Into the Frying Pan

Crazy week thus far in a number of ways. I could use this space to tut-tut Idaho Senator Larry Craig for pleading guilty to soliciting sex in an airport bathroom from an undercover male cop. Or perhaps try and sift through the rhetoric to determine if now former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is victim of partisan politics or purporter of it... or both. But instead, I think I'll discuss my first experiences working in the Washington D.C. office of Congressman Chris Shays.
Fortunately or unfortunately, I'm the first of the new fall interns to begin and will be so all week until after Labor Day. So I get a lot of attention and ample amount of work to get comfortable before the session starts... but I also get a lot of attention and an ample amount of work. Part of me feels very grown-up waking up at 7:30 and working 9-6 days. But then again I'm also dead tired when I get back and on Monday and Thursdays I have night classes. So I guess the jury is still out but I definitely feel that the pieces are starting to fall together here in the District. I'm finally in my apartment, I'm hitting my stride with work, and I'm enjoying the city. All positives, and I like positives.
In terms of work, I've been sorting daily mail, clearing their backlog of constituent letters, answering phone calls, and giving tours of the Capitol among other activities. And its been very exciting, actually. But I've been told, once the session starts, its exponentially more busy. With 5 other interns, it should be manageable, but I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch.