Look who came to see us!

I know my mom and dad came almost two weeks ago and that I've already written a little bit about their trip, but I finally loaded some pictures (using the downstairs computers at the Barlow Center)!!

This is right after we went to the Supreme Court. Note the glorious weather. (FYI: tomorrow is supposed to be eighty degrees! I hear there is snow in Utah...)
Here we are on the east side of the Capitol.Mom and me!

Mom and Dad riding the awesome underground train from the Senate office buildings to the Capitol. This is not an April Fool's Day joke; there is really an underground train. It's awesome.

On the second full day of their visit, we went to the National Mall and checked out some of the monuments. This is from the new World War II Memorial.

Jason's artistic picture of the dome. I like it.

Jason, Mom, and me at the WWII Memorial.

I guess they picked a good week for protests! Here's the first one; it was kind of a "pick your cause" march, where people carried signs about peace, war, schools, health care, and an array of other hot-button issues.

Police on ponies monitoring the protesters.

The next day, we went to Capitol Hill after stake conference. This is before we ran into the hoards of peaceful marchers.

Another artsy photo of the dome.

Jason and I went and hung out with the pro-health care folks (Catholics for Health Care, specifically) for a while (they seemed less violent than the Tea Partiers). At one point, a woman asked Jason where she could get some water because he looked like "a Washington-type who was in charge."

Kind of a cool shot of the Capitol.

We thought there were a lot of health care protesters...until we went to the west side of the Capitol and discovered many thousands of immigration marchers. This is where our trip got really interesting.

Doesn't Jason look all Congress-y here? That's what all the protesters thought!

"Did you vote yet?"

More Capitol. Beautiful building!

Congressman Frost, Mom, and I near a pretty Magnolia tree. At least, I think it was a Magnolia tree.

I really like this picture. I wish I looked like I had hair, though.

This is looking up at the Capitol from the mall after the marchers had moved to the other side. You can still see some of the set-up from the pre-march activities. We also got to hear a rendition of "This Land is Your Land" in Spanish. If you want to hear it, talk to my Dad!

I'm glad to finally have these pictures posted. We sure had a great time with my parents (and with just Dad the next week) and are looking forward to seeing Jason's Mom and Dad in a week! We'll be home in 17 days and then we can see all the rest of you also!

I feel like I should have put up some hilarious April Fool's Day joke on our blog. Oh well.

I forgot to write that I saw the Vice-President's motorcade on Tuesday.

A Trip to the Capitol

Today we took our neighbors (The Holbeins) on a tour of the Capitol. I know we've already posted pictures of this glorious building, but here are more. I just think it's awesome!

We also ate at Good Eats again. This time, Jason and I indulged in a Milky Way shake. Wow! Best shake I have ever had. Anyone who comes to visit can partake of one with us sometime; I'm already looking for excuses to go back...

Anyway, here are todays pics. In Statuary Hall (a.k.a. The Old House Chamber) there are plaques marking the location of desks that belonged to Representatives who eventually became President (or who came back after being President, John Quincy Adams!).

Here is Abe Lincoln's plaque.

Statuary Hall.

A cool flag in a stairwell. This is the same stairwell that the President takes out to the West Portico when he gives his inaugural address.

Looking the other way up the same stairwell and into the rotunda. Every time I walk into the rotunda, I am in awe. It's an incredible place.

This is the Small Senate Rotunda. The chandelier is pretty stellar. There's a rumor floating around that it is from the Titanic or Phantom of the Opera, but neither are true. It hung in a church and a theatre before moving to the Capitol.

We stumbled upon this stained glass window in the House side corridors.

This is part of the ceiling of the House corridors. If you look closely, Hartford is identified on the map. I wonder who took this picture...What have you done this time, Jason?!The Brumidi Corridors. To see the Corridors, you usually have to go on a separate tour. It's fun to go on staff-led tours because you can sort of explore and spend as much time as you want in the different rooms. Great view out to the west.
I sure love the Capitol. I'm going to miss being able to spend time here!

It was a nice day. I think we're going to go to the grocery store now. We're also listening to the basketball game. I think BYU is going to beat Wyoming. Mariel: send me pictures from your dance!

Also: here is the Salt Lake Tribune article about the party we went to last night.

Rubbing Shoulders with Utah's Elite

We went to a reception this evening for Governor Herbert. He's in town for a governors conference, so Utahans in the D.C. area got together for a little soiree.

First of all, the party was in the Kennedy Caucus Room in the Russell building and it was just beautiful. We tried to get some good pictures, but they do not do justice to the room. It's stunning.

Governor Herbert said a few words and introduced Utah's Cherry Blossom Festival Princess. Who knew we even had a Cherry Blossom Princess?! Not me. I guess every state selects one, who then represents the state at the festival in April.

Here we are with Governor Herbert. After his remarks, we went up and talked to him for a few minutes. He was very nice; he asked about where we were from and how our internships were going. When he heard I was from Utah, he asked what my maiden name was. It turns out he knows my Uncle Derek!

Jason Chaffetz also spoke and we were able to talk with him afterward. He was also very friendly. I was very impressed with both of them.

The party was really really nice. There were servers walking around with trays of hors d'oeuvres (which were mighty tasty), a table of self-serve food, and a drink-pourer. Most of the servers were from Bolivia, so Jason got to speak to them in Spanish for a few minutes.

This picture is pretty blurry, but the guy at the podium is Governor Herbert and the guy with black hair and a blue tie is Jason Chaffetz. The only female: the Cherry Blossom Princess.

Here's the ceiling of the room. It's really high (Jason estimates thirty feet, and I agree) and is held up with gorgeous pillars. The Senate sure knows how to decorate.Here's what I get to see every night on my walk home. The picture makes the Capitol feel a little far away, but when you're there, it feels incredibly close. In real life, it's more blue than the picture makes it look; I love how the yellow light stands out against the night sky.
This is by the Russell building rotunda. When you see Senators being interviewed on the news, they are usually standing in this rotunda. It's very pretty.
Here's another view of the Russell rotunda.
Jason took this picture, which I think is awesome.

I can't figure out how to make this picture flip around (even though I already flipped it in iPhoto). Anyway, it is the glorious Gummy Tummies Penguins that Jason bought for me the other day. Yum! I think the penguins on the package are funny.

We aren't quite sure what we're up to tomorrow. I think we'll go to the Capitol with our neighbors so yours truly can practice Capitol tour-giving skills. We may hit a museum or two afterward. Adios!

Snow Day?

I hope so. We shall see. It's been snowing since about 5:30 p.m. here and we are supposed to get 4-7 inches by morning. This is so exciting!

Tonight we went to see The Rivalry at Ford's Theatre. It's a play about the Lincoln-Douglas debates that was written to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Lincoln's assassination. Four thumbs way up; it was excellent! The actor who played Lincoln looked just like him. There was this neat part at the end where the Lincoln actor said his lines (from one of Lincoln's speeches) offstage and they lit up the box where Lincoln was sitting when he was shot--very powerful. I am so glad we got to go.

Sometimes I forget that Lincoln was a very humble person. I usually picture him as this larger-than-life politician and union-preserver, but in reality--and this was demonstrated very well in the play--he lacked formal education and social status; he was really just a farm boy from Illinois. Much of the play also focused on the issue of slavery, which made me think about how far our country has come since the mid-nineteenth century. Sometimes it seems like our country is divided now, but back then it was really split. That was pretty encouraging; if we can get through something as wrenching and divisive as slavery, we can certainly overcome our petty differences now.

I can't find my favorite picture of the half-finished capitol dome, so this one will have to suffice.In my studies of how to give capitol tours, I learned that the new dome was placed during the Civil War. Lincoln insisted that the work continue to show that the United States would continue. This picture is actually from Lincoln's first inaugural address.

There, I am done musing about Abraham Lincoln.

Hopefully it will keep snowing!

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.