What I Eat On Workdays (and most other days)

A diary of my day largely based on the food that I ate:

Woke up far later than I should have, it's pouring outside.  Briefly contemplate whether or not the rain is a legitimate excuse for being late for work.  Decide to suck it up and go, figuring I'll probably be late anyway. Loan my umbrella to my roommate (not really registering that this means that I won't have one), arrive at work only moderately soaked.

There is officially no longer a desk for me, so I sit on the floor with my laptop in the intern room. We have our morning meeting, I'm assigned to monitor a survey tonight in Mountain Standard Time (meaning it's going to start later than it would if it was EST), so it's going to be a late night. I consider that maybe I'll get a Chipotle burrito for lunch and eat the other half for dinner, but then I remember that work provides us with dinner if we work late.  About 20 minutes after that, I get an email saying goodies in the kitchen.

Come back to the intern room double fisting one of each of these babies.  Sumia, another intern, feeds me one of her cookies because I sit on the floor next to her desk, and I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm a puppy. 

Stomach ache.  Too much morning sugar. I continue working and try to ignore the confusion happening in my belly.  30 minutes goes by. Pili, another intern, walks by the door and says she's going to the kitchen and asks if anyone wants anything. I ask what she's getting and she tells me she's going for nachos. Thinking that maybe my stomach will settle if I balance the salt to sugar ratio, I go "ooh yeah, I want that."  She comes back with a Tupperware box full of chips and salsa. The chips are greasy and loaded with healing power for my digestive system (I must've been right about the ratio thing), so I go back for more. 

Come back with a plateful, and a bunch of salsa. I wonder if I got too little salsa for the number of chips on my plate, but I decide that if I'm frugal, I can probably make it work.  

After this, I feel motivated.  I put in my headphones and get on a roll.  I'm so focused, I feel like I don't even need to stop for lunch, I can just work and work and work forever and not get tired.  So naturally, when Pili stops in and asks if anyone wants to get food, I close my computer and go with her to the Union Station food court.

I don't feel any preference, and I'm not actually that hungry when I get there, so she decides Subway and I go with.  I get a classic 6-inch turkey sub on Italian Herbs and Cheese; lettuce, tomato, oil and vinegar, salt and pepper.  They don't serve avocado on subs outside of California apparently, which is probably why my Subway sandwiches have been infinitely less delicious since going to college, but it's a fairly cheap sandwich, so I feel okay about it. 

Except more squished and empty.

Anyway, so I take my time eating this sandwich.  All of a sudden I'm feeling lethargic.  I negotiate with Pili to steal her desk while she sits on the floor though, so I set up at a docking station so that I can use my laptop with an additional monitor.  I get to work pretty quick, test a survey a couple times (make a couple ingenious edits, of course), and collect more newsclips.  This time I'm really distracted though, I Gchat with everyone I can get ahold of, read a few random Slate articles, and set up a LinkedIn profile (and consequently cry about how pathetic I am). 

When she's walking by, Katie tells me she made Funfetti cookies (made out of the Funfetti cake mix).  I'm not even hungry, but I'm so intrigued that I go to the kitchen to get one. 

By the time I get there, they are gone.  To console myself, I get another plate of chips and salsa.  There is almost no salsa left, but I pour out the dregs onto my plate, because I am Mexican after all.

At this point, Mara has left, so I move back into the intern room (into my own desk!).  I decide I've been working too hard, so I take a break to bum around on Facebook. Nothing of note happens.  I watch a video of Meg Whitman's housekeeper crying because of the way she was treated in their household and want to punch things.  I slow-motion punch Sumia, but she isn't amused or understanding.  While she's yelling at me, I notice something on her desk, a little glimmer of hope....

                                       

I DEMAND to know where she got it ("YUM. Where? Please?"), and she directs me toward the front desk. There are mini Whoppers and Milk Duds, obviously the last picks of the bag.  I get one of each. While walking by the kitchen, I stop by for another entire plate of chips. 

45 minutes later, not surprisingly, all this food is gone. 

At this point, I start to feel about myself, and start writing this post.  Sumia tells me to stop complaining, she ate the same thing.  I keep doing my clips, people walk in and out, and time continues to pass fairly steadily.  At about 6:30, I get the email asking for dinner orders and client codes.  We're ordering Italian...I'm so screwed. I consider ordering a salad, but their salads sound like a piece of iceberg lettuce with some tomatoes and chicken, so I decide 'whatever, today I am going binge like nobody has binged before, and that's just that.'  I order tortellini with pink sauce. 

I monitor my survey.  It takes forever. Sumia leaves.  On her way out the door, she throws me her Hershey's bar and goes "dessert!"  I cry of pain/joy. 

The food takes forever to come.  Finally, I get the delivery call, and Andy runs downstairs to collect.  I've promised myself before dinner that I will not finish it and instead take it home, but it's REALLY good, and by the time I get to it, there's no stopping me.  Andy offers me some of his calamari, which he says he loves "because it reminds me of chicken gizzard."  I choke a little, but he's right, it's delicious.

Anyway, I am now post-tortellini, ready to roll myself home. The Hersheys dessert will have to wait. Here's to hoping its not raining anymore!

CNN, Sexting, and Ex-Convents

This week was busy.

Monday, our two class speakers talked about TV journalism. I always figured broadcast journalism was all pretty faces and no brain (see: Ron Burgundy), or at least required far less talent than writing for a major newspaper, but I'm finding out more and more that there is actually a lot of brain involved in broadcast, and the journalists aren't just the old guys and nose-job chicks sitting in front of the camera.

In real life, he's way older than this, plus no make up.

In the morning, Bob Schieffer, who was an anchor on CBS for a good 20 years and the only guy in the business to have been a Washington correspondent for the four major beats (the White House, Capitol Hill, the State House and one I forgot), came and spoke to our program.  He's been on TV forever, Katie Couric replaced him on CBS not that long ago, and he's still sort of involved in production, but it turns out he's still kind of a badass.  He actually didn't impart much trade knowledge on us, instead talking mostly about how politics today is more rude and partisan (wow, nobody has mentioned that before) and how LBJ was the most effective president.  Lyndon Johnson is my favorite president (okay, he effed up big time in Vietnam, but did so many other good things), so I was pleased.

Point being, I was really impressed by Bob Shieffer.  He'd sort of just stumbled into his career, discovered that he liked asking questions, and made himself into one of the most credible Washington journalists on TV.  He brought his assistant with him, who was sort of our age and wanted to be in broadcast on a major network, and so she was sort of telling us how she got to where she was.  She was REALLY hot though, which made me cynical about how I would fair as a girl in broadcast without plastic surgery.

Later that day though, our class got a tour of CNN's Washington building, and the woman who is the Executive Producer for John King, USA on CNN spoke to us, which restored some hope in me.

We weren't allowed to take pictures, but we got to see Wolf Blitzer's office and the set of The Situation Room (which is actually closet-sized even though it looks huge on TV).  Anyway, so this woman spoke with us, and she was awesome, and so I kind of started salivating over her job.  She was talking about how technology has moved really fast in the last few years, and it's important that people invest in their news.  I'm pretty sure I'm 80% against her personal politics, but she's the one who gets to make the calls about who to talk to on air, how to frame shots, how to frame issues, how to discuss things.  Yes, John King is sitting there asking the questions, but she's the voice in his ear telling him which direction to go, as well as telling the production team how to set it up.

Long story short, I want an internship at CNN.  We'll work on it. 

Tuesday was boring, but I did get a lot of work done. 

Today was cool, our speaker was the Senior Vice-President at Edelman, which is a fairly well-known PR firm.  He was in communications during the Bush White House (I'd say 70% of our speakers are conservative), and he was talking about some of the ways that innovations in social networking and technology can be used to promote better political communications (as in awareness/support for ideas and different types of legislation).  He was funny, and he had some really interesting ideas about how to monitor media trends and then utilize them, which mostly just entails making sure that you're at least a step ahead of your competitor (who is, more than likely, already a step behind anyway).  

He was talking a bit about how anything that's ever been posted on the internet is archived and exists there forever, so I decided it would be cool to ask him a question about what that means for our generation (since we've grown up on the internet, and so does that mean that our mistakes will be held against us forever).  I DON'T KNOW HOW, but somehow in the wording of that question, I managed to include the word "sexting," and so the speaker told me that if I might want to reconsider my sexting unless I want to be the next Lindsay Lohan.  I am the laughing stock of my class.  Oh well.

On a completely separate note, one of my favorite places to go at Tufts is the practice rooms in Granoff.  They have nice pianos, and it's cool because I can put my headphones in and jam and be in a space where nobody can hear me.  So I was kind of worried that I wouldn't find a similar place at American for the semester.  Turns out, they have equally good (if not better) practice rooms and pianos hanging out in the Katzen Arts Center. BUT, it's even cooler.  A couple of weeks ago, Katharina mentioned that she saw a piano in this big dance room on Tenley campus that exists between two of the dorms, and last week I finally got around to checking it out.  Turns out the dance room is actually the chapel from what what used to be a convent here a long time ago -- they retained the stained glass windows and stage, and just took out the pews in favor of a dance floor.  However, there is, in fact, a really nice piano in there, and because the room is usually open and usually empty, I can sometimes play in there.  Awesome.

This is how emotional I get when I play piano in that church. [Ugh this picture didn't even come out, but she looks emotional, I assure you.]

Hopefully I can replace that photo with an actual picture of that dance room/ex-church in a while, but there are some dancers in there.  Who the eff dances?  I think it's the equivalent of TDC practice, except people looked like they were dressed in legit dance clothes, so maybe its for real.

This is Beautiful

This popped up on my Facebook sidebar, and it's beautiful.

Saturday Festivals

It's been fairly hectic around here, I'm trying to make sure I catch up on work and school and exercise (jk lol...uuuuuggghhh), and I feel like I'm nowhere near adequately caught up on my sleep.  This week looked a lot like all of my other weeks...class, work, dining hall food.  I tried to see Inception last weekend, but I got carded...apparently, the only theater in town showing it still is showing it as part of "Club Cinema," where they serve drinks as you watch the movie.  We saw Easy A instead, it was cute, but I've already forgotten what it was about. Being under 21 is starting to put a huge cramp in my style. Since most of the students in my program are already of age, they spend most of their weekends out at the bars, and so my weekends have been extremely dry since getting to school here.  I think I need one of these guys:

This weekend though, I managed to have some good sober fun anyway.  Actually, it was kind of a nerdfest, but I really kind of enjoyed myself.  Friday night, I went out with some kids from my internship after work (to a restaurant/bar...everyone else drank beer and I was awkward, but it was good to be social), but everyone left by about 8 to go do other things. I was exhausted (because it turns out that being a working adult is exhausting and sucks because you have to actually be responsible), so I stayed in my room for the rest of the night watching Inglorious Basterds and fell asleep at a respectable hour. 

Anyway, so Saturday, there were some festivals.  It was awesome.  Let me tell you about it!

In the morning, I suck at getting out of bed (which is becoming kind of a problem), so I kind of took a while to put myself together and shower and all that, and then I walked to the Metro and went out to the mall.  Library of Congress puts on a National Book Festival once a year, so there were a TON of really famous authors who were doing readings and book signings on the National Mall.  Katharina, my roommate, has been reading Jonathan Franzen's Freedom: A Novel, the Oprah Book Club one, so she went and heard him speak and got her book signed and all that.  I got there kind of late, so I didn't do a whole lot there, but it was just a really nice opportunity to walk around the mall on an obscenely hot day (95º, down from 100º the day before!).  Now, we this poster hung in our room (but from 2010):

We ambled around looking for food for about a second before we realized everything around the mall is super expensive and not that delicious, and then we grabbed the Metro out to Alexandria (notice the suspense, I haven't told you exactly where we're going yet).  The train was single-tracking and we got delayed forever, so we just read our respective books and I fell asleep for a bit.  Finally, we get off at Van Dorn.

So, my parents have family friends in DC who have a daughter in school at USC, so the two of us essentially switched families. The Morans have been REALLY good to me since I got to school this semester, insanely good to me.  Makes me kind of wish that I actually had gone to college in a place where we had family, because getting adjusted to college was hard, and I feel like it's been really nice to feel like I'm taken care of, just in case. Anyway, this weekend, they gave me this awesome gift: tickets to Virgin Mobile FreeFest (which, granted, are free) and a car to get there. 

The Morans: Karen, [boy who isn't their son, Reid, but usually Reid stands there], Shelby, and David.  Photo via my Facebook creeping on Shelby.

So David picks us up from the train station, and we go get lunch at Johnny Rockets.  After having not eaten all day, I'm starving, so I WOLF my cheeseburger.  We leave for pretty shortly thereafter, getting lost about 6 or 7 times before getting on the main stretch of the road.  David had to stay on the phone with us for about 30 minutes, I felt like such an idiot.  BUT, we did eventually get on the road just fine. 

In general, the thing I miss most when living on the East Coast (besides my family and friends, I miss you all to death) is my car.  I love driving, the way it feels, the freedom it gives you.  It's great.  Driving on the highway to FreeFest felt amazing, and to blast the radio, sing in the car (although when I'm alone, I don't have to justify my love for Taylor Swift to anyone), and push the speed limit (just a little Mom, I promise) was such a gift. 

Katharina took pictures on the ride up, I'll steal them from her later and get real photos.

The ride took a little over an hour, plus the traffic mess it took to find parking. We parked kind of far up the hill from the event, got about halfway there, and then realized that we'd left the tickets in the car. MAJOR WOMP (actually, not my fault, I was the responsible one!) (Dad, stop laughing).  We walk back up, get the tickets, and then realize that there was a shuttle bus set to take us to the venue anyway.  

By this point, we've actually missed a lot of the festival.  Kind of a bummer, they had some really cool acts in the early afternoon (Temper Trap, Jimmy Eat World, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, and Yeasayer played in the morning).  But we got there for the end of Thievery Corporation, who were pretty awesome.  The venue was really cool, they had three stages set up, plus a bunch of promotional stuff set up (I snagged a Converse gym bag).  I'm sorry I don't have better pictures, I had to resort to my cell phone because I haven't gotten around to buying myself a new camera.  

This was the side stage, where we spent most of our time.  Set up next to this stage, they had a ferris wheel set up: 

We spent most of the rest of the day on the sidestage.   Apparently, right around this time, Matt & Kim AND Chromeo played, but we had no idea, so we just chilled obliviously on the grass surrounded by drunk people.  It was great.  We didn't wait around long though, because Ludacris came on about 20 minutes later.  The sun was just starting to go down, everyone was super drunk, and he was playing some REAL throwbacks (even like, Act a Fool and What's Your Fantasy?) and every song he's ever been featured in (Break Your Heart and Yeah were big favorites), so everyone was really excited, me included.  He was actually a really good performer, I didn't really remember his show from Spring Fling freshman year. 

After Luda, we got some food.  While I was waiting for them to make my quesadilla, these drunk guys swaggered over and started attempting conversation with me and the girl standing next to me.  One of them handed me his iPhone to keep, but I politely declined and returned it to him.  Fireworks were going off for a while, I split a funnel cake with Katharina, and we wandered around the grounds a little bit.  At 9, we went back to the side stage, where MIA was playing. 

She was SO. GOOD.  I know MIA is really an acquired taste for a lot of people (except for Paper Planes, there's nobody who doesn't like that song), but she put on such an awesome show.  I wish I had a better photos than these, but I don't.  We were really far back for a while, and then some people got confused by her music and peaced, so we got continually closer and closer.  She really is so weird, but nobody works it like she does.  Then she gets about a hundred people on stage to "mosh the fucking pit," and we get even closer because a huge gap in the audience has opened up. That's supposedly the end of the song, so even more people leave, but we figure she's such a showman (and she hasn't played Paper Planes), so we stick around.  Of course, we're right, and she comes back and like hops into the crowd and informs us that we should all rush the stage.  You can kind of see her in this picture, she's in that space between that guy's head and his arm.

Anyway, it was awesome.  And then we drove home (which was fun, we played my iPod on the car stereo and actually managed to not get lost) and grabbed the Metro back to school. Long day, totally worth it.

Akademicz

I almost said that it's starting to cool down here, but I checked the weather and found out that that's a big fat lie.  I don't know if any of you know how infamous Washington D.C. summers are, but the carry-over into September is brutal.  Usually, I can't even walk the two blocks from here to the Metro without getting my shirt all sweaty.  A lot of our guest speakers have talked about the advent of air conditioning (which we have in our room, thank god) as revolutionary to the American political system.  Apparently, there's a statue of the man who invented A/C erected in one of the congressional buildings.

When God gave the world A/C.

In thinking about that though, I realized that I haven't discussed much about the academic side of my program.  I think a lot of the things we're doing in class are really cool and worth bragging about (although post-Obama post, I feel like my bragging is getting annoying).

Our professor actually set up the class so he talks as little as possible.  The first few class meetings were lectures, but after that, we've just had a series of guest speakers who do different kinds of work in Washington.  We've really stayed away from the traditional "this is what a Congressman does" kind of stuff (probably more by virtue of the fact that my professor can't get ahold of anybody on the Hill right now because it's election season and everything is such a mess), but we've gotten to see a lot of people specializing in really specific fields, and it's been really cool how those groups fit into the larger Washington pictures.

Our class.  Our professor is a man, but he looks a lot like that.

So as to not go on and on, I thought I might try to mention just my favorites.  Coincidentally, my favorites have been all women (although there was this one woman who was AWFUL. Andrew aptly said he wanted to make a human centipede and put her in the middle. I tried to ask her a question, but she totally blew me off and just talked about how horrible healthcare reform is).

• Karlyn Bowman -- she's a pollster and public opinion scholar, which sounds kind of flat, but  ended up being REALLY interesting. She's part of the reason I took the GQR internship.  Here's some of the interesting and weird stuff that Americans believe:
• Young people are more liberal on most issues, with the exception of abortion, where we're more conservative than our parents.
• We also are much more gay-tolerant, but also are more likely to believe that gayness is a choice and not genetically predetermined. 
• When asked if they would elect a  ______ president (with options for that blank being like "gay," "black," "Muslim,"), they found that Americans would be least likely to elect an atheist (sorry Daniel).
• Susan Morrison -- journalist and badass.  Wrote for the Washington Post, New York Times, CBS, ABC, and worked as a communications advisor for Papa Bush.  
• Lisa Muscatine -- the freaking chief speechwriter for Hillary Clinton.  The whole thing just made me so star struck.  This woman gets to put famous words into the mouths of people who have influence.  It's essentially getting to craft the exact message of what you want these people to support. Okay yes, the words are essentially Hillary's and not Lisa's, but you get to craft the message.  Plus, you get to chill with important people all the time, and sleep on couches and be around at a moments notice, which doesn't sound glamorous to a lot of people, but I think sounds totally incredible.

Hillary delivering a speech written by her speechwriters.  That's not to say that Hillary isn't brilliant and can't write her own speeches, I'm sure she can.  But maybe someday I'll write a speech and someone famous will read it! Maybe!

We've had a lot of other amazing speakers at every level.  Last week, we talked to two different House representatives (Jim McGovern (D-MA), who restored my faith in humanity, and Paul Ryan (R-WI), who I kept calling James Ryan in my head).  We spoke to a really famous ad communications guy for political campaigns, multiple campaign finance specialists, a guy who specializes in redistricting and drawing congressional district (gonna be real important next year post-Census!), communications director for the NRCC (our only non-white speaker), the professor of the Public Law program here, and a few other important types.

Also, one of our speakers called that cool Obama thing I went to a "Cinco de Mayo festival."  I wanted to send his balls to "Will it Blend?" Sometimes I hate America.  Someone just try to tell me that I overreact about racism too much.

Anyway, I just got my first paper back...I think I've been spending my time sort of inefficiently.  I've tried (as much as I think I can get away with) to just do the things I want to do and hope that I can BS myself some As, but I think I might actually need to quit slacking and start working.  I am still a student, after all, I think I just adopted some study-abroad-itis, which looks really similar to the senioritis I caught in my last year of high school. 

Off to cure myself by cheating on Tisch with another library. Wish me luck!

Fancy Times

As it turns out, my parents, back when they were energetic and idealistic young people in Washington D.C., were some serious hot shots.  My dad was a legal staffer working on education policy for Ted Kennedy, and my mom worked for National Council of La Raza doing work on bilingual education and other education policy for Latinos.  Somewhere in their D.C. careers, they met, probably hated each other, somehow fell in love, and close to 30 years later, they're now living in LA with my 17-year-old musician younger brother and Skyping with me across the country while I'm in college at Tufts.

But just because it's 30 years later doesn't mean they're not still pretty well connected. 

My dad came out this weekend to visit DC, partly because I'm here, partly because it's kickoff week for Hispanic Heritage month, and partly because he just missed this city.  Kind of like when my mom was here though, I've been really occupied with school and work and hanging out in my room, so it's been hard to see my dad as much as I'd like to have.  BUT, we have managed to spend a fair amount of time together, and he managed to get me a lot of really amazing opportunities to go to these fancy-pants events, the big time in Latino politics.

So on Tuesday, I slid out of work early, ran across the street to Union Station to buy a dress (it's black and only borderline too short) and my dad picked me up to this event at the Mayflower Hotel for the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts.  So we walk in, immediately my dad starts shmoozing with some guy (because he a gift for being gregarious that I so innately lack), so I tag along and try to intrigue the guy with my "ambitious young person" shtick.  My dad leaves us alone to get a drink, and we struggle trying to find conversation topics, so he's asking me how I like school, what I'm studying blah blah.  It gets so bad that he asks me if I have a boyfriend.  Obviously, this creates some discomfort, but I convince myself that I need to start being honest about myself to other people or it'll always be awkward, so I tell him I'm gay.  Turns out, so was he, and he'd just gotten married in Provincetown, come out after being married for 20 years, and we had a beautiful bonding moment over our mutual gayness.

And so began my career in the art of shmooze.  Between my dad and my godmother (who was also there), there was seriously nobody in that room that I didn't have some kind of access to, it was bizarre.  I met a bunch of people working for Hilda Solis (who's the Secretary of Labor), a dude working for Sonia Sotomayor, a guy who does commentary for Fox News and looked like Duncan Kane (he said he liked my dress, so impressive!), the dad from Ugly Betty (Chelsea, if you're reading by chance, that was the most star struck I've ever been, it was ridiculous), Jimmy Smits, Eric Balderas (the Harvard student who's being threatened with deportation), Esai Morales, and Janet Murguía (the president of NCLR).  So, so so cool.

But BUT, it gets better.  The VERY NEXT DAY, my dad manages to swing tickets for another shmancy event, but this one is huge.  While the other one was in a hotel event room, like where normal people have weddings or dinners, this was a HUGE hall in the Convention Center.  This was half of the room:

The event was held for Congressional Hispanic Caucus's Award ceremony.  The event was hosted by CNN's Soledad O'Brien, who did "Latino in America" and "Gary and Tony Have a Baby" and is actually one of my favorite broadcast journalists, but she was SUCH an obnoxious host.  She'd shush the audience so we could keep moving, and yell when we were talking. But she did get us through the event pretty quickly, and I was exhausted, so that was kind of nice.  Any congressperson with a Hispanic surname or Hispanic constituency was there (Freeman's First Law, anyone?), and I actually got to meet Xavier Becerra (because apparently, he was at my parents' wedding??), but he totally grip'n'grinned me and brushed me off.  I actually didn't get to meet anyone really cool here, but being in close proximity to all these awesome politicians and famous people was incredible.

Nancy Pelosi (Speaker of the House) spoke.  She was excellent, but she kept pronouncing Nydia Velasquez's last name Ve-LAS-kuez, which definitely didn't score her Latino brownie points.  Kind of reminded me of when my friend Noelle's parents got married, and the minister pronounced them Mr. and Mrs. RAHM-i-raz instead of Ramirez.

And Eva Longoria got this award for doing good things for Latinos (and obviously, for being super hot).  Turns out Gabrielle Solis is actually kind of a hardcore activist, and has actually done a lot of really important things for the community.  In fact, lately my Facebook ads have been her face superimposed on the Capitol building urging me to support construction of an American Latino Museum in Washington. 

             

And then, the coolest thing that's ever happened to me:

Unreal.  Best week ever.  He spoke for a good 20 minutes about Immigration Reform and the DREAM Act.  I swear, if he only ever gave speeches, President Obama's approval ratings would be 110% instead of 41% (my roommate, however, points out that this would probably have been true of Hitler as well though).  In his speech though, Obama said a lot of things that probably sound like just politician rhetoric, but they really reaffirmed my faith in him as a president. He talked about the divide in this country, how everyone has been talking about how "they" are ruining "our" country.  You know, "them," Latinos (illegal immigrants), gays (sinners against God), black people (criminals), the poor (drug addicts and welfare sucks). You mean me.  Anyway, so Obama says this among a lot of other similar comments: "There is no us and them, there is only us." Warmed my heart. 

It's one of the reasons I think having a black president really is different than having a white one (disagree with this if you want).  But I do believe in his domestic policy as a president, I do believe that in most places, our country is moving in the right direction, so Tea Party, go suck a d, because I will fight you to keep this guy in office.

-------- EDITS ----------

My conclusion to this post is lame, and I'd fix it, but I'd run into the same problem that I did when writing it, which is that I don't know how.

Here are some corrections from my mother:

1. Much easier to be energetic when we weren't working full time AND raising kids!

2. I left DC in 1986 -- don't need any extra years added there, thank you very much!

3.  I think we're still pretty idealistic -- we just made a tough choice to leave DC and stay in CA while raising kids and to be around our aging parents.  There are so many different seasons in life and after about mid-39s, it was time to try to make some money so we could raise kids and send them to college and hopefully not live in a trailer park when we retire.  I don't think I ever made more than $35,000 a year while working for NCLR (and that was a fairly senior position!).  

4.  Interesting to see you begin to see us beyond just the roles of Mom and Dad.  Just as we have the chance to see you develop as such a lovely and interesting young woman in your own right.

Love you kiddo, 

Mom

Sorry, meant no offense!  I know you guys are still fundamentally the people you were when you were here, and I've always known that, I just meant to say exactly that, that while I was growing up, you were Mom and Dad, and it's been really great to see more sides to you guys as I get older. 

Why Hispanics Fucking Rule

Because it's Hispanic "Hysteria" week, as it's called, there are a series of fancy Latino leader events that my dad is in town to attend.

Long story short, I'm going to see Obama tonight.

I'm.
So.
Excited.

More later.

Going Abroad Should Not Be As Hard As Real School

So it's 4:26 AM, actually the second night in a row that I've been up at an ungodly hour working on homework.  I have to continue writing (I've got to finish a policy memo on why I think Republican Tim Pawlenty can with the presidential primary in 2012 and eventually the election, even though he's a prat), but I wanted to note two things:

• I'm sitting in a quiet room in the library.  The sign outside the door says "Speak Softly," and someone wrote underneath "and carry a big stick."  Love American/DC.
• I'm sitting across from the men's restroom, and it's 4:30 in the morning, so I decided that I could probably get away with using the men's room instead of walking around to find the women's.  Urinals are gross.

That's all for now.  More news on class and life later.

Now That I'm a Little More Settled...

It's been a while, blog-readers.  Sorry I kind of dropped off the face of the earth (and I know you were all so worried), but now I'm a little more settled in, and so I figured I'd give you all the weekly update!

So last I wrote, I had just started my internship.  I'm working 3ish days a week at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, which is a progressive polling research firm.  It's actually not at all what I anticipated doing while in DC, and it sounds a little dry, but I'm actually learning a lot and getting a lot of substantive work (although, as I write this, I'm sitting at the front desk of the office answering phone calls) (poorly, I might add, despite my CB training).  Most I do news clips, which is essentially me reading a lot of articles about our clients (different congressional campaigns across the country) and writing summaries of them. There are a lot of interns here, so it's a really cool place to work.

Anyway, this is me at work.  I'm so excited! :

But after the my first work week, I actually had a really nice weekend being a non-tourist tourist.  I went down to Georgetown to visit my friend Nick on Friday, got a little lost trying to get there (Georgetown isn't exactly Metro accessible, since they think they're way too important to be accessible), and ultimately ended up taking a cab to Nick's apartment from where I got off the bus.  It was actually pretty beautiful, I completely understand why it's such a fancy place to live. Plus the campus is really gorgeous, which I knew from when I thought it was the optimal college for me.

So when I was there, I saw this kid:

And happened to run into this kid:

Anyway, all in all, I had a really good time. I like those kids, and I met a lot of really nice people, it ended up being kind of a cool night.  Especially since before I had my Georgetown plans, I was supposed to go to this shmancy party at the Costa Rican embassy with my awesome scavenger hunt team (that was the prize we won), but I didn't make it on time, and I missed it.  Womp womp. Anyway, so that was fun.

Saturday, I actually didn't do very much of anything.  But Sunday I went with my roommate to the American Art Museum off the mall.  We went through the "Modernism Through Impressionism" gallery, saw some German sketch artists, it was kinda cool.  I'd like to spend some more time there, we kind of rushed through, which honestly had a lot to do with the fact that I really had to pee, but they had a lot of really interesting and beautiful pieces there, and I'd like to look around more.  After that, we were hungry and poor, so we walked to Chinatown to get pizza (lolz) and then wandered around the downtown area for a couple hours.

This is the entryway to Chinatown, it's pretty cool. Across the street from this sign, however, is a Starbucks and a McDonalds.  Typical.

So later in the evening, our family friend David comes and picks me up, and we drive to National Harbor.  BEAUTIFUL. Plus, getting a ride in a city where you don't drive is the best, and I got sort of a driving tour of DC.  At night, since all the monuments and buildings are well-lit, you can see everything so clearly, and it's kind of amazing to see.  Driving down the bridge (I'm vague because I don't know what bridge), you can see across to Arlington Cemetary and the Eternal Flame for JFK.  Eventually, we got to National Harbor and kind of looked around for a bit.  There's a really gorgeous view, but actually I think the most interesting part was this sculpture called "The Awakening" that was hidden in the sand.  Or rather, not really hidden, but protruding from the sand:

                               

So we leave, realize we're STARVING, and go in search of food.  Unfortunately, Sunday nights are a no-go for doing anything past 10PM.  BUT, because David is so much like my dad, he got someone to open up their restaurant after closing, so we got take-out Thai food, went back to their house, and watched 3 episodes of True Blood before I passed out.

This was pretty much the extent of my weekend.  Our speakers this week were really cool, but that might be subject for a different post.  Get excited, it was really cool.

Some bitching (only a little) (okay a lot, sorry)

 Today was an internship day, so I was working.  It's interesting being an almost working adult, I get up in the morning, take the subway (and because I always have to go at peak hours it always costs me $3) to Union Station, and get off.

This is the story of this day.

Get up.

Except, more like....

                       

Cried about it a little, got dressed, brushed my teeth, walked out the door.  My roommate is still sleeping, so I walk out the door hating her.  I walk to the subway, the escalator is still out going down, so I walk down the stairs, pay, and get on  (this is going to be in so much detail to aesthetically offset all the Google-imaged pictures that are going to show the day's misfortunes, which are actually not that unfortunate because today wasn't even that bad, I'm just exhausted).  Obviously, there is no seat because it's the morning, and people who get on farther away are totally entitled to them.  Finally get a seat at Farragut North.  I was so happy to get my seat that I zoned out entirely, and thus missed my stop.  

                        

I realize only after the doors shut at Union Station though, so it's no big.  Get off at the next one, wait to turn around.  End up getting to work within the acceptable morning time frame.  Today, however, nobody is out sick (there's not enough room for all the interns in the office), so I have to sit at an abandoned table far away from the other interns.  Nobody looks for me all day. 

                        

Whatever, I do what I want. 

So Sumia emails and asks if I will take a production assignment (i.e. making copies and occasionally binding them together in books), so I go to the copy room and struggle with the printers there for an hour.  Roughly about this time, I learn more about how to do clips (which are news summaries of candidates we work with or other clients), so I start attempting to do mine.  I do this for maybe an hour, and then it's roughly lunch time, so I decide it's probably about time to feed myself.  I walk up to Union Station, figuring there will probably be lots of people and food there.  As I walk into Union Station, I see a group of 5 or 6 people wearing Chipotle T-shirts, and realize that I NEED IT.  

                         

I need like a crack addict needs.  All of a sudden I am FIENDING for a burrito.  Based on my encounter with the Chipotle T-shirt wearers, I decide there must be one in Union Station, so I go in frantic search of a map.  I finally figure out that the food court is downstairs, walk all the way through it, but there is no Chipotle.  Undeterred, I walk back through Union Station, thinking it must be somewhere.  I finally find a MAP!  and see on it that there is, in fact, a Chipotle on the premises.  All my work was all for a cause, I feel great.  I walk around the building more trying to orient myself so I can find the Chipotle, but I find that in fact, the Chipotle is "coming soon," and there is no burrito to be had. 

Completely dejected, I wander to Corner Bakery (which is not a corner bakery, but instead a fairly large chain corporation), and buy a Chicken Pesto sandwich.  There is very little pesto in it.  

                   

Whatever, so I go back to work, do my clips, and sit in pretty stagnant silence.  Apparently Friday is beer day, so they bought beer for the whole office.  I got this job from a friend of my dad's, so it's well established that I am one of only two people in the whole office under 21.  I drink 4 cups of water and pout some more. 

At 5:30, I'm really trying to finish, but I'm just too tired.  People are playing Guitar Hero in the conference room, which is cool, but I don't really know anyone so I just leave. This is cool, I grab the subway, go home.  There is a seat for me, funny enough, starting at Farragut North. I get back to school, ride the working up escalator up to the road, and walk home.  I swipe in (my card gets rejected twice, but works the third time), and get to the crossroads.  I have to get to the fourth floor: should I take the stairs, or take the elevator?  

             

I feel as if my day (which is not actually that bad) merits some laziness, and I should take the elevator.  But as soon as I get as far as the stairs, I feel this weird rush of energy.  Fuck you, day, you can't get me down.  You're not going to have me crawling on my hands and knees to the elevator.  Cain't nobady make me do nuffin I don' wanna do.  Suck it world, I'm taking the fucking stairs. 

And I do. 

The Last Thing I'll Say About Saturday...

Also, I went to my internship for the first time today at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, that does political polling and campaign strategy for progressive candidates (none of which I'll allowed to disclose because I already signed the confidentiality forms). Actually, a list of their clients is on their website, it's REALLY impressive, I went through with Andrew and we were both really impressed with the kind of big name groups they work with. Details to follow soon (because I'm going back tomorrow all day, and more will probably happen then).