Church+Botanical Garden

First things first. We didn't have church today, but the bishop gave us permission to have our own little service. It was a neat experience.

After church we had some lunch, then headed to the National Botanical Garden. The outside gardens were closed because it's 27 degrees out, but the conservatory was open.
I took this daffodil picture for Roni. We forgot to plant bulbs again this year! When will we ever learn?

This is a nopal (I think). Jason says they eat them in Mexico. Yum. I also made sure to get a picture of a cactus so Mariel could remember her spiny friends!

The conservatory is divided into zones (i.e. Hawaii, Deserts of the World, Herbs, etc.), the coolest of which was the jungle zone. There are two levels; this picture is taken from the upper deck, approximately 30 feet off the ground. The glorious thing about the conservatory is that it was approximately 80 degrees inside. It was kind of funny to be so warm and surrounded by thriving plants and then look out the window and see snow.

Jason took this photo of a little pretty flower.
When we entered the jungle zone, I immediately noticed the distinctive sound of frogs and was really excited to see them. We looked all around and couldn't find any. When we got to the upper deck, the frog noise grew louder and louder and LOUDER until...

we discovered that it was a recording.

I was sorely disappointed.

Here I am pointing to the offending speaker.
Looking up from the ground floor of the conservatory.
Jason in the jungle room.
Bear-shaped topiary. Very neat.
We had a fun afternoon. Now we are just waiting for our chicken and rice to finish baking (only 1.4 more hours...) so we can have dinner.

It's snowing!

Right now. Out our window. Hurray!

I only wish the snow had come two days earlier so we could have skipped work. What a missed opportunity.

Last night we had our neighbors, Brittany and John Holbein, over for pesto and alfredo calzones and then we watched a West Wing. They have added the first season to their Netflix queue, so I feel like we've done our duty in converting them.

We went to the GW gym this morning with the Holbeins. It is much nicer than the RB and Smith Fieldhouse. It is three or four stories and has giant windows. I ran around on the short track because all the treadmills were full (15 laps for a mile!) and Jason lifted weights. We played basketball all together afterward. On the way home, we stopped at the Watergate Safeway and picked up some groceries. Then we had lunch.

Someone stole our newspaper this morning right out of its bag and left only the real estate and advertisements. We left a little note down by the mailboxes and when we got back from the gym, the rest of the paper had been returned. Hurray!

The ward member who was planning on taking us to the temple today decided not to go and we weren't able to get a ride with anyone else. We were pretty disappointed; we've been looking forward to going to the DC temple for a while. The missionary couple at the Barlow Center go every Saturday, so hopefully we can catch a ride with them soon.

Guess what! Church is cancelled tomorrow! This is so weird.

Frigid Friday

I don't normally recommend reading The Daily Universe--except for recreation, of course--but here's the story about the Payson temple. Pay particular attention to a fantastic quote in paragraph 2.

Click here to read it!

Anyway, enough of that.

Our Friday began with a briefing by John Sampler, a fellow at the Cato Institute who specializes in campaign finance. He was very interesting and brought up some interesting points about why total regulation is problematic. His lecture was followed by one from Marianne Viray, who is on the other end of the spectrum politically. I found her presentation a little less compelling, potentially because she spent a lot of time unnecessarily defending her positions; I am pretty sure 90% of the Washington Seminar participants already agreed with her. Both talked about the recent Supreme Court ruling about political funding.

We had some tacos for lunch, then went to class and heard from one more speaker: the Jamaican Ambassador to the US. He was by far the most dynamic speaker of today. The first part of his address was a little confusing, but he had a good sense of humor and talked about some interesting things. Someone asked him what he would like to change about Jamaica and he responded that he wishes the country had stronger families. Of all the things he could have identified, I think it is interesting that he chose families; they really are so important.

The weather this week was nice, but it has gotten pretty cold. Our apartment heater still doesn't work, but the missionary couple hooked us up with a little space heater. It seems to be doing the trick for now and the part the heater needs will supposedly be here on Monday. I'll believe it when I see it. The temperature in our apartment is balmy now, though.

We secured our free Dave Matthews Band tickets today; hopefully 1) the band won't cancel for the third year in a row and 2) we'll actually be in Utah for the concert. If not, we'll be looking to give away some tickets if anyone is interested... :)

We don't really know what we're going to do tonight, but I think we are going to eat some delicious pesto pizza.

Mariel: Thanks for the picture of the temple site. It looks pretty barren/cold.

Thursday=Friday

It's the weekend again! Today was a wonderful work day. I got so much done: composed three constituent letters, finished a report on the Data Quality Act, mailed a flag to Knoxville, answered a lot of phones, checked the mail...all sorts of fun stuff. I'm learning a lot.

Jason is at his Guarani class right now, but should be home in fifteen minutes or so, at which point we will eat tacos. Tomorrow we have three briefings and a class and should be done around 3:00 p.m. I'm not sure what we'll do tomorrow afternoon.

Next weekend we are going to Philadelphia and Valley Forge with the Washington Seminar group.

In other news, many of Jason's grad school applications are in. Now we just have to wait to see where we end up. I wish the selection committee would decide a little faster...

When I was walking to the metro tonight, the capitol looked just beautiful. There was a full moon and the sky faded from light to deep blue behind the dome. I should take my camera with me more often; I always see things I want to take pictures of.

Well, that's all for now!

We missed a day!

Today (and yesterday) were good days. Jason went to his first Guarani class yesterday and enjoyed it very much. I started some new/interesting projects at work and answered a lot of phone calls from unhappy Utahns.

We just finished watching the State of the Union address. Four thumbs up! Now we're listening to the BYU game. Go cougars!

I swear I had things to write about yesterday, but now can't remember what they were. Oh! I saw/kind of met Greta van Sustren (a news anchoress) when she came to interview the boss for Fox News. Jason got to take a trip to the government printing office, which was an adventure. We're really enjoying our internships and are excited to see the Frosts in two weeks!

I remember something from yesterday: the Thai restaurant next to us had a sign out front advertising the day's special: "1 1/2 priced appetizers!" I was amused.

A Good Day

The exciting news of today: the First Presidency announced a new temple in Payson, UT! Jason called to tell me while I was coming out of the metro and I almost couldn't believe it. It will be neat to see it come together over the next while.

In other news, Jason gets to take a class in Guarani, an indigenous language of Paraguay, Brazil, and parts of Argentina, and I started a project for the finance committee today.

Today was a beautiful day; it was sixty-five degrees out when I went to lunch! It's supposed to snow on Saturday, though. We also got our first taste of humidity today and it did a number on my hair...tomorrow will be a ponytail day for sure.

Update: I got an email from the Daily Universe asking for my input (as a distinguished Paysonite) on the new temple. I'm sure they won't use my excellent quote, but Hannah can look for it anyway.

It always rains on Sunday

Our trip to Washington by the numbers...

Total number of Capitol tours for both of us combined: 5

Distance from the apartment to the White House: 1.1 miles

False fire alarms: 1

Books in our apartment (not including scriptures): 15

Motorcades witnessed by Amanda: 4

Car horn honks heard in the last 60 seconds: 6

Chinese restaurants within one mile of our apartment: 10

Number of times we have eaten Chinese food: 0

Distance from our apartment to the Pullan's house: 2,131 miles

Distance from our apartment to the Frost's house: 341 miles

Temperature outside right now: 46 degrees fahrenheit

Minutes until our lasagna is cooked: 41

We didn't think we were going to have to teach primary today, but then the teacher for the senior primary boys was unexpectedly absent. Our class consisted of two boys. Partway through the lesson, one of their moms came in and sat in for the rest of the lesson. She was a recent convert and really contributed to the lesson. Although we've been counseled to spread the gospel via new media forms, I still feel weird about sharing spiritual things on a blog, but it's Sunday, so I guess I can. Anyway, the mother bore a wonderful testimony at the end of our lesson. It made me think about my own testimony and what a blessing it is to have the gospel in my life.

I hope you all had a good Sunday! Hopefully we'll have more exciting news to report in the coming week. Jason's grad school applications should be done soon and we get to go to the temple on Saturday!! Hooray!

White House Tour!

We went on a tour of the White House this morning!! It was awesome. We couldn't take any pictures inside, but I have gathered some from the internet for your viewing pleasure.

This is the East Room.
This is the Green Room.
Here's the Red Room (Jason's personal favorite).
This is the Blue Room. It's also where they put the White House Christmas tree. The State Dining Room. This was probably my favorite room.

The tour was great. Our guide was actually a member of the Secret Service. I had no idea that giving tours was part of their job. It was neat to think that we were walking around in places that are still used by the President and First Lady.

There were some really neat works of art along the tour, including a John Singer Sargent painting that I really liked and JFK's presidential portrait. We also got to see the Kennedy china. Sadly, you have to go on a separate "Executive Tour" to see any of the West Wing, but we saw it from afar. We'll have to make friends with some White House staffers.

Afterward, we went to the White House gift shop, which was kind of disappointing and then came home to our igloo for lunch. I don't know what we're going to do for the rest of the day, but it's a little chilly outside too.

A little later in the day...

We hear sirens all the time at our apartment and I was thinking that perhaps we live in a crime-ridden area. Then, I looked out the window when I heard sirens today and realized that since we're on Pennsylvania Avenue, we just have a lot of motorcades going by. I like that explanation much better.

We got a package!

Apparently they've been doing some work on the Barlow Center heating system and by "doing some work," I think they mean "turned it off and aren't planning on turning it on again anytime soon." Our apartment is getting a little chilly. Don't worry about us, though; we have a giant green blanket, courtesy of the Frosts and it is keeping us toasty warm. While talking to Roni via webcam today, she reminded me of our bitterly cold freshman dorm and how she used to do her homework sitting next to the open, turned-on oven. We won't resort to that.

The best news of today is that we received two packages in the mail! The mail came really late today, so we didn't actually get the packages until approximately twenty minutes ago. We'll start with the first, less-exciting package from Amazon.

It contained three books, including these two:

We've read all the books that we brought with us and aren't allowed to check anything out of the George Washington University library. I technically have permission to remove volumes from the Senate library, but it is very small and unless I'm interested in reading back issues of Congressional Quarterly (which, actually, I would probably be a more well-informed human being if I did so), I'm out of luck. The book on the left is for Jason so he can change the world, and the one on the left is for me so I can pretend to know more about economics.

Now for the more exciting package; it's from the Frosts!

Notice how Jason is the one operating the knife here. He still has his totin' chip! The package contained all this good stuff: granola bars, two kinds of tasty chili, peanut butter cookie mix, rice, the works!

Probably my favorite inclusion was the crushed red pepper. Jason makes fun of me because (when we're at home and it's available) I eat it on everything. Thank you guys so much!!!!!!!

I am also excited about the cinnamon; I've been longing for a good cinnamon roll ever since we arrived and now we can make some. Hurray!

We had class a little later than usual this morning and heard from two good speakers. The first was a political appointee from the Bush administration who now heads the Eagle Forum. The next one was Elder Hardy, a member of the sixth Quorum of the Seventy who also happens to be a DC lawyer/lobbyist. Both were very interesting.

Our neighbors invited us over for tacos tonight and then we watched a couple of West Wing episodes. Now we're at home, we just got off the phone with my parents, and the apartment is still cold. I hope this problem gets fixed soon. Thankfully, tomorrow we are going downtown to tour the White House and perhaps hit a museum, so we will likely be in slightly warmer buildings for most of the day.

We love you all! Thanks for the package!!

Thursday

This will likely be a short post (with no recipe at the end). I remembered today that I forgot to write about two exciting things that happened yesterday.

1. I saw a motorcade on my way to work. Lights, police, very nice cars, the works. Very exciting.

2. On my way into the metro station on the way home, this homeless guy was singing "All Along the Watchtower" and playing his guitar. It was one of those serendipitous moments when the diegetic music matches your mood exactly and it feels like your life is a movie. Perhaps that is a dorky and sentimental notion, but that is the best way to describe my experience yesterday.

Exciting things that happened today:

1. I was worried I would be late to work because I left a couple minutes later than I normally do (so I was a tiny bit frantic), but then two metro trains had mechanical difficulties right before and right after Foggy Bottom station, so I was detained but it wasn't my fault! I was able to call my boss (who was very understanding of my transportation travails) and I arrived at work only 20 minutes late.

2. I got an email alert from Capitol Police today saying that they were responding to a protest on the front Capitol steps and that staff should avoid the area. Five minutes later, the protesters had apparently moved into the rotunda (not sure how they got there. The little old man guarding the escalator last time asked me a lot of questions about my whereabouts despite my powerful badge), so we weren't supposed to go there either. I guess the police solved the problem, eventually arresting the miscreants. Apparently they were protesting Guantanamo Bay by going on a liquid-only fast and carrying signs at the Capitol. I personally think there are more reasonable ways to get your message out in the open, but I digress...

3. I had to go find the Senate Curator today to donate a gift received from a foreign dignitary. It's located on the fourth floor, which you can only get to by getting off the at the third floor and going through a maze of passages up to a tiny staircase semi-creepily illuminated with carriage lights. I thought I was pretty familiar with the Capitol, but I was wrong. My attempt to find the office led me to the press room (which you have to actually walk through to get to the fourth floor), this random warehouse, and a secret door that I think might have been very close to the Senate floor.

4. I met the Senator again. I went to a judiciary markup today and left after about an hour. When I got back to the office, he was talking to someone right in the doorway! He greeted me as I came in, then came back to intern row and talked to me for a few minutes about my schooling and how the internship is going so far. All the other interns were either in hearings or on a tour, so I felt pretty privileged. He really seems like a good guy.

The rest of the day was pretty low-key. I'm looking forward to getting some new projects next week. Overall, the internship has been a great learning experience so far.

Jason had an awesome day at work also. He put together some research materials for one of his co-workers and the co-worker was VERY impressed. I'm probably telling the story wrong, but he can correct this if he wants. He is also working on some brochures for the foundation about projects with environmental impact. Yesterday, he informed me that people in government (not in his office) insist on politically correct terminology: it's "asset-deprived," not "poor." I laughed.

Wow, this ended up being a lot longer than I expected. Jason is doing the laundry right now because he is a wonderful spouse, and then I think we will watch an episode of The West Wing...or perhaps two.

Hungry? Me too.

Another good day for the Frosts. Jason says he will write later, so I will detail the most notable ten minutes of my day.

I went to a judiciary hearing today about the Christmas Day airline bombing attempt. It was pretty interesting; I now know that I never want to be interrogated by a Senate committee. After the hearing, I walked toward my office, not really paying attention to what was going on around me. I looked forward and discovered that I was walking right behind Senator Franken and his staff who had just left the hearing. Weird.

When I got back, the office was filled with large, athletic men. One of them opened the door for me. Another intern informed me that they were NFL players. Crazy! I'm not sure who any of them were, but they were huge.

Only minutes later, I met the senator! This was definitely the most exciting part of my day. He was very nice. I was actually really lucky to be there; he stopped by the intern desks on his way out of a meeting and there were only two of us in the office. It was very cool to finally meet him.

Well, I feel like I haven't shared very much today, so here is a fantastic recipe for chocolate chip cookies that I stole from The New York Times and promised to email my mom. Here you go, mom!

Cookies Stolen From The New York Times

3 2/3 C minus 2 Tbsp flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 sticks of butter

1/2 C light brown sugar

1 C plus 2 Tbsp sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

A bunch of chocolate chips

Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate bowl, mix butter, brown sugar, and white sugar for five minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla.

Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients and mix sparingly (only enough to just combine!). Add chocolate chips.

The recipe suggests rolling the dough into a roll and chilling for 24 hours, but I let them chill for an hour or so and they turned out just fine.

Roll chilled dough into pretty large circles (at least golfball sized) and bake six per cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 12-ish minutes (depending on how big you make the dough-balls) or until light golden brown.

These are definitely not the most efficient cookies, but they spread a lot and are very tasty.

Remove from baking sheet and cool on a rack. Best if eaten warm.

Now we're listening to the BYU basketball game and pretending to do our homework. Jason is actually doing homework. What a good student.

Hope everyone is doing well! I miss you!

Election Night

It seems like everyone in Washington is worked up about the Massachusetts special election tonight and the Frosts are no exception! Since we do not have a TV (unless you count the communal one downstairs...which I don't), we have been watching periodic updates on the New York Times website. As of right this second, Brown has 52.8% with 60% of precincts reporting. Thrilling.

Today was a great day for Jason and a predominantly good day for me. I experienced one major gaffe at work that, while not jeopardizing my illustrious senate employment, left me absolutely humiliated. This morning, I was assigned to run some stuff down to the Senator's car. I had received very specific instructions about where the vehicle was parked, and had the key, which was attached to one of those fob things that unlocks the car remotely. Well, I approached the car and clicked the little "unlock" button on the fob. Nothing happened. At this point, I began to question my ability to operate the fob; after all, Jason and I have to unlock our car doors by hand! Perhaps I was incapable of operating possibly the simplest piece of technology the modern world has to offer. I continued clicking the button with no discernible result. Growing frustrated, I decided to unlock the car by hand. As I put the key in the ignition, the car alarm started. It was very loud, very annoying and, since this is DC we're talking about, attracted three security guards (who didn't help, by the way. They just stood around and glared at me suspiciously. Yeah, the girl with the suit and the intern badge is just going to waltz in and commit grand theft auto right under the nose of the United States government. I don't think so). I tried canceling the alarm with the useless fob and--when that didn't work--opened the door and pushed a button on the steering wheel. This, of course, turned on the radio. Thankfully, another security guard sitting in a giant black Escalade next to me advised me to put the key in the ignition, which stopped the alarm. I sheepishly returned to the desk, grateful none of my colleagues had wandered into the parking garage that morning.

That was probably the most exciting thing that happened to me today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Happy MLK Jr. Day!

Today was a great day! We left our apartment around 9:00 a.m. and got Jason's hair cut at a nearby barber shop. We walked down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, where we were ordered by the Secret Service to not walk on the road; we still aren't sure what was going on.

We spent some time in Freedom Plaza, a nifty little park right next to the Treasury building. There are a bunch of Washington, DC-related quotes inscribed in the cement, including one I really wanted to remember, but I now (of course) can't recall who the author was or exactly what it said.

Here is Jason at Freedom Plaza.

Note his excellent haircut.

Interestingly, the Freedom Plaza contains a time capsule of some of Martin Luther King Jr.'s personal belongings, placed in the 1980s when they renamed the park.

I wanted to get my picture in front of the Treasury and the Willard hotel. I look a little unhappy in this one, but my expression is much less bizarre than the next picture Jason took. I'm choosing not to include said picture here for public consumption.

The weather was a balmy fifty degrees today! We walked through some really pretty parts of the city, so I took a picture. It didn't turn out as well as I would've liked. DC is a striking city because of all its open space. Even major roadways often have pretty wide sidewalks. We like it so far!

We ate lunch in the National Gallery of Art's sculpture garden. This is me with an Alexander Calder sculpture.

In case you are wondering, it's called Cheval Rouge (Red Horse).

This is Jason's favorite sculpture. I don't remember what it is called.

After lunch, we hit the National Gallery. We spent a while in the early Italian art, viewing enough religious triptychs to last a lifetime. Then, we moved into Dutch art, later Spanish art, and early American stuff. Highlight of this portion:

Jason really liked the Rembrandt paintings, particularly one of a cathedral, but I couldn't find it online.

My favorite was Girl with the Red Hat by Vermeer.
After a while, we moved over to the East Wing to view the modern stuff. The museum has a pretty substantial collection of interesting works. We also saw some amazing art by Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Degas on the fourth floor.

Just when we were about to return to the West Wing (not the executive one, sadly), we realized that there was an additional contemporary exhibit in the basement. I'm so glad we did not miss it! The collection included some awesome/small Calder mobiles, interesting Rothko paintings, a giant Chuck Close portrait, and probably my favorite piece of all:

Cakes, by Wayne Thiebaud. The digital version does not do the bright colors justice.

The picture at the top of this post is also from the East Wing. I don't remember what it is called, but it looked pretty cool and Jason took a picture of it.

We returned to the West Wing and found the Impressionist collection, which included some more fantastic paintings. By the time we finished with that section (and the sculpture hall AND the Italian coin section AND the additional medieval religious iconography), it was almost four o'clock, so we set out for home. We walked home via the mall, and stopped by the Vietnam War Memorial, which we hadn't see yet. I think it is one of the country's most effective monuments. We walked home up 23rd Street and crashed at our apartment (before dining on delicious leftover baked macaroni and cheese). According to Google Maps, we walked 4.9 miles today, not including walking through the galleries! We're going to be a little sore tomorrow...

Jason gets to go to a staff meeting tomorrow morning and I get to see what the office is like when the senate is actually in session! We are looking forward to our White House tour next Saturday and seeing the Frosts on President's Day weekend! So long for now.

Rain, rain, go away

It has rained all day . I enjoy watching it from inside our cozy apartment, but the walk to the metro before and after church was a little chilly.

Last night at midnight or 12:30, we noticed bright red lights reflecting into our room. We looked outside to see two or three firetrucks at the building next door. We don't have a window through which we can actually see the building, but assume it was a false alarm because the building was still here this morning.

Church this morning was wonderful. After sacrament meeting, we headed down to the Primary room, thinking we would just observe today. Instead, we were asked to teach class which, thankfully, is at the end of the three-hour block. Our class consisted of four kids between four and six years old (a.k.a. the entire Junior Primary). They were all really cute and well behaved. At the end of class, one of the little girls gave us a picture she had colored for us.

In case you can't quite tell (I spend much time trying to get a great picture of this, so it might be blurry), this says:

"To Mis Frost

and Mistr Frost

From: Francesca

to share"

I believe the last part is a command.

I think we're going to like this job.

Lazy Saturday

We had great intentions to go to a museum today, but didn't get around to it. In the morning, we went grocery shopping at Trader Joe's and Safeway. Tomorrow we are going to have baked macaroni and cheese, about which I am pretty excited.

For Christmas, we received a book called 24 Great Walks in DC. The past few weeks have been too cold to walk, but today the temperature reached a balmy 50 degrees! We chose the first (and closest) walk in the book, which took us though Georgetown and up to Washington Harbor. Beautiful!

I took this picture of the Lighthouse Cafe for Grandma Pullan because I know how much she loves lighthouses!

The Kennedy Center from Washington Harbor. I guess they offer free tours of the Kennedy Center, so we'll have to take advantage of that sometime.

We spent a while browsing at the Georgetown Barnes and Noble. This observation will make me sound like a country bumpkin, but it seems like there are escalators EVERYWHERE in this city! There are escalators in Barnes and Noble! I guess from an economic standpoint that just means that the price of land is higher than in Utah, where many businesses are just one level. I have enjoyed the profusion of escalators, particularly the amazing Target shopping cart escalator. The wonders of modern technology never cease to astound me.

We ate dinner in Arlington at Panera (delicious!) and had some Cold Stone ice cream for dessert. I think now we're going to watch an episode of The West Wing Season III and one of Jason's old roommates may stop by.

I almost forgot! When we were walking toward the Metro station exit, we noticed a cute little boy (maybe four years old) walking with his mom. The little boy was trying to read a map while they stepped on the escalator and dropped it. He shrieked and reached for it, but the map was stuck at the bottom of the escalator, just out of reach. The mom ran down the up-moving escalator and grabbed the map and ran back up to her son, who was delighted to have his map back. I thought the whole thing was really cute! It reminded me of good women (including my mom and mother-in-law) I know who would do anything for their kids. I want to be a mom like that someday!!

We're excited for church tomorrow. We haven't been set apart yet and don't have a manual or anything, so I don't think we'll have to actually do anything in Primary tomorrow, but it will be fun to see how it works; it's been a loooooooooong time since either of us have been in Primary!!

Capitol Tour!

Today we had class at eight and two briefings. The first was by Jack Gerard, a former Senate worker/current lobbyist firm CEO who also happens to be the stake president of McLean stake. His presentation was really interesting and Jason asked a great question at the end (while many of our colleagues were asking lame questions in an attempt to prove how smart they are). Our next briefer was Dee Allsop, who runs a market research agency.

After class, we headed to Capitol Hill. We stopped at Good Eats for lunch and both enjoyed an Obama Burger, shown above.

Scrumptious.

We walked to my office, then rode the underground subway to the Capitol, where we watched the introductory film and walked around the brand new visitor's center before beginning our tour. I wasn't able to get a great picture of the visitor's center, but it's very nice and kind of reminds me of the Conference Center. One of Utah's statuary hall statues, Philo T. Farnsworth, is housed there, right by the movie theatre.

Jason took this really neat picture of the Capitol dome through a skylight.

Notice the flag near the bottom! He's quite the photographer.

He also took this picture of me with the statue "Freedom," which sits atop the capitol dome. I think the information panel in front said that this is the mold used to make the bronze version. Anyway, it's the same size as the real one. You can't really see in this picture, but the woman has an eagle on her head. Interesting fashion statement...
This is the inside of the dome. It was nice to go on a tour together because we could take as much time as we wanted in the different rooms; we weren't beholden to an over-enthused red-clad official tour guide. I like getting to the rotunda via a staircase on east (I think east. I have a hard time with directions in this mountainless land) that takes you straight up and in--it's pretty dramatic. We spent a while just enjoying the rotunda. Maybe Hannah can help me with this, but it seems like it would be really hard to paint normal looking people on a domed ceiling and high walls, especially fresco-style.

Below is Jason with the office where he would work if he worked in the Capitol.

This is Constantino Brumidi, the fellow who painted the dome of the rotunda, much of the frieze around the dome, and a ton of corridors (fittingly known as the Brumidi Corridors. Catchy, huh?)

He looks like a nice guy. I guess he died after sustaining a fall while painting the frieze.

Here is Jason with another notable Utahn: Brother Brigham! Brigham Young is Utah's other chosen statue and is located in Statuary Hall. The likeness is one of only four sitting statues, all of which are positioned around the two fireplaces in Statuary Hall. Supposedly Brigham looks happy on one side of his face and grim on the other side, but I think it is a rumor; his face looks equally unhappy to me. The statue was carved by his grandson, Mahonri Young.

What a pair of good-looking guys. I particularly like the one on the left.

This is me in the Brumidi Corridors. The lighting there is pretty dim, but you can kind of see the really elaborate painting on the walls and ceiling.

My favorite thing about the corridors is that Brumidi left some empty space so that additional important events could be added as needed. I just like that notion that America's history doesn't end with Robert Fulton and his steamboat or the Cessation of Louisiana; great things are still happening! The most recent additions to the Brumidi Corridors are paintings of the Challenger crew and the moon landing.

This is me with my sister suffragettes: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucrecia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony. Behind them (you can't really see it in the picture) is an additional lump of uncarved stone. Rumor-mongering tour guides say it is intended for the first woman president, but credible sources say it merely represents that the women's movement is still incomplete.

Jason with the capitol. I think he looks like quite the local. We are having so much fun here together!

A friendly woman took this photo for us. That makes three featuring the two of us together. I think this one is quite nice. The weather was beautiful today: fifty degrees and overcast. The sky cleared up a little bit as we walked toward the Metro, which made the capitol look stunning!

Tomorrow we plan to hit some museums (we haven't visited any yet!) and go grocery shopping.

Three day weekend!

Actually, we kind of get a four-day weekend if you count our class day tomorrow as part of the weekend. We have class at 8:00 a.m., and a briefing each at 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m., which means we are weekending by noon! I think we're going to try to check out some museums tomorrow.

Highlights of today:

1. We went to Julia's concert at the Kennedy Center and it was AWESOME. All of the featured musicians are National Symphony Orchestra youth fellows and are very talented. It was also fun to see Aunt Amy and Uncle Mark and to spend some time in the Kennedy Center. Aunt Amy told us they have half-price tickets for students after 6:00 p.m. for most concerts, so we may have to look into that (because there's no way we can go if the tickets are full price!)

2. I went to Senate Library training and Congressional Research Service training today, both of which were highly informative. In the library, they have copies of the every legislative day's events dating back to something like 1871! Part of the tour included some archives, where there are moving shelves like in the BYU periodicals section. Apparently no other Utah university library has such contraptions, because all the other interns were floored by the shelving. One more reason to go to the Y...

3. We are cleared for a White House tour next Saturday morning!!!

4. During dinner, we thought we heard a police car start its sirens outside our apartment. It turned out to be a fire alarm, apparently set off by a singles dinner group upstairs. Good thing it wasn't a real fire.

5. The weather is warmer!

6. My red badge that practically screams "INTERN!" was hidden behind my coat when I was coming in front lunch and the fellow in front of my at security asked if I was "there to lobby also?" Someone thought I was a lobbyist! I don't want to be a lobbyist, but it is a professional, adult job and I'm rarely (read: never!) mistaken for a professional adult. People usually think I'm younger than Mariel.

"What's a confirmation hearing, again?"

Yes, I heard that very statement yesterday from a fellow red-badged intern.

Today I made some Excel spreadsheets and answered some e-mail and transcribed a dictaphone tape. I also got to run an errand to the second floor of the capitol building all by myself, which was pretty exciting. Now I'm going to start my homework.

Jason also had a good day at work. He started a new project and is getting to do a lot of research. We requested White House tour tickets yesterday, so hopefully that will work out. Besides that, things go on as usual.

Déjà vu!

Today I went on a tour of the Capitol. Again. This would be tour #3. I kind of feel like I'm going for a record or something. It really is a fantastic building, though. I recommend it to anyone.

Jason has been writing a paper about a project his office funded back in 1986 and it is really interesting! A group in Colombia noticed that the mentally ill in Bogota were pretty disenfranchised and suggested opening up two stores (a laundromat and bakery) and a halfway house to help rehabilitate and reintegrate the homeless/mentally ill. I'm really not doing the project justice, but it is fascinating. It sounds like his office does really important/interesting/good work!

Today the interns in my office (the "Hatchlings," so-called) were assigned to our official departments. I am working with the chief of staff, scheduler, legislative director, and administrative director. I'm not 100% sure of what exactly I'll be doing yet, but today I got to use Excel and my Outlook account.

My gloves arrived from Utah yesterday, so my hands have been toasty warm all day. Thanks Mom!

Frosts: We ate some of the soup you brought us and it was very tasty!

One more worthwhile piece of Capitol trivia: Each state is allotted two statues for display in the Capitol (37 of which are in Statuary Hall, with others scattered about in hallways, the crypt, the visitor's center...basically anywhere they can squeeze them in). Utah's two statues are of Brigham Young and Philo T. Farnsworth (although the Idahoans claim he was actually from up north instead of the Beehive State). Connecticut is represented by John Trumbull (painter) and Roger Sherman (signer of the Constitution).

Dad: Guess who represents Nevada. Sarah Winnemucca. I smiled when I saw that.

Just another manic Monday

Today I took part in Ethics training at the Senate. Hurray! The almost-two-hour training could have potentially been condensed into two key concepts:

1. Don't accept gifts from anyone.

2. Don't talk to lobbyists.

I guess that's not really fair; some of the information would have been very pertinent to Senators or senior staff, but since no one has asked me to sit on a board or accept an honorary doctorate or accompany them on an all-expenses-paid trip to Bermuda lately, I think my two concepts would have sufficed. If anyone has any questions about what you can and can't do in the Senate, I'm your girl :)

I also got to go on my second tour of the capitol today. Last time, we skipped the Brumidi Corridor, but not this time! The murals are so beautiful.

I remember going on a Capitol tour with my family when I was probably eight years old, but I do not remember anything except the "whisper spot" in the old House Chamber (where the acoustics are such that you can whisper from one side of the room and be heard on the other side) and that Adam was in a cumbersome stroller. It is exciting to get to spend so much time at the Capitol!!

Jason also had a good day at work. I should make him post something sometime.