It's been new intern week at the Congressional Relations Office!
Hah.
Guess who's more important than me!
Members of Congress.
Guess what happened yesterday!
Swearing-in day.
Guess what my office did!
I dunno, like 8 events and tours and handed off dozens of sacred texts to members for their ceremonial swearing-in photo ops.
Guess what I did!
On my first day I mostly got lost, dazed, confused, stuffed envelopes, and tried to gather wisdom from the giant white binder called the "Intern Handbook."
I only got two minor paper cuts. It was a successful day.
The next day, Tuesday, was actual swearing-in day. I attempted to make myself useful and things.
Oh, and I worked Speaker Boehner's party at the Library last night. I smiled at people and pointed out the coat check as they came up the stairs, all the while standing next to the sign that said "coat check -->." But the event was fun, and I got to up my count of number of members of congress' hands I have shaken from zero to at least five. And there were free drinks and hors d'oerves brought around by friendly waitstaff, AND near the end of the party we got to go through the buffet line just like normal people and eat as much as we wanted. Everything was delicious and cooked perfectly (three different meats, potatoes au gratin, green beans and squash, wild rice salad, and rolls. Oh, and a dessert table!). Morris food service, take note! It IS possible to cook food for people that the people will actually enjoy.
Anyway, everyone at the office is so friendly and nice and kind and they've really been taking good care of me--in between running around doing important things. I'm enjoying getting to know them, and I'm excited I've got a whole four months to do so! Holly has been a great mentor and on top of her regular work has found me things to do and walked me through so many tasks and has tolerated my endless questions like the wonderful human she is.
I started answering the phone on my second day out of sheer necessity, since hardly anyone else spent any time in the office. I didn't do half bad. In fact, my director thanked me profusely and said I had taken one of the most important calls in intern history after she got the message I took from my second phone call. It was a major scheduling change to one of the events that day, and if I had gotten any of the information wrong, well, someone's party would have been less fun. (Thanks, Mom, for drilling proper phone message-taking into my head as a kid! And thanks, Culver's and McDonald's for sticking me in your drive-thrus for the majority of my shifts over the years.)
Well that's enough blathering. Now comes the part you all have been waiting for!
The stupid things I’ve done so far include but are not limited to:
- Getting off the elevator at the wrong floor because I forgot elevators stop on other floors to pick people up.
- Turning left down the hallway when Holly expressly said to turn right.
- Forgetting the name of the office I work in multiple times.
- Not noticing which floor the main entrance was in when I first arrived, so when I left for lunch I wandered the wrong floor until someone took pity on me.
- Been too friendly with people.
- Not been friendly enough with people.
Tune in next time for, I'm sure, more additions to that list.
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| I don't remember taking this picture. |
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| So, um, my feet and my shoes haven't been getting along. This doesn't even show all the damage. |
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| I went for a stroll around the Capitol. What did YOU do Sunday night? |
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