(no subject)
So, my father, ever the aerospace manufacturer, explained to me the other day as I was sitting in front of the Capitol complaining about being bored that my life here is very similar to that of a fighter pilot. There are vast periods of boredom with intermittent bits of intense excitement. I laughed at that analogy at first, but after today, I've realized that there could not be a more perfect analogy.
I got to work early today and found out that I was working desk. This entailed sitting at a desk for hours answering any phone call that came in and sending off all the other pages to go walk around and do the fun jobs. It was so ungodly boring that, after about five hours of it, I traded with another girl and volunteered to go do runs. And I don't even like doing runs that much. And I only got two. My day up until around 5:30 was so profoundly boring that I didn't think I could possibly come back in tomorrow to do the same thing all over again. I even crossed my name off of the list to work late night because I just wanted to get out of there.
But there were too few people working late night, so I put my name back on the list. That was one of the best decisions I've made. Definitely the best since I've been up here. Votes started at 5:30 or so and every member of Congress was on the floor and I really didn't have anything to do but stand around and try to be helpful. And that is where the amazing, phenomenal, heavenly, perfect evening I had began. Here's a bit of a recap...
First I had a small run to pick up a cosponsorship for some bill or other, and I was picking it up right as all the Congressmen were walking over to the Chamber to vote for the evening. It was so amazing, walking through the tunnel between the House Office Buildings and the Capitol and seeing all of these faces that I've only ever seen on the Sunday news shows and Better-Know-A-District...I got chills, it was the first time I really realized the power I am surrounded by every day and the amazing opportunity I have to work for this amazing government.
Then, once I got back to the Chamber, Nick Lampson, the Congressman that Jessie and I had lunch with last week because he couldn't find another table to sit at, came up and started talking to me about being nervous around the various Congressmen and how it was unnecessary, that I was smarter than a vast majority of the people standing out on that floor voting. I, ever modest, told him I wasn't so sure about that but that I certainly appreciated his comments. He then proceeded to regale me with a story about being a Bar-b-que with some Congressman a long time ago and that the guy was a complete mess, BBQ sauce all over, tie askew, corn in one hand a pork steak in the other, and that that was when he realized that these guys are nothing special. And that he held his first elected office a year after that. From the few interactions I've had with Congressman Lampson, I've been very impressed. He's a really nice guy and I hope that his race in 08 goes well. It's going to be an extremely tough one as the district he's in is not traditionally liberal.
So, that in itself would have been amazing. But it got better. Way, way better. Rafael, another Page, and I were standing around while the votes were going on, it was pure pandemonium, and we were talking about how awesome Congressman Weiner is (more on that later) and Congressman Mike Honda (D,CA15) turned around and says to us "You are so loud, I can hear everything you're saying. But you should talk louder so it'll be clearer. Cause you're funny." And then he came back and talked with us for a long time. And he's HILARIOUS. Absolutely awesome. And he told me that I should be sure to tell Congressman Kucinich how much I appreciated his remarks yesterday (again, ask me privately if you want to know this whole story...I have to use some discretion in what I post...). I explained that I wasn't sure that was the best idea, that I would feel somewhat out of place doing that. But he said that Kucinich would really appreciate it and that I really needed to tell him.
So five minutes of Honda-humor-filled discussions and Dennis Kucinich walks by. And so I turned around and told him how much I appreciated his comments on the necessity of not pursuing the aggressive, radical foreign policy that is trademark of the Bush administration in Iran and some other remarks (see above parenthetical note...) and he really seemed to appreciate it! He was really really nice and stayed back and talked with me about it for a while, and it was amazing. I'm not an advocate of his campaign for the Presidency, but he still is a cool person and an excellent Congressman. His voice would be sorely missed in the House were he to move on for other things. I think that he serves a wonderful purpose in the House as a voice of dissent and reason. I really had not been much a fan of his in the past, but these last two days have definitely convinced me otherwise.
Surely there can't be more, right? Wrong. Honda came back and talked with us a bit longer which was great. Rafael and I were on such a high talking to these great men that we decided to try and find Congressman Weiner and meet him too. Now, to explain why it is that we wanted to meet this guy so much... I give you .
He was the Speaker Pro Tempore last week and was really cool, so after work I came home and looked him up. I've always said that you never find a politician that you agree with on everything right? Well this guy is as close as I think I've ever come. And he ran for Mayor of NYC in 2005, lost the Dem. primary but showed strong and is running again in 2009. From everything I read about him, I thought he was awesome and was thinking it would be cool to work on his campaign in the summer of 2009 for that Dem. primary. But still, having not met him, it was hard to say. So today, I met him. And I told him about agreeing with a politician and he replied that "Well, you know here in Congress we always want to see how we do on the Abigail ratings (I was wearing my name tag that says Abigail...), and you know, 80% and above is good, but those of us who get 90% or so, we're the lucky ones." He was so cool! Extremely charming and just cool and smart and so he had some other Congressman take a picture of us (I was with two other pages. :-( and the picture kinda sucks, but still..). And that Congressman was joking about how many interns Weiner had and so after he took the picture, I told Weiner that the Congressman might have been joking about the interns, but that I'd be interested in coming and working on his race in 2009, even if it is a long ways off. And he said that they'd love to have me and to keep in touch. It was an extremely cool interaction. So my goal is to be as helpful, personable, all those other good -"ul" sound words in the next two weeks and then to say something again before I go and hope to get a way to actually keep in touch and possibly go work on that campaign in '09. But yeah, like I said. Long ways off. But anyways, I'm extremely impressed by him. Here's that picture.
And after that, we walked in right as Honda was walking out and he joked with us some more and asked the security to take a picture of us (again with two other kids.. but at least this one is a much better picture!).
In conclusion, tonight was pretty much the most amazing night ever.
I got to work early today and found out that I was working desk. This entailed sitting at a desk for hours answering any phone call that came in and sending off all the other pages to go walk around and do the fun jobs. It was so ungodly boring that, after about five hours of it, I traded with another girl and volunteered to go do runs. And I don't even like doing runs that much. And I only got two. My day up until around 5:30 was so profoundly boring that I didn't think I could possibly come back in tomorrow to do the same thing all over again. I even crossed my name off of the list to work late night because I just wanted to get out of there.
But there were too few people working late night, so I put my name back on the list. That was one of the best decisions I've made. Definitely the best since I've been up here. Votes started at 5:30 or so and every member of Congress was on the floor and I really didn't have anything to do but stand around and try to be helpful. And that is where the amazing, phenomenal, heavenly, perfect evening I had began. Here's a bit of a recap...
First I had a small run to pick up a cosponsorship for some bill or other, and I was picking it up right as all the Congressmen were walking over to the Chamber to vote for the evening. It was so amazing, walking through the tunnel between the House Office Buildings and the Capitol and seeing all of these faces that I've only ever seen on the Sunday news shows and Better-Know-A-District...I got chills, it was the first time I really realized the power I am surrounded by every day and the amazing opportunity I have to work for this amazing government.
Then, once I got back to the Chamber, Nick Lampson, the Congressman that Jessie and I had lunch with last week because he couldn't find another table to sit at, came up and started talking to me about being nervous around the various Congressmen and how it was unnecessary, that I was smarter than a vast majority of the people standing out on that floor voting. I, ever modest, told him I wasn't so sure about that but that I certainly appreciated his comments. He then proceeded to regale me with a story about being a Bar-b-que with some Congressman a long time ago and that the guy was a complete mess, BBQ sauce all over, tie askew, corn in one hand a pork steak in the other, and that that was when he realized that these guys are nothing special. And that he held his first elected office a year after that. From the few interactions I've had with Congressman Lampson, I've been very impressed. He's a really nice guy and I hope that his race in 08 goes well. It's going to be an extremely tough one as the district he's in is not traditionally liberal.
So, that in itself would have been amazing. But it got better. Way, way better. Rafael, another Page, and I were standing around while the votes were going on, it was pure pandemonium, and we were talking about how awesome Congressman Weiner is (more on that later) and Congressman Mike Honda (D,CA15) turned around and says to us "You are so loud, I can hear everything you're saying. But you should talk louder so it'll be clearer. Cause you're funny." And then he came back and talked with us for a long time. And he's HILARIOUS. Absolutely awesome. And he told me that I should be sure to tell Congressman Kucinich how much I appreciated his remarks yesterday (again, ask me privately if you want to know this whole story...I have to use some discretion in what I post...). I explained that I wasn't sure that was the best idea, that I would feel somewhat out of place doing that. But he said that Kucinich would really appreciate it and that I really needed to tell him.
So five minutes of Honda-humor-filled discussions and Dennis Kucinich walks by. And so I turned around and told him how much I appreciated his comments on the necessity of not pursuing the aggressive, radical foreign policy that is trademark of the Bush administration in Iran and some other remarks (see above parenthetical note...) and he really seemed to appreciate it! He was really really nice and stayed back and talked with me about it for a while, and it was amazing. I'm not an advocate of his campaign for the Presidency, but he still is a cool person and an excellent Congressman. His voice would be sorely missed in the House were he to move on for other things. I think that he serves a wonderful purpose in the House as a voice of dissent and reason. I really had not been much a fan of his in the past, but these last two days have definitely convinced me otherwise.
Surely there can't be more, right? Wrong. Honda came back and talked with us a bit longer which was great. Rafael and I were on such a high talking to these great men that we decided to try and find Congressman Weiner and meet him too. Now, to explain why it is that we wanted to meet this guy so much... I give you .
Click to viewHe was the Speaker Pro Tempore last week and was really cool, so after work I came home and looked him up. I've always said that you never find a politician that you agree with on everything right? Well this guy is as close as I think I've ever come. And he ran for Mayor of NYC in 2005, lost the Dem. primary but showed strong and is running again in 2009. From everything I read about him, I thought he was awesome and was thinking it would be cool to work on his campaign in the summer of 2009 for that Dem. primary. But still, having not met him, it was hard to say. So today, I met him. And I told him about agreeing with a politician and he replied that "Well, you know here in Congress we always want to see how we do on the Abigail ratings (I was wearing my name tag that says Abigail...), and you know, 80% and above is good, but those of us who get 90% or so, we're the lucky ones." He was so cool! Extremely charming and just cool and smart and so he had some other Congressman take a picture of us (I was with two other pages. :-( and the picture kinda sucks, but still..). And that Congressman was joking about how many interns Weiner had and so after he took the picture, I told Weiner that the Congressman might have been joking about the interns, but that I'd be interested in coming and working on his race in 2009, even if it is a long ways off. And he said that they'd love to have me and to keep in touch. It was an extremely cool interaction. So my goal is to be as helpful, personable, all those other good -"ul" sound words in the next two weeks and then to say something again before I go and hope to get a way to actually keep in touch and possibly go work on that campaign in '09. But yeah, like I said. Long ways off. But anyways, I'm extremely impressed by him. Here's that picture.
And after that, we walked in right as Honda was walking out and he joked with us some more and asked the security to take a picture of us (again with two other kids.. but at least this one is a much better picture!).
In conclusion, tonight was pretty much the most amazing night ever.