Sep 13-19 or Catching up

Okay. Let's try to review this past week in an organized manner.

Sunday (9/13):We are at church most of the day on Sundays.

And I kind of like it.

I had the luscious opportunity of sleeping without my alarm clock on this morning. I woke up around 8:30 and had a delightful morning until I realized that I was going to be late! I finished my yummy breakfast, hastily finished my hair and ran out of the Barlow to the bus station across the street.

Church was great, dinner was great, and we got to watch the CES fireside with Elaine Dalton. She gave a great talk and I was quite edified.

Monday: Busy, busy, busy. Work and then rush home to cook for dinner group and then rush to FHE to give the lesson and facilitate the game. At 10:30 all of the things I was in charge of--projects at work, dinner, and FHE--were over!

Tuesday: Tuesday was a lot of data basing at work. I had to take breaks from typing so my wrists wouldn’t hurt. Tuesday night my friend Abby asked me to cut her hair. While she has ever reason to trust me personally, she has no reason to trust me cosmetically! But me, being fearless, agreed if she really wanted me to. It looked pretty good, but we have yet to discover if I really did a good job, she hasn’t straightened it yet.

Abby was nervous before she let me at her head with a pair of scissors.

Wednesday: Ten minutes after getting to work, I left for a Natural Resources full committee hearing in the House. Five hours later, I returned.

I will try not to bore you with details about the bill discussed (the CLEAR act, HR 3534), but the Secretary of the Interior, Secretary Salazar testified, so it was a big deal. The hearing was PACKED. Even the overflow room was like Disneyland during spring break.

Sidenote: I ran into one of my friends from the Barlow Center who is interning with Rep. Chaffetz! I got to sit with my friend John during the hearing and it was good to see a familiar face on the Hill.

Probably the most notable thing that happened during the hearing was Sec. Salazar’s announcement of the end of the Royalty-In-Kind (RIK) program. TCS has opposed this program for awhile, and we were thrilled when he announced the end. You can see what we wrote about it here and here. Basically, it’s a program where oil/gas companies can make royalty payments in oil/gas rather than cash, so they play the market and give the U.S. oil/gas when prices are low and delay when prices are high. As a result, taxpayers are out millions of dollars that are rightfully theirs.

I guess another notable thing is that Rep. Bishop (R-UT) literally yelled at the Secretary for not being transparent enough. Salazar joked about his passion, but I'm surprised Bishop didn't have a heart attack.

At around 12:30 the hearing went to recess until 1:00 and I went downstairs to get some lunch at the cafeteria. Who would have imagined the wonders I found in the basement of the Longworth House building! First, the cafeteria was packed and amazing! (What isn't packed on Capitol hill?) You could get anything there and it all looked good! Since it was crowded to the gills, and I thought I’d get weird stares if I actually tried to decide what I wanted by looking around and figuring out the system, I just grabbed the first packaged thing that looked good and went outside (where I had room to breathe) to eat it.

A LOT of people work in the Longworth building. Also, downstairs I found a coffee shop, a creamery (for ice cream), an office supplies store, and the special private Subway track that runs between the Capitol and the Senate and House buildings. It’s a great idea because if you had to walk from the House to the Senate, it could take you awhile. I bet if I had walked around a little bit more I would have found a dry cleaner and an amusement park as well.

Thursday: Another hearing at work and then tons of homework and reading when I got home. Since I had put off my homework all week (in favor of much more fulfilling pursuits: talking to friends, writing in my journal, reading the news, going to bed early), and I finally paid the price. I had to stay up until two to finish a paper for class.

Friday: We had two great briefings. One by some BYU alums working for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and one by Bart Marcois, the president of the Eagle foundation. Both were engaging, thought-provoking briefings, but you'll have to ask me about them if you're interested because this post is already long enough.

However, after Mr. Marcois' presentation I did decide that I watch too much television/movies. I really don't watch that much, but there is so much more to do!

After changing out of our business attire, we hopped on the metro and went to the Old Town area in Alexandria. It was beautiful! We went on a walking tour, window shopped, grabbed dinner (Thai food---yummy!) and ice cream (cherry vanilla with chocolate syrup), and got back on the Metro.

We went to the Air Force and Pentagon memorials on the way home. Beautiful architecture, especially at night.

Reposing on an ancient park bench in Alexandria. Okay, so the bench probably isn't ancient, but it was next to the older house in Alexandria, so it was pretty old by association.

I am reading the tour book that led us on a walking tour of old town!

The tree lined streets of Alexandria are very beautiful.

Looking into the window of the church where George Washington's funeral was held. (Everything closes at five here.)

A common sight for me, but not so common for you! Abby taking Rachel's picture in front of a classic southern-style mansion/house.

Abby taking my picture in front of a classic southern-style mansion/house. (But you can tell it's southern simply by my damsel-in-distress, Scarlet O'Hara pose.)

Most of the girls who went to Alexandria (a few were shopping down the road)

Waiting for the Metro.

I didn't know she took this picture, but it's candid, so I like it.

At the Air Force memorial. It is hard to pose with artistic concrete.

Lynne and Abby tired after a really long day of walking many places.

An AMAZING guy we saw playing crystal glasses in Alexandria! He is very very good. I got his business card, just in case I ever need a man who places crystal glasses.