Crazy Long Update: Part 2

This week I got my first major project and I’ve been working really hard on it. Doug came to me on Monday and told me he had a special research project for me regarding a defense/military issue. After briefing me on the details of what he was looking for, he asked me to do some research on the topic and create a one page brief containing background and analysis of the issue. He then asked me to formulate some policy recommendations and said that if I did a good job, my recommendations might be presented to the senator, to help form his opinion on what position he should take. I was very excited to have the opportunity to do some real work and especially interested in the topic I was researching. Doug asked me to have a rough draft ready by the end of the week, but I was extra vigilant and turned in my first copy on Wednesday morning. After looking it over, he said it looked good and that we would discuss it in more detail next week. Then he gave me another project, telling me that if I wanted to be a lawyer, especially a Navy lawyer, I needed to get used to balancing multiple assignments at the same time. Working on these two assignments with Doug and the rest of the defense team has proven to be time consuming, especially since I have to keep up with my regular intern duties as well. I don’t mind the extra work though, because it is interesting to me and it makes the days go by faster. Also, I agree with Doug that its good practice for the real world if I want to be an attorney. I really want to do well on this project because it's an opportunity to show Doug and Dave what I can do. Since Dave is a former JAG officer and Doug is a currently an active duty Naval officer, I will very likely be asking these guys to write letters of recommendation for me when I apply to the JAG Corps in the next couple of years. Now is my opportunity to earn those letters and convince them that I am a quality student and employee. I’m also really glad to see that they trust me with so much responsibility, though, and it’s really cool that the work I’m doing on this project will actually reach the senator’s desk and be used by him to formulate an opinion on the issue in the future!

Monday I spent most of the day out of the office doing another signature run. This one was particularly interesting, because on Tuesday morning I saw a news story on CNN about a letter that a group of Republican senators had sent to the White House. The story talked about the senators who had signed onto the letter and the fact that Senator Cornyn was the lead author. I soon realized that the letter they were talking about was the one that I had spent all day Monday collecting signatures for! I have to say that it felt pretty awesome to know I had helped work on something that was now being discussed on national news!

Tuesday morning, we had another Texas Tuesday Coffee, the event where constituents visiting D.C. have the opportunity to meet Senator Cornyn and get their picture taken with him. This coffee was the largest one we’ve done so far, with around 200 people in attendance. Needless to say, it took a large part of the staff to keep the event running smoothly and organize all of those people to get their photos done in a timely fashion and allow the senator to get on with his day. It was cool to see so many people in one place, so far from home. Right after the coffee event, I had a another tour scheduled, then it was back to work on my special projects.

Wednesday after work, Mercedes and I attended a reception for National Pi Day (March 13 = 3.14), being hosted by a nonprofit educational organization. Our Education LA, Michelle Chin, had been invited to attend and invited the interns to accompany her. Cash and Kris had other plans already, but I agreed to go because I was told there would be free food and I’m always up for a free dinner. At the last minute, Michelle was unable to attend, but told me to go anyway. I called Mercedes, who was just getting off work as well, and invited her to attend with me since it was an event for Congressional staff and she works for Congressman Burgess. I figured that since Michelle had RSVP’d a spot and was not attending now, it wouldn’t do anything to upset the number of people scheduled to attend. Mercedes and I arrived at the lounge to find the event packed with people. It was a relatively small room to begin with, and I believe the offer of free food attracted quite a few Hill staffers. Still, we got to enjoy some great pizza from a place in Georgetown and then had some chocolate silk and pecan pie that was excellent. I think receptions like these are one of the best parts about working on the Hill.

On Thursday I gave another tour, this time to a group of women from Houston. This was our 5^th tour of the week, which is equal to the combined number of tours we’ve given in the last few months since I’ve been here. You can tell it’s Spring Break and the tourism has picked up significantly around D.C. I don’t mind because tours are definitely my favorite part about the job and I really enjoy sharing the history of the Capitol and teaching Texans a little about how Congress works. I feel like I always do a good job, because I want to represent Senator Cornyn well and genuinely enjoy what I’m doing. On this particular tour, however, I had a lady who has taken several tours of the Capitol during her life. She told me at the end that this one was much more generous and comprehensive than any other that she’s ever been on and thanked me for taking the time to do a really thorough tour and make sure that they got to see everything they wanted to. She also said that I did an excellent job explaining the history and told me that she was going to write to the senator’s office to tell them how great their tour was. I really appreciated that and it made me feel great to know that I was doing a good job with these tours.

Christopher’s friend came into town Wednesday and they left together to spend an extended weekend in New York City for St. Patrick’s Day. As a result, I’ve had the apartment to myself and it’s been pretty quiet around here for the last few days. I’ve spent some of the weekend hanging out with Chris and Mercedes, but have basically just had a relaxing weekend to myself. After working hard on these research projects all week, I definitely needed the down time and have tried to make the most of it. I called mom on St. Patrick’s Day to wish her a happy birthday (I have never once forgotten mom’s birthday because it falls on a national holiday) and I made sure to wear green all day in honor of the event.

Oh, I also found out this week that I got accepted to Baylor Law School. I was ecstatic about that considering that I never thought I stood a serious chance there and I now have an important decision to make about where I will attend law school. I’m still waiting on one more school to get their decision to me and then I should make up my mind in the next few weeks.

Sorry for the length of these posts and I promise I’ll try to keep the updates a little more frequent in the future to keep this from happening again! Hope all is well back home!