Hey everybody! Sorry it has taken me so long to post this but it shouldn't be surprising because it's me, hehe. In the past two weeks work has been pretty tedious but I was able to go to a House Administration Committee hearing about the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The decision made it so corporations could use any amount of money to make tv or radio commercials saying vote for whichever candidate and heavily influence elections. Two of the people on the panel said that they did not think it was as big of an issue as some people thought and the other 4 said that it would actually have a huge impact on campaign finance. I had to take notes and write up a memo for the legislative assistant in my office that deals with campaign finance issues and she had told me to go a little early because it would probably be a big hearing. When I got there to wait in line they said the hearing was pushed back an hour because the one before hand had run long but I had to stay because the line was already getting long. I stood there in my high heels for and hour and then when they let us in I wasn't able to get a seat so I had to stand by the wall and I ended up standing for 3 and a half hours straight. I guess that's the price of being an intern.

My Congressman is on the Ways and Means Committee and there were two hearings about the 2011 budget and one of them was with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. The legislative assistant who deals with budget issues was at the hearing with the Congressman and I had to go give her some papers she needed from the office. The other office people told me that she might be sitting behind the Congressman or she might be in the audience so I wasn't really sure where she was. When I got in the room I couldn't see her anywhere and I kept looking around which was annoying some of the press people I was standing behind. She is a pretty small lady and she was actually behind a column on the wall behind the Congressman, so when I finally saw her I went to give her the papers but I was so embarrassed. I was just glad my Congressman wasn't talking or they might have seen me on C-SPAN behind him.

On Friday we were supposed to get off early because of the snow storm that was going to be coming but I had my White House tour that my office had scheduled for me at noon. My scheduler told me that I didn't need to go back to the office after my tour so I only had to work 2 hours. The White House tour was pretty cool, a little short, but the rooms were amazing. I got to see the painting of George Washington, which was the only painting to survive the White House fire in the 1800's. Unfortunately you only get to see the east wing on regular tours so I didn't get to see as much as I was hoping but it was still really cool to see.

I went to Best Buy after I got done with my tour to stock up on some movies for the weekend because we were forecasted to get 24 or more inches of snow, which would shut down the whole city. We ended up getting about that much or more and were pretty much stuck at home. A bunch of us went out Friday night and again Saturday morning to play in the snow and I made a giant snowman we named Rupert. We went to a hill too because one of the girls had bought a disk sled thing and as we were walking one of my roommates came up beside me and pushed me into the snowbank beside me. It completely covered me up and when I was able to get to my feet I looked like the abominable snow man. We also went to a 7-11 a few blocks away on Saturday night and got some snacks and cokes and on the way back I was carrying the bag with a bunch of stuff in it. It kind of messed up my balance so I really struggled walking in the two foot high snow and even fell a couple of times while everyone else just laughed. I think there is a reason I don't normally live where it snows a lot, hehe.

One of my roommate's staff assistant let her borrow some movies and the first season of the show Glee for the weekend so we all (the girls anyways) watched the whole first season in two days. The boys were getting pretty tired of it though but they had the tv all day Sunday for the Super Bowl so they couldn't complain too much. It was an awesome show and I would highly recommend it to anyone who's looking for a really funny show to watch. We all watched the Super Bowl and a few roommates made enchiladas and jalapeno popppers and twice baked potatoes among other things so we had a great meal. It was about half and half for who was rooting for the Saints and who was rooting for the Colts and I was of the half going for the Saints so it turned out well for me. Only one intern out of all 19 of us had to go to work today and luckily it was not me. Federal buildings are also closed for tomorrow because we are supposed to get at least another 5 inches on top of what we still have. I'm waiting to hear if I have to go or not but even if I don't I'm going to have to find something to do to get out of the house. Hopefully any snow will be gone by this weekend though because on Saturday morining a group of us is heading to New York City for the weekend so I'm really excited. I can't wait to get there and I will update my blog as soon as I can to let everyone know how it went.