Today ushers in a new era:

The Age of the Intern


This past weekend, the entire staff of my office (sans interns of course) flew to Madison for a staff retreat. In their absence, of course, the running of the office, the signing of official state state documents, and the making of important policy was left to the discretion of the interns. We're very powerful you know.

Truthfully, I spent most of the day trying not to flip out over the total disorganization that becomes inevitable in a place that is so overflowing with paper products - faxes, envelopes, mail, newsclips, etc. The Staff Assisstant's desk is the general repository for all these things, and I sat there for about an hour today before I felt a cold, dark despair creep into my heart. I routinely scold my Staff Assisstant for consuming several liters of Mountain Dew per day. I am now thinking of being a little more lenient with her.

Many things went wrong, but in retrospect they were small, and not the kind of things I should remember in a week. My day really brightened up when I got the chance to give my first tour. Now I've been obsessing over what a disaster my first tour would be for a few weeks now, and I knew I was overreacting. Not that that stopped me. By the time the family arrived today, I was glad to get it over with. The things I haven't done are always scarier than the things I have.

Luckily, the family I gave the tour to was fantastic. Like every Wisconsinite I've met since getting to D.C., they were friendly and talkative. I had no idea how different the regions of the country were until I came here. I've always had a vague sense that the South is in an alternate univerese, but I think I assumed that as Yankee regions the Midwest and the Northeast were roughly similar. NO. I reapeat, NO. I'm not going to pick on particular states but trust me, a little farm-country friendliness is something I'm getting pretty hungry for. At any rate, this family was sweet as can be. There were a few small mishaps, but overall they were just so pleased to be in D.C. that they didn't mind some bumps along the way. Also, we were able to help the father discover some information about his grandfather, who had been in the House of Representatives. I think we made their day, which definitely made mine.