Work has been work thus far this week. I've had a lot of letters to write, and that has kept me pretty busy. I don't remember if I had already mentioned that I got the girl scout cookies I had ordered a couple weeks back earlier this week, and it would be too much work to check so I'm mentioning it here. They have been good and are almost gone now. Also, I was amazed by how quickly remodeling work gets done on the hill. All of the work in the office has been completed. In fact, it had been completed by the middle of the day on Tuesday. That led to the other intern and I having to help with the reorganizing most of the morning and running lots of stuff up to the "cage," our upstars storage area. The only other thing really worth reporting from work this week was a call I took yesterday. It started off pretty normal, a woman voicing her opinion against the public option. When I tried to get her name to log the call, she wouldn't give it to me because she didn't want any hit men coming after her. Despite my best efforts to assure her that we were not in the hit man business, she insisted that that is how Obama works and she didn't want anything to do with it. Needless to say, I was shocked.
Today, we had a policy visit to a lobbying firm in the morning. It was pretty tame and not really anything I hadn't heard before or figured out from working in a congressional office. After the visit, the guys an I walked through Chinatown to Union Station to get some breakfast. Unfortunately, we got there a little after 11, which was after breakfast had ended at the restaurants there. Fortunately, as we went down into the food court, we were given samples of the best chicken salad sandwiches I have ever tasted. Even better, they came with free gelato. All in all, it was a pretty good lunch. After class in the afternoon, during which we discussed the differences between liberal and conservative ideologies and liberal and conservative politics, we went to the halloween store. While there, I found an actual Gryffindor tie, which completes my Neville Longbottom costume. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home and then got a Philly cheesesteak from a restaurant around the corner. Now we're watching the world series (waiting for the office). It should be a pretty big weekend with Halloween, so I'm looking forward to that.
Later,
Jes
October 29, 2009
October 26, 2009
Back in DC; Back to Work
Hello All,
So, as usual, I failed maintain my self-prescribed blog schedule and am blogging for the first time in almost a week. Alas, but such is life. The rest of last week was pretty lax, as a week of break should be. I'm going to try to break it down into categories rather than day by day.
Today was back to work as usual. While I was gone, they evidently started work on a major remodeling project in the office. There is no longer an intern desk in the front office and there are two more desks in the back. Oh, there's also a new wall in the front office. Unfortunately, my nemesis, the constituent mail inbox, has thoroughly re-filled itself while I was gone. Today felt really long, but probably because I was exhausted from yesterday, and out of my normal working routine for a week. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things within the next couple of days. It didn't help that nothing out of the ordinary happened at work to help keep things interesting. More work tomorrow, and hopefully I'll be getting back into the routine of both work and blogging here pretty quickly.
Until we next speak,
Jes
So, as usual, I failed maintain my self-prescribed blog schedule and am blogging for the first time in almost a week. Alas, but such is life. The rest of last week was pretty lax, as a week of break should be. I'm going to try to break it down into categories rather than day by day.
- Swimming: I managed to make it to four swim meets during the 8 days I was in Iowa. I think that's pretty impressive, even for me. I went to the girls' MVC varsity meet the first day I was home, followed that up with the girls' city meet on my birthday, next was the Iowa double-dual with Michigan State and UW-Milwaukee, and finally the girls' MVC sophomore meet. I thought that the Senior girls swam very well in all the meets I saw and I can't wait to see how they do these next few weeks in their championship meets. Jordan is also swimming well this season and the Hawkeyes are 5-0 on the season.
- Food: Since it was my birthday this past week, I went out to eat several times. Included in these meals were my two favorite places to eat in Dubuque: Bandana's and Taiko. Both experiences were amazing, even if I came out feeling like I was going to explode. I also went to Old Chicago in Cedar Falls with Michael on Saturday since he couldn't make it to IC with Caity and I for my actually birthday (Sorry, I had to work a jab in somewhere).
- Schools: As always, I visited both Mazzuchelli and Senior while I was home this week. While I never went to Mazz, I like to go to help out my mom sometimes and I know a few of the teachers there. Obviously, I always love going back to Senior and visiting with my old teachers. My experience at Senior and my interactions with teachers and administrators since graduating is one of the main reasons that I am considering a career in education at some level.
Today was back to work as usual. While I was gone, they evidently started work on a major remodeling project in the office. There is no longer an intern desk in the front office and there are two more desks in the back. Oh, there's also a new wall in the front office. Unfortunately, my nemesis, the constituent mail inbox, has thoroughly re-filled itself while I was gone. Today felt really long, but probably because I was exhausted from yesterday, and out of my normal working routine for a week. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things within the next couple of days. It didn't help that nothing out of the ordinary happened at work to help keep things interesting. More work tomorrow, and hopefully I'll be getting back into the routine of both work and blogging here pretty quickly.
Until we next speak,
Jes
October 20, 2009
Happy Birthday to ME!
So, it has now been over a week since my last post and there have been some changes since then. To start with, I will wrap up last week in terms of work and class. Work was pretty standard, as it has been for some time. The one standout item was when I finally, if briefly, won my battle with the constituent mail inbox. For a few minutes, maybe upwards of an hour, the inbox was empty for the first time since I had started working in the office. Unfortunately, another huge bunch of mail came in pretty shortly afterwards, and the inbox was quite full when I left on Friday. As far as class goes, we had a midterm in my Thursday class, which I think went pretty well.
Now, on to the weekend. My Saturday started early, really early. I had to be up at 2:45 AM to catch a 3 AM shuttle to the Baltimore airport. From there, I took a 6 AM flight to Moline via Chicago. Fortunately, both legs of my flight left on time and arrived ahead of schedule, which is always a pleasant surprise. I got back to Dubuque by mid-morning Saturday. At noon, Connor and I went to the girls MVC Championship swim meet. I thought the DSHS girls as a whole did very well, especially their MVC champion in the IM. During the meet, I was the source of Iowa v. Wisconsin score updates for the deck, and I am happy to report that Iowa is now 7-0 on the season and #6 in the first BCS poll. I left the meet early so that I could actually watch the ND v. USC game. Unfortunately, that game didn't go as well as the Iowa game. Even though ND played well for solid portions of the game, we allowed ourselves to fall behind early in the second half. Despite Jimmy nearly leading us to what would have been an epic comeback, three incompletions in and near the endzone at the end of the game prevented us from tying it up and forcing overtime. I guess you've got to take the good with the bad, and our boys played like champions at the end of the game and that's a good thing. Friday night, Caity and I went to see "The Full Monty" at the Grand. I'm not going to lie, it was a little more old man than I had really planned on seeing, but it was a pretty decent production.
Sunday, in addition to watching/following several football games, I began my quest to find my Halloween costume. My plan is to go as Neville Longbottom, so mostly I was looking for a Harry Potter-esque robe. While I found one at the mall here, I decided to wait until I could find more options to actually purchase one. In addition, I went and helped out Mom with mock trial at Mazzuchelli. Back to the topic of football, I want to point out that despite my having a very solid week for fantasy, Jordan managed to have three or four players have career games to crush me in our match up, which sucks, but watch out for the playoffs, because my team should deliver when it counts. Sunday night I hung out here in Dubuque with friends and prepped for my big trip on Monday.
Monday was mostly about getting ready for my trip to Iowa City to celebrate my birthday. We left mid-day and got to IC around 4:30. After visiting Jordan and dropping off some groceries, we went to my aunt's house where I was staying last night. Caity and I then went to Carlos O'Kelly's for a little birthday dinner before we went to the mall to look for my Halloween costume some more. I finally decided to just bite the bullet and buy the same robe that I had found in Dubuque. Also, I almost bought my Animal hat from Spencer's, but there proved to be too many character hat options and now I'm trying to decide between Animal and the Grinch, one of my all time favorite cartoon characters. After that, we got a ride down to the ped mall (note: always drink responsibly) to map out our antics for after midnight when I would be 21. The bars were not as dead as you might expect on a Monday night, but I guess that's Iowa City for you. We settled on a few bars near each other and then went to a coffee house to kind of wait it out. After eating again around 11:15, this time at Panchero's, it was finally time. For my first drink, as an homage to "Scrubs", I decided to have an appletini from a martini bar. Then we went to a real bar and I had a couple of beers and a Long Island iced tea. We called it a night at about 1:15 and I headed back to my aunt and uncle's place.
This morning we got a pretty early start back to Dubuque, leaving IC at around 9:30. That allowed me to get home by mid-day and write this post. Tonight I'm having dinner with my family and then going to the girls city swim meet (Go RAMS!). I'll probably write one more post this week before I fly back to DC on Sunday and return to life as usual, but now as an adult!
Jes
P.S. I almost forgot, thank you to everyone who has wished me a happy birthday, either via Facebook or otherwise, I really appreciate it!
Now, on to the weekend. My Saturday started early, really early. I had to be up at 2:45 AM to catch a 3 AM shuttle to the Baltimore airport. From there, I took a 6 AM flight to Moline via Chicago. Fortunately, both legs of my flight left on time and arrived ahead of schedule, which is always a pleasant surprise. I got back to Dubuque by mid-morning Saturday. At noon, Connor and I went to the girls MVC Championship swim meet. I thought the DSHS girls as a whole did very well, especially their MVC champion in the IM. During the meet, I was the source of Iowa v. Wisconsin score updates for the deck, and I am happy to report that Iowa is now 7-0 on the season and #6 in the first BCS poll. I left the meet early so that I could actually watch the ND v. USC game. Unfortunately, that game didn't go as well as the Iowa game. Even though ND played well for solid portions of the game, we allowed ourselves to fall behind early in the second half. Despite Jimmy nearly leading us to what would have been an epic comeback, three incompletions in and near the endzone at the end of the game prevented us from tying it up and forcing overtime. I guess you've got to take the good with the bad, and our boys played like champions at the end of the game and that's a good thing. Friday night, Caity and I went to see "The Full Monty" at the Grand. I'm not going to lie, it was a little more old man than I had really planned on seeing, but it was a pretty decent production.
Sunday, in addition to watching/following several football games, I began my quest to find my Halloween costume. My plan is to go as Neville Longbottom, so mostly I was looking for a Harry Potter-esque robe. While I found one at the mall here, I decided to wait until I could find more options to actually purchase one. In addition, I went and helped out Mom with mock trial at Mazzuchelli. Back to the topic of football, I want to point out that despite my having a very solid week for fantasy, Jordan managed to have three or four players have career games to crush me in our match up, which sucks, but watch out for the playoffs, because my team should deliver when it counts. Sunday night I hung out here in Dubuque with friends and prepped for my big trip on Monday.
Monday was mostly about getting ready for my trip to Iowa City to celebrate my birthday. We left mid-day and got to IC around 4:30. After visiting Jordan and dropping off some groceries, we went to my aunt's house where I was staying last night. Caity and I then went to Carlos O'Kelly's for a little birthday dinner before we went to the mall to look for my Halloween costume some more. I finally decided to just bite the bullet and buy the same robe that I had found in Dubuque. Also, I almost bought my Animal hat from Spencer's, but there proved to be too many character hat options and now I'm trying to decide between Animal and the Grinch, one of my all time favorite cartoon characters. After that, we got a ride down to the ped mall (note: always drink responsibly) to map out our antics for after midnight when I would be 21. The bars were not as dead as you might expect on a Monday night, but I guess that's Iowa City for you. We settled on a few bars near each other and then went to a coffee house to kind of wait it out. After eating again around 11:15, this time at Panchero's, it was finally time. For my first drink, as an homage to "Scrubs", I decided to have an appletini from a martini bar. Then we went to a real bar and I had a couple of beers and a Long Island iced tea. We called it a night at about 1:15 and I headed back to my aunt and uncle's place.
This morning we got a pretty early start back to Dubuque, leaving IC at around 9:30. That allowed me to get home by mid-day and write this post. Tonight I'm having dinner with my family and then going to the girls city swim meet (Go RAMS!). I'll probably write one more post this week before I fly back to DC on Sunday and return to life as usual, but now as an adult!
Jes
P.S. I almost forgot, thank you to everyone who has wished me a happy birthday, either via Facebook or otherwise, I really appreciate it!
October 12, 2009
Happy Columbus Day!
We had a pretty big weekend this weekend, partially thanks to today being Columbus Day. On Saturday after farmer's market we went to the Taste of Georgetown. The trip there was kind of a failure. We tried taking a bus from Dupont Circle but it never came. Then when we finally gave up, it pulled up when we were about 3 blocks away. So we walked to another stop and picked up a different bus. It turned out to be a good choice of bus because the driver was awesome. He talked to us about ND and gave us a hard time because we wouldn't sing the fight song in a bus full of people who didn't want to hear it. When we finally got to Georgetown, the Taste proved to be a little more expensive than we had planned. Fortunately we noticed a Pizzeria Uno's down the street. As I said in my update from Uno's, we got to sit at the "best table in Georgetown". The food was good, the atmosphere was good, and the table was awesome. The trip to the bathroom was a little bit of a maze, through like four floors and a twisty,turny hallway. After Uno's we went down to the National Mall. We started at Union Station. We checked out an art exhibit made out of Red Bull cans. It was awesome,I'll post pictures later. After that we wondered around the Capitol area before heading to the actual mall. On the mall there were "green" houses built by universities competing for a prize of some kind. They were pretty neat, and I might go back later to check out the insides of the houses. After the houses, we came back to the apartment to watch the Iowa v. Michigan game. For those of you who didn't watch, shame on you. Iowa won and led most of the game, but it was close right up to the end. I'd say it was a pretty good game, but there's definitely still room for improvement. Still, a win's a win.
Sunday we went to Arlington. It was actually the first time that I've been there and it wasn't either raining or at least dreary in some way. We went to the Kennedy graves. It was the first time I'd been there since Teddy passed, so I got to see his grave site. We watched the changing of the guard at the "Tomb of the Unknowns," which is always a powerful experience. After checking out a couple of smaller memorials, we went to the Arlington House which was Robert E. Lee's house before the Civil War. The Union confiscated it and ultimately turned the property into a military cemetery, which is how Arlington Cemetery came to be. It's now a memorial to Lee. The house and surrounding grounds are currently under renovation, but we were able to walk through a few rooms. After that we walked to the 9/11 block of graves which includes a pentagon memorial, before heading back to the Metro. We stopped to get Five Guys, which is quickly becoming my favorite fast food place, again on the way back from Arlington. After we got back to the apartment we watched the Colts and Titans on Sunday Night Football. After that we watched "Heavyweights," which is always funny.
This morning when I woke up I decided that I was taking it easy for the day. I did laundry and went to the grocery store. I booked my shuttle to the airport for 3 AM Sunday morning. Ultimately we discovered that a Star Wars marathon was on, which pretty much ate up the rest of the day. We decided that we wanted to go out to eat and that we wanted wings. That pretty much left us with Hooters as our only option. In hind sight, we probably should have just stayed in. The food really was not very good. We came home and now we're watching MNF. Just four more days until I'm home.
Later,
Jes
Sunday we went to Arlington. It was actually the first time that I've been there and it wasn't either raining or at least dreary in some way. We went to the Kennedy graves. It was the first time I'd been there since Teddy passed, so I got to see his grave site. We watched the changing of the guard at the "Tomb of the Unknowns," which is always a powerful experience. After checking out a couple of smaller memorials, we went to the Arlington House which was Robert E. Lee's house before the Civil War. The Union confiscated it and ultimately turned the property into a military cemetery, which is how Arlington Cemetery came to be. It's now a memorial to Lee. The house and surrounding grounds are currently under renovation, but we were able to walk through a few rooms. After that we walked to the 9/11 block of graves which includes a pentagon memorial, before heading back to the Metro. We stopped to get Five Guys, which is quickly becoming my favorite fast food place, again on the way back from Arlington. After we got back to the apartment we watched the Colts and Titans on Sunday Night Football. After that we watched "Heavyweights," which is always funny.
This morning when I woke up I decided that I was taking it easy for the day. I did laundry and went to the grocery store. I booked my shuttle to the airport for 3 AM Sunday morning. Ultimately we discovered that a Star Wars marathon was on, which pretty much ate up the rest of the day. We decided that we wanted to go out to eat and that we wanted wings. That pretty much left us with Hooters as our only option. In hind sight, we probably should have just stayed in. The food really was not very good. We came home and now we're watching MNF. Just four more days until I'm home.
Later,
Jes
October 10, 2009
The Best Table in Georgetown!
Holy Cow! We are eating at Pizzeria Uno in Georgetown. And we are sitting at the best table in Georgetown! More on this later.
October 9, 2009
Happy Leif Erikson Day!
I have only just realized that today is Leif Erikson Day. I wish I had realized this earlier so that I could have honored my Norwegian heritage. On a related note, I missed "international talk like a pirate day" this year, it was September 19. Oh well.
Everybody's Working for the Weekend
So, I'm pretty much drawing a blank on most of my week, but I'll do my best. Monday through Wednesday were pretty normal work days. Lots of mail, lots of phone calls, etc. I spent a little more time in the front office this week, which was a nice change of pace. I really think I did something out of the ordinary at work this week, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. I did have really good "Thanksgiving dinner" for lunch on Wednesday.
Thursday we had class. Our policy visit was in the morning to a subcommittee hearing. It was a judiciary subcommittee hearing on the Supreme Court and civil rights. It was difficult to follow, which was doubly bad for me since I was also taking notes for work. I think I did an acceptable job though. After our afternoon discussion session, a couple of us ventured out into the city to check out a thrift store. Unfortunately, it proved to be really overpriced. On the plus side, it allowed us to go to Taco Bell. Then we watched "The Office" wedding and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". All in all it was a pretty good day.
Today I had work but once again didn't have to dress up. I started a new project in the office today. I have the job of calling all of the freshman democratic congressmen and confirming their scheduler. Today was also my immediate supervisor's birthday, so we got cake. I entered an event from earlier this year in which Bruce met with representatives of the Dubuque Chamber. Naturally, there were a number of names I recognized in that group. Since work we've just been lazing around the apartment. With no ND game this weekend we're going to go to Arlington and then to the Taste of Georgetown. Beyond that we'll see what happens. It's now just over a week until fall break when I'll be back in Dubuque.
Later,
Jes
Thursday we had class. Our policy visit was in the morning to a subcommittee hearing. It was a judiciary subcommittee hearing on the Supreme Court and civil rights. It was difficult to follow, which was doubly bad for me since I was also taking notes for work. I think I did an acceptable job though. After our afternoon discussion session, a couple of us ventured out into the city to check out a thrift store. Unfortunately, it proved to be really overpriced. On the plus side, it allowed us to go to Taco Bell. Then we watched "The Office" wedding and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". All in all it was a pretty good day.
Today I had work but once again didn't have to dress up. I started a new project in the office today. I have the job of calling all of the freshman democratic congressmen and confirming their scheduler. Today was also my immediate supervisor's birthday, so we got cake. I entered an event from earlier this year in which Bruce met with representatives of the Dubuque Chamber. Naturally, there were a number of names I recognized in that group. Since work we've just been lazing around the apartment. With no ND game this weekend we're going to go to Arlington and then to the Taste of Georgetown. Beyond that we'll see what happens. It's now just over a week until fall break when I'll be back in Dubuque.
Later,
Jes
October 4, 2009
Flaming Death
After lasagna on Friday (which I mention again only to say how delicious it was), we had a pretty quiet night. Friday morning we woke up fairly early to go to an alley sale. Unfortunately, as with garage sales, it proved to be a sale of items in an alley, not a sale of an alley. And I really was hoping to buy an alley too, it would look so good in my real estate portfolio. Oh well, I guess that's life. Since Iowa is finally ranked again, they were on TV not at the same time as ND and I was able to watch them for the first time this season. They did pull out a win, even though they did play way down to their opponent. I guess that as long as they continue to play to their opponents level, they can continue to do well. ND also pulled out a win, but if they keep playing games like these last 4, I'm not going to survive this season. On the plus side, it was the first overtime win while Charlie has been coaching. Also, it propelled Jimmy into the Heisman watch and ND is just outside of the top 25. After the games we went to an Irish restaurant for dinner. It wasn't great food, but it had a really nice atmosphere and a sweet Irish band was playing. Also, the restaurant served sweet potato fries, which I love.
Today I caught up on some of my work for classes. I didn't have much to do though, so I was able to watch a fair amount of football. I really think I did something else during the day, but it really seems I didn't. I did manage to head up the street and have gyros for a late lunch and got to the grocery store. I can't forget to mention that one of my room mates almost burned our apartment down while playing with fire. I'm actually really blowing it out of proportion, but I was in my room when it happened and that's how it was explained to me. We went to that young adult mass tonight. They had pizza afterwards which is always nice. We watched the end of the third Pirates of the Caribbean after mass. That's a movie that I find a little funnier than I think I should. Now we're watching Sports Center to catch up on what little football I may have missed. Probably going to watch some actual TV shows before I go to bed. No votes tomorrow, so I won't have to dress up!
Later,
Jes
Today I caught up on some of my work for classes. I didn't have much to do though, so I was able to watch a fair amount of football. I really think I did something else during the day, but it really seems I didn't. I did manage to head up the street and have gyros for a late lunch and got to the grocery store. I can't forget to mention that one of my room mates almost burned our apartment down while playing with fire. I'm actually really blowing it out of proportion, but I was in my room when it happened and that's how it was explained to me. We went to that young adult mass tonight. They had pizza afterwards which is always nice. We watched the end of the third Pirates of the Caribbean after mass. That's a movie that I find a little funnier than I think I should. Now we're watching Sports Center to catch up on what little football I may have missed. Probably going to watch some actual TV shows before I go to bed. No votes tomorrow, so I won't have to dress up!
Later,
Jes
October 2, 2009
End of the Week
So work was pretty much just work this week. I do have two small tidbits to report. First, I seem to have lost my capitol ID, which is not awesome. Fortunately, I don't think its going to be too big of a deal. Second, I made it my personal goal this week to make a serious dent in the mail inbox this week, which I'm happy to report I did.
Thursday was our class day. We talked about value arguments and then discussed the merits of either legalizing or at least decriminalizing marijuana. It was a surprisingly spirited debate. Our policy visit this week was to the Kennedy Center to see the National Symphony Orchestra. It was a really amazing concert, probably the best classical music I've ever seen/heard. At the end of November, they are playing a Music Man pops concert, and I'm hoping to go see that too.
Tonight, we are having lasagna that one of the girls made in celebration of one of the guys' birthday. It looks good, gotta go!
Jes
Thursday was our class day. We talked about value arguments and then discussed the merits of either legalizing or at least decriminalizing marijuana. It was a surprisingly spirited debate. Our policy visit this week was to the Kennedy Center to see the National Symphony Orchestra. It was a really amazing concert, probably the best classical music I've ever seen/heard. At the end of November, they are playing a Music Man pops concert, and I'm hoping to go see that too.
Tonight, we are having lasagna that one of the girls made in celebration of one of the guys' birthday. It looks good, gotta go!
Jes
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