Ugh. The Cart. (I stole this from Elvia’s Facebook!) I’m falling into my old habits again, but I promise I have good excuses this time! However, I should have posted Sunday after my shopping excursion with Elvia, one of my roommates. Before I got to DC I wondered how in the world I’d grocery shop. I like to go on Sunday to get everything I need for the week so I don’t have to think about it anymore. At home, I go to the store, load up my cart, transport it to my car and take it home. But there’s one vital thing missing from that formula here: my car. Now, I suppose I could carry the bags back home. But then my fingers would probably be bleeding before I got back and my arms would be disjointed from my shoulders. So someone invented carts. Not like grocery carts, just small, squarish carts you can use to put your bags in and wheel back home. Problem solved, right? Ha ha, no. Try wheeling that thing …

Seven hours, 320 pictures and one colossal plate of Chinese food later, We’ve seen the Washington Monument, WW2 Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam Memorial and Chinatown. This is a super quick slideshow, but It’s all I have the energy for right now. 🙂 http://www.youtube.com/v/R0wBChY1Ce4?hl=en&fs=1

Fountain at Freedom Plaza Waaaaaaay back when I first joined the staff of The Northerner a few of the editors started blogging. I say started because I only remember one blog having one entry and then they kinda just died. The one blog I remember was the editor in chief’s, titled “Past the Print.” In it, she would talk about some of the things that happened in the newsroom while we were creating an issue or something interesting about a story that didn’t make it through the editing process. Or at least that was the intent of the blog. Like I said, there was only one entry. For example, if she had covered the rally at Freedom Plaza about distracted driving, she would have included in her blog that a fire alarm went off at the National Press Club just as the rally was starting and that the looks of disappointment on the organizers faces were priceless. They were already getting discouraged because few people had arrived. The fire turned out to be a false …

I’m swallowing a lot of pride to write this blog. I would much rather forget about most of today, but it just doesn’t seem right to only talk about the good moments of the trip. Besides, in the end, I did finally get  a byline. It’s been exactly a year today since I wrote a news story. (I did write a few PR stories late last year.) So I covered a Congressional hearing this morning about the Universal Service Reform Act, which was written to bring broadband service to rural areas, among other things. My first draft of the story was awful. And I knew it. I couldn’t even tell you what I was thinking when I turned it in, but I did. And Jody, my editor, kicked it back out to me. Shame and embarrassment just about cover how I felt at her desk. I knew I could do a lot better than that first draft. So I rewrote the story. The second time around it took some minor edits and we reworked my …

Today was supposed to be the day I got my first byline. But the force just wasn’t with me. The first problem came when I got to the event and realized that what I thought was going to be something about preparing for retirement was actually a group advocating the Social Security system. So my original story was blown out of the water. I spent the rest of my afternoon trying to get in touch with Senators and retirement experts. No one called me back. (Big surprise there.) I finally just called it quits around four and started getting ready for another story tomorrow. There are a couple of events happening later in the month in conjunction with Social Security and retirement. I’ll keep an eye on them and maybe the legwork I did today will come in handy. I’m taking another stab at a story tomorrow. I have a House Committee meeting tomorrow morning about making broadband cover the nation. We’ll see how this one goes.

Capitol Building My feet are dying. I knew that all the walking around DC was going to be gruesome. But I thought I prepared for it. I carefully bought and broke in my shoes. And then I got here and realized that my pointy-toe black flats just aren’t going to work, no matter how comfortable they were back home. I have blisters on eight out of 10 toes tonight and my brown flats are going to be my mainstay until I get new black shoes. I don’t care if they don’t match my outfit. We did do a lot of walking today though. We went to The Hill and got our press passes and Jody, our ringleader/editor/manager, took us on a tour of the House and the Senate. She showed us where the press galleries and a plethora of other rooms were, but I sincerely doubt I remember how to get to any of it. That building is one big, beautiful maze. There is at least one cursed stairwell in the capitol, at least for …