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.