like stuffing pictures in envelopes to send to constituents and make labels. Most of the time, though, He's chilling Wiki or Youtube. As for Welchie, he usually takes care of the mail which takes... five min tops. He sits kind of out of the way of a lot of people, though, so i feel like staff doesn't ask him to do as much as they ask me to do.. He's usually on wiki himself. I'm sitting here busy with those African country profiles and i get a ring that i'm needed to do an "intern task" for Kathi, the office scheduler. I walk over to go see what she needs and Welchie is just chilling on the front desk. I wish i could be up front! that's the best job, here. you do nothing, and you're allowed to. but now i have to do some little chore that no one else wants to do. I guess the plus is that i get to get up and move around. I've been sitting doing these African country profile things all day. there are 48 that i need to do. I'm over half way done but it is taking forever. And welchie always complains about doing the mail, which i help him with a lot anyways, like he's the only one doing work around here. like i said, the mail takes like 5 min and is easy. again, i like that job, but he usually beats me to it without even telling me about it.

Compiling these country analysis papers on africa is teaching me so much about Africa. Cape Verde in the atlantic ocean looks amazing. So does Mauritius which is in the Indian Ocean by Madagascar. So nice and tropical. Cape Verde is one of the most stable countries in Africa and Mauritius is full of decedents of people from India and their main religion is Hindu! Just found another amazing african tropical country. Seychelles. mmm

I've also read some very good short stories. I liked "hills like white elephants" by Hemingway, and "young goodman Brown" by Hawthorne. This lit book is so good. I'm reading some really good lit and learning how to analyze it better at the same time. Hopefully learning that will help me to become a better writer. Writing true lit is much more complicated than one would think! each thing has to have a propose. setting, point of view, symbolism, everything. It's so complicated! i will prob never be that good but maybe it would be best to write commercial books because then i would make more money if i were ever to become a real writer ;).

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jan/13/obamas-internet-passport/       --- Sounds like another bad idea...

2-4-11

Today, i did more African countries all day. thankfully i got to make a trip up to the attic to get some more printer paper. I got to go back to the capitol and drop something off for Brian at the cloak room again. i forgot what floor it was on, though. the guards are always nice enough to help me out, though. One black guard gasped and said "a readhead!" and held out his hand, "i have to shake your hand for good luck!" it made me giggle. I also accompanied Welchie on another capitol tour for the Vogelheim family. they're from Jackson Hole and i think he's in the state senate or house. they were really nice and considerably smarter than the other family we gave a tour to. I was just more comfortable with them. Welchie let me do a couple rooms which i stumbled though. they had all been to Florence so I made sure to tell welchie what a fresco is before getting to that part because i figured this family would actually catch his blunder. Welchie did a really good time this time, though! I'm proud of him. :) That family was a fun family to give the tour too.

Fev 7, 2011

The weekend was good. I went to the Capitol Hill club again with the WY interns. It was ok, but i don't think i'll join them again... maybe i will. we'll see.

oh Saturday, i went to breakfast with Miles, the WY intern from Enzi's office, and one of his roommates at Eastern Market and i got yummy blueberry pancakes. after that, Kyra, Michelle, and i went out shopping. Kelsey had told me about a thrift store that we went to. I didn't find anything i liked there, but the other two girls found things. Then we went to the giant forever 21, H&M, Zara, and Urban Outfitters. it was pretty fun. I almost couldn't make it home cause the Union Metro stop was closed, but i ended up making it out alright. it must have opened right when i got there!

Sunday was good. Jessica was able to give me a ride again. Sacrament meeting was pretty great. people were hopping up and so eager to give their testimonies. even really new members got up and spoke. A Haitian got up to speak to us even. it was just neat to see everyone go up and bear their testimonies. Often, testimonies can be awkward, but i just have to force myself to recognize that these people are feeling things, and i should do my best to feel with them. I talked to the bishop so he could get me my ecclesiastical endorsement for BYU and deferment of enrollment form signed, so i'm pretty sure i'm good to go for BYU again. he was trying to think of callings that i could get despite my transportation issues. He was thinking of calling me as a ward missionary, but i work during all the hours the sister missionaries would normally visit investigators during. I would have liked doing that since i have chosen not to go on a mission myself. maybe i'll get to do that later. it would have been nice. We'll see where i end up. I sat by a really pretty black girl during relief society. She just graduated with a masters in Opera singing! i didn't know such a thing exists but i'm impressed! Anyways, she told me about her 12 step program for getting over a food addiction. I asked her what that means because i eat a lot of cookies and i wondered if that counted. she laughed and said "here, i'll show you" and she pulled out a photo album which shows pictures of a very heavy younger version of herself. I was so surprised because she's so beautiful now. I was very impressed and congratulated her and told her how great it was. she told me she realized that she was putting food before god and decided to make a change. She was in high school when she was at her heaviest at about 270 lbs. i hope that if i ever gain weight, i will have her motivation and dedication for losing it all. Another black girl just moved into the ward. She's only 19 so she was excited to find out that i'm not that much older than her since everyone else is so old. She was the first to join in her family, and her home ward bishop told her she was too old for young womans now so she moved up to the singles ward. She asked me what color my hair is and i said that it was red. She asked if there were slurs against redheads and i informed her that i think that in the UK, ginger is a slur. She asked if i was ever discriminated against for being a redhead and i said that i had been made fun of but it never bothered me because i was proud of my hair. I just thought it was very interesting for a black girl to be asking me if i had ever been discriminated against because of my coloring. it was neat though. a couple boys offered to give me rides from the green line stop to institute and FHE and the dance coming up this friday or saturday (i can't remember which) so that was all really nice. It looks like i can participate in lots of my ward activities which will be very nice for me!

Today i sat up at the front desk the whole first half of the day! it was really nice and took up a good portion of my day quickly. after that and lunch, i was able to finish all the african country profiles. i did the math and i took about 8 1/2 to 9 hours to finish them when all of the time was added up. Holy cow. Now i know lots of random facts about Africa, like how Swaziland is the last remaining absolute monarch in the world and how it also has the highest percent of HIV infected adults (39%). Kelsey and i also escaped to buy some candy and we had a good chat. She got dressed in the dark this morning and ended up feeling uncomfortable in the dress she got, so she went to express on the way to work and told the gay guy working there that she had a fashion emergency. apparently he got so excited! anyways, it was a good story. and she got a really cute pair of Capris out of it. I also had to drop something else off for Brian at the Republican cloak room. it was crowded up there! i was surprised. i felt all cool and official when i could go right up to the door while senate was in session.

I think that's all for now. And i got my Blog updated, so y'all should check it out! I miss you all! Email me! loves.

Random Photos

View out our back Balcony

Another view. Our neighbors have backyards! There are back yards here! What a strange City.

Welchie and me by Washake, one of Wyoming's statues in the Capitol

A random bird left by the previous inhabitants of this apartment on our balcony. I like him. What shall I name him?

January 29

January 27, 2010,


Today has been a satisfying day. I covered the front desk for an hour this morning with Elisabeth and took a couple calls into the office. Some lady who wasn’t from WY called me about who knows what but was so thankful that I was being more polite than many people in other offices had been. I’m still not sure what she was saying, but for out-of-staters, we are just there to let them rant because we can’t pass their comments long like we usually can. I also brought my lit text book and have been reading short stories and about plot elements and characterization and the like. Writing good literary stories is harder than I thought it would be! There’s so much involved. I wish I had a better imagination and better creativity.


I had to type up a list of Wyoming teachers who are eating dinner with the senator tomorrow for amber. Then I had lunch with the boys. We decided to go to the capitol and take some good pictures. That was so much fun! We were all over the place in there. That building is a freaking maze. It really is beautiful, though. There are great big marble staircases with big paintings over them. Colorful tiles and carpets. There are paintings on the walls. It is beautiful. There’s also these random stairs all over the place to random nooks in the building, little tiny doors on the floors painted over and no longer used. I think they are maybe old unused trash shoots, or places for old-school-style heating. I have no idea. There are majestic sculptures everywhere; it’s just a fun old building! I’m so glad to have this opportunity to explore places in the capitol that I would have never been able to see otherwise. It’s beautiful. It reminds me of some old French buildings which makes me very happy. Anyways, Jon led us up to where senators give press releases and we took pictures there. Then he led us to the Fox studio in the upper levels of the Capitol. Finally, we all took pictures in front of the building so that I can hopefully make my blog about the experience. There’s already so much I need to put in there!

Fox Studio in the Capitol

Where Senators make press announcements.

Random corridor in the Capitol.

Welchie!

I finally met the senator today. He and his wife, Bobbi came up to me and he stuck out his hand to me after coming back from the capitol and I said “hello, I’m Hanna” and he welcomed me warmly. “I hope you enjoy your time with us and learn a lot. Now, you aren’t related to doctor are you? His name is spelled the same as yours” and I asked “Jay?” he gave me a nod and is said “that’s my father.” And he acted so pleased to have a doctor connection. I explained how we live in Cody and dad goes back and forth between Cody and Powell. Bobbi said she wasn’t sure because Dad had served. Anyways, it was just fun. Welchie met him with me, too. It’s nice to be able to joke around with the other workers in the office about Welchie and Jon, now. Especially since I can with Kelsey. Bobbi invited us to go watch a vote in the senate chamber. I’m waiting to see if we’ll actually go.

Yesterday was that huge snow storm. I was hoping to wake up and look out the window to see like ten feet of snow so I wouldn’t have to go to work. I was sorely disappointed. I also have to wake up wicked early to head to Target. I need to buy a cheap pair of willies and an umbrella. I’m not used to such wet weather! I also need to return that other stuff. I also need to buy food, still! Man, chores pile up when you work 8 hours and you don’t have a car. Also, just a warning, but I hear packages here get stolen off of people’s front porches. How disgusting is that? So I would be careful if I were you if you are going to send me anything. People in the office said that thieves follow UPS trucks and take whatever they drop off. I hope the boys downstairs are nice enough to get those inside.

My art piece i did during the snowstorm and i had nothing better to do at the office. We have lots of free time...

Speaking of the guys downstairs, I finally met them. They’re interns also. And one of them is actually an intern for Enzi! Three Wyomingites in one building! Imagine that. Anyways, Jon and I went down there after the Wizards game to see if they were taking all the mail inside. They had taken some in because it was so full. They were nice, though. It’s good to know that there are nice people in the building. I love having so many Wyomingites around, too.


I was almost made to be a press intern. I’m really glad I avoided that. I much prefer to be a leg intern. I get to give tours, and do all the fun stuff. But I’m not quite as busy as Jon. Also, sometimes I have to do kind of hard things like research old grazing laws and all Jon has to do so far is put pictures online and mail out other pictures.


Jan 28, 2010


Yesterday, I did, in fact, end up going to the vote with Bobbi and the other interns! She is so nice! She took us up to the gallery and was telling me about all the important Senators and pointing them out to me. I saw John Kerry, Ran Paul, Mitch McConnell, and other notable folks. It was funny, all the senators just stood around chatting while they were voting. The presiding president had to continually knock is hammer thing to get everyone to settle down! It was really amusing to me to just see them all talking down there like high schoolers between class. The poor secretaries who were running everything had to speak above everyone else. Bobbi explained to me who all the people sitting at the desks were. Senator Barrasso saw us sitting up there and waved up at us. Next thing I know, there’s a hand on my shoulder and a man saying “hey guys!” and I turned around to find that the Senator had come up to say hi to us! We talked a little bit about my schooling and the like. I think they like me… But anyways, he said when it was his turn to vote, he would look at me and I was to give him a thumbs up or down and would vote that way. Thankfully he didn’t do so. :)



One vote was on the Filibuster rule. He voted once yes, and once no so I don’t know which way he voted on the filibuster one. All I know is I got a lot of calls from people who wanted him to vote no on it, but I feel like a lot of constituents who call are crazy. For instance, one lady called today to rant about Muslims and didn’t even pause enough to tell me the information I need to actually get the comments through to Barrasso. I don’t know what they’re thinking, but ranting to the desk girl and not allowing her to pass the information along is not doing anything for themselves. But one man called and he knew just what to do! “I’m a constituent and I would like to leave a comment. My name is..” it was very helpful. In fact, I couldn’t find his name anywhere in the database but he was being patient and respelling it for me and saying “I’ve called before, I know I’m in there. Keep looking.” What a pro. He was telling ME what to do. I guess he must call fairly often.



Some lady just called. Here’s how the conversation went. And imagine the lady with the most contemptuous voice you have ever heard.

“senator Barrasso’s office, this is Hanna”

“excuse me?”

“This is Senator Barrasso’s office. My name is Hanna.”

“I can’t hear you”

“Can you hear me now?”

“it’s not the phone, it’s your voice.”

“excuse me?”

“it sounds like you’re speaking through a voice box”

“yes, I have a really high voice”

“No, that’s not it. There’s something wrong with your voice. You should call yourself or have someone call you so you or record your voice so you can figure out what’s wrong with i….”

*click*

Well… I actually slammed the phone (I wanted it to sound like I was deliberately hanging up on her). Maybe I shouldn’t but I can’t figure out why someone would call the office of a senator and say stupid stuff like that. I prob should have said anything like “sorry to interrupt, but what is the reason for your call?” but I was pretty mad. Who knew! I didn’t think I would ever get so ruffled by a stranger calling like I just did. I’m in fact still trying not to be offended. I know she’s a stranger, but it’s not like she was throwing out random insults about my appearance or something like that that she wouldn’t know anything about. Oh well, what a beezy. Sometimes I like confrontation like that. Well, I mean that I more like the feeling that an elevated heart rate gives me. I’m actually really curious now what else she was going to say. It’s prob best that I hung up on her. An odd little thought entered my mind, and that was what if that was some sort of training or test call? But I think that would be silly. I tried to be nice by going on to explain how my voice is really high and everything before giving up. Nasal



Ok, the sweetest man just called. Here’s how the Conversation went… Roughly

“Senator Barrasso’s office, this is Hanna”

“Yes, hi, I’d like to complain about some crap”

“Can I take your name, sir?”

“Well actually, I don’t feel so mad anymore… just hearing your beautiful voice made my anger melt away.”

“(in the midst of laughing after a pause of shock and comprehending) Would you like me to pass your comments along sir?”

“Yes (I’m a little bit fuzzy on this part) I would like to tell your senator to hire more girls with pretty voices like yours. In fact, they should make that legislation!”

“Thank you sir. I will pass your comments along…(whispering)I love you! I better go… Bye”

“love ya too. Bye”

Well, I had texted Dan about that lady and how upset I was. Dan found the office phone number and called in! I was laughing so hard. It def made my day, and that lady no longer is bothering me. Thankfully the whole office is in a staff meeting right now, so I wouldn’t get in trouble. :) and thankfully Elisabeth wasn’t here to answer on the other phone, and Welchie was out doing something else. I have an amazing boyfriend. He made my day.



Let’s see. What else has happened today. At ten, I had to run to a sexual harassment class. Jon was saying, loudly I might add, how stupid it was going to be while we were sitting there. Again, I was thinking that that prob wasn’t the best place to be saying things like that. It is a little silly sometimes, but I guess it’s also fairly important. I was glad to have the boys sitting in, too, because as very conservative, very hick, very politically incorrect so I was glad for a class that would tell them that maybe they shouldn’t discuss Mexicans like they do. Especially since a lot of the servers in the cafeteria are Latino/a. Max joined us at the sexual harassment class. I really wish I could see him more around this office. I will have to see if he wants to hang out with me some other weekend. Also, Enzi’s interns sat by us and the boys in that office are pretty chill. One of them, of course, lives under me. I joked that some of my friends were going to come over tonight to practice tap dancing. But it looks like he wants us Wyoming kids to get together to do something. Should be fun!



I’m getting really comfortable with everyone in the office. It’s good. We can all chat and have a good time :) I’m also getting used to all my responsibilities. I was in charge of the front desk while everyone else was in a staff lecture. Bobbi felt bad that I couldn’t go in so she brought out the guest lecturer outside to talk with me. :) Bobbi also said I should meet Mitch McConnell’s chief of staff, who is, apparently, a very powerful , young, successful woman. Being surrounded by power is suddenly getting fun. Wow… that sounded evil. But as I was saying, I’m not really intimidated by powerful people, so all in all, this has been really fun for me! And I also love being in a Wyoming office. Macy was saying that if you worked in say, John Kerry’s office, the interns there almost never get to meet their senator, and his wife most definitely doesn’t take them to votes. There’s yet another reason to love Wyoming!


So the Wyoming interns from Enzi's and Lummis' office joined us and we went to the capitol club which is a republican club, and i guess it was happy hour. I just got a sprite and they were all amazed that i've never had a drink. they were talking about how i'm from Wyoming's hated rival, BYU but then i teased them how BYU doesn't even care about UW cause we trample them. it was a sore spot for them, lol. but they all got drinks and the three of us that live in my building came home. it was really fun. :) i got a free dinner out of it.


The Lummis intern lives in a giant townhouse and there are guys living in there. it hasn't occurred to me until today just how lucky i am that i ended up in my housing. I would have been in big trouble with BYU if i was sharing housing with boys! Seriously, i'm being watched over. I could have ended up in a bad spot. I didn't even think to request being in an all girl place. I'm blessed.


Kyra and i were talking about our beliefs. she's really similar to me. she is really traditional and i told her how i love how we have similar views on things. She's very traditional. we were talking about how we miss the west where it is just fine and even expected to just get married after college and start a family. here, people look down on that. we just are kind of having strange views of the east coast. we're not liking it. Kyra and i just miss the good ol' west. And I miss you.

January 26 3

Yesterday, I had enough free time to read all of The Tempest. I read the whole thing! At work! I think I’m giong to be going through a shakespeare binge while I’m here because all his plays are online. I read about half of Much Ado About Nothing online. I also read the Tempest and kept up with the analysis on sparknotes. It’s also been a great opportunity for me to read some of my Perrine’s Sound and Sense  So I’m getting lots of lit studies in while I’m here. I should start bringing my French text book too. Maybe boring jobs will end up being good for my mind after all. Lots of reading to do.

I also need to bust out my rosetta stone for french. When I get home I basically just want to let my brain leak out my ears. It’s sad that a job where I sit around all day exhausts me so much. It takes no brain power or anything and I am still so tired after work. I’m not sure how that works. In a way, I’m forsed to be a busy bee for 8 hours straight with no fun. I guess that’s kind of good for me. Man, no wonder people in office jobs get depressed. I only work 40 hours a week! Well, I’m at work 45 min a week, but I’m technically not working five of those hours with my hour lunch. But man, I must be a huge wimp if I can’t even handle 40 hours a week.  If I was being payed minimum wage, I would be getting $290 a week. I have no idea what I’m getting paid, actually. All I know is that I’m an intern, and I guess that’s legal reason to pay under that. Actually, Kyra pointed out to be that interns working in Democrat officises aren’t getting paid at all, and interns in Republican offices usually get paid. I’m not sure what that says about the parties, but it’s funny. I guess that’s another good reason to be a republican!

I figured out the obsession with blackberries here. All employees are given blackberries here as a cruel way to shakel them to work even when they’re not here.  Well, one employee lost his blackberry, so I had to go grab his new one from some random office. I went down there and they were still working on it, so I had to wait around a couple min. I was just being nice and chatting with the workers in there.  One one guy’s personal TV, I saw that Barrasso was on Fox news, so we were talking about Barrasso and why he’s been on the news lately. I was able to explain that he’s an orthopedic surgeon, so they understood why he’s been able to talk about it so much and they commented that he actually knows what he’s talking about. Then they were asking me how I like DC and I said I needed more time to figure that out and I explained how I’m from up north where it’s really beautiful and how down south is just sage brush country. Then one lady said she has just gone to Yellowstone so we talked about that a bunch. It was just nice to talk to some really nice people. I’m glad I am working on not being so shy. The nurses were really nice like that too. I hope I get more errinds like that.

Speaking of Barrasso, here’s some of his main points at the moment: http://www.cnbc.com/id/41226687 . i agree with pretty much everything he has to say. I’m glad I work in an office where I agree with all the politics.

I like Kyra a lot. She has a lot of the same political views and views on other things too. Melissa was disgusted with the 19 kids on 19 kids and counting. And yeah, that family is … really wacko, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with large families. Families that I know with ten or so kids are amazing. Kyra agreed with me and says she likes big families. She said that she has always pictured her adult life with kids in it. She also doesn’t agree with living with someone before getting married. She said that what’s the point of getting married if you already moved in with them? And mentioned how that  actually increases the chances of divorce. She said that to one of Clare’s frinds from lunch this weekend because his girlfriend just broke up with him and she now has to move out of his apartement. that sounds so awkward. I just like it how she tells it how it is. She’s really nice and understanding and confident.

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/01/22/Couples-may-not-agree-on-monogamy/UPI-28131295740909/ ew, just ew…

I was doing research on Phones. It’s obvious mine is on the slow march to death. The jack for my charger is lose, it dies on me at random times, and the battery is just not lasting. Call quality is not good, either that, or I’m talking to a bunch of mumblers all the time. I’m having dificulty finding phones with built in FM transmitters so … jason can keep his phone. buying an external FM transmitter won’t be a big deal, and I will have to for my ipod anyways. I was thinking Droid X or a samsung fascinate look like good smart phones :) maybe jason or someone who knows a lot more about phones can research them a bit to see what will work best. It also looks like there are plenty of simple flip phones with old fashioned keyboards that I like around. They just weren’t on display at the verizon store in cody. I would be happy with any one of those, and would have an easier time texting on those than on a touch screan, I think. There’s one with a shock guard, even. Maybe that’s exactly what I need. You know, I don’t need to take facebook with me everywhere. But I like the bigger cameras and video cameras on smart phones. Jeez, I just don’t know what kind of fetures I would actually use. Well, I may just have to call someone and talk about it with them. I would be perfectly happy with a simple (but nto OVERLY simple) flip phone with an old fashioned keyboard. One with a good camera that takes videos and maybe even has space for music on it. And not ugly. Sheesh, why is chosing phones so hard! And I’m like an old lady and I get stuck on one phone. Maybe I’ll just ebay all the remaining chocolate 3s. Just to explain myself, I really didn’t like any of the phones that were actually in the Cody Verizon store. There were like 10. There are much more to choose from.

Man, things are getting tough here sometimes. I just face a lot of adversity. Nothing is really wrong here, but sometimes it gets hard being all alone doing nothing but working and then hiding out in your room. Especially knowing that Mom’s in Utah with katie and has also been hanging out with Dan. I bet you know what that’s like too, Kirsten.  I just need to stay on the sunny side of life.

I just met Bobbi Barrasso, the senator’s wife. She is so nice! She asked if I am related to Jesse. I feel like grandpa knows everyone who’s somewhat powerful. At least in Wyoming. It’s impressive. She also asked if I knew Gigi Taggert. I got excited and said that I did and she asked if I had tried to get a hold of her yet and that we had her wrong email. Bobbi wrote it down for me and everything. It was really neat. I like her a lot. I also think Elisabeth and Macy are liking me a bit more these days.

Oh good grief. I just read on Fox news that someone is sewing Taco Bell for calling one of their tacos a beef taco because the “beef” is only 45% beef. The sewing guy was like "We are asking that they stop saying that they are selling beef.” He doesn’t actually care! He’s just trying to find ways to make some doller bills. The other bits of “beef” is “Wheat oats, soy lecithin and maltodrextrin are common allergens that are often added to processed foods as fillers because they are much less expensive than meat.” I did not know that, but I am officially slightly grossed out. Well not really. I still love me some taco bell.

Last night, i went to a Wizards vs. denver nuggets basketball game at the verizon center! it was really fun. i went with Jon, Welchie, and welchie's buddy. it was pretty fun! jon totally chickened out of taking his pictures with cheerleaders. i was going to get a picture with them too, but i was the only girl in the line tto get my pictures with them, and then i felt weird.

After leaving the game, i found a crepe stand right outside the verizon center. I got so excited! I ordered mine and the guy had a thick french accent so i was so excited! well it turns out he's from Algeria and i felt smart that i could talk to him about the riots in Tunisia. i think i was just too excited about talking to a French guy and i forgot how forward north africans are... well he asked me for my phone number! i totally brain farted and said that i lost my phone but he could give me his... The guys asked me why i didn't just tell him that i have a boyfriend. well obviously i'm not super used to having guys ask for my phone number! now i know to just say i have a boyfriend. :) it was funny. the guys teased me about it, too. it was just funny.

today, work wwas BOOOORING! senate is in session, now and I've still done nothing! Today, i made a paper clip chain. and read a lot of my sound and sense.  It's snowing horribly here, and most offices were being let out early, but the evil lady who runs our office decided we should keep it open. i wasn't even doing anything... but Macy finally let us go at about 4:15. it was nasty outside. Kelsey and i had lunch together today :) and she told me about Mustard Seed, which is an awesome thrift store here! I'm excited to go see that! My roomies love the show "how i met your mother." I don't enjoy it at all. oh well.

I have yet to meet barrasso. I saw him like six feet away from me in the morning! he's also been on the news a LOT lately :). However, i did get to meet Bobbi, his wife. She's so nice! and she knows grandpa Jess and she used to work with Gigi Taggart! i told her how we couldn't get a hold of her at first cause we had an old email. Well she was nice enough to give me her phone number! so i will have to call Gigi sometime soon. I love being from WY.

Well i need to hurry and send this off so that i don't put it off anymore! I love and miss you all. :) hope these don't bore you too much.

Wizards Nuggets game! Nuggets won.

January 26 2

My weekend was really good! Friday night, I went to the corner market to buy some candy and juice with vitamin C in it. Macy was sick last week and I ended up working her desk after she left, and I most def did not want to get sick. The girls bought some wine. After that, we were watching Jersey shore, Michelle’s favorite TV show. The girls decided that they wanted to go out that night after all so I hung out with them while they got ready. I forgot how fun it is to get ready with a bunch of girls. I decided that I wanted to go dancing with them the next night. I ate way too many cookies that night and I payed for it later. Goodness. I also had my cranberry raspberry juice in wine glasses, which are the only glasses that came with the apartment. It looked a lot like the red wine that Clare was drinking, and Melissa was shocked to come home and find me looking like I’m sipping on some wine. Kyra then joked about coming home and finding me plastered. I like that these girls respect my standards so much. They know that I don’t want them getting plastered while home, but I can live with them drinking a glass of wine or two.

On Saturday, Clare had gotten a lunch set up with two of her high school friends for restaurant week. I guess it’s this thing where the restaurant gives you a three course for twenty dollars. The food wasn’t the best I have ever had. The waiter asked me if how I wanted my fish cooked. I always find that question odd. A hunk of undercooked salmon is icky but overcooked salmon is too fishy… so just cook the darn thing. Well mine turned up very undercooked. It also took three whole hours! But Clare’s friends were cool. They’re also from Utah, and also Asian (Clare is Korean and the two guys were Taiwanese). You know how I like my Asians! So I was down with that. Afterwards, they had planned on going to No Strings Attached. Last minute, I decided to be a good Mormon and say that I couldn’t go. The nice thing about Clare and Kyra being from Utah and Idaho is that they’re used to having Mormon friends, and are therefore, very understanding. Kyra offered to skip the movie and just go shopping with me. I felt bad and said I could just go home by myself, but all three roomies and the two boys decided to skip the movie and just go shopping. We went to American apparel. I love that store! It’s just my style. I would like to go back and buy some cloths… 0:) There was a pair of leather sandals that are just my style that I want! Unfortunately, I saw a lot of shoes I like, but those are the things I need the least. Well actually… thinking about it, most of my shoes are falling apart. My good shoes are the five pairs I have with me here. .. well.. yeah. Then I had Europe Déjà vu with Zara and H&M. H&M is very hit or miss, which I speculate is what the name stands for. I was also not enthralled with Zara’s cloths. Both were a bit of a disappointment. I will have to try again when they have a new season of cloths coming in. There was also a HUGE Forever 21. I actually liked forever 21’s cloths better than H&M’s, and forever 21 is just a cheap version of the latter. I think if I’m going to spend the money on cloths, I will do so at American apparel. That night, I came home and CRASHED. Well, before I crashed, I hurried up and emailed my new bishop with my conundrum. I had emailed his clerk before about my problem with living so far away from the ward, and he was no help at all, so I went ahead and emailed the Bishop. He was so kind that he contacted a couple people in the ward to see if they could give me a ride. A girl named Jessica said that she would be willing to and gave me her email.

The next morning, I was feeling a tad apprehensive about  going to church. My experience last week was just not what I needed, and I wanted to give up and not even try this new ward. Well, I did. I texted Jessica who came and picked me up. She’s a cute blond from SLC. She graduated from the U and is now going to law school up here. She works for a Utah Senator. I think it’s Orrin Hatch. She says her passion is campaigning. She’s incredibly nice, and seems to like me alright. I just hope I didn’t leave my usual awkward first impression! Well, she drove me out to church, which is in Maryland. This ward, in contrast to the DC one, is TINY. People there came up to me and introduced themselves. The Bishop personally came up to talk with me. Everyone was so nice. I love how little but close that ward was. Some ward members talked about how, when they were interns, went to the DC wards. They said that the wards were so huge that you just got kind of lost in the croud there, which is what I was worried about. They also said that those wards didn’t care about the interns because they weren’t there permanently, and were not as… legit, I guess. But the bishop wants to talk to me so it looks like I may end up having a calling. I’m just so happy about it. On the way home, Jessica and I talked about how we both left boys back in Utah. She said that she dated her boy for 2 years, and he never once said I love  you or fully committed to possible marriage. So leaving for DC was the best thing for their relationship. It looks like it made him kick things into gear. It’s funny how relationships differ so much like that, and I don’t think it means that her relationship is any less legit than say… mine and dan’s. it was just interesting to see her point of view. She also apologized if she spoke about her BF too much and I was all like “I do that too! I feel so bad for my roommates.” I’m glad I have her around because we can talk about our boyfriend stuff together. She also said that she and a couple of her friends are possibly going to go see Tangled and asked if I would like to go. I’m just so happy it all turned out well.

The only thing here, is that I feel so lowly and unmotivated. Everybody here, except the interns, are extremely professional and motivated. Jessica is going to Law School. Everyone else in the ward are either full time professionals or going to grad school. No wonder a lot of interns are looked down on. Even I feel a little intimidated by that, and that’s not an emotion I am used to! I’m prob one of the youngest girls there! I feel a bit like an underachiever, but then I remember that I’m actually here in DC gaining experience which is much  more than many BYU students can say for themselves. As soon as I get back to UT, being an intern in WA DC will sound impressive again. Here, though… it’s seriously not impressive at all. Also, this experience makes it clear for me that I don’t really want to work in an office for the rest of my life. As much of an underachiever as this may make me sound to many of these people in DC, working part time jobs in places like Yankee Candle sounds exactly what I would like to do. I’m suddenly very grateful to be a woman in Mormon culture where being a stay at home wife is still encouraged and respected.

Faith, an employee here who I get along well with, was talking about how one of her friends got dumped by his wife and now they’re filing for legal separation.  This couple dated since high school and got married right out of college then lasted for about four years. She thinks that that relationship is a perfect example why marrying young is a bad idea. She’s 28 and is possibly getting engaged while I’ll be here J she’ll have her wedding over a year after that. Wowsers. She’s catholic, which makes me like her more. But I guess our views on relationships differ somewhat. Like I said, being in DC makes me feel very young. I felt pretty grown up in Provo!

Speaking of religion in the office, everyone here knows I’m Mormon now. I can’t help but talk about it all the time. I mean, it is obviously a huge part of my life. I hope I don’t annoy them too much by bringing it up all the time .

I majorly blew it today. I missed my training for giving capitol tours. I was so upset because that’s the one thing I am looking forward to the most and now I have to wait until feb 9^th. Ugh. Great start to the week. Faith was being nice about it. At least I now get to go with Kelsey instead of with Welchie.  Macy went home yet again today because her voice is dead from being sick, so I got to work the front desk some more today. I got chewed out by some lady from who knows where. I asked her where she’s from and she says “it doesn’t matter! We all pay for the bills!” and I wanted very much to say “we’re here to represent Wyomingites and no one else” but I resisted and just let her chew me out about how obama care is good and gun control laws need to be implemented for like 20 min. haha, duuude. It never occurred to me to call one of my senators up before, let alone a senator from a state that is def not my state! People are so odd. And you are all known as constituents to us on capitol hill… idk why, but I find that odd. Maybe because it dehumanizes the population in a sort?  Yeah I really can’t put my finger on it.

January 26 1

here's the deal i typed up updates while i was doing nothing at work and then i forgot to send them when i got home s you'll be getting a bunch at once :)

I have lots of free time in the office to read news and type letters to you. I’m sorry if this bores you. My blog may be a lot of my personal political commentary as far as I can see through the media. Of course I know the media is not completely reliable, but I have yet to actually sit in on a senate vote. When I do, it prob won’t make any sense to me, though. Oh, and just in case, I must tell you that these are all my personal views and not those of Barrasso. I don’t want my office to think I’m doing anything shady. Just writing an innocent email to my family :)

I just read “the mess manifesto” by Stein in the recent Time journal. That article is no available online sadly, but if you pick up a time, you should read this. It’s interesting because he’s talking about how he’s the opposite of obsessive and is messy and unorganized… like me. He does, however, spend ridiculous time organizing his digital information, like his music, pictures, Netflix movies, and so forth. He says we obsess because the digital world has introduced the concept of unlimited to our mind, so we feel like we need to organize it all. There is no end of the stuff you can have digitally and it stresses us out. But he brought up that no one cares how organized your computer is. An example he said is “no woman has ever told her girlfriend that she sees a future with a guy because he has a really clean PC desktop.”  He suggested that we need a little digital disorder so we don’t spend so much time obsessing over it. Sometimes it’s ok to just let it be a bit of a mess because the best things you watch on TV are the unexpected shows and movies that we didn’t know about. The best songs we hear are not the ones on our playlists. I think it’s important for those of us in this modern world to remember that we need to just relax and realize that everything is far gone out of our control.

Wyoming might become one of the three other states where concealed weapons permits are not needed. I’m not sure how I feel about that. They argued that only 1-2 percent of applicants get denied the permit, so why even have it? Well… because now that 1-2 percent who shouldn’t carry guns, can now.  What’s so terrible about getting a stupid permit, anyways. Then if you have a permit, you are legal in other states as well. I personally think that should be nipped in the butt. In the way of gun control, people with criminal records or crazy mental health records should probably not be allowed  the right to own a permit.  But that’s the extent on my views about that. Obviously I like guns because I love going shooting with Dad and all his crazy guns. :) And I hope we can continue to do so without a lot of restrictions and crazy taxes.

The feds are also trying to make more state-owned land into wilderness designation, meaning that people can’t hunt on it, drill it, and so forth. Once again, the Feds have no idea what’s going on and could be making things worse. Maybe the Feds can come up with a way to make up for the loss of money from drilling and hunting permits? But I doubt it.

I just read a funny article about how political cartoonists are having a hard time drawing Boehner. They say they try to focus on his Technicolor tan, perfect hair, and free-flowing tears. But they have a hard time with him because he is a good-looking regular sort of guy. I thought it was funny. People like Bush and Obama are really easy to characterize, but I guess it’s not the case for Boehner. How funny.   They say the new tea party rep, Rand Paul, is a cartoonist’s dream “if not for his unblinking political determination but for his poodle-like hair.” This article makes me wish I was better at art.

I’m doing a chore for Kelley. I have been assigned to make a timeline for Dan (the head guy here, behind Barrasso)who is doing a presentation about the yearly plan. I tried my best to do one on Microsoft Word which was really hard. I finally looked up a way that had me making rectangles across the whole of the page with the months inside the rectangles. Well the one I made wasn’t very good cause the months weren’t branching off the timeline, so Kelley asked me if I could just hand make it. Some girls have really adorable handwriting… I don’t. well I made a copy that was easier to read for the presentation. Kelley’s checking it with Dan to see if it’s ok. I hope it passes the test. I’m also waiting for an assignment from Travis McNiven. Today, I’ve been doing lots of stuff. I went up into the attic to get paper and drop off pocket constitutions. I also had to mail flags that had been flown over the building…. And that’s it, actually. I’ve just not done a lot again. They keep telling me that things will crazy speed up when senate is back in session again. Oi. Maybe that will make the time go by really fast, though. 17 ½ weeks. Sorry if I write a lot this week. Idk if I will or not, but there’s really nothing else to do this week. I sit here for hours at a time.

(two days later)

So I ended up having to do the timeline today by hand. It turned out alright. I'm too much of a perfectionist so it bugged me that I could never do it right I also had to do this way annoying assignment for Travis today. I just had to search for stuff about grazing and it took forever and I don't think I did it right. But I basically helped him with writing a new bill draft! Macy got sick, too, so I had to sit up front and answer phone calls. That was actually kind of fun! But I don't really want to do that when we're in session and phones are going off the hook. That will really freak me out.

Today, I went to a lecture about finance put on by the heritage foundation. Basically it bashed the Obama administration. It was basically saying that everyone bashed the Bush administration for raising debt but Obama is doing MUCH worse. It's really horrifying. It was depressing. And horrifying. But it gave me free lunch and dinner.

I have been getting to know the one girl intern, kelsey, who's only part time. I really like her! I wish she wasn't part time. It's nice to have another girl around. It turns out she feels the exact same way about the other two interns that I do. Like how Welchie is nice but sometimes he needs to shut up, and how John is a complete moron. I really dislike John. He's pretty much a douche. And not smart. He got an email telling him to “pull these bios and put them in times in new roman 12 point font.” and he leaned over to me and said “i'm confused. What am I supposed to do?” I wasn't sure how to answer... 

I hung out with my roommates while they were getting ready to go out. It was fun. I miss being with girls before going out. But i'm staying home. I'm sooo brain dead that I can't even think of things to type about. Oi. I will have to try later. Sunday maybe?

I miss you all. 

www.askheritage.org

 

 

January 18

DC is such a strange city to me. It doesn’t even feel like a city. The area I live in feels more like a giant neighborhood with all the townhouses, parks, corner markets, and mom and pop restaurants, and I live right in the middle of this “city.” It feels like you ride the metro for like 4 stops and you’re already in areas where the houses actually have nice grass lawns. There isn’t a lot of traffic except on rush hour, and there aren’t that many people walking around on the sidewalks unless it’s time for everyone to walk to capitol hill. I suppose I still have yet to see other parts of downtown that may be away from the mall, so I may end up eating my words later.  There are a couple things I don’t like about DC. The metro only has 5 lines, meaning that there isn’t great coverage to different parts of the City. Also, the water is known for being pretty cruddy here. I think it’s sad that our nation’s capitol doesn’t even have good running water. What in the world is with that? It tastes so bad that when I drank some, in a moment of desperation for water, I coughed and gagged for like thirty seconds. The city grew on me a bit, though, when I was walking to a corner market about four blocks away for a gallon of water. The chill neighborhood-type vibes I felt were actually pretty nice. This city is nowhere as intense as Paris. Paris is crawling with activity. I also like the townhouses. They are charming, and much better than apartment buildings you find everywhere else. I like that DC is kind of a throwback of how cities used to look. I think it may be an ineffective city to be our nation’s capitol, though. The one thing I find kind of eerie about DC is in the mornings when the whole town moves towards the capitol. I feel kind of like an ant.

Mom tells me the first week is always the hardest. Like how Kirsten was calling home every day her first week on her teaching job. That gives me hope that things will get better. It’s actually been really chill here. I just need to work on being more outgoing and asking for little jobs here and there. I got an assignment on Friday where I was supposed to enter names and emails from like 100 business cards into the computer. When I got all done, I accidently lost it all and had to start over. It was ok, though. I like mundane chores like that for some reason, and it helped the time go by much quicker. We, as interns, also got to tour the capitol on Friday. It was fun, but they don’t take you in very many rooms. It was good for us since we will be doing tours there, hopefully a lot. I also got to go into the senate and house of rep rooms where they do all their dirty work.  I spent the rest of Friday trying to research more material I could use on my tours so that they are interesting. There’s not that much to talk about. I can talk about WY’s statues that they put in the capitol. There’s Chief Washakie and Ester Hobart Morris. Y’all should look them up. They are quite interesting. Utah’s statues are the guy who invented TV and Brigham Young, which I thought was cool. It was sculpted by Mahonri Young.  I also got to ride the little train that runs under all the government buildings here.

I have had a plight for food. I ordered food from Safeway, but then my credit card has been canceled because the company thinks it got stolen so they could buy shampoo and stuff while in DC. I will have to attempt later. Thankfully, before my credit card died, I ordered a ton of cheesy breadsticks from pizza hut (you need to get ten dollars worth or they won’t deliver.) so I have been eating those all weekend. I also was able to get to a target to get the little necessities like shampoo and so forth. The target trip was kind of heck though. It took like an hour just to get there. And that target is super busy because it is so close to a metro stop. I saw a lot of people with carts so they could cart their food to wherever they live and I coveted that. Then carrying all our stuff back to the apartment wasn’t fun either.

I have a little sob story. Since coming to DC, I have been having the worst luck! I bought a pizza at the Smithsonian to bring home for dinner, only to find that there were two pieces missing. Next, when I ordered pizza, I also ordered water, which failed to show up. Next, I bought gummy calcium supplements that I was really looking forward to eating back at the apartment to find that the set I bought had already been opened. Also, I bought a wall charger only to find out it doesn’t work. When I was doing laundry, my detergent fell off the dryer and hit my knee. Finally, I got a giant sliver in my heel from my kitchen floor. It was in too deep for me, but thankfully, there’s a nurse office here in the Senate buildings, and they took it out for free. I said I had a sliver and the nurses started laughing at another nurse who calls them splinters. Welchie called it a splinter, too, so I’m not sure if that’s a regional thing or what. Well they took it out for me for free. Macy says they are awesome to have around because if you feel like you are getting sick or anything, you can go to that office and they take care of you for free. Man, my nurse had to dig it out. It wasn’t terribly uncomfortable though. I’ve just been limping around all morning. Hopefully it feels better soon. Well, with bad luck like that, sometimes you just need to laugh about it. I just wish it didn’t also waste dollars.

I’ve also had an issue where I realized that I haven’t been having any water since the weekend started. The tap water is unbearable. I had been going on close to three days without hardly any water, which I hear is when most people start getting real sick or dying, when I finally made the trek to buy myself a gallon of water. I will probably be making that trek a lot. Dan joked that  I should be on the tv show, I shouldn’t be alive from the animal planet channel. Water to me was always such a simple thing that I never thought much about, but now that I’m in the city, I have to be very mindful of it. I feel like I’m on survival mode out here. I’m always wondering where my next meal will come from. I even stole a glass of milk from one of my roommates and shook while I was drinking it. Don’t worry, fam, I’m mostly being dramatic. It will be nice to get my groceries, though. I love that I can get it delivered to me. I find nothing more depressing than grocery shopping, so I think it’s great. I also love the cafeteria here. It’s so yummy. I usually buy a ton of food to stuff myself with since it is now my main meal. I also buy an extra sandwich to bring home with me for dinner. That cafeteria is a life saver.

This weekend was mostly just me getting settled in. I really haven’t been doing much.  I made the trek to target. That took all day and I will have to be going back to return the vitamins and wall charger. I’m not looking forward to that. I may just do that next Sunday so I don’t waste another Saturday. On Sunday, I went to the WA DC 2^nd ward YSA. It was nice because it was just two blocks away from the metro. After church, I went downstairs to talk to the clerk to see if I could talk to the bishop and such. Well he turns out to not be very nice. He asked curtly if I filled out a new member sheet and asked why in the world I hadn’t gone to the new member meeting that morning. I’m still not sure how I was supposed to know about that. I gave it to him and then he got annoyed that I was actually in the wrong ward. I asked him what I should do and he was all “well we can’t take your records here.” …thanks? No I meant where should I go. Well, didn’t I know how to find what ward I was supposed to go to? I was just like.. well chill out, that is an easy fix, I’ll just go to the other ward next week. I went home and google mapped where the other ward met at, and it’s nowhere near a metro stop. This distresses me very much because I obviously have no other mode of transportation. I wish they would have just let me go to the other ward. I will email the clerk of the other ward to see if there’s anything I can do. I hope he is much nicer.  I am not extremely interested to go to the ward I went to if that guy is such a little.. jerk. Also, that singles ward was HUGE! At least twice the size of a singles ward at BYU. I didn’t like that very much. It’s hard to meet new people in a ward like that. I can’t wait to get settled in the other ward and very active in all the activities. I need to start actually making friends that don’t go out to drink every night. I think FHE will be my best tool because they split those up into smaller groups. Hopefully I can find other interns to chill with too. The singles here tend to be older for obvious reasons. I also find that Arizonians are still full of themselves all the way out here. It was so nice to be able to take the sacrament, though. We’ll see if I can get this silly mess figured out. Of all the things to go wrong. I really wanted and needed this to turn out right.

On Monday, I was going to hang out with Max, the Indian affairs intern, and do touristy stuff. He decided it was too cold and I was just fine with that because I was ready for another lazy day. By the time I was ready to go to target, it would have been dark when I was heading home which worried Dan, (J) so I decided to just organize my room. I hung up all my cloths with my new hangers, put random junk away, did all my laundry, bought my gallon of water. It was just a nice day. I was in a great mood. I also got to socialize with my roomies a little. I really do like those girls. I hope they don’t think I’m too weird since I’ve been rather recluse these  past couple of days. They also had fun and went out a couple times this weekend. They keep inviting me and saying that when I go they won’t drink as much. I’m looking for the advice from my family… what do you think of that? I’m not so sure yet. I also need to look up and see if there are any music venues around so I check them out. I would much rather go to shows than go to a bar. MUCH rather. Of course there will prob be bars at the venues. It’s all good, though. I will see if my roomies ever want to go with me. I need to check it out tonight.

Also, peter juanpere (sp?) called me on Sunday to see if I wanted to go skiing with him and his friends the next day. I totally missed the call, so that’s too bad. I texted his phone just to say thanks for the invite so maybe he will call me later sometime. Welchie also invited me to a wizards game which I think is next Tuesday. That will be a lot of fun, I think. I just need to go out and start doing stuff. I also need to motivate myself to do so. I always feel so lazy after work and I usually want nothing more than to go back to the apartment and veg. That’s all I’m doing tonight since I don’t know about my real ward’s FHE.

Cities are so inconvenient to live in. The simplest tasks, such as grocery shopping, turns into a whole day affair and hassle. I’m really starting to miss BYU. I can’t wait to go back next fall. I’m also stoked to be in Cody this summer! It’s going to be amazing. I’m already counting down the weeks. I think I only have 18 left… I remember kind of complaining that BYU was like constantly going to church. Now I totally miss that. Even in  Cody where everyone also drinks and are immoral, they are not doing that around me. Also, there’s something about being so close to nature that just cleanses you. Cities really weigh down on me. I can handle them alright, but they do depress me some. I learned to love Paris, so I’m sure I’ll get to that point here.

Speaking of Paris, I was looking at some of my pictures and reading blogs from back then. I haven’t done that in a while because it made me sad that I wasn’t still there, but it made me happy this time. I totally miss that city. I know I had a hard time there for a while, but I ended up being truly happy. Something that helped was that I made really great friends. I failed to keep in touch with them, and most regrettably, with Ariel. I should maybe work on reconnecting with some, but I guess I’ll have to wait until next fall. Carter is back in the states, but I’ve thankfully moved on since then. I can’t wait to share that city with the people I love. Hopefully I will get to go with the parents after this internship ;) hint hint.

I just read an article in Political, a newspaper on capitol hill. It was by rep Cory Gardner (R-CO). He noticed that Washington DC’s economy is doing excellent in comparison to other places in the country, mainly his state. He complained how the local governments were held back by over 9,000 regulations set by the federal government and he complained how the local leaders know how to deal with local problems better than federalists from WA DC. I couldn’t agree more, and I’m glad someone put forth a valid complaint about the problem.  The article is “Federal Bureaucrats Don’t Know America” from today’s issue if you want to look it up. Idk if there’s a place to find that newspaper online. A senator, Richard Moore (D-mass) actually voiced the same opinion interestingly. He said “don’t forget where you came from. Too often, state officials who are elected to congress suddenly decide fed gov knows best in addressing public policy issues, mandate duties, and costs on state and local gov.”

I also read an opinion article in the same newspaper by Joe Scarborough. Although I disagree with the last article of his that I read, this article has a good point. This is not a time for republicans to strengthen their crazy gun talk. That just loses points and class. I don’t think their gun gibber gabber will necessarily cause the next tragedy, but I do think it is doing a lot to hurt the political party. When the republicans have a chance to take over, they should not screw it up by losing points with swing voters because they are being idiots. In the very newspaper, Michael Kinsley is still arguing that republicans are to blame for Tucson because the republican party is the only party with crazy notions. I’ve also read that Loughner actually leans quite to the left… if any of his ramblings make sense, which  I also have understood to not make any sense. Kinsley also called the assassination attempt “carefully planned.” Huh? What I like best is Kinsley used to be on a show called “crossfire” which to me, sounds like many crazy people could take as a gun reference. He’s also the guy who I referred to as a hypocrite in my last email. I like reading his articles and picking them apart like that, but I wonder how many people stop to realize that most column writers are, by nature, liars and exaggerators? Ok, that’s me being hypocritical and exaggerating.

Something that I find interesting on the hill is the amount of neighborly feeling. Senators and representatives are all close to members of the opposite parties. It’s kind of nice to hear that.

Welchie and I just got lost in the Capitol building. We had to drop something off to a staff member who works there. It was fun cause we could go places that said that no tourists were allowed there. Also, we got to see some of the cool parts of the building that are less seen. I was happy to see colorful hallways and big chandeliers. I’m glad to know that our capitol building has it’s gaudiness, however limited. It’s still nowhere near the Hotel de Ville,  I’m sure. Just the exterior of the Hotel de Ville is awesome. I wish our capitol looked like that. I walked past the Hotel de Ville every day last year. I saw people going in and out of it who must have been staff for important politicians. I never thought I would work in the united states version the very next year J. I did go into the Hotel de Ville building, but only to the post office that is built into it for some reason. Welchie is a funny person to walk around with because he is just a walking commentary of himself.

My name plate and badge have blemishes, and being Dad’s daughter, it bugs me. I can’t keep the badge because it’s “property of the senate” but I hope I get to keep my name plate. I don’t see why not! It will go on my school desk. It just occurred to me that I’m out here doing (semi) important things, but I still have school to go back to and finish. I’m actually looking forward to that. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, I guess! Well, no, I will never say that about poli sci 200.  Or anthropology 100. I think those are the only two classes I have ever absolutely hated, but remind me if I’m wrong.

Sometimes i wonder what senators actually do. Their staff seriously does everything. they're the ones that write bills, email constituents, and so forth. if i were to run for senator, i would say "vote for Hanna ('s staff) for senator!" we should vote for who they hire... also, people on capitol hill are obsessed with blackberries. they always say stuff like "turn off your cell phones and blackberries" or "i will have my cell phone and blackberry with me" and it's always cell phones and blackberries. maybe it's like the official cell phones that they give to employers... i don't know.

well that's all for today! love you all! miss you.

And for your enjoyment...

The Apartment

This is the living room loft upstairs. It has a nice TV on the other wall.

That's the gray tower that i live in. My apartment is on the top and back of the building. we have two balconies. Jon, the other Barrasso intern lives across the hall from me, and Miles, the Enzi intern lives in the apartment under Jon

These are the nice townhouses that surround our place. there are townhouses everywhere! and we live in the ghetto gray tower...

My bunk bed. I took the bottom one when i thought i was going to have a roommate because i didn't want to have to climb over her every night and wake her up. Now it isn't a problem anyways, but i like the bottom.

My bathroom is attached and all to myself :)

Closet bathroom...

I took the tiny dresser to be nice to my non-existent future roommate. I think i may take over the big one soon if i'm not too lazy.

The dining area next to my bedroom.

Kitchen/laundry room. Everything's smaller in the City. The Hampton Court apartment doesn't seem half bad anymore.

The Church I walk past to get to Union Station, one of the nearest Metro stops to me, along with Eastern Market on the other side.

January 13

A little bit of Wyoming in the American Indian Museum. There was not a lot of plains Indian things in the museum which i found kind of disappointing, but at least there was this. Welchie lives pretty close to Devil's Tower

Washington Memorial in winter

Library of Congress. It's beautiful!


It is rather daunting to write everything down. I will try to get everything down though! first off, this is going to be unedited. so there may be some things that the general public should not know. if people want to know what's going on, i'm going to make a blog and edit out certain things, so forward that link when it's made to them. this is for your eyes only ;). i will try to email at least once a week. if i fall behind, feel free to get my bum in gear.

So! arriving the night before i was supposed to get here was stressful! there was no other way to get around it, though. I am extremely grateful to Juan and snow for taking care of me.  I am extremely thankful for them for letting me stay there, taking me to work and then my new place, and loaning me their linens. Their kindness has been much appreciated. Let's just say I got a healthy dose of soft rock on my way to work the first day.



I have never been so nervous. I can't even remember being this nervous for Paris or leaving home for college. it turns out i have been nervous for a good reason. I wasn't nervous about leaving home... well ok, leaving katie and her family sucks because kirsten left her too, leaving friends sucks, leaving my family sucks, especially since mom also lost kirsten. I also left a very special boy behind. anyways, going on. I wasn't nervous about moving to a big city either. i have done that before. I was more nervous for work. and for good reason too! I work from 9-6 every day. i was expecting 9-5 and the extra hour makes it that much worse. I do get an hour lunch, though. My jobs are sorting mail, taking phone calls and sitting up front, checking the printers, setting out news papers then recycling them at the end of the day, doing chores or LAs and LCs (can someone please tell me what those stand for? and the difference?) eventually, i will be giving tours to visitors to the office! that's what I'm looking forward to. I can also sign up for classes like "how positive thinking helps relationships" haha. i think i may take that one. They also encourage us to go of and look around a bit. I like that because by the time i get out of work, it's already dark, so i just go home and chill. i would only have saturdays and sundays to go around and try to see things.

The first day i was here, i was thinking "what have i done?" to myself  the whole time. the last couple of days have been much better though. I think it may end up being rather fun. Most the LAs and LCs (still confused) are really nice. Today, i really focused on relaxing and chatting with them :). the first two days i was talking in my "low" voice (is it really ever low? i guess i mean lower). the low voice means i'm being really shy but working through it enough to get work done. today i tried to speak in my normal voice and i had a much better time. I think everyone else will start to like me better, too.

My fellow inters... hahaha. oh my. Kelsey is cool. she only comes in twice a week, though. she goes to college up here and is just  volunteer. She's extremely tall... like 6'2, really nice and patient (cause i'm sure she thinks the rest of us are nuts), and pretty. John's from SoCal but goes to school at UW. random. Also, we got crazy hate male about Obama that was pretty much spam so we were told to throw it away. he thought it was legitimate so he insisted on reading it because someone "put a lot of time into it." it didn't even have an apostrophe in We're. and it was typed in all caps. I don't like Obama either, but it's crazies like those who legitimize real complaints about the president. The nice thing about John is he lives in my building and actually walks home with me. that's super nice. Welchie.,. i like him pretty well :). he's SUPER from wyoming. he's from Sundance. his entire county doesn't have a single traffic light. He always talks about his study abroads and buddies. His favorite subject of discussion is alcohol. His freshman roommate was mormon and Welchie said that he would have converted if he didn't like beer so much. He talks about it ALL THE TIME! We're not supposed to talk about it casue we're "representatives" of Barrasso, but that does not stop him. ooooh no. beer is on the mind. I actually really like Welchie. he is so WY. his accent and everything. he's just a politically incorrect gentleman. he's really nice and quite funny and i enjoy spending time with him. There is one more intern, Max. but i've only seen him twice so far because he works at the Indian affairs office. I think he might actually be indian but i can't tell worth crap. He's really intelligent. he has like one million bachelor degrees, six masters, and has started his PHD. he's nice but i think he thinks we're all idiots. but i like him, i want to get to know him better.

The shooting in AZ is everywhere here. Everyone here now seems to think that because one crazy has immersed and done something violent, there is crazy people out for all of them. They all think they are in danger. i don't think they are in any more danger now than they were before the tragedy. it's silly, in my humble opinion. Also, everyone is now using it as political fire for their agendas which i think is horribly distasteful. They're all being a bunch of hypocrites. It makes me sick. I mostly blame the democrats who are now using this as a way to SOMEHOW show how horrible republicans are. Like republicans are to blame for all the crazy people hearing voices that tell them to kill tons of people. Huh? and it is so RANDOM to point fingers at Sarah Palin. thankfully there are some politicians who are realizing how ridiculous this is and are speaking out. thank you, guys.

Speaking of politics, do Republicans really believe that becoming crazy radicals is really going to help strengthen their party?
what we need are good, logical, realistic minded politicians. Romney maybe? This tea party, crazy bible belt pastures, blatant gun wielding madness needs to stop if the republicans want to have a chance! Obama is already making it easier for the republicans. this insanity does not need to occur. the unpopularity of Obama health care alone got the Republicans to win house. Let's just be patient, wait for Obama to lose more followers with all his bad decision making, earn the trust of the people, and all the normal things.

Also, there was a news story about how some female senator is getting more floor time to win more female approval for the republicans. The article was talking about the simple things that win us over. what are we, women? silly cattle that the men are trying to herd into their own political parties? I blame politicians, but the news media. I wish i had a link to the article so this little rant makes more sense.

As for my apartment... it is quite nice! i finally met my third roommate. i like them all. the fourth one may be a tad awkward, but no real complaints. their so nice. One is from SLC, another from ID, and the third i met is from NY. she found out where we are all from and then asked if we knew any mormons. we laughed and i informed her that i am, in fact, mormon. She seemed a  bit awed and said "i have never met a mormon before." it was funny. the other three of us were basically just telling her how not weird mormons are. it's a good thing i'm her first mormon. that may sound a bit full of myself but what i mean is I'm a very strong mormon who follows all the 'rules" and goes to church and stuff. at the same time, i am not crazy or judgmental or weird. (tell me if i'm wrong, though). Oh, right. i was supposed to talk about my apartment. It's really cool, actually. it's two levels. i'm on the bottom with another girl who has yet to show up. three more are in the room upstairs with their own bathroom. the living room is in this cool loft area  and the kitchen down by me. It's really cold all the time. i like it though. it's just a quick 6 blocks away from work. i can do the walk in about ten min. I always get there just on time. :)

This is a no brainer, but everyone here drinks. I was used to it in Cody, but that was in high school. i didn't live with them. teachers didn't joke about it all the time. no one did it around me ever. I'm also understanding how stupid swearing is. some guys put it in wherever they can and it sounds silly to me. I also informed my roommates that if they came home so drunk they were passing out, puking, whatever, i would FREAK out. Basically, i told them they would have to take care of it themselves because i would think they were dying and call an ambulance. it scares me. they both informed me that they haven't gotten that drunk in a long time. that's comforting, i guess... but i heard my neighbor intern come home raging drunk at like 12. i wasn't scared cause our door was belted. but yeah. I think i'm going to have a lot of days in while everyone else i sout getting drunk.

There is a McNiven in my office. He stopped me and said "i saw you are going to BYU. are you LDS?" well so is he, and he got me information about where i'm going to church and about institute. I def can't wait to get the church back in my life. i can feel my spirituality deflating  in this environment. Travis (the McNiven) said "there's def not the same standards here" and he's right. all the drinking people, politicians...   i could use a spiritual lift right now.

so far, i've been to the american indian museum, the capitol, and the library. good times. :)

all in all, i think it will be good! i know it will get better. Sorry if this seemed a little negative. it's no walk in the park so far. good news, i like my roommates, i like Welchie, i like Travis, i like my apartment, and staff members , i love the church, and i have modern technology so i can keep in touch with the people i love every night. I love and miss every single one of you. If any of you have questions, or anything, let me know!and sorry for the rambling and lack of editing. Hope it was a good email!