CPAC 2012!

So, CPAC 2012 was an amazing experience that I'll never forget. Over the course of three days I ran into more people than I could possibly count. It was such a wonderful thing to see and talk to so many young conservatives like myself from across the country. The Marriott Hotel was jam-packed full of people and I rubbed shoulders with high-ranking officials, party types, and the Presidential candidates!

Just by chance and sheer luck, my friends and I ran into Rep. Allen West as we were waiting for an elevator. He took some time to talk to us and we managed to get a picture with him! We also got to see Gingrich and his wife up close as they made their way through the hotel. Secret Service was all over us! He didn't stop to shake our hands, which was disappointing, but he was set to give a speech very shortly before that so I'm sure his mind was focused elsewhere?

I didn't get to meet Governor Romney or Rick Santorum face to face, but one of my friends actually bumped into Santorum when the former Senator was leaving the speaker sign-in area. I did get to see Marco Rubio and Governor Rick Scott, both of which are favorites of mine. Rubio especially. His speech was absolutely brilliant and full of passion.

We ran into Herman Cain, his bus, and his campaign manager. Remember the commercial with the older gentlemen that was smoking? It caused a big buzz on national television? I met him on my way out! We chatted for a short time. I also met one of the ladies from The Five as we were leaving for the night, but she didn't seem too thrilled to see us. Maybe it was a long day? I won't hold it against her.

On Saturday the events were kind of slow, so Clay Evans and I decided to take a trip downtown. He hadn't been to the heart of DC since 5th Grade, so I thought I'd treat him. On the metro I met with an older English gentlemen who played in some Chess championships in Boston. He gave me some article that he wrote (shameless self-promotion!) and I'll have to find his name. In any event, I took Clay to see the White House, the World War II memorial, The Lincoln Memorial, The Vietnam wall, and finally some exhibits in the American History Museum. He was very glad and quite excited about the whole thing. I knew he had really wanted to see some of the sights, and since it would be his last year in college Lord knows if he would ever have the time to do something like this again.

During the three day event we had to deal with Occupy DC protesters shouting outside of the hotel and blockading off the main entrance and then a side entrance on separate days. We were called racists, bigots, and 1%'ers. Some of them even broke into the hotel lobby during Romney's speech but the police and security very quickly got rid of them. I will say that the police were very professional and they kept order. There were perhaps 100-200 people protesting us when the crowd was at its largest, but it was very ineffective. There were at least 1,000 of us. I took some pictures. Some of us started dancing to their drum-circle music while the rest laughed. All in all it was a fun time.

There's something to be said for attending an event with a large number of people that you know, by and large, feel the same way about the problems facing this country as you do. People are friendly (mostly), respectful, fun, talkative, and I think everyone felt reasonably comfortable to strike up conversation. I know I did. I spoke with students from Ireland, Colorado, Indiana, Florida, just to name a few. I'm still trying to find them on Facebook! Haha.

It was a tremendously positive experience that I would do again in a heartbeat. Now, pictures!

And So It Goes!

So! I should say that (For the moment) I worried about nothing on Thursday. I ended up taking the day off and being lazy, and doing some homework for the following week. I'm not sure if my other cohorts made it into work, I know of at least one or two who did. They wondered where I was! I didn't even get an e-mail back from my supervisor, nor did anyone really seem to care that I wasn't in on Thursday. Friday was a boring, slow day. Though, the Chief of Staff did bring in coffee and donuts and gave all of us interns some time to chat with the staff. It was nice. It's quite an amazing revelation coming to work in Washington to find that the Congressional staff (at least on our end) is actually very small. Maybe one or two dozen people including unpaid interns staff the DC office. You get to see how the mail is sorted, who is responsible for which area of policy, and really get to know them on a semi-personal basis. It's slow, tedious, and sometimes thankless work but that's the nature of interning. I'm hopeful because soon I'll ask for Thursday and Friday off to go to CPAC. Some friends from Wheaton will be coming down from Thursday to Sunday so I intend to show them a good time. We'll be yucking it up like a bunch of Conservatives. It'll be great.

All in all, I expect this week to be fairly uneventful. The class seminar I'm involved with for part of the program here has been just first rate. We've met with people who are at the top of their field and nationally recognized. We met the ad guy responsible (largely) for Obama's victory in 2008. We met with top Republican communications directors in the Republican National Committee building. Today I got to meet one of the men in charge of -the- private company which handles redistricting and reapportionment. Alas, he's a Demo. I'm assured that there's more to come, too!

Trouble in the Trenches

So today was a wasted day. I got up bright and early for my internship all prepared for my long slog in the office and skipped on down to the Woodley Park Metro Station. Immediately I knew something was wrong. Even for the rush-hour traffic there were far too many people on the platform. Getting on the tips of my toes I checked the boards and eventually I found out that there was an unscheduled track maintenance. From what I could find out, one of the rail's along the Red Line had "cracked". Not a problem. I always leave early and I have a comfortable window of 20 minutes or so in case of things like this. Well, those 20 minutes swept on by, as did train after train of packed cars. When I say packed I mean packed. The cars were so stuffed that there wasn't enough physical space left on any of the cars as people were shuttled off to downtown DC. I considered calling my intern coordinator to inform him that I was late when I realized I didn't have his phone number. What's worse, service was terrible. I had been there for close to 45 minutes (the point of no return, I was going to be late even if a train appeared out of nowhere) before giving up. I huffed it back to my apartment to shoot an e-mail to my supervisor. Wasn't going to make it.

As I was about to press the elevator call button one of my acquaintances (who happens to be working for a powerful Republican House Member) bumped into me. She was about to do what I had just done. She convinced me to give it another go so together we went back down to the metro station. I spent another twenty minutes or so watching full traincars go by with no real ETA on the next train. At this time, a little before 10:25 (I had left my room at 8AM) I decided to just go back to my apartment. I sent my supervisor an  e-mail and hopefully there won't be any repercussions.

I'm sure they would've wanted me to come in later over not coming in at all, but I weighed the options. I didn't want to cram myself in the traincar and get smushed between the closing doors (this happened to me twice and I had to get off the train both times), nor did I want to wait another half hour in that station. I could've taken the bus, but everyone was taking the bus. Equally crammed. I don't have a car, and I sure as hell wasn't going to pay for a cab to go across DC. I'm doing this for free, and on a good day its a 45 minute commute. I'm sure I'll get some small talking-to for it. Who knows! I spent the day catching up my reading, running some errands, and being lazy.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Important meetings tomorrow so I'll make more of an effort to get there, late or not.

Mr. Sylvia Goes to Washington!

Ah, the rigors of travel and independence! I've been here in the nation's capital for little over a week and I'm finally adjusting to the new schedule. I admit, at first I was a little bit apprehensive and the realization that I really was on my own without family, car, and friends was intimidating. However, I feel that this trip is going to be a humbling and character-building experience for me. I miss my close circle of friends, I miss my family, my pets, but this trip is necessary in every way. I find that I tend to excel in situations where it's a sink-or-swim environment and this has definitely been one of those times. I did get lost on my first day and on the second day... and even on the third day. I'm sure when I head out tomorrow I'll get lost then, too. I don't have the luxury of a blackberry, but that doesn't matter. I'm getting to know parts of the city every time I go out and it helps that I find the touristy parts very beautiful and full of all sorts of history! I've been here a week and I haven't seen 5% of what I'd like to see.

I'll briefly recap my trip. The flight from Providence to Reagan was actually quite uneventful, and although I only saw a small part of Reagan Airport, it really was not that difficult to navigate... except I did end up walking down one whole wing of the building looking for my bags and had to retrace ALL of my steps in order to get them. I hailed a cab and within about 20 minutes I arrived at my apartment. I spent the next two and three days buying the necessary things I forgot (bedding!) and I met my housemates. They're all pretty unique folks, and each of us has our own room except that I share a room with one of them. He's currently moved his bed to the common room so we'll see how that works out. If I can get some solace then I'll welcome the change as long as he isn't uncomfortable.

So far, I enjoy my seminar course. The professor, Dr. Semiatin, has been teaching the course for decades and is one of the goofiest political wonks I've ever seen. He has connections in high places. I hear last semester he managed to get Justice Antonin Scalia to speak to the class for an hour. I wish I had been there! Sufficed to say, I think I'm going to meet some very powerful people in the next few months. It's exciting, and I look forward to our ventures into the various offices in Downtown DC. A Research Project was also assigned in addition to my internship and seminar, but I chose to drop the Research Project in favor of taking an elective called "Regulation  Deregulation", riveting I know. I was all gung-ho for the project until I realize that there were so many due dates and minor stipulations that I could not write about topics that held much interest to me. It isn't like me to refuse a challenge, but I want to enjoy my time down here because I don't know if I'll get the chance to return.

I begin my first internship day tomorrow morning and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't anxious. I want to impress, and I'm eager to see the sorts of things I'll be doing this semester. I'll tell you one thing; I'll be fairly pissed if they make me walk dogs. I have nothing but positive feelings, and wanting to see the Senator succeed (job opportunities?) only commits me more to the work ahead of me.

I managed to play tourist this past weekend but not nearly as much as I would've liked. The weather did not cooperate, and the tracks were undergoing maintenance so I did not feel like wasting my day underground in the station. I still need to take a day trip to Arlington, and I'd like to sit at the Lincoln Memorial again. Even though they had the whole reflecting pool torn up it was still a breath-taking sight. I can't put to words how wonderful it was to sit on those steps and watch the national mall unfold before my eyes. It was an amazing experience.

Note to self: Make time to Skype my dear friends. I still need to install that blasted program. Another time! Now, pictures!!

One day I will be there!

One of my personal, historical heroes.

I was happy to get this picture, far enough away (without the flash) as to not disturb anyone. I had a nice conversation with some folks in the area.

Bryan, if he reads this blog, should appreciate this photo.

This one, too.

This is the small lake to the side of the reflecting pool. The Wall is behind me some few hundred yards.

Quack!

Also, quack!!

I nearly died when I saw this. In 1861 Ulysses Grant was given a specially-forged sword from Galena, IL to commend his great command ability against the Confederates. This is that sword.

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Here is a close-up of the hilt. I'll have to check his memoirs, but I believe on the blade is a Thank You message to the General. He carried this sword with him throughout the war I believe, or at the very least took care of it.

This was the hat worn by William Tecumseh Sherman. You rocked, too.

Sherman's cavalry sword, I believe.

Neat collection of real (not reproduction) Nazi Officer stuff. It's quite the feeling to see it in person.

To be honest, I didn't realize I took this picture until I checked them out on the computer several hours later. I hope you can make out the caption on the video.