Jason Frost, graduate student.

Today was a great day! Jason was accepted to Seton Hall University's Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Affairs! The school is located in South Orange, New Jersey, just a twenty-five minute bus ride away from New York City. They only accepts 100 applicants a year; he is basically amazing. We're trying to figure out a weekend when we can head up to NJ and check out the campus.

Interesting facts about Seton Hall:

1. It's a Catholic University, so if you are a priest, you get half tuition. I guess we kind of missed the boat on that one.

2. The dean of the Whitehead school is a member of the Community of Christ (a.k.a. former RLDS) church.

3. The University was founded in 1856.

4. There is no school-sponsored football team; it was discontinued in 1982.

5. The basketball team, however, is supposed to be quite good sometimes (not this year so much, I guess).

6. 2 hours and 15 minutes from East Hartford!

7. Their mascot is a pirate. Arrrrrrr.

It's so exciting to think that we could feasibly be going to New Jersey! Crazy!

Today was an interesting day at work. I went to a judiciary committee hearing about the proposed Comcast NBC merger, and worked on some research projects. This afternoon, I attended the swearing-in ceremony for Scott Brown, the recently-elected Senator from Massachusetts. It was really cool. The ceremony was held in the Senate chamber and I got to sit in the Staff Gallery. Joe Biden swore Brown in, who was then congratulated by his Republican cohorts. After the swearing-in, I was waiting for an elevator and John Kerry walked by less than five feet away from me (trailed by five or six reporters). Other Senators sighted: Joe Lieberman, Harry Reid, John McCain, and Mitch McConnell (who kind of looks like Chevy Chase to me).

While waiting for the train to return to my office, Senator Hatch came up and talked to my fellow interns and I and introduced us to a friend who was with him. We rode back on the train with him, and then he let us ride up to the first floor in the Senators-only elevator. He said if he were us, he'd ride in the Senators-only elevator once in a while just to keep things interesting. He's a funny guy.

If you want to see something a little bit funny, watch this. It's Senator Hatch at today's prayer breakfast.

One of the girls I work with had a Groundhog Day party on Tuesday and made little dirt cups (pudding with oreos crushed on top) and stuck these cute little manila-envelope groundhogs inside! She brought me one--because we discussed our mutual love of Groundhog Day--and I thought the little groundhog was very funny.

Jason is cute too!