Bye!

I can't believe it's over, and I can hardly believe this is the last time I'm going to write. I've made new friends here and have done all those things you do when people leave: promise to email, to call, to keep up on each other's lives-- but you always wonder what's going to really be going on in another year. Will we remember?

I think sometimes when you make friends, they last forever, and other times, it's like you've met, and never knew one another, so, they pass on through just as if they were never there at all.

This weekend I made up my nice fat portfolio of all the work I've completed this semester and was surprised that it was actually over a hundred pages long! There are things here I learned that were as a result of just being HERE, not simply being in a regular classroom, and that's why I'm going to chalk this experience up as the one that changed my life more than anything else ever has.

I highly recommend it to anyone.

It's like a countdown

I wonder if it's because there are a lot of seniors, and it's the end of the Spring semester? I've seen people counting down the days till it's over, happy and excited, yet sort of freaked out that they're going to walk out of here, ready to tackle life.

By my count, there are something like a couple of weeks left. It's kinda nuts, because the weather changed, the cherry blossoms came out, and then the crazy election season is all that people are talking about. I noticed the difference between living in Washington, and NOT living in Washington, when I left a few days ago to hang out in Philadelphia.

They were talking about poodle salons, and stuff like that. I noticed how strange it was, immediately. I'm so used to being able to walk down the street and talk to any one about policy, or stuff going on in Congress, or what's up with the nominations- but not there. Most people outside of DC seem to not be as tuned to politics as I am!

Yesterday it was pouring rain, so it was kinda crazy. The weather makes no sense sometimes. You can be in DC and it'll be freezing, wind blowing around, and dark. And then you can get on the metro, go a few stops, and pop out into the sunshine (or vice versa). Someone told me it's from the altitude. At first I thought they said "attitude" which made me laugh. Ah, yes- attitude- we got it :)

Candidates, anyone?

I have now seen two of the three major candidates for the Presidency. I went to a speech at the Communication's Workers of America conference, and both Senators Clinton and Obama were there. Clinton is pretty darn petite!! I'm really tall myself, so, she seemed even shorter :) Obama seemed very tall and really slender. They both sort of swooped in and then scampered out after the speeches. It was SO cool. I'm still waiting for my chance to see Senator McCain.

While I wait for that, I'll just get to see everyone else, lol. It's really bizarre that I'll be walking down the hallway of one of the office buildings around here, and a very well known Congressperson will wander by. I mean, yeah, they work here, but it's still sort of weird when Senator John Kerry or Senator Kennedy just randomly passes you by. Someone was excitedly telling me that they were eating a burrito at the taco place on Pennsylvania Avenue, and Supreme Court Justice Alito came in. My question? What did he order, burrito, taco, or plate? Unfortunately, they didn't know :(

Right now Capitol Hill is totally hopping. There is a debate between the Dems on Wednesday, and that's all people are talking about, other than the Pope. Yup, the POPE is here too. Wow, crazy! The greatest part in all that, is the part where I'm standing in the middle of it!!

It's a little amazing to me that there are only four weeks left. One of my roommates was baking cupcakes today, so it's smelling all cake-like in here. My fourth roomie is bouncing off the walls, because she got a job in Fairfax (Virginia). I've been hearing stuff like that all over the place.

Craig was just over here, stuffing in one of the cupcakes, and telling us how he got accepted into grad school back in Ohio. It's really sad that in a few weeks, we'll be leaving each other, but at the same time, it's really good how well everyone made out. I'd say that I'm just happy for all the friends I made while I was staying here.

April already?

It's amazing that the semester has flown by so fast. These last few days, my roommates and I realized that we will only be together for a few more weeks and that's really sad!! So we're running around enjoying ourselves as much as possible.

I finally got a bike but it keeps raining :( There are bike trails all over Washington D.C. and the surrounding areas, and there is even a website just for bicyclists to join up on and get maps. I think it is very wierd to bring my bike into the elevator and then roll it into my enclosed patio, but that's because everywhere I ever lived before, I had some sort of outside to play in. The apartments building I live in is a high-rise, and I'm just not really used to that.

Since it's been winter and the weather has been refusing to really act like spring much, it was always sort of cloudy until a few days ago. That's when Cassie and I realized that not only was our bedroom facing D.C., but that from our window vantage point, we could see both the Capitol building, AND the Washington Monument. Right out of our window!! Of course, I'm thinking Vicki finds the view to the right to be more interesting. We can see the McDonalds, LOL. We walk there quite often and get french fries and she gets nuggets. Cassie, Vicki, and Craig are apparently addicted to McNuggets. I don't eat them, myself.

I was walking down the street yesterday and found it really weird that just your normal average person standing on the corner would be talking about policy. Strange. I've never been in a place where you could be just anywhere, and people would be talking about Congress or laws or whatever it was that was in the news for today. The area around here is so in tune with what is happening on the Hill that it's just part of a regular conversation. We live and breathe politics around here I guess. Of course, I guess it also depends on what you do.

Craig works in the Library of Congress. I personally am quite happy I have a "researchers card" and can go on it and look at books. I've only been in there twice so far (no time!) but I like that I can go in and actually get to read things. The regular tourists don't get to do that. But ha! I live here.

Cherry Blossom Festival

Today, Cassie, Vicki, Eric, and I went to the Cherry Blossom Festival. We met up at different points on the metro and got off on the Smithsonian Metro stop, with about a zillion other people. There were so many people crammed in there it was amazing we could even get off!

Everyone was gravitating towards the Washington Memorial. There were little tents set up for food and t-shirts and stuff like that, but pretty much I really didn't see much "festival" about it. It seemed a lot more like an invitation to the general public to come see the trees all at the same time.

There were people on the paddle boats out in front of the Jefferson Memorial, and ducks and seagulls were all over the place. I don't think I've ever seen so many porta-potties in a row!

Mostly the vendors were food. I personally went in for the "cinnamon and sugar toasted almonds," which was a four dollar baggie of nuts. They were hot, which was good! Then the four of us went looking for Fuddruckers but ended up at some place called Henry's instead. It was weird in there because there were so many TVs turned to sports at the same time, it was in stereo!

The trees are gorgeous, and I thought it was sorta strange that it could be predicted so accurately in advance when they would start blooming. I think I noticed them blooming about a week ago. My roommate Cassie noticed too, because she has allergies!

Student Activities

Ah, one should never blog at two in the morning, yet, here I am, sitting on my bed with a tummy full of steamed broccoli, wiiiiiiide awake.

Today I covered an event at American University. At the time of this writing, that means it's actually yesterday, but whatever. The event was about Darfur, Uganda, and other regions that are being oppressed. Specifically, Darfur was spoken about because it is considered to be in the middle of a genocide.

I'd say the biggest issue is the lovely Washington D.C. weather. It was overcast, windy, and drizzling. I originally went to the event without an umbrella, but I bought one from the bookstore because I was carrying around a lot of recording equipment and I really didn't feel like letting it get all rained on!

Fortunately, people actually did show up, and I took some pictures of them:

There are constantly protests, marches, discussions, forums, whatever- going on all over the place here. Sometimes no one shows up, other times, it can be terrible weather and there are a million people there. I guess it's whatever people find to be important!

Whew. I have been up all night, helping my roommate do stuff. She's working on a paper and I'm the sounding board. My other roommate is a night owl and cleaned the bathroom, lol. We ended up as three tired people with the scent of Pine Sol up our nostrils!

Next!

When I went back to college at a crusty old age, I already had two jobs. I was a freelancer, and I worked for a movie company. Decided the best way to get farther in life, was to go back to school :)

It's very, very bizarre to be a working professional, student, AND an intern too. I'm doing it all at once, actually. I'm still working for the movie company, I'm staff at somewhere else, and I'm also poking around as an intern, all while still being enrolled in college! It's amazing, and amazingly hard all at once.

I'm certianly not your typical intern, I guess, but I've discovered that most of the interns with TWC are not typical interns either. Everyone has some sort of story, whether it be working on the side (like me), getting hired somewhere else in the middle of the semester (my roommate Natalie), or being given a job offer for when they are done (my neighbor). I'm one of the lucky people that already has a job and having an internship is just making it BETTER! I really liked being an intern. Being a "student" always made me laugh, because then people got really confused about me. I look twenty-four, LOL. Oh, I'm certainly not, but it's rather fun how much that confuses people.

At the moment, my roommate and I are laying around. I ate cookies for breakfast, and we're talking about walking down to the beach. Cassie wants to stay here, and since I already AM staying here (hey, I work here!), she's looking for a job. The amazing thing is, because she is at the moment an intern, she's already IN. She's got proven work experience with which to either get hired where she's at, or use as a reference. I'm patting her on the head and telling her she's got six weeks :)

I'm glad the crazy weather seems to have un-crazified itself. The sun came out yesterday and I rode my bike all over the place. I'm considering riding my bike all over the place again, but at the moment, I'm feeling like laying around in my jammies all day!

Journalism Heroes

"Oh, ye of little faith."

Actually, my dad says that all the time, usually whenever someone says he isn’t going to be able to do something. “Dad, you can’t learn to ride a jetski. You’re OLD!!” and, well, that’s the response he gives. And yes, my father was riding a jetski around in his sixties.

I bring it up because I was contemplating self-defeatist thinking. How many times have people not even tried to do something, simply because they were already convinced they wouldn’t be able to? It’s probably common. And I’ve been sitting here for a couple of hours, meditating about it.

On Monday, I went to the National Press Club to see The Kalb Report. George Washington University had piles and piles of students in there, and so I was in this really interesting live taped show with a bunch of students, and press. Well, I guess we all just wanted to see Christiane Amanpour. I know I did.

Christiane Amanpour is, without a doubt, one of my big heroes. In my opinion, she truly shaped what it means to be a female war correspondent. I really would like to be a globe hopper like Christiane. I uber love politics. Washington and all its idiosyncracies are really entertaining, oh yeah. However, I report on a lot of stuff about the Middle East and got really interested in what is going on outside of my own country.

After the taping, Christiane hopped off the stage and stood around talking to those of us that wanted to chat. She is extremely personable, obviously genuine, extraordinarily sincere, and well, really really nice. She’s got all my respect. Because there were quite a lot of us wanting to take pictures with her, we all just jumped into groups and got pictures together. I have NO idea who the other people are in the photo with me, lol. I am also royally lame and got her autograph. I swear. I really did. I got her to sign the program paper and then I put it in a plastic thingie and hung it up on my wall. I don’t get impressed by much. But Christiane impresses me, a whole lot.

When I was a kid I idolized Madonna. Um, no, I’m not Catholic. I mean Madonna, the singer. I was totally in love with Duran Duran while I was at it, and listened to Kenny G even when not hanging out in elevators. I also loved Queen, Phil Collins, and pretty much every one hit wonder out there. I am terrible with names of songs or groups, which drives my friends crazy. I’ll be singing some song and someone will be like, ‘Oh, you like Rush?’ and I’ll just sort of nod, since I never can figure out who sings what.

It was suggested to me that I sign up for last.fm, and I thought about it for about half of a nanosecond. I’m on technology overload. I already have a Motorola Q, a Blackberry, three laptops, two video cameras, a digital camera, a personal mp3 mini-recorder, and probably more stuff hiding elsewhere. I don’t have an iPod. My brain might explode.

So when I was little, after wanting to be Madonna (and memorizing the song, True Blue, so I could sing on Star Search, no kidding……) I didn’t really have any big time hero. I would like a teacher of mine, and aspire to be like them in one way or another, but I think I really wanted to grow up and be my own dad. I’ve got a lot of people in the media that I really like, and I pick an element here and there from people that I think is a great quality, try to find it within myself, and then work on it. I consider people a constant work-in-progress. What better thing to work on, than yourself? Making yourself a better person makes everything better all around you.

I love Tim Russert, from Meet the Press. He’s always asking stuff I would want to know. That, and he is VERY in-your-face. He wants to know, he just asks. No beating around the bush with Tim- he just says it. He’s cool. I haven’t met him yet, but I've got my fingers crossed!

Mmmmm, well, I LOVE Jon Stewart. I LOVE JON STEWART. YES. YES I DO. Can’t really say much more than that.

There was a discussion about the differences between cable news, and well, not cable news. Everything is about to get a bit screwy on that, because of the nothing-analog-or-whatever law. That confuses me. Hey. I deal with radio. I presently do not have to actually know, right? Anyhow, my parents watch Fox, my sister reads Yahoo news, my brother doesn’t own a television and I have Google Reader with which to read a zillion political and/or news blogs all at the same time. My television, should I turn it on, is on MSNBC.

I am very curious who other people find as heroes. It's awesome that I keep running into Congress and other big-deal people over here in Washington. A couple days ago, Bill Gates from Microsoft was down the street. I never know day to day, who I might have the opportunity to meet!

Awesome Photo Op

The Washington Center totally thrilled me by having as a speaker Mr. Kevin Klose, the President of NPR. Some of the schools were in a big group shot with him, but I ran right up there and got my picture with him all on my own :) Awesome!

Running with Talk Radio News is awesome. Just yesterday, another TWC intern, Evan, texted me. He's also at TRNS, and the text was telling me that there was some sort of gathering on the steps of Capitol Hill. I was sitting in the office, typing up something, but I grabbed my camera and trotted two blocks down to the Capitol to see what was going on.

It was actually a rather big deal, and Evan was already there, with his recording equipment plugged into the speaker box so that it could be put up on TRNS' website later. I had a little videa camera and stood there taping the speaker, I mean SPEAKER, since it was Nancy Pelosi. There was also Patrick Kennedy and Mrs. Jimmy Carter. Evan ran up and shook her hand, and then I stood two feet from Kennedy and recorded him answering questions from reporters. Cool.

The weather down here is crazy!! A week ago it was snowing and I wore my big fat jacket and then today I was standing there just in my dress shirt. Who knows what the weather will be today. Going crazy myself, trying to figure that out. Decided the smartest thing to do down here was just wear layers. Since we're really close to the beach, my friends and I decided we're all going to have to go and flop ourselves on the sand at some point. Don't know when, but we will.

Craig is mad at me because I started this idea- we go to a different museum every weekend, one on Saturday, one on Sunday, and THIS weekend I'm going to be in New York City. I discovered that you can get from here to there REALLY cheap if you go by Greyhound. I go to NYC all the time, actually, and told them all that we're going to have to go together in the future. I have informed Craig that Mr. Hat is lonely and wants to see New York. Craig laughed.

I feel like my internship is a real job, and I treat it like one, except the part where I whip out a camera and give Evan bunny ears.

He obliged and gave me his best "oh no I'm on camera!" expression. I took this photo a couple of days ago. I actually just had surgery on my eye but you can't tell because I have a very good surgeon!! I had to go all the way to Philadelphia to see the doc. Actually I am going all the way BACK to Philly so that she can have a look at the results and take the stitches out of my face (ew...). I'll live. I've been told that they'll miss me at work :)

Mr. Hat Goes to Washington

I realized today that I actually don't know how to "not" work. I love learning, and I love my internship, and I love to do both of them...all the time! But this week, my roomies and I took Mr. Hat on a tour of Washington.

Mr. Hat belongs to another TWC intern, Craig Wilkinson from Mount Union College in Ohio. Vicki, one of my roommates, stole Mr. Hat while Craig was playing Guitar Hero at our apartment. After he left, Mr. Hat was on her desk and subsequently on Vicki's head. He rode all over Washington on Vicki's head, since he doesn't have any legs. For his photo ops, he usually stood on his own. Pride, I guess.

Before Mr. Hat was given the opportunity to see the Capitol, he had to go on a Metro ride from where we live (Alexandria), all the way to the Metro stop at Capitol South. He rode on Vicki's head to get there. Vicki seemed to be really enjoying that we stole Mr. Hat from Craig :)

The agenda for the day was to see the Native American History Museum. It's one of the Smithsonian Museums, so that means it was free to get in. If it weren't free, I am curious if Mr. Hat would have been charged the adult fee, or the children's fee. Since he can't go anywhere unattended (and he's small), I figure he'd probably qualify as the child rate.

Mr. Hat posed so that the Capitol Building could be seen in the background. (Hi mom!!) It was really cold on Saturday, and so Mr. Hat went right back onto Vicki's head. When we got into the museum, we of course went through a metal detector (they are in almost every building, and usually they have one of those cool xray machines for your bag, too) and the police guy thought my laptop was a DVD player. I carry what I call my "office in a bag" at all times, because, like I said, I don't know how to NOT work. My office bag has a still camera (used it to take photos of Mr. Hat!), a small video camera (although I have a full size one), an MP3 voice recorder, and the laptop I already mentioned. You'd think that would be heavy, but I own an ASUS Eee, which is the world's smallest fully functional laptop. It weighs 2.3 pounds and is 7" big. More like... not big.

Mr. Hat posed in front of the really cool Indian art thing. I personally thought that art piece looked a lot like some odd Aztec or Incan thing, but then again, art is not my forte. I did take Art History, but all that did was make me think art was really cool. I remember art stuff about as well as I remember stuff about geology- not very well.

There was a lot of cool stuff up on the third floor of the museum. It was structured in such a way that you would follow the curvy walls, looking at small artifacts, televisions, and info-prints, until you actually had gone in a circle and ended up where you started. Mr. Hat's favorite piece was the Dragon thing, which is a representation of the devil, called DIABLADA. When I took a picture of it for Mr. Hat to admire later, the flash had gone off right where the eyeballs were. I thought that made it look SO cool.

All in all, Saturday was really cool (literally, since it was also about 36* out), but Mr. Hat also went with me to work on Wednesday. I work a couple of blocks from the Capitol Buildling, and the "office" is really more like a radio/recording studio with three computers and three office chairs in it. Mr. Hat hung out on the desk in front of the main computer. That's one of the places where I sit when I'm conducting phone interviews. When we're going to interview people and they can't be done in person, we call them up and record them on the computer. Then we edit the interview and put it up on the website for everyone to hear. I've done four phone interviews so far. Michael Martineau, Executive Producer of Movies for a Better World; Peter Bennett, musician and actor/artist promoter; Scott Rosenfelt, Movie Producer; and Joan Miller, mother of Eric Miller, a young man that desperately needs a kidney transplant.

On Thursday I'm going to be interviewing (in person) Congresswoman Watson. It's pretty cool- I called up the press secretary, told them I was with Talk Radio News Service, and three days later they called me back and now I get to interview one on one with a Representative of Congress. Now, I was able to do a whole bunch of that at the State of the Union Address, but this is much more fun because I set it up myself and I get her undivided attention for fifteen minutes. I also called Senator Burr and Senator Landrieau... we'll see what happens.

More adventures with Mr. Hat are sure to come!

Congress and Zoo Animals!

One of the people in the world I'd most like to meet is Jeff Corwin, simply because I think he's insane. He makes me laugh. When I was a kid I wanted to be a veterinarian until somewhere around age twelve when I realized that those cute fuzzy things eventually died, and that just clinched it for me.

I’m not a tremendous fan of zoos, but, well, they’re there and I guess they’ve got a purpose. One purpose, of course, is for research and trying to keep certain species from going extinct, and the other purpose is for people like me to go and stare at them. The animals are CUTE, oh yeah. Some of them. Not the snakes. Or spiders. Or other creepy crawly things.

I love all the rodent things. Mouse deer! Elephant shrew! Some of these little guys look a lot like giant hamsters and makes you want to take them home. I actually went to the zoo with Cassie, Vicki, and Craig, fellow TWC interns. We even saw the "happy toad" or something silly like that. At that point in time, I don’t think we were quite on par with the HAPPY part of said toad, because it was supposed to be 72* on Monday but it suddenly clouded over, dropped twenty degrees, and started pouring rain. Yay! We were soaked, but we stayed at the zoo anyway because most of the people left and so we had the place to ourselves.

Rare event in the zoo: the sloth was moving.

Well, Craig and I were told that it was moving by some nice zoo employee person. We stared at it for a good ten minutes and I don’t think it moved more than an inch. So, we went to look at the naked mole rats instead. Now, that was funny. For one thing, they are SO ugly, but their little homes are more like a hive. There is a big queen one, a couple "jack" ones that are the mates, and then lots of baby ones that are just workers. But they’re blind and have giant teeth... and apparently they have no issues with chomping each other right in the butt. Craig and I watched two of them trying to squiggle their ugly little booties down a clear tube from one little house to the next.

The connector tunnel was right up next to the wall where we could see it, and so the first one would start waddling along the pipe... the second one would run up behind it, chomp it in the butt, and drag it backwards. Then, it would do this bizarre leapfrog like move as it squashed the one in front to climb over it. The front runner would then take off in a fast waddle... and the other one would chomp it in the butt and the cycle repeated. There was quite a crowd laughing at these two for quite a while. We couldn’t figure out if they were playing or if they didn’t realize that they weren’t going anywhere!

Forcing yourself to laugh will cause actual glee and merriment! Of course, watching two naked mole rats chomp each other in the butt and play leapfrog makes it even better.

A Changing World

I am entertained easily. I have never lived in a building with a trash chute before. I went to the door labeled 'trash room' which is down the hallway from my apartment. It wasn't really much of a room; it was a closet. There was a little metal door on the wall, and so I opened it up and dropped my bag in. I made some sort of 'squee' noise as I heard it slide down five floors and land on the pile below. Cool.

I’d say one of the most interesting parts of my job, is the part where I get to watch history unfold right in my face. Now, a lot of people would say "I see that on TV," which is true, but I am literally standing in it. For example, I was two feet from all the directors of all the Department of Defense guys. Sparkling stars on shoulders everywhere! I really enjoy doing what I do. For example, I just had an email pop in from work telling me that I am covering a committee hearing that Condi Rice will be the witness at on Wednesday. Cool. I frequently attended hearings, conferences, whatever... and I get to sit there and not just watch it on CSPAN. Actually... I’m standing next to CSPAN... usually asking the very nice camera guy how much the camera weighs. 35 pounds fully loaded with battery, actually :)

On Sunday, fellow TWC friend Craig and I decided to find Taco Bell. Craig, apparently, was having withdrawals, since "there is a Taco Bell on every corner in Ohio and I can’t find one here!!" Well, it was a super windy day. Something like 50 mph gusts. And... it was 40* out. So, Craig and I were leaning into the wind, trapeizing all over D.C. since the directions we got weren’t very good. At one point, the wind blasted so hard, I was lifted right off the ground and flung into poor Craig. I grabbed on for dear life and we were screaming with laughter. It was hysterical. Awesome, is more like it!

When we finally got to Taco Bell, Craig ordered himself an entire Grande Meal and pledged to stuff himself with it, which he did. The whole thing. In one sitting. And tried to steal my nachos when he was done. But, I noticed something while I was sitting there. See, I saw a homeless man in a wheel chair come in, and there were four very young looking kids surrounding him. I watched them buy him food and then they sat down at a table and talked to him while he ate the food. I, of course, always carry my video camera and mp3 recorder, and so I pulled it out and filmed them for a moment. Then I interviewed them, edited it, and posted my video on YouTube:



This makes all sorts of other things, like "what sort of yummy dinner am I making everyone for poker night" questions... seem a whole lot more irrelevant. Presently, I am watching CNN sort of like "wow." Most likely, it doesn’t matter when this actually gets posted, you could go "wow" at CNN at any moment because of this election season. Tuesday I went to George Washington University’s polling spot (it just was one that we randomly picked) and asked people why they had decided to vote for whoever it was they voted for (didn’t ask them who). It is very, very weird, to be watching them do the exact same thing right on CNN. Bizarre. I mean, going from "freelancer" to "I’ve got a Congressional Press Pass, thank you," makes things seem a bit surreal.

I felt that way again while I was covering CPAC on Friday, which was the Conservative Political Action Conference. I was with a whole bunch of other people, of course, but I wandered around with my Marantz and nice big fat mic that I kept poking into people’s faces- and I got to watch person after person get a "no you can’t come in"... and by "person" I mean freelancer. I have never felt so privileged as I did at that moment- because of TWC and my internship at Talk Radio News Service, I have actual, real, bonafide press credentials and so I get to do the most fascinating things.

Where's Waldo?

I am geographically challenged. In my thirty-two years, I have been to England, France, Switzerland, Italy, Japan, Canada, Mexico, and to more than thirty of the United States. However, I always am feeling like I'm upside down. I lived on the West Coast till I was twenty, and then have bounced around a lot since. Well, since moving to the East, I think I am going North and I am actually traveling South, or I think I've turned East and I'm really going West. That is exactly how I do things like try to drive from Philadelphia to New York and I'll end up in Delaware. Oops. If you asked me right this second where Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and D.C. are in relation to each other, there is no way I could do it.

So on Friday I was talking with my overlord, or goddess-of-TRNS, Lovisa. Lovisa is totally awesome and is originally from Sweden. Eventually I did my famous "I am sooooo lost" thing that I do on a regular basis. "Um," I said, "I don't know where Sweden is exactly...." Someone said "near Norway" which totally did not help at all. A couple of other countries were named and when they finally got to "Italy," I felt like EUREKA. I was then assigned homework by Lovisa. Find Sweden on the map. Ok! There is Sweden:

Living where I live makes seeing everything rather easy. It also makes hanging out with friends really convenient. My roommates Cassie and Vicki have decided to have Poker Night on Fridays. This involves me, Cassie, Vicki, and Craig Wilkinson, another TWC Intern. We get together, puts lots of chips and dips in bowls, and throw poker chips around whilst listening to 80s music. It's hysterically fun. I made a video of us and even got Craig singing "Just the Two of Us" in the Austing Powers version on it. It was so funny. All my fellow TWC Interns are so nice. The one that works with me, Evan, actually lives in the apartment right next door. I was standing on my sunporch last night waving at him.

Since I am a COMM major and also just a video nerd in general, I don't know how to make a home movie. I make mini-productions because I can't help it. On Saturday, Cassie, Vicki, me, and Tom went to Fairfax for a "Chocolate Lovers Festival." Oh! Tom is actually TOM TOM, the GPS. Without TOM, we would be so lost we'd end up in South Carolina before we knew it. I did mention being geographically challenged... but if I have a street map, I can find anything. It's really strange.

So we got to the chocolate festival and I spent eight bucks. Eesh. That's a lot for poor me. But the fudge was killer, and I also had to go back for more truffles that the Virginia Chocolate Company made. The owner, Tim Douglas, described to me how he made all of it by hand and that included the caramel. I briefly taped Tim and also set up a phone interview with him for College Media News. That's the branch of Talk Radio News Service where we personally get to interview and post clips of things that are interesting to College students. It includes pretty much anything, from politics to apparently candy. I have interviews set up with Pete Bennett (music and talent promoter... previously for the Rolling Stones and Elvis, to name a few), Michael Martineau (movie producer and environmental activist), Jordan Taylor (a singer that just got signed with Interscope records), Tim (the candy guy, who will hopefully love me or something and pass on some truffles), Kathy Boisseau Anderson (public school advocate for New Orleans), Scott Rosenfield (movie producer), and at the moment I'm working on Bon Jovi, Rush, a bunch of others... last semester some interns interviewed Bono from U2. Awesome. My interviews will be up on http://www.collegemedianews.com/ as they become finished. All the other interns at TRNS do those as well. There are only six of us running the whole shebang, and we pretty much have freedom to do any kind of interview that we would like as long as we figure other college students will be interested. Also some of our sound bites from the interviews (only that person speaking directly, not the actual interview) may be put up on TRNS's website if it is overall nationally newsworthy. Most likely my NOLA school advocate and environmental activist will be approved for TRNS posting. Of course, I post to TRNS often, but those are my assignments, such as the hearings I attend. So far the most interesting hearing was the Judicial Oversight one on waterboarding legality with AG Mukasey, and of course The State of the Union Address. But I'm sure that Super Tuesday is going to rock my little world and hopefully yours. Twenty-one states up?! WOW!! Love that, love that. I'll be doodling around at watch parties here in Washington, getting people's reactions to the candidates results. Can't wait.

Now that I'm puffed full of mounds of chocolate, I have been drinking my gallon of decaf coffee and eating nachos while I re-read my homework and write up my weekly reflective journal. I certainly have a lot to reflect on, I guess, since I love my job, I love the Washington Center, I love Washington D.C., I love my fellow interns... did I forget to pass the luv on to anyone? Hmmm. I love the Metro, I guess. "No large rats running loose" is a billboard in there, I kid you not. You cannot have food or drink anywhere in the metro system. That makes it really, REALLY clean. Can you imagine if New York tried that? For one thing, there would be a riot by the New Yorkers that drink Grande Skinny Milk Non Fat Splenda Whip Chocolate Mousse Triple Expressos from Starbucks. There is, I believe, a Starbucks on every corner. This makes every New Yorker completely wigged out on caffiene most likely. Therefore five zillion caffienated mad people would not be such a hot idea :) And so... I luv the Metro in
D.C.!!

I will now create enemies by saying that I hate football (I hear the booing! Stop it!!!). Cassie, Vicki, and I sat and watched. Okay, I sat at watched. Cassie yelled at the TV, Vicki yelled at the TV, and I sat here going.... "who has the ball?"

The conversation went something like this:

Me: Who are we cheering for?

Vicki: The Giants.

Me: Okay, which color are they?

Vicki: (looks at me like I have suddenly grown three heads) White and red.

Me: All right then. Yay Giants!

*laugh*

I later hung out with a different friend and cheered the Giants till victory. I am a little sad that the Patriots didn't become the second team in history to win everything all season including the Super Bowl (the first being the '72 Miami Dolphins), but I was happy they were roasted alive because they had previously stomped all over my home team, the San Diego Chargers! YAY GIANTS!!

My Zen Fish come in handy. I just went to PetSmart and got a little two gallon fish tank and put five fishies in it. I like to stare at them swim around and sort of zone out. It's how I relax. I also watch my Ghost Shrimp, which is this tiny little see-thru shrimp that swims around the tank by wildly beating its bitty little legs... of course, I killed it already, but it was only thirty cents and so I'll go get another one :)

In the meantime while I was mourning the death of ye-olde-shrimp, I ran around D.C. for three hours straight. I went on a tour of the Capitol Building with TWC. It was totally cool, and honestly, out of every single buildling in this city, the Capitol Buildling is my favorite. I love Greek architecture, and I've seen a LOT of places, like I said before. I think, though, that the Capitol Building is currently my favorite, even over palaces in France!

It was very, very overcast on the day I took these, and I took them with my cellphone. That makes them "not so impressive" but the White House? Fascinating. I sort of stared at it for a while. It's bigger than I thought. And it's bizarre because if you turn around from that exact spot where I was standing, you are staring directly at the Washington Monument (aka "that pointy thing"). A big fat hawk flew over and sat on the fence while I was looking at the White House. I tried to take its picture, but it came out looking like a blob on the fence post. But it was awesome anyway!

During that three hours, I went into one of the Smithsonian Museums. All the Smithsonians are FREE!! Yay! Poor me can go. I went into the Air and Space Museum briefly, pretty much just to see what was in it. There were FULL SIZE AIRPLANES in there, hanging from the roof. I asked the guy, and he told me that not only are they completely real, they usually have the engines and everything in it. Um, doesn't that make them REEEEeeeAAAaaaLLLLYYYYY heavy?! I know it was perfectly safe but it was still making me nervous to be standing under a full size jet that was cabled to the ceiling... I didn't figure out which was the Kitty Hawk, but I didn't stay long. I'll go back! I plan to go to museums a LOT.

Gotta prepare for the onslaught that is Super Tuesday! Yay! I love my job!

Officially Working Press at the State of the Union Address

Talk Radio News Service Interns (Left to Right) : Parul, Nanar, Evan Segerman [TWC Intern], Lyle, ME!, and Matt

I stared eagerly at the laptop which was strategically placed on the Talk Radio News Service chair. The room was humming with the low buzz of a hundred voices speaking quietly as a strange echo of the television monitor reverberated around the room. The President of the United States was giving the State of the Union Address in a room directly down the hallway from Statuary Hall, which was where I was standing with other members of the Press. I kept bouncing up and down on my toes, and I glanced frequently down at my Marantz voice recorder that was hanging from my left shoulder. Soon, members of Congress would flood through the velvet ropes and the press... including me... would be stepping forward with our mics thrust forward in their faces. I was uncertain what I was feeling right then. Terror? Exhilaration? Complete blank? I was nervous I wasn't going to recognize one single member of Congress.

But, the first person to pop out was Democratic Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts. I actually didn't realize it was him, and neither did most, as he took the Gauntlet in full stride. The Gauntlet is what the nickname of that path between the ropes; Congress walks down the path, the press squeezes up and sticks their arms out. So, by the time someone realized that Kerry had run through the room, he was already out the door. Bummer.

All the biggies had scheduled interviews, such as us (Talk Radio News Service), NBC, CNN, ABC... you get my drift. They, of course, all had television cameras (we do too, as video is put up on our website). As for me? Well, I would spot a clump of reporters chewing on someone and would push my way through, thinking about how fortunate I am to be five foot eleven. I could reach right over people's heads to poke my mic right in their face :)

Actually, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Congress WANTED to talk to us. They would walk up to a group of us and patiently let us ask a question one at a time. It wasn't that yelling jumbling mess you see on TV when someone is coming out of a doorway somewhere. The Capitol Building was surprisingly not nerve wracking because of that. It was SO FUN. It was bizarre and completely surreal to me, that as an official member of Talk Radio News Service complete with Congressional Press Pass, I was standing in the middle of all the other newsies interviewing members of the United States Congress.

But before that part, I was actually doodling around somewhere else, which was utterly fascinating because I wasn't aware of where I was until about twenty minutes in. I had volunteered to help carry the big pile of bags that TRNS was bringing in, and I ended up following one of my supervisors, Meredith, into a room full of people where we would meet the Queen Bee of TRNS, Ellen Ratner. Ellen is frequently around, but since it was my first official day I hadn't met her yet. At some point I realized I was in something that was practically a party, complete with cheese cube platters and grapes heaps. I was chatting with people... and then I realized I was actually chatting with Congressmen. Oh. Well, I didn't see that coming. Ellen took my picture with Senator Lincoln from Arkansas. That's me on the left in red, and Meredith is on the right. The Senator, of course, is beaming happily at the camera from the middle of that group.

So, that's most likely the reason I wasn't a bundle of nerves last night. People are people, period. Some of them just have more clout than others! I'd say that I loved all my interviews, because it was so FUN TO DO THIS. I spoke with eight Congressmen, but I only ended up posting sound bites from five of them. A "sound bite" is when you take an iiiiiiittty bitty munch bite from a very long statement. They get posted to our website, talkradionews.com. Those are the voice quotes you'll hear on the radio, you know- "so and so said: [insert recording] last night at the speech." And I got to do it!! As interns, it is amazing the opportunities that are given to us. My particular internship is amazing because we're given press passes and tossed out the door. "Go get stuff and bring it back." Welcome to the real world of the working press! It's incredible. Along the way, of course, I'm working with Kathleen Regan from The Washington Center. I hand in all my work to her, and of course, there are my classes. I have two classes. I'm looking forward to seeing what they're about.

It was a madhouse in there Monday night though, but amazing!! So, the people I actually uploaded sound clips from were Senator Claire McCaskill, Indy Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Robert Anderson, Senator Lindsey Graham, and Representative Shelley Berkley. The last one, Berkley, I was photographed off of someone's cellphone, so, there I am intently having a conversation with her. She was really funny. The first thing she said to me was that she'd just been riding on an F-16 Fighter Jet (apparently the base is being added to her Nevada District, so she got to have a ride), and didn't barf or anything. When she got off the plane all the Generals and such at the end of the tarmac were passing money back and forth because apparently, they were betting on barf. I cracked up. Then, of course, I asked actual questions but that was after telling her I wanted to steal her clothes because I liked her suit. You know, it's like I said, people are people... and that totally proved it.

Welcome to Washington, feel free to get lost....

For future reference, the steps up the Art Gallery are not "the Rocky Steps," and the Washington Monument is not really called "that pointy thing." However, they are descriptive enough that locals know which way to point when you ask where it is!

Move in day for me was really hectic. I got lost, of course, trying to find my way driving from the New York area all the way down into Virginia where I am in an apartment with three other women. There were freeway delays, construction, numerous wrong turns, and a late start, but that wasn’t my biggest stomach twister. No, see, I had to meet with my Intern Supervisor where I am working, because guess what- I’m special!

Ah. I am one of the three interns with The Washington Center that is actually credentialed Working Press. My internship is with Talk Radio News Service, and the only main difference between myself and the reporters that work there, is that I’m an unpaid intern. Not much difference! So, I had to take off in a dead run to make my appointment so that I could get my credentials.

This was uber important because Monday is rather special. Anyone familiar with the State of the Union Address? Yeah! The one where the President comes out and talks to all the Congressmen? That would be the one! Working with TRNS gives me the unique opportunity as an intern to be up in the press box with all the rest of the sweaty smelly press people. On my very first official day of WORK, I’ll be covering one of the biggest events in the nation. Awesome.

My roommates are Cassie, Vicki, and Natalie. Vicki and I both go to Stockton in New Jersey, and all four of us are seniors. Cassie is my actual "bunkie"- the one I am sharing a room with. I’m in a two bedroom apartment, and it’s completely gorgeous in here. I am now happy as a clam, because it’s got a gym and everything. Of course, running on a treadmill isn’t quite the best place to be when you are so shocked at the news you stop in mid-stride....

I nearly fell off and mangled myself because I was watching CNN on Saturday night while halfway through a three mile jog on said treadmill. Being in the middle of Washington, D.C. makes me more aware of politics than I was before, especially because everyone and their momma is talking about it. To be able to walk down the street and just have a random conversation with someone about American Policy completely blows my mind. And so, because of the heightened awareness around here, when Senator Obama took South Carolina, the whole gym exploded into a frenzy of conversation. Me? I just listened to everyone else :) It’s what I do because I’m a reporter, LOL!!

My roommates and I decided that Monday is going to be crazy for us. My roomies work at different places than I do, but, Monday is our first day and so we’re all a bit nervous. My first day is a big fat doozy, no doubt! We figured the best thing for us to do was to dork around for this weekend because we’ll be so busy. Washington never stops!

Cassie and I decided we’d act like tourists and wander around D.C. I personally abhor the thought of someone thinking I was a tourist for some reason; I have no photographs of New York City although I have been there a multitude of times. But I decided I’d get over the "I’m not a tourist!!!" urge and take some pics for you.

For one thing, we were thrilled to leave the apartment because of the "stinky lightbulb disaster." Some dummy at the health food store sold me a bottle of chamomile oil, telling me that putting a drop of it on a lightbulb would make my room smell great and relax me. I guess the theory is that it warms up the oil and the lovely odor wafts through my olfactory glands, relaxing the related nerve centers in my brain. What actually happened was that the stench went up my nostrils and sledgehammered my eyeballs. We ended up throwing out the "tainted by Satan" lightbulb, right after we sprayed Lysol in the air and Febreeze on the carpet to try and get rid of the smell. So, we pretty much took off in a run for the Capitol building.

It’s a really huge impressive looking building, that’s for sure. It’s surreal... nothing looks quite real because I’ve seen it on television so many times. It’s as if nothing on television is actually made of substance, and so when I see it in real life, it’s a bit of a shock. Of course, vision is also sort of tweaked, because I walked right by Jay Leno and realized I had actually walked by Senator John Kerry. He looks just like Jay in profile, and I nearly laughed. I have this feeling I’m going to be doing a lot of double takes around here... I was having a conversation on the Metro with Senator Corker about the weather... sometimes I feel like this isn’t real, but it is, and I’m absolutely thrilled.

The first place I took a photo of, was the Art Gallery West building. I showed my roomie Cassie the infamous "rule of thirds" when taking photos and the one she took of me in front of those columns came out great!




We met up with three other people and proceeded to "that pointy thing." Yeah, it’s an obilisk, whatever that is. It’s a great big pointy thing. A really REALLY big pointy thing. I’ve seen it in pictures a zillion times but when I walked right up to it, I felt a bit dizzy when I turned my face upwards and looked at the point. My photo doesn’t even have the pointy part in it, but I thought that the sun glare looked totally cool and so that’s the one you get to have a look at.


I also walked through the World War II Monument and it’s an amazing circle of pillars that reminded me a whole lot of the Vatican in Rome. I love taking photos of curvy things. There is an "Atlantic" side, and a "Pacific" side. This one is of the Atlantic half.




I’d say that the picture I liked taking the most, was the one of the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial. It was smaller than I envisioned, but I guess that is sort of a good thing, since it has the names of soldiers that were killed in the conflict, or listed as MIA. It was absolutely riveting to see the reflections of people in that black granite, and although there were tons of people wandering by, you could see the contemplations of people staring at that wall. It is a literal depiction of the futility of war, where everyone seems to die and nobody ever seems to win.



War is a big subject around here, and everywhere I guess. I hear people discussing it, and all the other issues the candidates are bringing up. Health Care Reform, Education, the Budget.... ah.... this election season is going to be incredible to watch. I’m going to be riveted to see what history is going to unfold this year in the United States. The news mediums are exploding with daily happenings, and I’m so excited I think I’m going to pop. I’ll try really hard NOT to pop though, because I need all my gizzards intact! It’s going to take a lot of guts to run through this town, and I’m going for it with all I’ve got.