CPAC 2012

The great thing about having your own blog is that you can make it COMPLETELY your own. Therefore, I have chosen this time best to write about CPAC 2012. We'll leave the fact that I easily could have written about it weeks ago out :P

I had the joy of being let out of work early that week so I could go enjoy the wonderful first day of CPAC 2012. Thankfully as a student our tickets to CPAC only cost $35 opposed to the $100 plus that others pay. This will sadly be my only time going to CPAC for this wonderful price, since this time next year I'll be graduated from college. I guess that's bitter sweet eh?! I'm thinking of being a volunteer in the upcoming years though since I discovered that you get to go for free with a few benefits (such as a wish list of who you want to meet!).

So for those of you who don't know what in the world CPAC is, I'll tell you...

CPAC stands for "the Conservative Political Action Conference". It's a political conference that happens annually where conservative activists and elected officials from all around the United States come and meet at one spot in one weekend. It's the largest annual gathering of conservatives all year! Some say that it's a conservative pep rally, others will try to use it as an immature way of dealing with their issues (Occupiers), and I say that it is a well put together "pep rally" if you say where the MOST intelligent people get together to discuss things like mature adults would :)

They literally have it set up so there are things going on every second of each day. You can go see documentaries, panels with Q & A, workshops, tons of book signings, meet & greets and then of course you can go to the Marriott Ballroom to catch a glimpse of and listen to the main speakers. This event enables you to learn a ton, see a lot, get pumped about the election and just being a conservative in general. It also allows you to be close to those that you never thought you'd actually see in person! They brought in a lot of great speakers to CPAC 2012, all of which did a fantastic job of covering a vast amount of issues. And to be able to see and experience all of this for $35? AMAZING!

When I went on Thursday I unfortunately missed seeing Kirk Cameron (Television, and film actor and filmmaker OR Mike Seaver on "Growing Pains" for those of you who have watched that before). However I did get to see Lt. Col. Oliver North, USMC (Ret.), whom you may have seen as a host on the Fox News Channel's "War Stories". He is also a best selling author. He was so great to listen to as always, and his main purpose was to present an award called the "American Heroes Award" given to a man named Sgt. Courtney Rauch for his outstanding service to our nation. Lt. Col. Oliver North was one of my favorite speakers at CPAC. Overall it was so touching. As a matter of fact, I'll go ahead and add a video of him at CPAC so you all can enjoy it too.

 "A hero is someone who puts them self at risk for the benefit of others" - Lt. Col. Oliver North at CPAC 2012

I'll go ahead and add in Kirk Cameron's speech too, because I'm sure that those of you that I know read my blog would appreciate it.

Later on that day I got to see Herman Cain's speech, which was just awesome. That man is enthusiastic, funny and just really entertaining to see. I just think he appears SO sweet :P I finished out the evening by listening to Ran Paul (R-KY) who of course is the United States Senator. The next morning on CPAC Friday I got to joyfully start my day out by listening to the honorable Mike Huckabee! It was so fun being able to see him in person, as it was really for everyone I got to see.

I battled my way through the immense amount of people in the Marriott Ballroom for a spot in the back just perfect enough to be able to see each speaker on the stage. In between each "major speaker" there were other speakers that didn't bring in as many people as say a GOP candidate or Kirk Cameron would, which makes sense. So I used that time to inch my way forward :) I started out by standing in the back, then moved my way into an actual seat which was on one of the far ends. Then I decided that seat wasn't good enough, and after every major speaker I kept moving over until FINALLY I was sitting directly next to the VIP section that was mainly filled with Congressman and other political figures and their friends or family. I made my way to pretty much the front, and I wasn't moving! This sounds all glorious and great but it actually meant that from 9am-5pm I didn't leave the Marriott Ballroom for ANYTHING. I was very dedicated to making my way to the front by the stage so I could see all of the great speakers up close. I would love to call myself a Patriot for my dedication, but I don't think (and I'm sure O'Reilly would agree) that I haven't exactly live up to those standards yet :P

Considering that I always ramble on in my blog posts, I'll spare you all and add some pictures instead. Visuals sometimes do better justice anyway :)

 Mike Huckabee- Notice how far away I am now...

 Rick Santorum and his family- I'm gradually moving closer!

  Ann Coulter, Best selling author- And this is where I moved it on up! :)

   Mitt Romney

Laura Ingraham, Host "The Laura Ingraham Show" & Fox News contributor

 Allen West (R-FL)

  (From Left to right) S.E. Cupp (Author), Michelle Duggar (TLCs "19 Kids & Counting"), Star Parker (Founder and President, Center for Urban Renewal and Education), Kate Obenshain (Vice President, Young America's Foundation) & Marji Ross (President, Regner)

Have you ever watched "The View"? Well these ladys did what was called "The "Right" View". It was hillarious! See for yourself in this video!

  Callista Gingrich- Introducing her husband Newt Gingrinch

   Newt Gingrich

I didn't get any pictures with anyone because of the fact that I wanted to stay in my seat to hear all of these speakers. It probably would have been cooler :P But that's okay, because I got to sit super close to all of these guys instead! After Newt spoke I high-tailed it out of there so I didn't miss my flight to Columbus where little did I know, I was getting proposed to :) Over all, CPAC and that weekend couldn't have gone any better!

FPI Reform Update:

In my last post, I blogged about FPI Reform. I mentioned how the federal prisoners were in the process of snagging away a contract to make Air Force jackets. This is also the jacket that the President wears while flying on Air Force One. If obtaining this contract, these inmates would put 100 people at this factory in Olive Hill Kentucky out of a job. Not something that's helping out President Obamas role to create more jobs.

Michael Mansh, the owner of Ashland Sales and Service (the factory in Olive Hill, Kentucky) appeared on Fox & Friends on Thursday February 16th to discuss the need to reform the Federal Prison Indistries (FPI). His main point for this was to bring the viewers attention to the fact that these inmates are a threat to small businesses, just like his. 

As I'm sure those of you who view my blog have noticed, I haven't been blogging much lately. Understanding that this is not a wanted quality of a "good blogger", I figured I'd better get my butt on here and write something! So why not write a lovely update to what I've been doing at work (a reason as to why I've been so busy)?

If you read in my last blog, you'll already know that I had a pretty exciting week two weeks ago. I had the pleasure of working with American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) preparing Michael Mansh for his Fox & Friends interview, as well as talk (or rather sit in on conversations (I AM the intern)) with Fox news producers. I learned all about FPI Reform and realized how big of a deal it is. Especially when the issue went on live on Fox & Friends (my dream job!). As I promised, as soon as I got a video of Michael's interview I would post it on my blog. So here it is!: (you'll have to copy & paste the URL)

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1456503074001/

Also in this post I thought I would throw in an exciting little number :)
One of the guys at AAFA got a call from Michael on Friday (the next day after the F&F interview) saying "we won". Yes, that is right folks! FPI backed out and will no longer be pursuing the contract. There was and still is a very happy 100 workers in the small town in Olive Hill, Kentucky after this news! This past week, Michael Mansh went live again with Fox & Friends for a follow up after the great news. Go to this link to see this interview:

 http://video.foxnews.com/v/1467679971001/

Though we have this very exciting news, you must realize that FPI hasn't stopped. They only really backed off of one factory. There are still other company's just like Olive Hill's that are facing the same threats that they did. Hopefully people will wake up and realize that this issue isn't something that can be pursued any longer. To do this we must reform FPI.

I do want to urge the bringing of your attention to the fact that I, AAFA, and the folks at Olive Hill are not wishing for FPI to go completely without jobs. So being against inmates working is not an issue what so ever. It's just the reducing of unfair advantages that these inmates receive that is wanted.

There are many options to keep these inmates busy. Go to wewear.org, click into the blog and check out the blog post called "Bored in Prison". This will give you some thought out options.

Also, head on over to www.wewearreform.org and sign the petition on the White House web site to urge reform. Then of course, visit wewear.org to not just visit the blog, but check out the whole website! By doing this you all can learn a little bit more about where I am interning! :)

Once February 7th hit and I started my internship and track work course I became one busy person! Hence the reason I haven't written many blog posts. I can't say that I don't enjoy it though, because this experience is so unreal. Plus, I love being busy! I can't stand sitting around doing nothing, I get real antsy :P  So the up beat pace of DC has grown on me pretty quick! Although, I didn't expect it not to :) One of these days I'll blog about CPAC, and put up some of my pictures and videos! Hmm or maybe I'll blog about a weekend I had where I ate dinner sitting next to a certain former President... Hopefully this week sometime! I hope you all have a great work week!

TBA: My Wedding Blog :)

FPI Reform & the coolest Internship ever!

The past few days at work have been sheer madness! It has been SUCH a cool experience. It just so happens that I joined the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA)  team at the right time :)

I posted in an earlier blog about a petition that you all could sign. Well that issue on that very petition is starting to become huge! At least at AAFA it's on the verge of setting off a lot of conspiracy.

So before I go any further, here's the issue:

Did you know that currently in the United States jobs are being created for Inmates? And not only are jobs being created for inmates, but these jobs that they are receiving are being taken away from tax paying Americans!

The "Federal Prison Industry" (FPI) is a government corporation created in 1934.
        "Under federal law, FPI can only sell its products to the federal government and therefore does not compete in the commercial market. The law however provides FPI a "preference" in the federal market, which means federal departments and agencies must buy any product being made by FPI before the private sector, giving an unfair advantage when competing for government contacts" -AAFA website  

So basically whats happening is that the Department of Defense (DOD) gives these inmates an unfair advantage over American manufacturers by allowing them first 'dibs' on contracts for certain jobs. If you tuned into President Obamas State of the Union speech, then you probably remember him stressing the importance of manufacturing jobs in the United States. However, it is very likely that Mr. President doesn't realize that Americans are loosing the jobs that they have to inmates in prison!

You may or may not be familiar with what is called the "Berry Amendment". This is an amendment that passed in 1941 that states that all military apparel (apparel, shoes, helmets, etc.) MUST be made in the united states by American manufacturers. Of course this makes sense because you wouldn't want an enemy making your uniform. So where as we do not have to compete with out sources, we DO have to compete with federally-incarnated inmates.

If this hasn't already stirred up some sort of response, listen to this (or rather read).

There is a factory in Olive Hill, Kentucky that creates the jackets that are worn by our men and woman currently serving in the United States Air Force. This famous jacket is also worn by President Obama when he flies on Air Force One and it sports on it the presidential seal. The factory employs 100 people out of the small amount of 1600 people that lives in Olive Hill. This factory has been around for 50 years with some of it's workers having been there for decades. Currently, this factory is in danger of being closed because the government is wanting to give the contract for making the Air Force jackets to inmates.

The thing is, is that Mr. President Obama probably doesn't even have the SLIGHTEST clue that the famous Air Force One jacket is about to put 100 workers out of work. That's a GREAT way to boost Americas manufacturing problem!

Now, I am not saying that giving jobs to inmates is a bad thing. What I am saying is that by these inmates having these ridiculously unfair advantages, it is putting American TAX PAYERS out of work and that is NOT fair! I mean these are FEDERALLY-INCARNATED INMATES people! They aren't people that just went to your local dollar tree and stole a pack of gum (which is obviously bad too, BUT). They have committed serious crimes! They've murdered people, robbed banks, etc. If the FPI wants to live up to their mission statement, then they should not be putting manufacturers like those in Olive Hill out of work. The people at this factory in Olive Hill aren't the only ones either, there are people all around the U.S. facing this problem every day.

It's surprising that elected officials, or even Presidential candidates haven't gotten a hold of this issue, because it's a big one. I mean, creating new jobs is a big deal in our day and age. Possibly just solving this problem wont fix everything, but it's a darn good start!

So like I said, the past couple days at AAFA have been crazy. It is the very company that I am interning for that is bringing this big issue to the attention of other people (exciting thing to be a part of!). So it's got to be done right, and told by the right people. The CEO of the Air Force One Jacket manufacturing company in Olive Hill, Kentucky is going to be on Fox & Friends tomorrow morning at 6:30am. For those who can't tune in that early to watch, then I urge you to turn in later when they replay it. Of course, I will paste a clip of it into my blog so you can even come here to watch. This man will be talking about the issue that I just explained from his point of view as the CEO of this company.

What has been fun is that I have been sitting in on phone conversations with this man, as well as Fox News producers getting this interview going for tomorrow morning. Now, some of you already know this, but Fox & Friends is my DREAM job. To sit in the middle of Steve and Brian would complete all of my career dreams! So sitting in with my boss (Comm. and marketing director), and the director of government relations and the executive vice president of AAFA on phone conversations with producers of Fox news has been THE coolest thing ever! :P And it only get's better... On Monday, my boss and I WROTE the talking points for Michael (the man who will be on Fox & Friends tomorrow morning talking about Olive Hill) for his F & F segment! So if any of you watch it, just note that I helped write his talking points for the show that is my dream job! My boss actually took a train to Philly tonight to go help prep Michael for his interview tomorrow.

It's been pretty comical from my side of things because while everyone is professionally talking with producers and such at Fox, I am actually screaming inside with excitement!

This entire thing has been such an experience and I'm learning so much from it. I've been writing blogs about this issue for AAFAs website, and I wrote a press release last week. Then, just the mere fact that I am sitting in on these phone conversations and meetings is teaching me a whole lot. This is a really exciting time for AAFA and I walked right into it with perfect timing!

Tomorrow I actually will be attending a press conference that will pertain to this issue. My first press conference! :) It'll be a long tiring day I'm sure, so I'm going to go pick out a lovely outfit and hit the sack.

But before I go...

Visit wewear.org and sign the petition on the White House Web site urging immediate reform!

Nervous, Anxious, Frazzled, Frustrated, Inadequate, Excited, Determined, Envious, Panicked, Unsettled, Tense, Weepy, Worried, Uneasy, Inspired, & Love

To spare you all some time, I decided to write every single emotion I am feeling right now in my title. Each feeling is just a simple word, that way I didn't have to explain it all and write a crazy long boring blog. You can thank me later :)

Well yesterday we started our Public Policy track work. (FYI-the first two weeks we are here, we go through leadership & vocation classes. Then we go into our track work). We got our syllabus yesterday, and oh my lanta it is going to be exciting, yet I can already foresee that it's going to be very stressful. I am actually going to write a blog tomorrow about it. It'll be interesting :)

So today we all started our internships! As I know I've mentioned before, I am the communications and marketing intern at The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA). Long story short, I got off to a bad start. It started with the night before getting lost trying to find my internship spot (so I would know where to go in the morning), to being nervous that I then wouldn't find it, and then to me waking up 2 1/2 hours late. Some how I was not late... don't as how I managed that one. All of the coworkers that I met are so nice, and they all really seem like a lot of fun. I started the morning with sending out the media clips, and ended the day with writing a blog for their website. It was all really nice, besides the fact that I feel totally inadequate. Basically I got an issue, learned about it and wrote a blog about it for their actual website. In normal circumstances I would think that was awesome, however in this one, I feel rather inadequate. I can easily sit here and write my own blog because I am writing as me. I write based on my personality type. But when it comes to writing a blog for a company's website that I am not as familiar with, I have a hard time writing it with it emphasized on it's "personality" type. Does that make sense? Maybe it's just me.  Either way, I am excited to continue on with this internship, and hopefully by the end I wont be feeling so inadequate anymore :P

This link here will show you what I blogged about today for AAFA. I would talk about it on here but clicking on this link will give you enough of what it's about. Although, I encourage you all to look into this issue further. If you support it, then please create an account on whitehouse.gov (you will see where under the article) and sign the petition. In order for the petition to be effective, 25,000 electronic signatures are needed by March 1.

 https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/%21/petition/reform-dod-procurement-policies-benefit-federal-inmates/svnbm4bl?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

(p.s. ... this website takes a little longer to load, so just be patient :)

Just A Bit of Rambling Goodness :)

Well, I had my first experience today actually looking "the part" of DC! I threw on my good ol' suit and headed to a conference that was held at The Capitol Hilton Hotel. The program that I am in here in DC is a program through my university called the American Studies Program. This is a program within the Council for Christian College Universities (CCCU) Best Semester programs. So the conference I attended was for the presidents of these christian universities that are affiliated with CCCU that get together once a year to basically just encourage each other and listen to speakers. Since we are students at these colleges and in the same place as this conference, our lucky butts got to attend the conference today to listen to the speaker whom of which was James Davison Hunter. Hunter is a Labrosse-Levinson Distinguished Professor of Religion, Culture, and Social Theory at the University of Virginia and he's Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. According to his bio on his web page, he has written over seven books, edited three and has also published a wide range of articles, essays and such. His most recent book that he wrote is called "To Change the World: The irony, tragedy, and possibility of Christianity in the late modern world". This is the book that I have read several times for different classes in political science. He didn't speak much on his book other than a few quotes he took from it, and spoke to the presidents of the Christian universities about what exactly is Christian higher education. He broke his speech down by talking about "impact (the narrative of a Christian identity) and change". He concluded the speech by saying that "God is fully and faithfully present to us, so we need to be fully and faithfully present to Him, our neighbor and our world". Which is true is many ways. Then Jack (one of the guys here at ASP) and I had him sign our books :P

After Hunter's speech I had the pleasure of meeting Malone Universities 13th President, Dr. King and his wife Winnie. What a great couple! His wife is full of great enthusiasm, and was talking all about my outfit and hair. I loved her of course :P It was cool getting to see him while here in DC and I'm excited to see what he does for our university! 

Earlier today a friend of mine here at ASP and I got up around 6:30 and went and stood on the street corner at the bus stop for almost an hour. Sounds fun right? The reason for this was because we were planning on going to give blood at the national headquarters for the Red Cross. However, our bus never came. I am not exactly sure what happened but I learned two things from this: First, I will never depend on another person to figure out the bus schedule again. I will now look everything up myself. & second, that there is a McDonalds RIGHT down the street from me only 5 blocks! So I WILL be going to get myself a shamrock milkshake as soon as I'm done with these papers. Such a wonderful reward after all my hard work :) 

Yesterday we visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum. The museum is set up so you go from the top floor (floor 4) and go to bottom. Each floor is a different stage of the Holocaust starting before the years of World War II and ends at the "last chapter" of the Holocaust. It was a great museum, very interesting though hard to see. Highly recommended though! At the beginning of the tour you get an identification card and in it will be a person that lived during the Holocaust. You read the beginning short bio of the person and flip the page to read the next bit of information about the person as you get to each floor. It basically tells you what they experienced during the years that you go through in the museum. Then when you are done touring, you flip to the very last page and it'll tell you if your person survived or not. My person was a girl by the name of Liane Reiff who did survive the Holocaust because she had relatives that helped her and her family get to the United States. She actually ended up getting her doctorates degree in chemistry which I thought was pretty cool.

You can't read this of course, but it says "After the war, a memorial wall was constructed out of the fragments of several hundred tombstones that were unearthed in the Remu synagogues's cemetery in Cracow Poland. Built in 1562, the synagogue served the Jewish community of Cracow for almost 400 years. During the German occupation of Poland it's cemetery was used as a site for  mass executions. This is a casting of the wall. The original mosaic wall stands in the Remu synagogue's cemetery as a memorial to those who died in the Holocaust."

After I get these papers and bibliographies done I am going to plan my weekend! For sure a trip to Target is a must, and possibly the spy museum. And it looks like some people here are getting a group together to go to a Wizards game too which sounds like a lot of fun. So who knows what this weekend will hold! Happy Thursday everyone and have a great Friday! :)

Beautiful flowers we saw walking to the metro. A lady told us that they bloom in the winter time. We think they look like tie-dye :)

Also, fun fact # 2... There are over 500 escalators, and over 200 escalator repair man that are employed here in DC. (Not able to cite this statistic because Peter Baker (ASP Director) told me he read it in the paper).

Social Media is consuming my life!

Now considering that "media" is my concentration in my communications major, I thought it'd be a great idea to become a little more "social media savvy". Facebook just isn't cutting it anymore, email is great for professional means, but that's all I really do. Sad for someone studying media I know. But that is why I decided to do this blog, as well as twitter. Of course writing this blog is also because I thought it would be a great idea while I'm here in DC, however twitter was just strictly because I figured it would be helpful to learn how to tweet. For my internship, one of the many great things I'll be doing is working on their social media outreach. This includes tweeting about congressional hearings I sit in on, or anything to the affect of the company. For the sake of the American Apparel & Footwear Association (where I'm interning as a media relations intern), I thought I'd get really good at all of this before I start next Tuesday. However, it is with my deepest regret to admit that...I AM A HORRIBLE TWEETER! I don't understand it. You basically just update a "status" all the time. What's the point? "Going to the zoo today was really fun!". Now that MAY or MAY NOT be a good tweet, but HOW am I supposed to know? What I am starting to realize though is that people tweet from the places they are at. "I am currently standing outside of the Capitol". I try to learn from the people that I'm following, and will notice that they update their twitter constantly. So the pattern that I am noticing here is... tweet from the places you are at, and update constantly. Now this is all starting to make sense... Twitter is just an evil scam secretly created by apple so we buy iphones! Everything has to lead to something right? And because of the fact that I don't own my very own iphone, I wont be able to "tweet from the places I'm at, and update constantly", therefore I will never succeed in the great tweeting realm. I've come to this sad realization with great hopes however... maybe my internship will provide me with a really cool "work" iphone! Considering the fact that that'll not happen, I at least must put that on my list of suggestions! :P  

Tonight I have wasted what could have been good quality studying time on improving my blog and twitter account. Ohh social media, its the times like these when I can't help but think how you are just what our thriving economy needs!

I have to cite and do annotations for all of our readings thus far as well as lectures, write two papers and finish reading the book "Fabric of Faithfulness" by tomorrow morning because the author "Steven Garber" will be speaking in class tomorrow. It's 1:35am and not only does Michigan suck, but I have to quite blogging so I can get work done! 

By the way (Or should I say "btw")... Follow me on twitter! :)   @abbeyjaymes38

That's The Last Time I Get That Far Behind On Blogging!

I would like to start this blog off by saying how incredibly sad I am that someone (assuming the feds?) took my video of Obamas motorcade at the state of the union address off. For those who didn't get to see the video, I give you my deepest apologies, and for those who did...well then great! :) Though I am sad it was taking off, I am happy that our government is on the look out cause I obviously caught something on the video.

Also, I haven't blogged in awhile, my apologies again. So this blog might be a tad bit long. I've been very busy and have a lot to talk about :) So given that I understand how hard it can be sometimes to read things about other peoples lives when it goes on and on, I'm going to let you pick and choose what you want to read by labeling everything at the beginning of each paragraph with what it will talk about :) As some may know, one of the new popular social media craft blogs "Stumbleupon" allows you to "stumble" across your specific interests. So use that idea with this blog post and "stumble" across your interests of my life :P

NEIGHBORHOOD ENGAGEMENTS:
This past Tuesday and Thursday my group (a random group we were all put into) and I started our DC engagements. While I am here we are all required to do 24 hours of community service. I have done a lot of community service so far in my lifetime, but doing community service here is so much different. Here I'm not helping out with a 5K, a Walk for something, or just a company that needs help with an event. Though those are still great acts of service, what I'm doing here in basically just experiencing a whole new kind of community service. Here I am volunteering to help out with those in need. When you think of DC, you think of Washington, DC the states Capitol and politics politics politics. But in my experience living here in just this short week, I've learned that there are two parts/cultures to the states capitol; Washington & DC. One is the regular federal Washington that you all know of, and the other is the part that you don't really think of when referring to here. Obviously I knew coming here that there is a lot of homeless and poverty, but it's easy to be caught up in the reality of being in DC and to come in naively not thinking necessarily about the poverty it holds. So this past week, and this up coming week the program has set up our neighborhood engagements with an organization we are going to help out. Then after that we choose what to do with our remaining hours.

This past week my group was put with an organization called "Age-in-Place". Basically in a nut shell it is a free service available to all persons of 60 years and older, of low to moderate income, who are living in their homes in Washington, DC ward 4 & 5. The service is provided by volunteer teams, and the service includes; yard work, house cleaning and painting. So on both Tues. & Thurs. my group and I cleaned house for two elderly woman. Both were so unbelievably sweet and were so grateful for us. We were able to do something for them that they can no longer do, and what was even better was that there were about 6 of us, so we were able to accomplish A LOT. We didn't do any yard work, but we were able to get things done inside. On both days we all divided up and took different rooms. Me and one of the girls took the living room both times, and others would take bedrooms, bathrooms and the kitchen. We cleaned blinds, vacuumed, re arranged things, threw out tons of things, dusted, polished, etc. The houses were sparkly clean when we left :)

This upcoming week my group and I will be working with elderly people again but for a different organization. After that we decide what we want to do with the rest of our community service. At the moment I am thinking about working in this pregnancy clinic that is here. Another one of our groups has been volunteering at, and have really enjoyed it.

 Us with Mrs. Adams. She is 89 years old and has been living in her house since the 60s. This is also my group that I do the community service with (we get partnered up in specific groups)

 Then this is us with Mrs.Vaden. This woman had SO many clothes and shoes that her and Sarah had to go through so she could get rid of some. She had the hardest time getting rid of her shoes, she had to close her eyes every time Sarah put the shoes in the bag. 

NATIONAL CATHEDRAL
Last week we decided to venture off on Wednesday to the National Cathedral. I knew this church was beautiful, but when I walked in I honestly couldn't shut my mouth. It was so big, the architecture was absolutely beautiful, and the details on the walls were so intricate. The reason why we went there was for Evensong. This is when the Cathedral choristers sing, and there is also a little service that goes with it. It was so peaceful sitting in these pews that are built for a giant, and just leaning my head on the back, closing eyes while listening to the choir. It was beautiful and it was so easy to think about the beautiful creations the Lord has made. The voices of the people in the choir were heavenly, and the majority of them were actually really young, though they didn't sound like it.

WEEKEND FESTIVITIES
This past weekend was really rather adventurous. It started off with going to the movies on Friday night to see  "One For The Money" with Kathryn Heigl. I don't usually do this, but hey since I'm already talking about it why not write a short movie review! So this movie just came out this past Friday (1/27/12) and stars Kathryn Heigl (like I said), Jason O'Mara, Sherri Shepherd, Daniel Sunjata & Nate Mooney. Heigl plays the role of Stephanie Plum who is a spunky born and bread Jersey girl. Though she lost her job 6 months ago, and recently lost her car to the debt collectors she still keeps her jersey attitude in check, and doesn't really worry.  However, of course she is desperate for some cash so she turns to her sleazy, greasy cousin for a recovery agent position at his bail bonding company. Getting the job she decides to take on Vinnie's (her cousin) most expensive case; reeling in former cop and murder suspect, Joe Morelli. The fact that there is a hefty paycheck involved if she gets him is only half the reason she wants to throw him in jail. The other half is because irresistible Morelli had the pleasure of seducing her and then dumping her in high school. So she now finds it necessary to throw him in jail. Only knowing how to use pepper spray and never have touched a pair of handcuffs, she finds out her job isn't as easy as she thought when she ends up involved with more than just one murderer. This movie is thrilling, and hilarious. It's a cute movie, but if I could do it over again I would just rent it :)

Anyways... One of the many things I am going to miss when I leave in May is the Eastern Market. This is a market only a few blocks from me (very convenient). I would compare it to the world market in Cleveland really. It is open all week long, however, on the weekends is when all of the vendors come and it turns into an even bigger market! There are all sorts of things being sold; one section might be hats and scarfs, another is cards and jewelry, then there are sections for fruits and sections for vegetables. I went with my roommates earlier in the day (it was a roomie outing :). I ended up coming back with hummus, black bean dip, salsa, and lots of fruit. It is all SO good. Although it better be good considering it's all I'm going to be eating for awhile since I went through almost $200 in my first week :( In my defense to of spent that much though is backed by the fact that first shopping trips always cost the most because you have to buy all the staples. :)

Later in the afternoon this past Saturday I got to meet up with a friend of mine whom I went to high school with. She goes to American University here in DC. We met up at a place called "Dans Chili Bowl", which is this little chili place that I guess they say is "Home of The Famous Chili Dog"! I've also read that a lot of celebrity cooks from the food network have visited there. The fun thing is that it's only here in DC! So you all will just have to come here if you want to try it :) And trust me, it's worth it! Cassandra and I both got chili cheese fries and they were de-li-cious! Then she took me to this little random frozen yogurt place called "Mr. Yogatos", and I don't think I could have gone to a cooler frozen yogurt place then this! This is why...


Rules of Yogato:

1. If Mr. Roboto comes over the speaker system and you sing along,
   you get 10% off yogurt.
2. Try your luck with a trivia question. Get it right for 10% off, but get it wrong and 10% is added.
3. If you will wear a yogato stamp on your head, you get 10% off.
4. If you can recite the Stirling battlefield speech from Braveheart in a great scottish accent, you get 20% off yogurt.
5. Order a yogurt for 30 consecutive days and we'll name a flavor after you.View 30 Day Champions
6. If a customer suggests a topping or flavor which is then adopted, that customer receives a 5% discount for life.
7. If anyone can stump Steve on trivia regarding Seinfeld or "The Rock," 10% off yogurt.
8. Anyone wearing a kickball uniform and has played hard (evidenced by dirt on their knees) will receive an automatic 10% off yogurt.
Rules 9 and 10 added on Mr. Yogato's first birthday!!!
9. Reenact the entire 47-second Michael Jackson Thriller dance for 20% off. Perform a shorter choreographed dance (such as the Hitch Q-Tip dance) for 10% off.
10. Dress up like 80's tennis legend Bjorn Borg and receive 25% off. Sing "I'm Too Sexy" by RSF in his Swedish accent to bump it up to 50%.   
11. Seinfeld Mega-Challenges:

• Challenge 1: Bring any Seinfeld minor character into the store for a picture with the Yogato tie and receive 10 free yogurts or all-you-can-eat for a week.
• Challenge 2: Create an edible Yogato pasta-structure (i.e. Fusilli Jerry) and receive a discount in percentage points equal to the height (in cm) of the figure.
• http://www.mryogato.com/

Real fun right?! I was so happy that Cassandra told me about it, because it was just too fun. We ended up getting the stamp on our foreheads, and un-scrambling their word of the day! It was great hanging out with her and catching up :) She told me a lot of fun low key places in DC, which was very much appreciated! Obviously coming to DC to visit all of the Smithsonian's, and memorials is wonderful, but being a resident here it's fun to know about all the other cool things there is to do. 

DOWNTON ABBEY NIGHTS

Now I don't know if any of you have ever heard of "Downton Abbey" or not, and if you haven't you better stop reading my blog right now and go watch a trailer for the episodes! About 20 or so of us here in the apartment building have become addicted to this show, and will schedule nights around watching it. It's that good I promise! I don't want to spend too much time explaining it, but it's a British show with the first season set in the time era of the sinking of the titanic, and the second covers the years 1916-1919. The third season comes out in Fall of 2012. The show has won a lot of awards too! It seriously is so addicting because of how wonderful it is. So I think you all should go on and watch a tailor on PBS.org. Seriously, forewarning I'm not done writing yet, so it's either my life or Downton Abbeys :P

 Like I said... It's an all apartment event :)

WEEKEND FESTIVITIES CONTINUE...

Church on Sunday was fabulous! I am proud to say that I visited my first African American Baptist Church, and oh my lanta was it a blast! I swear there was never one dull moment. When you hear about an African American church you usually will be told that there's a lot of arm raising, loud singing and lots of joy to praise the Lord... and well, that's a pretty safe accusation to go with! We had so much fun going, and yes, we were the only white people there. It was wonderful, I know that I'll for sure be going back. We raised our hands just as high and sung just as loud as if we had been going there for years! After church, since we were already in China Town we stayed for the Chinese New Year parade! It was a lot of fun to experience between all the colors, and dragons. Check out my fun pictures! 

Start of the parade

Miss District of Columbia

Wizards cheerleaders

I wanted to take this time to say thank you to everyone who has been reading my blog! It's a great feeling to be told "I've been following your blog" :) Continue reading, and I hope you all enjoy!

State Of The Union Address

While I am here in D.C. I plan to take as many opportunities and go as many places as I can. I want to take advantage of my time here and never sit around just doing anything. So, so far every night I have been out in the city doing something. Tonight was the state of the union address, and so OF COURSE I was going to head on over to the capitol (given that it's only 8 blocks and all :) and see what I could get into! Before the state of the union address even begun you can hear the parade of sirens outside my window, knowing that they were escorting "people" there. Then just walking outside of my apartment you could already see all of the lights from the police cars all around the capitol. There were tons, and obviously I didn't expect anything less. The cops lined the entire perimeter of the capitol building, with each one standing 10 feet apart. Walking down there was rather intimidating because we had no idea where exactly we could walk, and which streets we could turn down. They had so much blocked off, and there were so many cops and FBI everywhere. It was actually really cool to see, and very surreal. At first I kept on worrying about doing something wrong, until I started hearing the words of Joey (my boyfriend) in my head..."don't be worried about doing something, because the worst they can tell you is to leave". Of course he only means that for legal things :P I thought about that a lot especially when we walked around the perimeter of the capitol building umpteen times and knew that the security was probably starting to recognize us. One of the girls in our group kept saying that we probably looked suspicious for continuing to walk around, especially because FOR SOME REASON there was hardly anybody else out doing what we were doing! We opted to believe that we were probably the only  ones out circling the capitol because we're total tourists. Honestly though, I still don't understand why nobody else wouldn't want to be outside the capitol where the state of the union address was happening. They could have DVR'd it like us.

The cops were surprisingly very nice. I thought they would be like every other cop in all of the buildings here where they're rude and have no sense of humor. Depending on what side of the capitol you were on, you either; couldn't take a picture, could take a picture, or were aloud to take a picture but had to continue to walk while doing so. I only knew this because I would ask every cop before I took one. Seriously though, these cops were really nice. We would stop and talk to them and ask them which was the best way to take that would get us closer to the building and closer to the action when the President was done speaking. They were more than willing to talk to us, and some even joked around with us. One awkward and embarrassing moment was when we were walking and I was looking at the capitol because I still can't get over the fact that I live by it, and this cop across the street from me standing guard waves. Now I'm sort of tagging behind the group because I'm walking slower looking at the capitol, so I know that he waved in my complete direction. Although, during those couple seconds of thinking about what just happened I couldn't understand why in the world a cop standing guard would  wave at me. So instead of waving back, because I honestly had no idea if he actually waved at me and didn't want to look like an idiot, I looked to the other side of me. I thought maybe he was waving at another cop on the other side of me, but then I instead found myself with the group ahead of me and nothing besides me other than a building. So I looked back at him and he was laughing, and the cop next to him was laughing, and I felt like a total idiot. Then he waved again at me with a huge smile on his face. Seriously though, besides the fact that I felt totally stupid because I did the whole "look behind you thing because you don't know if they're actually talking to you", I just could not understand why in the world this cop wasn't looking out for other things...ya know, like crazy people. It was rather humorous though and my group got a good laugh.

While taking our laps around the capitol waiting for Obama to finish, I learned a lot about DC security. Now I'm sure they are trained professionals, and can do their job well, but this is what I learned about them; They are overly friendly, and all of the ones that are sitting in there police cars, fire trucks, or the cars that tail behind the "important cars" like to sit and play on there cell phones a lot. I don't think that I saw one law enforcer whom was seated inside of there vehicle, not on a phone. Although I could give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they are all republicans ;)

Fortunately we rounded the right side of the capitol in the right place at the right time, because as soon as it let out we ended up right at the entrance of the road where everyone would be leaving. Again, I want to mention that we were seriously some of the only ones there (there were only 4 of us in my group that went out btw). There were maybe a total of 10 other people who were standing where we were. I guess living in DC, the politicians just don't phase them anymore. Really the only reason I was there was because I was secretly hoping that someone would be extra nice and let me interview them :P We watched as 5 cop cars in a row would start coming out of the entrance, and the lead cop car would flash his cop light and the black escalades would make a complete 180 and zoop out of there spots to get in line behind the cop cars. Then their sirens would sound all the way down the road until we couldn't see them anymore. Then people dressed very fancy would walk out and past us to get to their cars. To make what has already been a long enough blog entry shorter I'll just cut to the chase and say that we ended up standing there long enough to see 2 limos with the presidential seal on them leave with tons and tons of cop cars all around it. If you watch the video below you can see what I'm talking about. I started taping not realizing what was going on, so it's a little shaky and all over the place. When it gets to the end you'll see that somebody walks in front of me and you can't see the ending, and all you hear is talking. When that happens just turn the video off. Unfortunately I don't have any of my cool editing software here to cut all of the out.

Also, check out my new capitol picture up where my blog title is at! First off, I actually got a picture of the capitol that fits all the way across, and second, it's my own picture instead of one from google! It's a picture I took tonight while the State of the Union Address was going on :)

Trust in your neighbor

While I am here I'm required to go to 5 church services; 3 on the hill, and 2 off the hill. Then of course I can go to other churches after that. So on Sunday three of us girls ventured out to head to church! Originally I was going to go with other people to a church that's by the Marine Barracks, but I over slept. Go figure right? So my one roommate Chaunte and one of the other girls in our apartment building invited me to go with them. Unfortunately, the three of us girls just so happened to be ones that "followed" our groups around during our scavenger hunt, rather than "lead". So we have no idea how to get around since we haven't figured it out ourselves. So we set out  to go find this little church in Arlington Virginia. Luckily we found our way to Union Station, however when we got down in the metro we had no idea what train to take where. Now, I would have at least thought they would have figured out what train we were supposed to take where, haha but they didn't. Then I was just the tag along so I didn't know anything about where we were going.

 So there was this little elderly lady that was sitting on the bench waiting for her train to come so we decided to ask her where we should go. This little elderly lady jumped on up and went over to the sign to show us what to take and where to get off. She was so sweet and more than willing to help! Then she asked us where we were going, and obviously we said we were going to church. So this lady gets this HUGE smile on her face and goes, "well that's where I'm headed"! She said what church she goes to and how much she loves it there, and then said that we should go there sometime. The three of us girls looked at each other and kind of just decided, well, lets go with her now! This lady was SO thrilled, and had the biggest smile on her face, and I'm pretty sure she even clapped her hands! So on the Metro we road with Gladice!

Gladice has been living here in DC since 1984. I couldn't tell you how old she is though because she is a black woman, and black woman never age :P She had this little hat on, and was really short and just adorable. She talked and talked and talked on the metro and you could tell she was so excited that we were going to church with her. She even called her friends to tell them we were going with her. So after a 15-20 minute metro ride we arrived at the Silver Springs station and were on our way to a United Methodist Church in Maryland. It was about a 15 minute walk in the bitter cold, in which we ended up finding out later that Gladice took us the long way (she must have thought we wanted to see everything along that long walk) instead of the short cut we took on the way back. We arrived at the church, and went to go "powder our noses" in the "ladies room" as Gladice put it. 

The service was great, although the sermon was given by a missionary so unfortunately I didn't get to hear the pastor preach. The pastor at this church is a woman, and I've never had a woman pastor so I'm very excited about that! There were three baptisms; a baby, a 4 year old boy and a 6 year old girl, all of which are siblings. It was the most precious thing I'd seen in a long time...I honestly think I had more tears in my eyes than their own mother :P Then towards the end of the service they were doing prayer requests, and since it's a bigger church they use a micro phone, that way everyone can be heard. So Gladice stands up next to me so she can get the microphone and goes, "I just wanted to pray for these three girls along side of me today. They are interns here, and I found them in the metro station and dragged them to church with me!" Everyone was laughing at her "found them and drug them here comment", and then they all started clapping for us three girls. It was amazing. Now, DC gets a lot of interns so I know we weren't the first interns to have entered that church, however so many people came up to us after the service and were talking to us and asking us where we are interning, and just really made us all feel welcome. 

After church we found out how spunky Gladice was as she joked around with us, and taught us how to properly j-walk. She gave us her business card on our metro ride back, and then proceeded to tell us how special we were because we were getting her actual "home" phone #. Of course we still have 4 other churches we have to visit (I'm planning on going to a african american church and a hip hop church!!) but the United Methodist Church will definitely be an option for our home church while we are here. We also found out that Gladice doesn't live to far from where we live, only  about 5 blocks, so the three of us are planning on calling her up and going to lunch with her! 

While living here in DC you of course always have to use good judgment and keep your head up. You have to be very cautious and aware of your surroundings. However, this doesn't mean that every single person here is bad and you can't talk to them.  So by meeting Gladice today, it just taught me about the kindness in strangers that you can rely on. You don't want to be too comfortable walking around the city (you don't want to let your guard down), but you do definitely want to have a healthy respect for it. Because really what it comes down to is that I am living in the district, in an area where people have lived there whole lives and the politicians and interns that come and go here are stepping into their territory. There is SO much more to DC than just politics, it's a city filled with many stories :)

Bag Tax

Yesterday (I didn't write a post yesterday so I'll make up for it today by writing two) we went through orientation learning everything from our building, to the city, to safety tips, and grocery shopping. I'm sure there was more too :)

Now, did you know that in DC when you go shopping they have a "Bag tax"? Yeah I didn't know that either. For every plastic or brown paper bag you use from the store, they charge you 5 cents! That adds up. So thankfully my mom bought me this awesome reusable bag! Thanks mom!

I almost started to feel green and then was like, seriously, I just don't want to pay 5 cents! :P 

So I am trying to be all responsible with the money that I have and come up with some kind of weekly budget. I need to be able to sit down and plan out what I'm going to buy from the grocery store because I really don't want to end up buying all of this food and never eating it. It's pretty hard buying for one person. So that is problem # 1. Problem #2 is that I have to decide weather I want to walk and get my groceries, or have them DELIVERED! Huuuge decision right? So all day yesterday I kept thinking, "walk, deliver, walk, deliver". I mean getting them delivered is just too cool! However, being able to feel my bread to make sure it's the softest one, or making sure I got the biggest piece of fruit is important! This decision is still unmade, I think once I actually have time to sit down and plan out what I want to make then I'll be able to decide. Until then, I'm going to continue to eat nothing else besides string cheese, carrots, and special K cereal. Yeah I need to get on my decision fast...

Yesterday also began our weekend long scavenger hunt! For those of you who didn't know this already, D.C. is made up of 5 quadrants. So the staff made a scavenger hunt for all of us and broke us up into teams where we have to visit one landmark from each quadrant of the city. They made a list of specific landmarks in each quadrants already for us, so all we have to do is decide what we want to see! This is also a competition between all of the teams and will be judged "whos line is it anyway" style. We have to take pictures of us when we get to the landmark and points are given on the most creative photos, and by who ever traveled the farthest. So my team and I started yesterday off by going to the Library of Congress, and the National Botanic Gardens. After visiting those two places we just headed back home because we realized we had no idea where we were going and thought we'd plan it out a little more carefully. So we strategically picked out where we are going, and how far and made a google map. 

 My very own Library of Congress card!

Botanic Gardens :)

So before I venture out into to freezing cold for another day of the scavenger hunt, I just wanted to add my first "cool fact". So cool fact # 1... Did you know that in the Target here in D.C. they have a special escalator for your grocery cart?! Check it out! 

Well I feel dumb, apparently the blog knew I was writing that for Thursday :P

Time To Move On In, & Boy Am I "Moving On Up"!

It's 12:30am so I'm sure the date will be for Friday, but obviously it's for Thursday :)

Whelp, I am all moved in! & honestly I wish I wouldn't of been scarce on my packing because me oh my is this spacious! I am so used to the typical dorm style of living...ya know, the whole having to get creative with what you have kind of situation. But I'm in an apartment made for 6, and there is only 4 of us (Thank you Jesus :) cause 6 would have been packed!). I was the first one to move in and of course that's always the best cause you get first dibs! So yes, I did of course pick the room that is made to have 4 people in it (Two big closets, dressers and bunk beds), and there are only 2 of us :) So a nice big closet for all of my clothes and HIGH HEELS ;) and a bunk bed where I can sleep on the bottom one month, then sleep on the top the next (not that I'm going to do that or anything). I absolutely love having cabinets in the bathroom, a coat closet, a linen closet and a kitchen! It's the little things like a coat closet or linen closet that I don't really think about until having lived in a dorm. I'm really moving on up in my lifestyle :P Check out my roof top view below! 

Now my roommates couldn't be more perfect! One is from Alaska, she's a gold miner and goes bear hunting (cool right?!). The other (my room roommate who I share a room with) has a mass collection of elephants; elephant stuffed animals, figurines, jewelry, shirts, shoes you name it! And why you ask does she have this lovely collection? Because she is a die hard Republican!!! She even owns a pair of REPUBLICAN TOMS! HOW cool is that?! Those are definitely something that's going on my birthday list! Mom did you catch that?? ;) She brought a wonderful bunch of really great political books too that I'm excited about getting to read. Also, she's from Kansas. Then my third roommate is from Southern California and is just cuter than a button (what does "cuter than a button" even mean?!)! She reminds me of my roommate from freshman year of college. 

We got to meet everyone tonight at a banquet which was a lot of fun. Everyone seems pretty cool. I talked to this one girl (the only other Ohioian I know of so far that's here) for about an hour! It's really neat how a lot of us are connecting already when it's only the first night being here. After the banquet about 12 of us headed down the street to seven eleven to get slurpees and then headed over to the Capital. Though I've seen it before, I stood in awe while standing across the street from it at night time. It's lite up and looks so white against the dark night sky...it's almost like a reverse silhouette. 

So theres one thing I'm not to sure about... and that's the fact that I already have blisters on my feet from walking! Now see, walking is pretty much all you do here and I was even wearing a comfortable pair of boots. Looks like I will be wearing my hot pink reebok reezigs with my business attire now :P

I better head to bed, luckily I have a long day ahead of me! (Sitting at home doing nothing was killing me haha) Hoping I will be able to sleep through these sirens all night! Oh the noises of the city :)

The Journey Begins!

I started my journey to the nations capital this morning at 4am. Mom, dad & I started on route 11 in a snow storm. Going only 40mph we road on icy roads, and almost got into several accidents due to crazy drivers and dads inability to stay awake. I, however, don't remember a thing :P I slept very peacefully in the back seat of the car until we arrived in blue sky, sunny Maryland stopping at Bob Evans for breakfast. I LOVE Bobby's breakfast! :)

I was excited when we started seeing the signs for Washington! But we weren't quite there! We had to stop at our hotel first :) Just to back it up a bit...my parents and I left a day before I actually had to be moving into my apartment. That way we could be sure that we got there on time before I move in. We are staying at a hotel called the 'Washington Suites" in Alexandria!

My cousin Katie lives close to D.C. so she met up with us for lunch at Teds Montana Grill in Crystal City! Their food is delicious, and their specialty...Bison! Now, if you haven't ever had a good bison burger than I highly suggest it because it is De-Li-Cious! My burger was called the "Spoon & Fork", because you literally need a spoon and fork to eat it. It had chilly, sour cream and cheesy goodness all over it! And for those of you who know me well...Yes, I DID eat meat! Haha and lots of it! :) So if you ever make your way to D.C. I suggest you to head on over to "Teds Montana Grill", you won't regret it!

 Mom & dad trying to figure out the metro cards :P

Dad & I freezing waiting for the metro  

My cousin Katie & I at Teds Montana Grill! :)

On the metro!

My glorious burger at Teds! Mmm!

Crystal City "sitting" on the wall painting haha

I guess I'm cheating a little bit because I have been to D.C. before and have already eaten at Teds Montana Grill. Although coming here this time is different. This time I'm not going back home after a couple days, and THIS time I HAVE to learn the metro instead of depending on someone else to do it for me. This time I'm staying for awhile! About 4 months that is. I'm going to become miss independent and own this city! During the day of course because it's probably not as safe at night :P

Well tomorrow begins a brand new adventure. I'll be headed up to Capital Hill to move into my apartment! And yes, you did read that right! On CAPITAL HILL in a luxurious 2 bedroom furnished apartment with a stocked kitchen and a roof top that I can go up on. Also, tomorrow I will get to meet the roommates I'll be living with for the next 4 months. I can't wait to meet everyone!

I know living in DC will definitely be a different lifestyle than I am used to. I'll be seeing things that might bother me, scare me and even intimidate me. With this I thought I would end with the verse that has been going through my head while preparing to head to DC. I'm sure you are all familiar with it :) It is Philippians 4:13 "I can do all this through him who gives me strength".  This is an encouraging, inspirational verse and is a good one to remember :)

I'm taking on Washington DC!

Hello everybody and welcome to my blog! This is my first attempt at a blog, so in my very first blog post I thought I'd mention that I am not quite done completing my layout due to the fact that I'm not quite sure what I'm doing :) It'll come along though I'm sure! 

As many of you know... I will be spending my spring semester of 2012 in Washington DC where I will be taking on an internship at the American Apparel & Footwear Association, and taking classes studying public policy. I wanted to create a blog where I can share my thoughts and adventures, so I hope that you all enjoy :) 

I've always had big goals  for myself (I'm a dreamer what can I say!). I knew from my very first semester of college in 2009 that I wanted to do the American Studies program in DC, and whelp, here I am in 2012 actually doing it! I'm very excited to embark on the experiences and opportunities and to grow through it all. 

So, here I go! Washington DC watch out, because here I come!