In the office...

Working on Capitol Hill is everything I expected; it's interesting, exciting and fun! Though this is an internship, my responsibilities are serious, relevant and important.

Kiersten, the other intern, and I are in charge of organizing and distributing faxes (which are actually scanned and emailed to us), giving Capitol tours, sorting mail, answering the phone and writing response letters to constituents. It's intense work and we're almost always busy.

We started work on Monday, July 7 and gave our first solo tours on Thursday afternoon. Tours are nearly 2 hours long. We go through the House and Senate, Old Supreme Court Chambers, and the Rotunda and Dome. I made note cards to study on the metro and used them for the first tour. By now, amazingly enough, I have almost everything memorized. I could definitely win a round of Capitol Jeopardy!

We receive some 35,000 - 40,000 pieces of mail each year. All Capitol mail is shipped to PA, opened, scanned for anthrax, sealed with a sticker, and sent back to us. Keep in mind, if you ever mail something to D.C. it'll take at least 2-3 weeks to arrive. We often get invitations after the event has already happened. Every signed piece of mail from a state resident gets entered into an online database and we respond to nearly every letter, phone call, fax or email. I put in the "nearly" disclaimer because some communication doesn't warrant a response. Everyone in the office handles constituent correspondence. We have to research the issue and bills related to it, communicate JM's stance and action on the issue and include all of that in a letter.

Probably my favorite part of the internship is going to congressional staff briefings. Everyday there are multiple presentations on a variety of subjects - all great opportunities to learn. Last week I attended a meeting on the "supply and demand impacts of fertilizer prices." I also plan to attend a few of the Ag Committee meetings with JM.

Office dynamics are fantastic. All but JM and his chief of staff are under age 30, and most are under 25. All of us are from home, so we have that connection. The boys talk state sports and we joke around a lot. We also work really hard. When something needs to be done, we all pitch in to get it done. Last week, we were in office well past 6:00 four out of the five evenings. The office consists of the Chief of Staff, a scheduler, a secretary, 6 legislative assistants (of those, one is lawyer and one is the Legislative Director), a mail person and then Kiersten and I.

I ride the metro to work every day. From Silver Spring, where I currently reside, it's about an hour trip door to door. The commute really sucks. I appreciate public transportation, but as a child of the Mid-West, I doubt I'll ever feel really comfortable using it. In the morning people are hurried and stressed, and it's contagious. I haven't even been able to read because I'm constantly guarding my belongings and watching for my next transfer. Last week I saw a man actually get stuck in the metro doors. Everyone tells me those doors are like an elevator, they'll open right back up if they close on something. NOT TRUE. This poor man was actually trapped for about 20 seconds while several good Samaritans pulled the doors apart and someone on the platform pulled his arms to free him. I was horrified. That's one of my worst nightmares. Also, the metro is more expensive than I thought. During rush hours (5 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. - 7 p.m.) a one-way trip from Silver Spring to work is $3.10. So I usually wait until after 7 to go home, then it costs only $1.95.

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