Only two weeks left :(

So not a whole lot of new things have been happening. I went to a Department of the Interor meeting this week and that was nice but other than that it has just been more interning and going to meet with speakers for class.

This week we meet with a man from the Family Research Council. I am not going to talk much about what happened because to be honest I was shaking when this man was talking.

On the exploring side today my roommates and I went to the famed wax museum Madame Tussaud. It was SOOO much fun and the wax figures looked so life like t was scary! Some of them looked just like the real person but then there were other ones that looked nothing like the person (Oprah looked Asian!)

It has been COLD out here in DC, not Chicago cold but it is cold! The thing is that the temperature just doped and it can be windy! I do with that there was some snow but I will have plenty of snow when I get home in two weeks!

It is just sad to think that I am going to be going back to Chicago in two weeks! I LOVE it out here in DC and I do see myself living and working out here ASAP!!

Thanksgiving 2010

So today is Thanksgiving and although I am alone it has given me some time to think about everything I am truly thankful for! So here is a list of some things that I am truly Thankful for:

- My Parents: You guys have giving me all the support in the world! When I told you I want to move to D.C. you guys are all for it. When I call you guys you are always there to listen to me rant and always offer me help. There is truly no way for me to put in words how thankful I am that I have you guys as parents!

- My Siblings: Although we don't always get along and I know that I can be mean spirited at times you guy have tought me things that I would not have known.

- My Family: From my dad's small sized family to my mom's large Irish family I always have a Great time when I am with you guys. From Rice Ball Day to when we made homemade paste these are memories I will have forever.

- My Friends: You guys keep me sane! From the friends I still have from OPRF, to my UIS friends, to my new friends in DC you guy truly are the best people that I know and some of you guys are more than just friends you are my family!!!

- My Grandma: You give me someone to write to every week and you are the link to my past! I love talking to you and listing to your stories!

(now for the less sentimaental and more funny/silly)

- The Movie Elf: Watching you on USA officially shows the start of the Christmas season, and who doesn't love Will Ferrell in tights?

- Politics and Politicians: Without these two thing I have no ideal who I would be! You are very fun to watch and be apart of.

- The First Amendment: Without you America would not be what we are and personally I love the fact that I can say anything to anybody and not have to be afraid that I might get arrested.

- Food Blogs: You guys have AMAZING recipes and I want to try and Make all the ones I see (Noble Pig and Smitten Kitchen are my favs)

- DVD's: I own WAY to many but when I am board and have nothing to do it is nice to be able to pop in a movie and/or show and watch it at my pace.

- Facebook: I am able to stay connected with so many people and have a nice farm to tend to.

- My Computer/internet: I have no ideal how people did things before a computer let alone the internet!

- flicker: you make me feel like I can be a professional photographer.

- naps: I don't know how I went through the day without you!

- Spell Check: I know that I am a bad speller and you always make sure I don't make a fool of myself when I do spell things wrong!

- I am very thankful that I live in a country where a African American can be President and women can run for Vice-President, President, and She can also run one of our legislative branches of government. And although not everyone will agree with what they do/say OUR GOVERNMENT STILL FUNCTIONS!

Well that if all I can think of for this year! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Great People = Great Weekend!

This past weekend I had an AMAZING time when I got the chance to show around a great group of Women around!!!

Colleen, Mom, Carol, Lori, and Jenny all came in for the weekend and boy did we have fun! It all started of Friday where in the morning we got a tour of the Supreme Cort by one of Justice Kennedy's Law clerk. The tour was great because we got to see inside the Supreme Cort and the Law Library! The architecture alone in that building is beautiful! Than we walked across the street to the Capitol and took the capitol tour (third times a charm for me!lol) After a lovely Capitol Tour I took the ladies to one of the most amazing burger places in the world Good Stuff Eatery! I LOVE Good Stuff so much!!! and it is one of Spike from Top Chef's restaurants and he was there when we went! Than after some more walking around we went back to our hotel to get ready for our West Wing tour!!!!

One of Mom's friends from grammar school son works in the White House in the economic department.

This tour was unbelievable! We walked through the whole West Wing and saw such important offices such as the oval office, the cabinet room, The Rose Garden, and The Brady Press Room! Seeing such important office's and hearing stories about the Obama's and how down to earth they are just mad the weekend so much better!

On Saturday and Sunday we did more sight seeing. Going to places like The Vietnam Wall, Lincoln Memorial, and National Cathedral (Where She She ended up leaving her phone Devin intervention? i think so)

All Together it was a great weekend and I am sad that it went buy so fast!

Meeting Colin Goddard

Today in one of my classes our guest speaker was Colin Goddard from the Brady Campaign. To me listening to him speak was absolution profound. Colin was a student at Virginia Tech in 2007 and Colin was shot 4 times. Colin currently works for the Brady Campaign, an organization that wants to prevent gun violence. One thing that Colin kept bringing up is how easy it is to get a gun and the gun show loop hole. The Gun Show loop hole is that someone can goto a gun show and get a gun from a privet seller with out having to go through a background check like people have to do if they get a gun from a registered seller.

At the end Colin talked what happened on that day and what he was thinking about when it was all happening. Colin also expressed some of his frustrations with Virginia Tech administration for how they dealt with the situation.

Needless to say it was very interesting to hear him speak.

Interesting People and Events

One thing that I have been making sure to take advantage of while in DC is free things! To me the best price in the world is free and in DC there is plenty of thing to do here that are free!!!

About 3 weeks ago I went with NFFE to meet with Congressman Steny Hoyer. Congressman Hoyer sat down with us and talked about what could be done to get people fired up for the election. Also at the beginning of that week I went with my WII class to meet with former Congressman Tom Davis. Congressman Davis is a republican congressman who made compromises and worked with the Democrats on issues that were in congress. With Congressman Davis I was able to talk to him and ask him questions. The class talked with Congressman Davis about steroids in baseball and why congress talked to only baseball players, the current status of the republican party, health insurance/the obesity epidemic, and what happened at Walter Reed. I will admit I was the one to bring up Walter Reed and I questioned him why it took so long to get help for our veterans that were supposed to be getting helped at Walter Reed.

I also had the chance to talk with the main lobbyist at Public Citizen. To be honest he has not been my favorite person to meet with it was interesting at the end because at the end I asked this man what he thought of the tooth pick law. The tooth pick law is a law that says that if a lobbyist wants to feed an elected official that the food must be able to fit on a tooth pick. When I first heard about this (Thanks to Top Chief!) I thought that it was crazy and idiotic. Well to get back to the lobbyist I asked him what he thought about it and I told him that I was asking this because of my feeling towards the law. Well can you guess what happened next? Well the lobbyist told me that the tooth pick law was HIS ideal and HIS law!!!!! So as you can guess I was a embarrassed about it but the lobbyist was very nice about it and he explained the in depth what the law is about.

Other than people I have also attended some pretty interesting events. As I wrote last weekend I went to the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear and as I wrote it was AMAZING!!!!

On Wednesday I went to a town hall debate hosted by Fault Lines. Again very interesting event to attend. There was lots to talk about and lots of debating and I can tell you that I was part of that debating! The only thing that stink is that the comments that I made ended up being cut from the final show :(

With meeting these people and going to these events I have notice and have become a bit of a ball buster and to be honest I love it!

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

Today was the Jon Stewart/ Stephen Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. The rally was so much fun and I am so happy that I went!'

I got to the rally site probably around 8:30 and I walked to get to the best spot I can get and I did get a great spot. I ended up standing about 30 feet from the stage!!! I was also very close to the VIP section of the rally and there is were all the other famous people were like Eddie Izzard and Jeff Ross!!!

The Rally started with a performance from The Roots. This is the second time that I have seen The Roots live and again they were awesome! Then The Roots brought out John Legend to sing song from there new cd. When they preformed it was mind blowing!

Than the main event!!! Stewart came out and started to talk to the crowd. Then Colbert came out. Colbert came out the same way Chilean came out, in a tube through a hole from underground. The rally continued with performances from Jeff Tweedy (From Wilco), Ozzy, Yusuf Islam (formally known as Cat Stevens), Tony Bennett, and Mavis Staples just to name a few.

To me one of the most interesting things was that at the end Jon Stewart gave the final speech. The speech was so inspiring and moving that it just took my breath away. Stewart's speech was non-partisan and it left politics out of it completely. His speech mainly criticized the media and talked about how we the people need to think about what we saw and what we do. and he did make one jab at Rick Sanchez.

All around it was an AMAZING time and I am so glade that I went!

I made a big Decision!!!!

So in the short time that I have been out here I have made a big decision:

I am going to move out here after graduation!

I know that it is going to be a huge change but I am so in love with this city, the people that are out here, and what is going on out here. I finally fell like I am somewhere where I belong! I can sit in my office and talk about what is going on with the midterms and make comparisons to the Lincoln campaign and people get what I am talking about. I just love it so much out here I can't imagine what is going to happen in December when I have to go back home. Don't get me wrong I love my family and I think that Chicago is the best city in the US but I just feel like this is where I am supposed to be.

When I talked about this with my parent they were both so supportive of me making this decision and I think that they might have seen it coming at least I hope they did.

Other than that I have been doing a lot of stuff with my internship. Last week I went to a congressional hearing on the gender pay gap, a bill mark up, sat in on a conference call with some of our locals about a problem that they are having with the government, and then I went to an Office of Personal Management meeting about federal health insurance. Not to mention I have been doing a lot of writing and note taking for NFFE.

On Tuesday I ventured up to Aberdeen, MD for a membership drive. Aberdeen Army base is where they tested LSD on Human people so needless to say it was an interesting day.

Today I was helping out the NFFE General Council with a league brief he had to file. The brief was about a confrontation between a NFFE local president and a supervisor at their place of employment. Long story short the supervisor felt threaten by the NFFE president because the president was gestures with their hands. The presidents response was "I'm Italian, I talk with my hands" I think that that is one of the best arguments someone can make about talking with their hands and I am going to use it!

That should be all for now!

Week Three: Love & Bacon!

Another week here and I am still loving every minute of it! My work load at NFFE has started to increased and I was temporarily promoted to office manager! Although I am still the intern there being office manager has additional duties like answering the phone. I am also going to a congressional hearing about gender pay this week to represent NFFE.

Out side of NFFE I have been trying to get out and see lots of the sites in DC. This week Gracie (one of my Amazing roommates!) and I went to the National Book Festival. We had so much fun and were able to see so many different authors.

(Isabel Allende)

Gracie went to get a book signed by Isabel Allende for one of our other roommates Evangelna.

While Grace was doing that I was waiting in line to get my book signed by Spike from Top Chef! I was the very first person in line and I was so excited! I love Top Chef and Spike has always been one of my favorite chef from that show. Also he was on the season when they came to Chicago! He was also just named onto Top Chef All Stars!!!

When He first arrived at the tent Gracie started to FREAK out!!!!! I wish that I had a camera to film what happened because it was just to funny!

After we all relaxed I got to talking to him and It was lots of fun! I also wished him Good Luck on the New season of Top Chef!

After that Gracie and I went to get our library Cards from the Library of Congress and then headed home!

Love & Bacon

Closing in on Week 3 in DC

I can not believe that I have been here in DC for 3 weeks already!!!! NFFE is so interesting. The majority of the office has been out of the office this week and NFFE has been slow because of the summer winding down and congress has not been in session. I have has plenty of things to do though! Lots and lots of filing so far but that is fine with me!

Outside of interning I have been trying to do fun thing in DC. One thing that I wanted to do before I left was to get a burger at Good Stuff Eatery. Good Stuff Eatery is a burger placed owned by Spike from Top Chef and for those of you who do not know I LOVE Top Chef!!!! So needless to say I was happy to go there.

I had the Colletti's Smokehouse burger. It was good but it was small. but I have to say I love the Toasted Marshmallow shake.

It was so creamy and so good!!!! I don't even want to think how many calories were in that meal! The burger was in a nice place by the capital building. We went to the burger place at night and it was very nice out so we walked around for a little bite than headed back to the apartment.

Time is starting to go a by fast!!!!

The Last couple of Days!

I have started with NFFE!!! NFFE seams like it is going to be a fun and a great learning experience. But more on that as I continue with them these next 3 months.

Outside of starting the internship this weekend was a beautiful and great weekend. On Sunday the National Symphony orchestra played a free concert on the lawn of the Capital. It was a great and beautiful night. The orchestra played lots of interesting and wide range of music.

They played selections from different movies like The Wizard Oz, West Side Story, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark just to name a few movies. My favorite was when they sang West Side Story. When they did that selection they had two people from the Army come up and sing as Tony and Maria and it was beautiful! Another cool that that they did was that they played the score from Ron Howard's Apollo 13. Before they played NASA'S General Charles Bolden came on stage and talked about NASA and the Apollo missions.All together it was a great night!

On Monday I did not have to goto my internship because it was labor day so I decided to take advantage of my day off and go sight seeing. I first went by office to see where it was and how long it was going to take me to get there. After that I just started to walk around. The first big thing that I saw was the Treasure Department. I did not go in because no one can get in there and honestly me around that much money is a bad ideal! lol! Just next to that building is The White House!!!!

My office is so close it is nice! DC, much like Chicago, is on a grid system. My office is on 15th Street and the White house is on 16th Street. It is also a great place for me to be able to meet up with my other intern friends to have lunch.

After the White House I walked over to the WWII Memorial. It is a very beautiful place. Like the Vietnam you have to walk down to get to it but that is where the similarity ends. As you see the WWII memorial is a big and noticeable memorial.

Behind the WWII memorial is the Lincoln Memorial and the reflecting pool. The reflecting pool was not reflecting. It was green and gross so needless to say I was not going to be recreating the scene from Forrest Gump any time soon!

Next to that memorial was the Korean War Memorial. Again a very nice a respectful place. It is truly amazing how close everything is to one another.

So it was an awesome first weekend in DC! The weather was beautiful and they people I hung out were great!

Week One: WE NOW HAVE INTERNET!!!!!!!

It has been one long and crazy week!!! I moved into my new apartment here in DC on Wednesday. The apartment is nice to say the least but there have been a lot of problems with it ie the screen door being broken, not having half our electric outlets working, and most importantly not having internet!!!! but all that has been fixed now so this place is feeling a little bit more like home, which is nice. It is also nice that my roommates and I all get along so well. The funny part about me and my roommates is that one of them goes to school at Dominican, one of the roommates is from Sweden, and the last girl was born in Oak Park/has family in Oak Park/ and it ends up that She-She knows the women that this roommate mom worked with in the Oak Park Housing!!! It was crazy and She-She knowing someone I mean come on that almost never happens, JK

The roommates and I have all been getting along real well and it is fun to hang out with them.

This week also brought Orientation for the WII program. The orientation was over two days but it was not two full day but two half days. At orientation we got to know more about the program, each other, and what to expect. We all had to dress up in our business cloths and take the metro to orientation. We all looked like we were Washingtonians.

Tourist Day!!!

Today my mom and I had the whole day to ourselves before I move into my WII apartment and boy did we do a lot today!!!!

We got into DC late last night around midnight DC time so we were booth tired when we got to th hotel but that did not stop us. After a short look around the hotel, finding the gym and pool were the most important for my mom, we came back to our room and both passed out.

This mourning we got up early but not as early as my mom and I usually do and started our day! After my mom worked out we went down to the lobby and had drinks and scones. After that we took the shuttle to the metro station. While on the bus my mom started talking to this guy and we found out that he lives in the hotel while attending Georgetown University!!! Lucky Guy.

When we got to the metro our first stop was the Pentagon so I could get a smart trip card. Although we did not see a whole lot of the Pentagon what we saw and the grounds of the Pentagon were very nice.

After that we took the metro to get into DC. First stop we went to was the Holocaust Museum. We didn't go to a lot of the exhibits in the Museum but the one we exhibit we did go through was one about the children of the Holocaust. It was a great exhibit and very moving so I don't know how much more of the museum I would have been able to handle.

After that we walked back to the mall and try to figure out what to do next and we decided to take a sight seeing bus that you can get on and off of. The bus was so nice! We were able to do and see so much because of it.

.

We waited for the bus to pick us up by the Washington Monument. Today was a nice day out but it was so HOT! It was like 95 outside so that made taking the bus around so much nicer.

After the Washington Monument the first big thing that we saw was Capital Hill. Before that we did pass by a bunch of the Smithsonian like the Air and Space Smithsonian.

Our first stop off the bus was at Grand Central Station. It is a nice place!! We ate lunch there and we also did some shopping. After that we got back on the bus. We passed the Lincoln, FDR, and Jefferson memorials. We also say the work that is happening with the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.

We also went to Arlington National Cemetery. It is one of the most awww striking place in the United States and in my belief every American should go here at least once in there life. We saw the changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown solder. In the above picture you might be able to see flowers at one grave site. This grave site is for one of the pilots that lost his life in September 11.

After that we got back on the bus. This time we passed the WWII and Vietnam memorials and the White House before hopping off to goto the Smithsonian of American History. Also a great place. We saw all the first ladies Dresses and a whole lot of other fun and American stuff.

We did go to lots of Gift Shops because that is very important to goto!

Tomorrow I move in!!!! Can't Wait!!!

2 suitcases 2 carry-ons Goodbye Chicago-Hello DC!

Today I leave for DC!!!! The time has come and I can not wait to start this new adventure!!!!!

Packing has been a bit of a pain but I got some space bags and those are things are soooo nice!!! I was able to get all my cloths, pillows, and blankets in the bags and still have room to bring other important things like school books, shoes, and my chargers. Did I over-pack? maybe but it is better to be over prepared than under-prepared.

Tonight I go from Chicago to Atlanta than Atlanta to DC! My mom is coming with me but we will not be on the same flight seeing as she has a different return date than me. We are getting in a day early so tomorrow we will have some time to go around DC and then on Wednesday I move into my apartment!!!

Big Stuff coming up in the next couple of days!

T-Minus 1 Week!

So it has been some time since I wrote something so here is a quick rundown about what has happened:

1. I was never called to have an interview with Numours :( but it is OK because that same day I was offered the internship with National Federation of Federal Employees!!!! So I am supper happy!!!

2. I got my roommate assignment. I have been talking to the girls and I can not wait to see and meet them. It is funny because 3 of the 4 of us have some knowledge with the Oak Park/River Forest area and than the other girl is from Sweden. I can not wait to move in and start with this adventure.

3. I started classes at UIS. The classes will hopefully be interesting enough so I will do the work and on top of that I will be having classes with WII on Mondays. Like all day Monday with a two hour break. Lets just hope I don't loose my mind!

Have I started to pack yet? NO! but oh well not like I'm going to be bringing a whole lot of stuff just what I can bring on the airplane.

It is almost here I cannot wait!

First Interview:National Federation of Federal Employees

I had my first phone interview for DC yesterday with the National Federation of Federal Employees. National Federation of Federal Employees is the labor union for federal employees like people who work for the VA, Army, Department of Interior ect ect and they take on the issues that these employees might have while working for the federal government. The interview I think went great! The women that was interviewing me seemed very nice and it seemed liked she liked that fact that I have experience with labor unions (UA local 597!) and the fact that my mom works for Hines VA!

The office seemed like it would be an interesting and fun place to intern. I was told that they are very close to the white house. But all that aside this was only my first interview for the internship program and although I was not offered anything yet with them I feel like I should wait and see where else I can get internship interviews before making my decision.

Next interview is Tomorrow with Nemours a children's Health Care group.

19 Days Till DC!!!!

So it Starts

As many of you may know in March I applied to be an intern at The Washington Internship Institute in Washington and I was accepted!!! I am still can not believe that I now have this chance to be an intern in one, if not the most, exciting places for current politics. Right now I don not know where I will be interning but my top choices are:

Democratic National Committee

Republican National Committee

National Trust for Historical Preservation

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Points of Light Foundation

National Endowment for the Humanities

Department of the Interior

Department of Education

I should be having interviews soon with these agencies.