May 21, 2013

Today was another exciting day on Capitol Hill! I spent most of my morning traveling at the heels of Speaker Boehner. I accompanied him, and the Press Staff, to a GOP Press Conference where they discussed the devastation in Oklahoma after the recent tornado [ http://www.politico.com/multimedia/video/2013/05/boehner-becomes-emotional-talking-about-oklahoma-tornado.html?ml=vi_3 ]. It is touching to see the emotion of these Representatives when watching them speak live. What they are saying really feels genuine, rather than watching the clips on TV later when the media frames them as heartless.

Later, I traveled to watch the speaker record a couple one minute speeches that will be used at different events where he can not be present, but wants to give remarks. I also made a cameo in the recordings- its a little surprise for my final Hawken Project presentation.

We've had a lot of big names around the office in the past few day. They have ranged from the President of Turkey to Cardinals from the Vatican. My commute into the capitol today was delayed by the arrival of the President of Burma. These special guests have flooded my desk asking for bathrooms and waters before meeting with The Speaker. He invites often has special guests, but I almost every day I can expect his usual suspects- GOP Leadership. I've been chatting it up with Whip McCarthy, Minority Leader McConnell and Majority Leader Cantor all the time. I wish I had more pictures of all of these people, but I'm afraid of looking like paparazzi taking pictures as they walk past my desk.

The rest of my afternoon was filled with paperwork. Tedious, but a necessary task in this office. Every time a staple a paper or make a copy I think of some future intern I'll have working for me doing the same tasks! mwahaha

God Bless America,
Ali