Mom & Roni Visit for Easter

           Last week was by far the strangest week of the internship because it seemed to alternate between situations of extreme boredom and extreme business. The week was slow, and yet went by very quickly in some unexplainable way.

            Monday was the first day of a 2 week Easter Recess and caused Cash and I to just about die from boredom. There was literally nothing for us to do all day except deliver the morning papers and sort the mail at 1 pm. Other than this, we sat at our desks, surfed the internet, read news and CQ Weekly Magazine, and did just about anything else to pass the time. All of the senior staff was out traveling and half the junior staff had also taken vacation, so the office was much quieter than usual. It definitely had a Recess feel to it. Surprisingly, however, the day flew by and was over before we knew it. We get off at 5 during Recess instead of 6, and while this is only an hour difference, it really does make the day seem much shorter.

            On Tuesday, Cash worked from 9 to 11 and then left for vacation the rest of the week. Kris unfortunately had called in sick, so I was left as the only intern in the office. Where this wouldn’t have been a problem at all the previous day, it proved to be extremely stressful this day. For some reason, everyone in the office seemed to need an intern and I found myself going to FedEx, going to pick up flags from Dirksen, dropping off flags at the Capitol, delivering a letter to the SASC in Russell, auto-penning a stack of congratulatory letters, working on a research project for the Press Shop, running an errand to the NRSC, and giving a Capitol Tour in the afternoon.  Because of all this, I didn’t have any time to complete my normal duties, like sorting mail or entering scheduling requests. I was literally doing something all day long and I think I maybe sat at my desk for an hour (at most) the whole day. Compared to Monday, it was a polar opposite and it was made worse by the fact that I was the only intern to do everything. Somehow, I survived it and was relieve to go to bed early.

            On Wednesday, Kris returned to work and we were able to spend the morning catching up on the mail and scheduling requests that had been left from Tuesday. After this, however, we found the day to be another calm and uninteresting day that passed without incident. Thursday also brought a very light day with even less work than Wednesday. On Thursday afternoon, Jaime arrived with Chick-fil-A for the entire office (those that weren’t gone on vacation), which we ate together in the conference room. It was a really nice treat, because Chick-fil-A isn’t anywhere in DC and she had to go to Virginia to get it. I hadn’t had it since I left Texas in January and had forgotten just how great it was. With a great bonus like Chick-fil-A, we were happily able to pass the rest of the day quickly by reading and the weekend arrived early. The week seriously had almost bipolar shifts in the workload and I’ve never seen that happen before. It made for a really strange week.

            On Friday, I was worried about Tuesday repeating itself. With Cash still out on vacation, Kris took the day off to travel to Boston with some friends for Easter weekend. For the second day in a week, this left me as the only intern in the office. Fortunately, I did not have another chaotic day and, in fact, got a very nice surprise. After delivering the papers and doing the morning scheduling requests, I was sitting at my desk catching up on news. At 10 am (after just an hour at work), Jaime came out of her office and told me to go home, since the office was so slow and there was no work to do. She told me that there wouldn’t be any need for an intern because the whole office would be taking a half day anyway and encouraged me to enjoy a three day weekend. I of course didn’t object and headed back home to call it an early weekend, pleased that I would not have to repeat the chaos of Tuesday. I used the extra time to clean up the apartment, do some much needed laundry, take a nap, and catch up on tv shows. It was a great, relaxing start to the weekend.

            On Saturday morning, I woke up very excited and took the Metro to Ronald Reagan National Airport. My mom and younger sister flew in to spend Easter weekend with me and I met them at the gate when their flight arrived at 10 am. We took the Metro back to Union Station and got them settled into the apartment before heading out to the Capitol. Christopher went to his brother’s place in Richmond for the weekend and graciously offered to let mom and Roni stay at our apartment so they wouldn’t have to pay for a hotel. I gave them the beds and slept on an air mattress and this allowed them to make the trip much cheaper and also gave me more time to spend with them. After getting them settled, we headed over to the Capitol, where I gave them a tour. Neither of them had ever been to DC before and they were excited to see the Capitol for the first time. After the Capitol we went to the Botanic Gardens on the National Mall, which I had never seen before. The interior of that place is incredible, with a large “jungle” in the middle and various exhibits around the edge depicting flowers, plants, and trees from various parts of the world. After the gardens, we went down to the Lincoln Memorial before going out to dinner. After dinner, we dyed Easter eggs just for old time’s sake and then settled in to watch a movie on Netflix.

            Sunday morning, I woke up early to cook breakfast, to prove to mom that I could cook. Fortunately, I didn’t mess anything up and it all turned out great. After breakfast, we went to the National Zoo in Adams Morgan. My sister is a huge animal lover and I knew she would love the collection of animals at the National Zoo. They have several animals that we don’t have in Fort Worth, like the panda bears, a whole pride of lions, and a leopard (Roni’s favorite animal). The weather was great and we had a really fun Easter at the zoo. I honestly can’t remember the last time we went to a zoo as a family but it hasn’t been since we were kids. The trip was really nice and I’m glad I got to spend the time with them just hanging out. After the zoo, we returned to the apartment to clean up before heading out to Easter service at Frontline Church. The service was great and very uplifting.

            Monday morning, we had to wake up a 4 am to get them packed and on their way. A cab picked them up at the apartment at 4:45 and I said goodbye before they headed off to the airport to catch their 6 am flight. After seeing them off, I crawled back into bed to sleep for a few more hours before getting up to go back to work. Overall, it was a great weekend with some really memorable experiences. It was great to be able to spend Easter weekend with family and to be able to show them around DC for their first time.