I just listened to the second half of my highschool's first round state basketball game. In the game before theirs, favorite and 3-time reigning champion Braham lost to Maple River, another school down in my area. GFW looked like it had a good chance at winning a state title if it could get past Pequot Lakes, but they lost 57-40. It sounded like they had some unusual circumstances, a great guard getting injured and unable to return and their leading scorer and my best friend's younger brother had a foul mistakenly called on him late in the game. He fouled out but ended up with 19 of their 40 points. Pequot Lakes will most likely move onto the title, and I am flat out depressed, we were good enough to win.
In the office today I summarized some information for a Member, organized a staffer's background information and spent a lot of time waiting. We also had a briefing on Avian influenza, basically what we heard was:
the US is totally safe
cooking chicken at 165 degrees kills avian influenza
avian influenza is a respiratory disease, so even if infected meat would make it past all of our safety checkpoints, the odds of getting infected is very slim even if you ingested it.
Gabe and I also had the privilege to get a professional picture taken on the balcony with the Chairman, I will post that when I get it.
I'm on on the patio again, but I think it's about to rain, its a gorgeous 65 degrees. My parents and Jacob arrive tomorrow, so that means I need to clean my room and wash clothes. Most likely no post tomorrow as I will be showing the "tourists" the town.
3/21/07
Still Turning People Down
I unfortunately did not see another band nominated for vocalist of the year award today (p.s. credit to Garrett for finding that reception for us), but I did see my sister. She has been out here since Sunday and will remain with her program until Friday night, and then join my parents and brother Saturday morning to stay with them until they leave Tuesday afternoon. I was able to give her the tour of the committee's offices, hearing rooms and the Chairman's personal office while she killed some time after her appointments with her various Congressmen. She made the mistake of eating lunch in Cannon Carryout, which is basically just burgers, fries, and sandwiches, and missing out on the great cafeteria in Longworth and the good cafeteria in Rayburn. Rookie mistake, she'll learn.
Earlier in the day, we held a hearing for the Subcommittee on Specialty Crops, Rural Development and Foreign Agriculture about rural development in the upcoming Farm Bill. The interns worked the door, and hopefully turned away hopeful viewers for the final time as our main committee room receives its final touches.
The rest of the day I spent finishing drafting a letter to follow up on some questions some Congressmen had during a recent Energy Research briefing for the Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy and Research, and getting the subsequent signatures from the three signatories of the letter.
Earlier in the day, we held a hearing for the Subcommittee on Specialty Crops, Rural Development and Foreign Agriculture about rural development in the upcoming Farm Bill. The interns worked the door, and hopefully turned away hopeful viewers for the final time as our main committee room receives its final touches.
The rest of the day I spent finishing drafting a letter to follow up on some questions some Congressmen had during a recent Energy Research briefing for the Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy and Research, and getting the subsequent signatures from the three signatories of the letter.
3/20/07
Oh, Canada!
So today I moved a lot of furniture, finished drafting a letter to an Under Secretary in the USDA and an Assistant Secretary in the DOE, made some binders, and moved some more furniture.
So, now let's talk about the best reception ever; held by the Embassy of Canada.
This reception was 6:30-9:30 pm, so a few of us headed over after we were done with work. It ended up being right next to the Hart Senate Building, only 4 blocks from my house. Let's see, what else is there to mention about it? Well they had some good food, including rectangular Canadian flag-shaped cookies, 6 open bars for people that were of age and they held it all in a tent in the backyard of a small museum, including carpeted floors. It seems I am forgetting something... oh yeah,
The Stanley Cup
Leslie Neilson
Emerson Drive. I forgot to mention those, and there was only a crowd of like 100. So I'm not sure if Leslie and Emerson Drive didn't pay their taxes, but they were there. And they gave me a gift bag on the way out including; a hockey puck, a cow, maple syrup, a coffee mug, mints, chocolate, and a CD. Pretty much the best reception ever. I'm off to bed after a 3 hour concert. Good night!
3/19/07
Hurry up and Wait
Mondays are always a little different as we all get back into our routine. For me, they start with 3 times as much work because all the papers we get think that we deserve the Saturday and Sunday editions. I am not complaining because its so hard to sort and throw away newspaper, or even because my 10 minute mail sorting turns into 30. What drives me crazy is that everything needs to be done right at 9:05 am.
I do not mean to single out people, but I'm sure that this happens at many workplaces. People think up all these great ideas over the weekend, then come to work Monday and try to get them out of their system as fast as they can. It has taught me to try to be early on Mondays, but after I realized being early only led to more boredom during the day it was hard to continue the habit. It is not that I had no projects in front of me or nothing to do, I just do a lot of waiting, which has kind of molded my job around a model of wait and remind.
The staff in our office have a million other things going on, so many of the projects that need to be done by noon are done by close of business or even the next day depending on how busy the staffer is.
My sister flew in yesterday on a trip through our local phone company. She called me today while outside the Department of Agriculture headquarters to ask how close I was to her, as she assumed I was inside that building. Tourists, they never learn (this is a joke for those of you who don't know my sarcasm, I was just as confused my first time out and the whole first week of this experience).
Speaking of tourists, there were protesters everywhere. They wasn't anything organized in my area, but many of the stragglers left from yesterday and this morning decided to have a look around, which is fine, but I wouldn't want to be a yes-voting war advocate when a group of them walks into my office. On my way home a stop sign had a bumper sticker slapped on it to read: STOP Funding War.
We are still moving into everything, we still have half of one large office left to unpack. I have no clue how many more people we are hiring (if any), but there is a lot of misplaced and empty furniture around. It does not help that we are putting the final touches on our conference room, 1300. It looks very state of the art, and when the sun shines in the refinishing of the wood looks great. One funny thing is that the whole room renovation was paid for by the Republicans last year, it's not that they don't get to use it, but the majority just has greater use of the room as most events that are scheduled come through the majority office.
I have a couple of projects ongoing, but nothing too time consuming. My parents and brother are coming later in the week and will be given the grand tour by yours truly.
Final side note: Good luck to the GFW Boys Basketball team as they advance to state. Another GFW connection is my aunt, a GFW grad, taking her Fairmont Girls team to State last week when the upset some very good teams, and lost by only 8 to a team with one loss.
I do not mean to single out people, but I'm sure that this happens at many workplaces. People think up all these great ideas over the weekend, then come to work Monday and try to get them out of their system as fast as they can. It has taught me to try to be early on Mondays, but after I realized being early only led to more boredom during the day it was hard to continue the habit. It is not that I had no projects in front of me or nothing to do, I just do a lot of waiting, which has kind of molded my job around a model of wait and remind.
The staff in our office have a million other things going on, so many of the projects that need to be done by noon are done by close of business or even the next day depending on how busy the staffer is.
My sister flew in yesterday on a trip through our local phone company. She called me today while outside the Department of Agriculture headquarters to ask how close I was to her, as she assumed I was inside that building. Tourists, they never learn (this is a joke for those of you who don't know my sarcasm, I was just as confused my first time out and the whole first week of this experience).
Speaking of tourists, there were protesters everywhere. They wasn't anything organized in my area, but many of the stragglers left from yesterday and this morning decided to have a look around, which is fine, but I wouldn't want to be a yes-voting war advocate when a group of them walks into my office. On my way home a stop sign had a bumper sticker slapped on it to read: STOP Funding War.
We are still moving into everything, we still have half of one large office left to unpack. I have no clue how many more people we are hiring (if any), but there is a lot of misplaced and empty furniture around. It does not help that we are putting the final touches on our conference room, 1300. It looks very state of the art, and when the sun shines in the refinishing of the wood looks great. One funny thing is that the whole room renovation was paid for by the Republicans last year, it's not that they don't get to use it, but the majority just has greater use of the room as most events that are scheduled come through the majority office.
I have a couple of projects ongoing, but nothing too time consuming. My parents and brother are coming later in the week and will be given the grand tour by yours truly.
Final side note: Good luck to the GFW Boys Basketball team as they advance to state. Another GFW connection is my aunt, a GFW grad, taking her Fairmont Girls team to State last week when the upset some very good teams, and lost by only 8 to a team with one loss.
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