4 in 1 special!

I can't believe I haven't updated this blog for 4 days -- I don't even have a good excuse for not updating you all on what I've been doing recently. Here goes:

FRIDAY:

Work as usual, nothing really new there except for the office picnic at noon. I met a few people from other departments, ate lots of good food, and discussed dogs w/ one of the vets (Wendy, I think) from a department that AC works closely with. It was nice to meet lots of people in a casual setting rather than in the hall or in the break room and the convo with Wendy was interesting, even if I got put on the defensive for not going to vet school and considering a dog from a breeder as the next addition to my pack lol.

I got to leave work early since everyone else was working from home in the afternoon; got home around 3:30pm or so. :)

Bummed around for the rest of the evening.

SATURDAY:

Got up early and headed to the White House for a tour. I found it quite overhyped and rather disappointing. I'm glad Lawrence got us an appointment -- I would've been mad if I had waited in a long line for the 'tour'. While it was neat to be inside the famous building, the tour was self guided and only went through about 7 or 8 rooms in the East Wing. The rooms were smaller than I expected and very traditionally styled (which I did expect). Luckily there were only a few spots where the walkway was crowded so I was able to get an unobstructed view of the rooms for the most part and didn't feel rushed.

Note: no bags or cameras of any kind are allowed and there are no facilities to leave them at while taking the tour!! Jeanna and I ended up switching off who went on the tour and who stayed outside w/ the bags. The tour took us each about 30 mins, so no one was too bored waiting for the other.

On our walk to the White House, Jeanna and I passed the Treasury Building and Lafayette Park. The Treasury is a very impressive building; the park seems rather small and non discript.

Once back at the dorm, we headed out for our Saturday habit -- grocery shopping!! Once we got back, I did some research for my Trinidad paper and played online.

Around 8:30pm or so we went downstairs to watch movies and were there until about 11:30pm. Met two law students who are interning and studying in DC and talked to them for a bit - they live right down the hall I found out, so we might end up doing something with them again sometime.

SUNDAY:

Got up late (12:30pm lol), ate breakfast, and spent the whole day in the room researching for my paper and generally being a bum.

Sunday night was another movie night with Jeanna (a few guys showed up too but I have no idea who they were lol, just that they live in the dorm as well and speak Spanish).

MONDAY:

Work again. I'm running low on things to do, so I think I may talk to my boss about getting a special project to work on. I talked to him today and it sounds like I will get to shadow an inspector sometime next week -- def looking forward to that!!

The fire alarm went off at work today, so I got to walk down 6 flights of stairs in heels, stand in the hot, humid parking lot for 20 mins, and then climb back up the 6 flights of stairs (too impatient to wait for an elevator w/ all the other people in the building). What an experience!

This evening Jeanna and I wandered about the Mall -- probably walked about 3 or 4 miles I would guess. We saw a lot and I took a ton of pictures which I will try to share in the near future. The World Adult Kickball Association was holding their tournament on the Capitol end, there were numerous softball games scattered about, tents were set up for the Folklife Festival, and there were a lot of people wandering like us or being ambitious and running on the path around the Mall. We walked from the Capitol end to the end near the Washington Monument (impressive in the setting sun), then headed back toward home when we noticed storm clouds gathering in the distance.

I got some awesome pics of the Capitol and various buildings in the setting sun in front of a backdrop of dark clouds -- I LOVE my camera!! I even got to use the night setting to catch some neat views of the reflecting pool near the Capitol in the twilight. :)

Now I'm hanging out in my room listening to the radio and trying to figure out whether I should go to bed now or later lol.

Filing Queen!

Well I was back at work today after my adventures of yesterday. I actually was looking forward to being back in the office lol -- that hasn't happened to me for a while.

Today was pretty normal: a little internet research, filing (almost done w/ my main task there, hence the title), emailing, etc. Tomorrow is the first annual office picnic. :)

I talked to the Deputy Admin and it looks like since I'm just an intern if I wanna go to Orlando I'll have to pick up my plane ticket there and back since the higher ups don't want to give one intern more than the others or something like that. I'm doing some research on all that's involved and with some help from my contacts and my parents I hope I can figure something out that will make everyone and my bank account happy. Wish me luck!!

Tonight Jeanna and I headed out to Chinatown/Gallery Place to get some stuff at CVS and food for her at one of the little restaurants. I ended up finding new sunglasses (woo hoo and they're polarized too), even though I can't really wear them w/o being blind for another week or so since I have to wear my glasses for a while due to the whole eye thing. They aren't as cool looking as the old ones, but they were cheaper and I think I can still wear them running, so it's all good. :)

Back at the dorm, Jeanna and I headed downstairs to watch Game 7 of the NBA Finals -- I left at half time so that I could call Scott, but he's not home for some reason, so I figured I'd update ya'll.

The Joys of the DC Health Care System

So last night I was on the phone and was hit by a wave of what I now know as 'vertigo' -- it sucked.

This morning I figured I should prob talk to a dr about the occurance and my eye stuff so I went downstairs to see if I could get some info on urgent care places from the person at the desk. She called the Student Health Center but they won't take non Georgetown students, so they told her to look stuff up online. She logged on and found a place nearby and gave me the number. I called them and was told I needed an appointment and they didn't have one until tomorrow at 9am (no way am I missing more work!). She referred me to the ER. I called the ER and they were estimating a 2 hour wait, so I said 'what the heck' and hopped the metro to Foggy Bottom and GWU Hospital.

The people there were quite nice but, bottomline, I wasted 6.5 hours - they told me I had a viral eye infection (nothing to do but wait) and maybe a slight infection left over from a cold in my inner ear (nothing to do but wait), causing the vertigo. BLAH!!!!!!

I met a guy from Baylor in the waiting room, so at least I wasn't totally bored out of my mind for 6 hours, but that and the nice staff were pretty much the only not sucky parts of the whole experience. Why on Earth are there no clinics for urgent care in the DC metro area?!?!?!

Needless to say, I was pissed enough that had anyone tried to mug me or something on my way home, I probably would have beat the crap out of em!

Yay for the day being pretty much over! :)

Catchin Up!

I didn't get around to writing my entry for my second Monday here because I was out with Jeanna, Shane, and Lawrence watching 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith' at the theatre until almost midnight! I was just too tired to write by the time we got back (via taxi which incidently way over charged us in my opinion), so I'm catching the last two days in this one entry.

Other than the movie (which is my new fav now) my Monday was uneventful. Work was a continuation of my web research and not much else although I did get to sit in on a staff meeting (I felt so important to be included and I learned more about what all is happening in the department).

Today was much better: I finished up my research, filed some stuff (almost done w/ the big file cabinent!), and then got to get materials around for a camp that is run in conjunction with one of the colleges in Florida and run down info on pet lemon laws and exotic animal regs in NYC and New York state for a caller. I actually didn't leave work until 5:10pm today cause I was so intent on my projects. :)

This evening Jeanna, Shane, Lawrence and I made dinner together - pasta w/ green beans and biscuits - and hung out for a while before everyone decided we needed to go to bed early given the late night last night. I really like those three cause it seems like everything we do we get along well with and have a ton of fun; too bad Tristan always seems to be out of her room.

Weekend in the City

Well I suppose I need to update ya'll on my weekend happenings.

Saturday:

Got up late, went grocery shopping which took a while since the shuttle ride is about 20 mins one way, came back to the dorm. After everything was put away Jeanna and I met up with my friend Emily near the Capitol. We walked around a bit trying to decide what to do and in the process saw a soap box derby on one of the roads nearby and a street bball event on another street - very spiffy.

We eventually decided to head to Georgetown to window shop and get ice cream so we all hopped on the metro and got off at Foggy Bottom. Georgetown was great! We ate at Hagen Daz (spelling?) - I got Bailey's Irish Cream ice cream and lemonade, Emily got a mint choc chip shake, and Jeanna got just lemonade.

After ice cream we headed off down the main thoroughfare, went into a few shops, stopped at Francis Scott Key park, walked along the canal for a bit, and then continued our meandering until the shops petered out. Heading back to the metro station we stopped a few more places and made a mental note to come back and actually shop later this summer. :)

We said goodbye to Emily at the L'Enfant Plaza stop and switched trains at Metro Center. On the train I ended up getting bumped by some guys and then they tried to get me to read whatever booklet they had - yea not a good way to get people to listen to you! Grrr. No biggie though, I handled myself pretty well, even tho I was caught by surprise at all the commotion.

Once Jeanna and I got back to the dorm, we ate dinner and headed downstairs to watch TV - two episodes of 'Sex in the City' and then borrowed 'Something's Gotta Give' from the front desk.

A couple guys staying the building came downstairs a few minutes after Lawrence came down to see what we were up to, so we ended up chatting for a bit. Always good to meet new people. :)

Sunday:

Woke up super late (1pm lol), ate, and then headed off to the Museum of Natural History w/ Jeanna. We only got through one exhibit - Geology, Gems, and Minerals - in an hour and a half!! I'm planning on going thru one exhibit each weekend so that I don't get museumed-out and yet see all of the museum by the end of the summer.

The exhibit was awesome - got to see the Hope Diamond (largest blue diamond in the world I believe) and many other gorgeous pieces of jewelry, touched some meteor pieces, created a volcano, saw the seismograph recordings from around the world (including the 6.1 magnitude one in Japan from today!), saw a visual representation of the earthquake activity in the world (the area around CA was colorful), looked at rocks that glow, and lots more.

I wish we had museums like this in Indiana - what a way to learn about science and the world around us!

A great weekend if you ask me.

Half Day -- Yay for reverting to primary school!!!!

I only had a 1/2 day of work today - spent it researching more stuff on exotic cats - then I came home, worked on a few personal projects, and then proceeded to take a 4 hour nap to catch up on all the sleep I've been losing getting to bed late and getting up early.

This evening I bummed around Union Station looking for more work clothes; didn't find anything remotely in my price range unfortunately.

Got back to the dorm around 8pm and headed to the lounge to watch tv; stayed until 10pm and now I'm back in my room by myself since Jeanna went to a club w/ a guy she met at the mall.

I feel like such a loser hanging out by myself on a Friday nite in the nation's capital - *sigh* - I'm planning on working out something for next Friday so this doesn't happen again lol. I guess I should be happy that I have plans with Emily tomorrow after I take the shuttle to the grocery store. :) Who knows when I'll research stuff for my T&T paper that's due in just under 2 weeks...I'll undoubtably work something out.

Surfin'

This am was interesting - almost didn't have enough cash to get to work on the metro; I forgot that I only put $5 on my card and so I didn't have enough to cover the trip to College Park. Needless to say, I've learned why my mom said I needed to keep more cash on me than I do in Indiana. Live and learn!

Yea so I did web research pretty much the whole time I was at the office. Not too bad - I found some great web resources for legislation and regulation searches, finally got what I needed on the Fair Housing Act as it relates to service animals, and got a nice, and growing, list of exotic feline rescue centers for a directory I started working on today.

I talked to the deputy admin a little today and it sounds like he's def going to do his best to get me to Orlando. :) He also mentioned that he noticed how fast I started working on his service dog project - I think it surprised him.

On the filing stuff - the vet student was actually right, so I'll have to reorganize a few things; nothing major thankfully since we stopped when we did.

After some frustrating news - the dogs keep getting out at home and causing trouble - I finally got around to running. I ran to the Capitol, around the reflecting pool in front, and then back to the dorm - about 25 mins total, but I walked a fair amount cause my starting pace was too fast. I think I saw one of the running clubs warming up; next time I may stroll over and talk to them about working out with them some.

It was cool to run in the city: the windows let me see my running style/technique, the sky was gorgeous at 6pm over all the buildings, the Capitol was impressive, and I felt alone and part of something at the same time. Pretty spiffy if you ask me. The stop lights did interfere a bit w/ my steady pace, but it was also a good time to stretch some and slow down a bit.

Back after my run I ended up getting into some of the dog stuff on the phone; I hate when things seems to blow up at the wrong times (there's never a good time, but you get the idea). I felt bad too cause I didn't get to tell my mom how much I appreciated the care package she sent (brownies make everything better no matter what :) ).

Went out w/ Jeanna, Shane, and Lawrence (peeps in the program thru Purdue) ostensibly to get a coax cable for the guys' tv, but the store was closed when we got there (five mins late!) so we stood on the sidewalk in Chinatown trying to decide what to do. We ran into CVS (finally! a place to get ice cream and little stuff close by) and then headed to a Chinese restaurant to get the guys some food (Jeanna and I had already eaten unfortunately). It was quite amusing to watch them order - the little Chinese woman who took their order just kept getting them more and more confused about what they were trying to order lol.

I actually felt like part of the group tonight - last night at the meeting I felt kinda like the odd girl out. I think it my be partly due to Tristan's presence last night; she seems to take over conversations and interactions a fair amount I think.

Once the guys got the food, we headed back to the dorm. I'm here waiting for the bf to call and they are watching NBA bball in the lounge on the 5th floor (note to self: remember the tv in there for veg time).

I'm zonked - went to bed at 1am this morning and got up at 6:25am. Hopefully the phone rings soon. :)

Long day

Today I was pretty much doing stuff from 6am to 10pm with a break from 5:30pm to 7pm!

Work was cool - I got in early and was able to chat with the deputy administrator of Animal Care (at least I think that's what his title is); he just spent about 10 or 15 mins getting to know me and my interests, assigning me a task and mentioning that he might be able to arrange a visit at the national detector dog training school in, are you ready, ORLANDO, FLORIDA!!!! Nothing for sure of course, but he said he'd check since he found out I was interested in that type of stuff. My assignment was also based on my interests: look up info on regulations involving service dogs in the US. Very cool indeed.

The morning was spent going through the drawers of things that needed to be filed in a more sensible way. I worked with a vet intern, and while it was nice to have help, I'm not really sure how good of a job she did - she seemed to be pretty hesitant about rearranging things, to the point of emailing one of the people who works on HPA stuff to make sure we weren't screwing up someone's system, even though I had been told there was no system. We'll see what kind of response she gets I guess.

I had lunch as usual (I remembered it this time) and then headed back to my desk to work on my research assignment.

My afternoon was quickly swallowed up with internet searching and compiling info into an email. Luckily I've researched a lot of this type of stuff before, me being random lol, so I had a good idea of where to find everything. I ended up finding a great article in a USDA database - the National Agricultural Library or something of that nature.

I think I impressed the deputy administrator - he emailed me back quickly and mentioned that if I keep up the good work I might get the weekend off; I'm already joking with the guy!! I love making new connections for my networking system. :)

I got home after work, had a 1.5 hour break, and then was off to a meeting with all the Purdue people and Nels Ackerson, a lawyer, Purdue alumn, and the sponsor of the program I'm in! We had a good discussion on a variety of topics (I even got to use some info I gleaned from animal breeding class in the conversation oddly enough) and then continued the 'meeting' at the Dubliner, an Irish restaurant down the street. Nels even picked up our food at the end of the night and I made sure to save his business card for any future contact purposes. And no, that doesn't mean I'm planning on needing legal counsel in the near future!

I finally got back to my room about 30 mins ago - at 10:10pm!!

Big City Gal

So yea, I'm writing a second post for today to reflect on big city living. I'm getting addicted to the blog thang (and yes I realize I just 'said' thang but if you don't like it, tough!).

I think I truly do like being in a big city. I have all sorts of things to do, I don't have to drive anywhere, I get a ton of exercise walking around, I see new things everyday, and there's just a special something about being in such a vital place. Walking to work in the early morning is pretty calming surprisingly enough, and I can't wait to go running on the Mall this weekend. Natural things are just that much more valuable when one is surrounded by city walls.

Sure there are drawbacks (homelessness, high cost of living, dirt/concrete everywhere, etc.), but from my POV they are far outweighed by all the other good things I've discovered.

The only thing that I don't really like right now is that I feel kinda isolated from the people I love - the phone is a crappy substitute for talking to someone face to face. I'd really like to be able to explore and marvel over stuff with someone I'm really close to -- Jeanna is a good roomie and all, but I know she and I have different interests and goals which makes just bumming around a little more work.

I can't wait until 7/22!!!!!!! Five weeks and 2 days to go! :)

A Sad Day...well kinda

I lost my awesome sunglasses on the metro today! :( I can't believe I was so silly as to leave them hanging off my bag, but I guess I won't do that with the next pair - lesson learned!

Work was interesting - I went over my proofreading of the manual with Jodie (she was impressed with my thoroughness lol), explored the APHIS website once my account was up and running (yay for IT people), started working on a filing project to make replying to FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests easier, attended a Horse Protection Act related meeting, and ended up with some more filing.

I'm learning a lot about working in a government office and I am *very* glad I read all the AWA and HPA info yesterday because it made what I did today 10 times easier.

I forgot my lunch, so I ate at the cafeteria in the building - yummy egg salad sandwich luckily. :)

Got back to the dorm a bit later since I stayed late at the office talking to coworkers and finishing up stuff.

Tristan invited Jeanna and I to dinner, but since we had both eaten already we just went out with Tristan and her roomie for dessert at the Capitol BrewPub (it is the first brewpub opened in DC proper after prohibition according to the info on the menu). I shared a "Monumental Brownie" -- very very good IMO, especially for $3.

Came back to Tristan's room and watched TV before heading back to my room for a night of typing and listening to CDs.

Me aka "The New Girl"

Today was my first day as an intern! Overall I think it went pretty well. I managed the commute just fine, even finding the right shuttle on the first try. :) I got to the USDA building with about 8 mins to spare and called up like I was instructed. The security people were pretty helpful - they knew I was a newbie cause I tried to open the main door and if you work there you have an ID that opens it, otherwise it's locked. Go figure...definitely threw me off my game for a few minutes.

I met another intern, in Emergency Management, while I was waiting for Joyce to come down and get me. It was nice to find out that I'm not alone in being the new girl.

Joyce came downstairs to get me, took me on a tour of the offices, and then showed me to Dr. Hogue's office. Dr. Hogue and I discussed a few things, but spent most of our time going over possible projects I could get involved in - it's going to be hard to pick just one or two to work on!

Dr. Hogue introduced me to a few more people and then left for a meeting. I found my cubicle and Joyce gave me some info on USDA APHIS AC (Animal Care) and so I spent the morning reading up on the unit and the Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

At 11:30am Joyce came to get me and we went down to get my ID badge (yay I'm official!) and tour the cafeteria and some of the rest of USDA Center. I returned to my desk, read some more, and went to lunch a bit later.

I headed to the lunchroom where I met two women (don't know their names lol); we talked for a bit about all sorts of stuff and then split off to our respective offices after lunch.

The afternoon was spent reading more and proofreading a manual on non human primate care. 4:30pm came pretty quickly and I was off to the Metro.

I decided to forgo the shuttle because I wasn't sure where it picked up people and I missed the 4:30pm one, so I walked to the station from USDA Center - about a 10 min walk. The commute home was uneventful even if I did have to put up with some annoying tourist kids. Hopefully I wasn't that obnoxious when I was in DC at age 12.

Got back to the dorm around 5:15 pm or so and chilled for a bit before heading off to the bookstore in Union Station to get a book to tide me over until I get to the library and pay the $12 to get a card. I picked up 'Pride and Prejudice' for $5...we'll see how I like reading a classic. :)

That's pretty much it for now. Will write more tomorrow of course!

Day 1 of the adventure

So my shoulders are sore from lugging my bags from the airport to the dorm. *sigh* I didn't realize it would be such a workout.

Today was pretty spiffy, especially for my first full day here. I got up at 9:40 and read for a bit before jumping out of bed to grab brunch. Surfed the web for a bit and flipped thru my AAA guide some more until Jeanna got up.

Around noon we headed off to the US Botanic Gardens and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. I didn't realize we were so close to the Mall - about 3 blocks I think!

It was a gorgeous day, though hot as usual, and the walk to the Botanic Gardens was nice with a good view of the Capitol building (I forgot my camera, but Jeanna tooks some pics). When we got to the entrance I realized that I had my pocket knife in my bag and we had to go thru the metal detectors - I was kinda worried, but the security guard outside said that as long as the blades are shorter than 3 inches it would be ok; Jeanna wondered why it would even matter since we couldn't really do much dangerous in the gardens, but who knows about that.

The gardens were nice, lots of variety, and I got to see some plants I saw wild in Trinidad which was cool. The catwalk in the 'Jungle' room was pretty cool IMO. It wasn't a totally new experience or anything, but nice enough that I may go back if I need a 'nature fix'. We went through all the exhibits in about 45 mins or so.

Next stop was the Hirshhorn. It's a cool building - totally cylindrical with a big fountain in the center of the circle of the building. Two full stories of modern art and a few pieces in the basement gallery too. I'm not a big modern art person I guess - not many of the pieces really seemed worthy of being in a museum (looked simple to make and like it didn't take the artist much thought), but some of the sculpture was pretty cool and there was art from Warhol and Matisse which was neat to see.

The sculpture garden was nice - I like the art out in the open and interacting in subtle ways with the environment. Plus I always enjoy the bigger pieces because they seem more impressive. :)

On the way back to the dorm, Jeanna and I spotted a festival, and since that's a regular occurance and usually pretty interesting we headed that way. We had no idea what type of festival/gathering this was until we were a few steps in and then it became apparent that we were walking through a Gay Pride festival of some nature!! I have friends who are gay and I am comfortable in all types of situations, but I have to admit that it was kind of odd to be in such an environment. I think Jeanna was pretty uncomfortable, especially since we realized most people must've thought that we were a couple, so we pretty much just walked right through without really stopping. I wonder what I would've done had I been by myself - the music was pretty good and the food smelled great, plus there were lots of dogs (and I'm going into furry four legged critter withdrawal already, so I think I would've probably spent a bit more time there. The large blow up bottle of 'personal lubricant' was a bit off putting I do have to say. Definitely a true 'big city' event.

After walking through the festivities, I grabbed an ice cream bar at a streetside vendor - I only got about 1 block before the stupid thing melted and fell off the stick and onto the pavement. :( Hot weather is so frustrating at times.

I spent an hour in my room cooling off and surfing the net for more stuff before taking off to the BBQ Emily (my friend from elementary school) invited me to at her new place. I had a good time, met some cool people, and got to eat some good stuff. I left at 7:30pm so I could get back to the dorm around 8ish and avoid late night Metro stuff.

The Metro seemed pretty safe to me, even at 7:30 on a Sunday night which was good since it was the first time I rode by myself. I do think I will be sure to be back by 8:30pm (before dark) to be safe.

Now I'm back in my room for the night and have consumed my nightly pudding cup. :) Tomorrow is my first day at APHIS Animal Care, so I should be getting ready for bed already...will write more tomorrow!

First few hours in DC (belated post)

Ok I'll try not to make this too boring, but if it is, just deal with it. ;)

Yesterday I got into National Airport around 12:20pm - about 10 mins early. I traipsed down to baggage claim and waited what felt like an eternity to get my stuff. Just about the time I got my last bag, Jeanna showed up, as planned. :) We split up all my stuff between the two of us and headed off to the Metro and 'home' at Georgetown Law.

The Metro ride was pretty uneventful, though we did end up taking the wrong line, but no big deal, it just took a bit longer than expected. The Metro seems a bit dirtier/darker than the last time I was here (8 years ago) - but I guess that's to be expected and it's still *much* better than the Paris subway system.

Once Jeanna and I got to Union Station, we walked to the Gewirz Student Center which is only a few blocks thankfully - it's super hot and sticky here as I expected.

I checked in with the front desk, got my keys, and we headed up to the room. It was nice to have a place to set my stuff down and I started unpacking asap. My cookie sheet was a bit dented and one of my bags had a note saying that it was inspected, but nothing damaged or lost thankfully.

Everything fits great in my room, and though it is a bit sparsely decorated (not anywhere as personalized as my room in W. Laf of course), I like it. It's nice having my own space, even though I think Jeanna will be a great roomie.

I spent a fair amount of time online after I got the computer hooked up researching things to do here in DC. I can't wait to get out there and explore. :)

Fell in bed around 1am (I am such a night owl).

Testing 1, 2, 3

Ok this is just a test to make sure things work...I'll post more later tonite.

In case you didn't realize this already - this is the blog for my summer internship in DC!! Fun stuff for sure.