I will have you know I am officially writing this on my phone as I commute home. Not going to lie, it's a bit of a killer. The commute there isn't as bad - I walk about a mile downhill, metro for 15 minutes, walk another 10 and I'm there. It's really only 10 minutes longer than my commute when I lived at the Barlow. However, remember that hill? Yeah, that hill REALLY sucks to walk back up after working for 10 hours in heels, ESPECIALLY when that work includes guiding interns on 2 hour-long tours of the Capitol and running errands. I'm seriously considering either moving or driving to work if I fin a permanent position on or around the hill, particularly if I join the House gym like I plan, because then I'll be there even longer as well as be more tired and sore on the way home.
Oh well. Those are thoughts for another time :)
I feel the need to share a rather disturbing/wonderful fact: today is Thursday. The last time I showered was Monday. In all fairness, you couldn't tell if you looked at or smelled me. See, the weather here has been incredibly rainy and humid, so I haven't been able to straighten or curl my hair. I've just left it natural, with a little bit of mouse and gel in it to stop it from staging a coupe and forcefully taking over the space usually occupied by my head. And when I do my hair like that it almost never looks greasy. Ever. So I've just been doing it a series of ways. Day 1 it was down; day 2 it was half-up. Day 3 loosely French-braided with curls framing my face. Day 4 (today) pulled back with a series of bobby-pins and corn-rowed. And actually, the greasier it gets, the less frizzy it is. It's a win-win!
Also: The Guru survived 3 days in a car with me while I was sleep-deprived, stressed, AND PRE-MENSTRUAL. I think we both deserve awards; he for not making me kill him, and me for controlling myself and not actually killing him. I'm actually rather excited for when he moves out here. I can foresee us having some fun times.
Now for the interns. (I saved this for last as I knew this was re only reason you read this entry.) we'll call the first one FOH, short for Full of Himself. I mean, I get it kid, you've already graduated from college and been accepted to some very prestigious law schools. However, you're still an unpaid intern. It's not your place to constantly correct your fellow intern while he's giving a tour, nor do you have to explain every piece of your logic to explain to us why you're not wrong when we give you constructive criticism. WE DON'T CARE. Nor do we care how well you handled this constituent phone call. We're not here ro be your personal validator. So please do not interupt us from the work we're doing so you can te us a story and have us pat you on the head. You're still wrong, we're still right. I don't care if you think you're smarter or more qualified than we are. The fact is, we're still your supervisors, so suck it up and at least pretend to be teachable. If this is how you are as an intern, I'd hate to see how you would be as a staffer when you actually have a little bit of authority.
The other one we'll refer to as Churchmouse. He is referred to this way because of how incredibly timid he is as well as the fact I get the impression he's a little poor. I say this because I think I've only seen him wear that one shirt (more on that later). He too is a college graduate, except unlike FOH he is super passive and almost never volunteers any information about himself, his life, etc. I think he's living in a hostel somewhere in Virginia or the NW because I think I saw him riding the Blue line home. ...though in all fairness it was before L'Enfant, so really he could be living anywhere... That is all mostly irrelevant, of course. My biggest complaint about Churchmouse is that his timidity can be a huge hindrance in the learning process, especially as he has a tendency to take certain tasks too seriously and get overwhelmed easily. And I feel very empathetic as I had a tendency to be that way for the first month or so of my internship. Clearly I'm fine now, heck, I ran my own damn campaign office and did ALL the phone answering there! I just wish I could tell him how to skip that horrible part where you feel like you're failing and jump to the successful part.
My other frustration with Churchmouse is one I've shared with The Rack already and deals with that one shirt. And possibly the fact that he lives in a hostel.
He smells. Pretty horribly. That's not to say he's always smelled. In fact, I didn't notice it until the very end of Tuesday. By the end of Wednesday it was bad enough to exacerbate the menstrual natural migraine I had coming on. Today it was a pretty constant BO presence with accentuated whiffs whenever he moved. It's incredibly frustrating, because I can only imagine how it's going to be tomorrow.
Needless to say, I do not have my own desk, but am squished in the hallway with the interns. Not that anyone really gets any space, but still.
I am, however, working with education policy, which makes me incredibly happy. I love doing this kind of research into what would be best for my district as well as the country as a whole. Plus it's exposing me to previous legislation, possible solutions, and pros and cons of those solutions. It's fascinating and incredibly intimidating. And infinitely more interesting than sorting news articles.
There is obviously more about my life here that I want to share with you ladies. Also, you should probably call me at your girls night tomorrow.
But I'll leave you with this tidbit. Guru was in my dream last night. And there was some lip-loving.
Toodles!
-Paul Mitchell
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