What 2nd Semester Will Have Been Being

This post was written in the early morning hours of January 4th of this year, looking ahead to what I think this semester will have brought me by its end (now). The title is in future perfect progressive, as it describes the ongoing action of 2nd semester before the specified future time of what is now now. Make sense? Good.

That was a pretty hectic semester. Taking 5 classes and doing an internship a full three days a week probably wasn't the best idea I ever had. The internship started out looking really promising but after a few weeks really devolved into boring monotony. Yeah, I met some really great people and made good connections, but I'm not sure just how much I really want to go into politics as a career now. I have always been cynical but the staff's total detachment from anything at all personal was really something I might want to stay away from.

Was killing myself to take full advantage of the opportunity worth it? I guess so. It's a great story to tell and if I can stand the people then the lifestyle the connections and skills I picked up are going to be pretty useful. Just knowing my way around the halls of Congress is pretty cool, although I have now been around it too much to be amazed by any of that. Maybe I am just as jaded.

It's been way, way, way too long since I have gotten to spend time with friends from home. My mid-march spring break wasn't great for getting to see other people, although the few that I did made that week great. Thanks guys (and girl)! I can't wait for everyone to be home in a couple weeks and for summer fun to begin.

Those of you who I have kept up with via the interwebs and cellular telephones are great and really are the ones who have let me keep going this semester. Big thanks to C, C, J, N, N, M, S (good luck these weeks!), and Z. Our assholic rants, deep thoughts, pep talks, chit chat, hilarity, bro talk, perspective, and amusement, respectively, have been my light. College friends are great, but are only so big in my life, while you all are much more of a rock. Please don't move away.

It's going to be really weird to have a job this summer, along with everyone else. I hope no one picks anything too early in the morning that would interfere with late night antics. Thanksgiving and Christmas were needed breaks from school and I expect you all to come through once again over the long summer. [This is an easy prediction to make. No way this fails.]

Classes went pretty well, but not quite as awesome as 1st semester. Spending so much time at the office didn't so much take away my time to do work as mentally exhaust me and make it so I couldn't do work as well. For how bad it could have been, this was really a pretty good result. Still means dropping the GPA from the resumé (rhymes!) but oh well, at least I have some real work experience to put on there now.

Another sacrifice of the internship was any umpiring I thought I could do while at school. Time to shake off the rust, get back out there, and have some fun. The ability to do games may be a breaking point in finding a job. If I can't be doing too much stuff, what is the point of doing any of it?

Have I changed? I don't really think so. I have a better grasp of my abilities and a bit more maturity when I choose to wield it, but I am the same person the vast majority of the time.

What I have left out may be most telling.

Look for a new post coming soon looking at how I did in my predictions and why. If you read this at all regularly then you probably know a lot of the answers yourself. Fill me in in the comments below.

Quirks

I've been failing at blogging regularly, Some combination of being so busy and enjoying life too much to stop and blog about it. Yes, I am only interesting when I'm sad. Woe is me. But now I feel sick and just want to curl up in my bed instead of studying, so time to blog! GW has swine flu, too, so this could really be a lot of fun.

This past week has been pretty damn crazy. Last day of classes was Tuesday, and I had a ton of stuff due that day, so I ended up staying up till past 4 on Monday night before getting up for my 8 am. Got everything done relatively well and turned in and all, so not too bad.

Then I had to get up extra early on Wednesday to go on a White House tour before heading in to work. Pretty cool place, but a pretty underwhelming tour. Just 6ish ceremonial rooms on the first floor of the east wing. Still glad I got the opportunity to do it through work, though.

Thursday was another fun day as I went into work specially to participate in the tradition of a private lunch for outgoing interns and the congressman they work for. Getting to eat in the Member's private dining room is a nice treat any day, especially when the conversation ends up lasting for over an hour and being very interesting. Add a photo op to the day and it was a nice penultimate day of being on the Hill.

My last day or work on Friday certainly came with mixed emotions. Definitely chose the right time to leave, so I have time to study for finals over the next few days, but I really enjoyed the experience and the people in the office. Always nice to get tons of recommendation offers on your way out the door, too. The internship has both reaffirmed my interest in politics and my desire to work on campaigns more than doing actual governing work.

Things continue to be great with Katie, too, minus some drama with a mutual friend. Oh well, nothing can be perfect. The deadline 6 days from now certainly isn't, but it's the right choice for both of us. Expect a mopey me the first couple weeks of summer (not that most of you will be home anyway).

Shout-out to C for being there and willing to talk about shit recently! Much appreciated. Giggle.

Today

(only slightly creepy)

Less than three weeks left...

...so crazy.

I had another great weekend. It's nice to really be enjoying things here as the school year winds down.

Work continues to be pretty good, although I think this week is going to be pretty crazy. Everyone is back from recess and my Friday includes a tour to 75 middle school band geeks. Shoot me. Should still be a good experience though and busy days can be a lot of fun sometimes.

Weekend highlights:

• Taking some reading and picnic food to the Mall with Katie and Danielle to lounge in the beautiful amazing day on Saturday, before wandering over to the Jefferson memorial and enjoying the views of the tidal basin and city.
• Wearing shorts.
• Having dinner in Georgetown and then wandering over to the Kennedy Center and wandering around on the roof there with Katie. Very nice views down the Potomac and across the city.
• Wearing sandals.
• Not getting any work done.

Pretty great, huh?

I am both looking forward to the summer and being with all of you again and having truly good times and lamenting the end of what has been a good freshman year. We'll see about sophomore year...

Success!

I had a great weekend. Relaxed and awesome. So many people were out of town for passover/Easter/Congressional recess that the whole city was sort of dead, especially on campus.

I saw Watchmen on Friday night. It is definitely long, obtuse, and complicated, but I enjoyed it overall. I think it helps to see it in an empty-ish theater so that people don't get mad when you whisper questions back and forth while squirming to find a new position for your long-ago-asleep ass.

Also from Friday night. Correct me if I am wrong, but copious amounts of soy sauce don't belong on Chicken Pad See Eww, correct? I get it all the time without problem but this time it was drenched in the salty flavor blaster. Oh well, still okay enough to eat and enjoy the experience.

Saturday night a group of us went to see the fireworks marking the end of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. Got a nice viewing spot looking across a still tidal basin at the Jefferson Memorial, with the fireworks exploding right above. The reflections on the water of the lit monument and the array of fireworks above was like a postcard. Very sweet. Later, it was time to open my shrink-wrapped American Psycho Uncut Version DVD and give it a watch. No clue what they changed, but it's still an amazing movie. I always seem to forget at least a few random ass moments of greatness.

Sunday was time for some quality family time. At 8 am after 4.5 hours of sleep. With two little girls under the age of 7. Hiking and picnicking. Still always nice to see some 2nd and 3rd cousins of mine and keep that connection going.

Okay, so this weekend sounds really lame when I type it out, but I assure you that it was really quite nice. I'm back into a work week about as tired as I left it, which means by the time I get to the end of it I will be hating myself with a passion. I just can't make myself sleep when there are more fun things I could be doing!

And they say I don't photograph well.

Yes, the iPhoto retouch tool is fun to use.

It's hot and it's cold

This weekend was kind of terrible and kind of great. Yeah, one of those.

Friday was my class registration day for next Fall, which meant I had to get up and get on the computer at 7 am sharp to get classes I wanted. Spent a typically long time figuring out what to take and when, especially once upperclassmen filled up some of the cooler classes I was pondering. Well, anyway, I got up on time and got all the classes I planned to. Listed below!

• Beginning Chinese - Decided to take the plunge and try learning a language that will actually be useful. The 4 days a week of classes is a little gross, but hopefully it goes okay. At least I know plenty of people who can give me tips? Might regret this a lot...
  
• Intro to News Writing and Reporting - Excited for this. It's my first non-super-intro class in my planned minor, Journalism and Mass Communication. Going to be plenty of writing, but I think it will still be a pretty good class. This prof is supposed to be great but a hard grader, so we'll see how much I regret this choice later.
  
• 20th Century Political Thought - Should be an interesting class at least. I'm such a political science nerd that I'm not too worried about it being too boring. Might end up being terrible if the prof is too existential about the whole thing, but I'll survive.
• International Political Economy - Fulfilling the end of my international politics requirement and planning to never take anymore... I just don't give a shit. Combines that with econ which just makes it worse. Oh well. Professor supposedly makes it interesting and induces vibrant discussion, but I'm having trouble imagining that happening.
• Introduction to Sampling - The most politically relevant stats class I could find. I'm enjoying my intro stats course well enough, so I'm hoping this continues that trend. Plus some good stuff for me to know for my planned career. Nice how that works out. Prof reviews are terrible but are mostly from intro courses and center on his thick accent, which doesn't generally bother me too much.
• Squash! - Never played. Not sure I've ever actually seen a court in real life. I wanted to do something and this is what was the coolest sounding available thing in a workable timeslot. A couple hours a week learning to play and having fun sounds pretty good.

Should be an interesting semester with more writing than I'll probably want to do. With Chinese four times a week and everything else I wanted to do I don't think I'll be able to have an internship stuffed into the schedule too. Maybe a campus part time job with random ass hours or something. Which brings me to another point...

My internship is still going pretty well. Due to other interns quitting early, I now work alone every day I'm there, which is a little annoying, but also kind of nice in a weird way. The small difference in the amount getting done without them is kind of pathetic in terms of how little they actually got done. I also don't understand what I did first semester. I'm working 3 days a week and still have time to get all my school work done and go to all my classes and such. I'm doing a tad more work on the weekends this semester, but not much. What the hell did I do during what must have been hours each day of completely free time?

I gave my first Capitol tour on Friday as well. Due to the influx of tourists (damn them always) for the National Cherry Blossom Festival and generally good weather, the official tour guides are all booked and I have to pick up the slack for our constituents. Did the training a week ago, which was very good, since my very first group had a wheelchair involved, meaning all the mobility-impaired access routes we learned for hours a week ago really came in handy. Only got lost looking for a wheelchair ramp once! Of course, I did that right as I ran into a friend from school who was randomly there, which was a little embarrassing. Oh well.

You all know how I love random facts. Now I am required to know a bunch of them about the Capitol building. Fun.

Friday night I went to see I Love You, Man with some friends. It was okay. I laughed quite a bit during it, but by the end (especially the final scene) I was very ready to be done with it. Looking back I don't think I can remember a single joke from during it. Wonder if I would have laughed if other people around me weren't. That's okay though, 'cuz the social dynamics of the evening provided me with plenty of mental laughter.

Saturday and today can pretty much be summed up in one word: research. Checked out 13 books from the library, most of them having been written in the 60s. Always a joy. Plenty of time spent on EBSCO and JSTOR too. Might be headed to the Library of Congress tomorrow after work to go through their microfilm of local papers in Georgia during the 60s.

Got to chill with a semi-new friend last night after my brain officially turned off. I really like enjoying new people. It's such a nice little surprise. Plus it's fresh and I can recycle all my good stories again. Will be harder next year as I got assigned to the shitty dorm building full of anti-social singles across campus from everyone else. Great.

I'm noticing more and more that I crave a social atmosphere. I used to think of myself as relatively introverted, but I'm seeing that that isn't really very true. Whether it's in a group or one-on-one I am just happier to be around people in general. At least I am conscious of it now, since then I can act to make it happen.

On the horizon for this week is 25 pages of writing spread across two papers. The first (which I have been doing all the research for) covers the effects of apportionment changes in Georgia in the 1960s. The second is some theoretical international politics thing about solving global warming. I should combine them into a theory about black power overcoming carbon dioxide through balanced representation. Right.

So, so crazy that 5 weeks from now I will be done with freshman year and back chilling at home. Ridiculous. Really need to figure out where to store/ship all my crap and what to do over the summer.