A Flicker of Hope

6.30.12 and 7.1.12

I woke up and did not have a clue what time it was.  My microwave clock was not on, and my phone was completely dead.  I turned my phone on long enough to see it was around 9:15 am.  My thoughts: “I still don’t have power, it is 9 on a Saturday, my basement is still half-way cool, I’m going back to sleep.”

And that is exactly what I did until around 10:30 until my IF dad came and knocked on my door.  He assumed I was up (since I normally am by this time).  I woke up and was told the power was still out.  Alrighty then. 

Not too upset over being up, I wandered upstairs to see how everyone else was.  There were lots of small tree limbs and leaves in our cul-de-sac, and we were the lucky ones.  A cul-de-sac over, a tree had split in half, been partially uprooted, and fallen on two cars (luckily, they didn’t appear to have taken much damage). 

After debating for a minute on how I could charge my phone, I realized I could use my car charger (at least, for a while.  Eventually keeping my phone in my car raised the battery temperature to a level too high to continue charging.  Phones are so smart these days).  I was going to check on my phone at one point when our neighbor, who moved in around the same time, came over to talk to us.

His name was Chris.  He worked for AT&T and was a very interesting individual. We discussed the stock market and then Austrian and Keynesian economics.  Chris is Chinese, so he had some interesting world views.  He seemed to be very skeptical of Austrian economics working, but didn’t think that Keynesian worked either.  We had a fascinating discussion.

After my economics discussion, I decided I needed to shower (luckily, the hot water heater is gas, so plenty of hot water!).  I wandered inside and showered in the dark (kind of creepy) and got ready by the light of my flashlight app.  It was quite the adventure.  I am just happy my basement stays relatively cool! 

Around 11:45 I was bored of just doing nothing and I needed to charge my phone more.  I started up the good’ol escape and started driving.  I finally managed to get cell service (that’s another thing, something must have knocked out the cell tower, because neither my IF nor Chris had cell service) and found out that GMU had power.  My random driving had actually brought me very close to the campus, so I informed my friend Thomas “Cheesy” Cheeseman that he should expect company!  He was very gracious and opened up his dorm apartment to me!

I was able to charge my phone on Taylor’s charger (Thanks Taylor…you didn’t know I used it, but I appreciate it!) and I chatted with Cheesy for a bit.  Since Thom hadn’t showered, and I hadn’t eaten, I decided to run to McD’s (along with everyone else in the area) and let him shower.  After a short wait, I was able to get my food and headed back to the AC of Cheesy’s room! 

A group of KIPers were going to wander around Georgetown and I was debating on going.  Thomas at first refused, but I eventually bribed him into going with the promise of seeing the school (which I also wanted to see, but we didn’t actually manage to see, oops!).  So, much later than the original meeting time, we headed to Georgetown to meet up with people.

We wandered around the area, stopping in at an Italian suit shop that was going out of business and a really sketchy souvenir shop, before meeting up with the rest of the group.  From there we wandered some more.  I wanted to get either ice cream/frozen yogurt or Cupcakes (from the famous Georgetown Cupcakes) but that never materialized.  Georgetown cupcakes had a line out the door, and we didn’t want to wait (but I will go back. I will get cupcakes, I shall enjoy them!).  Instead we navigated the street and then made our way down to the waterfront.  It was a pretty waterfront, but by this point, we had been walking around for a few hours, in 100+degree heat, and I was quite warm and very thirsty. 

A few members of our group were hungry, so the group decided to try the Tacklebox, a local fish joint. I wasn’t all that hungry (plus, we were going to order pizza and hang out at GMU later that night) so I just ingested high amounts of water and iced tea.  Time was passing by, and we were supposed to meet a couple people back at Cheesy’s GMU apartment so we (that is, Garrett, Thomas, and I) departed from the group and headed back to the Metro—harassing Garrett (aka Ken Doll) the entire time.

While it took us much longer than planned to get back, we finally made it to Vienna/Fairfax and I ordered Dominos on my handy-dandy-newly-downloaded Dominos app.  I ran inside my (still dark) apartment and grabbed my laptop and charger.  We had decided to watch a movie once Emily and Kevin arrived. 

It just so happened that as we were walking to my apartment, Kevin was already at Thom’s room (oops) so we were in a bit of a hurry.  Luckily, Emily was running behind as well, so the majority rules.  We grabbed Kevin from GMU, ran to Dominos to get the pizzas and then next door to Giant (a grocery store like Kroger’s or IGA, but I may have already mentioned that) and got some drinks, a small USA Cake (even though Emily doesn’t support being patriotic) and a few other food items to go with our pizza. 

Finally, we made it back to GMU with food (by this point, I was hungry).  Emily had beaten us to GMU, but she quickly had to leave again to go get gas.  We decided to chillax until she got back, meaning we ate pizza and hurled insults at one another.  Typical guy stuff.  Once Emily got back, Garrett decided he wanted to open the cake.  I say open because he didn’t cut it, he simply opened it.  Emily mocked the joys of the USA, professing herself to be a staunch Communist.  Can you believe that?  She must be a mole, trying to infiltrate the free-market movement, having us all fooled by her Asian economist pseudonym.  But know this:  We are onto you Emily! 

After many rambling conversations about some hilariously controversial topics, Emily convinced us to watch The Dark Knight (it was a hard sell too, I mean, we were all soo opposed to watching it!).  For the rest of the evening, Kevin, Emily, Cheesy, and I had a group cuddle (ok, so not really) on the couch while watching The Dark Knight.  At least, until a live action Police Drama started outside of Cheesy’s window.  A GMU police officer pulled over a car and then, for the next hour to hour and a half, kept the driver and passengers there.  I don’t have a clue what went down, other than someone had to come and drive the car with the original driver and the other occupants away. Quite the excitement (I felt like the world’s biggest creeper). 

When The Dark Knight was over, it was time to call it a night.  I had to run Garrett to the Metro stop, and we were all tired, so we disbanded our little group (which had acquired two of Cheesy’s other roommates) and went our separate ways. 

I was really hoping that my power would be back on when I got home.  I was momentarily optimistic when I noticed that one traffic light that had previously been out was on…at least, until I got to the next light that was still out.  It was strange to be driving thru an area with lights and then, the next block is completely black. It was incredibly eerie.  Almost like something from a horror or war movie.  

After arriving back to my apartment (with a small spark of hope left) I walked into the dark house.  Still, no power.  I walked down to the basement—which I am incredibly happy I decided on—and got ready for bed in the dark.  When I was apartment hunting, a small voice kept saying live in a tall apartment building. I wanted to have the experience of an apartment building, but I am ever so thankful I decided to take the basement apartment.  It stays relatively cool down here at all times (even when the AC and power have been off for 42 hours). 

So, I called it a night, hoping, truly hoping that I would have power in the morning. 

Which I didn’t.  (7.1.12)

I did, however, have a phone with a charger, because I charged it at Cheesy’s all during the movie.  So, I at least knew what time it was when I woke up. 

Around 11 or 11:30, I was in the shower when I heard lots of clicking and I noticed a light was on.  I reached out of the shower and pushed the dimmer switch and the bathroom light turned on!  I was so excited, until the lights flickered and went off again.  For that moment, I had hope that they would flicker again and stay on, but my hope quickly died.  That flicker of hope was simply that, a flicker!

I wandered upstairs where my IF was very excited; they assumed the flicker meant that by the days end we would have power again!  However, even their hopes dimmed as we read the news (via cellular phone device) that there were still 280,000 people in Northern Virginia alone that still did not have power.  That number did not include the rest of Virginia, Southern Ohio or West Virginia.  Ugh.  That’s still a lot of people in need of power with very little hope of being on the top priority list.

Since I had not blogged in the past week, I decided I would use my laptop for as long as I could (and so far, we’ve been going for 4 ½ hours with batter life still left. Woo! Go HP long lasting battery!).  However, I am starting to run low on juice (less than an hour left). I also sapped some juice from my laptop to my phone to make sure I didn’t have to leave my phone in my car or drive anywhere too soon.  However, if my power isn’t back on within the next hour (and I’m not holding my breath) then I shall venture to GMU and utilize Cheesy’s AC and power to charge my laptop and my phone.  Can’t be without my electronics (especially since Skyra s also my alarm clock)!

And so, I have spent my afternoon blogging, and quite upset with that small flicker that gave me hope.  Oh well, eventually they will get to us.  I was very afraid that all my cold food was going to go back, but my IF has made sure that they keep the fridge and freeze stocked full of ice to keep all of our food safe! Yeah!

Well, you are now officially up-to-date (as soon as I either a. regain power or b. go to GMU and upload these).  Let’s hope this doesn’t happen again, because I’m not a huge fan of living without power.  However, I am a lot better off than many, many people in this country, and especially the world!  I mean, I’m in the DC area as a paid Intern!

An Event-full Week

6.25.12-6.29.12

So, I really should utilize my time better and work to stay up-to-date on these blog posts, but that would remove the suspense, right? 

The beginning of this week was pretty chill.  I didn’t want to spend too much money (going out adds up fast!) so I opted to be a bit of a hermit for the first part of the week.  Sunday night, despite being a great day, resulted in a sleepless night.  I had difficulty both falling and staying asleep.  That made my Monday a little rough (it is hard to get up on Mondays anyhow, so when you are extra sleepy, they are just all the worse).  In addition to being sleepy, Rush+, Metro’s attempt to make Rush hours less crowded and more efficient, was a complete failure on Monday.  To give you an idea of what Rush+ really does, it’s as my friend Garrett keeps quoting, “It is like trying to rearrange the chairs on the Titanic.” 

So, despite the fact I managed to leave my house five minutes earlier than normal (just by dumb luck), I got to work about 10 minutes later than I normally do.  Thanks to the Metro sitting in two different spots for 5-10 minutes while we waited for the train in front of us to move.  The all-knowing Metro gods have removed trains from the blue line and placed them the orange line.  The result: an extremely crowded blue line and a delayed orange line.  Oh well. 

After getting to work, I cheered up a bit.  I really enjoy working on the Policy team.  While at times I don’t feel like I’m adding a lot to the conversation, I do know that my small contribution is being used elsewhere (and, at times, my small contribution is bigger than I originally expected!).  Monday turned out to be a pretty good day.  That night, heartbroken over not being able to watch HIMYM, I ended up being productive and reading for our Tuesday session. 

After a fairly sleepless Monday I thought I would crash when I was finished with everything else.  And my body felt like it was going to, that is until I finally laid my head down to go to sleep.  For some strange reason, my mind went into overdrive and started thinking about a plethora of events and happenings from my past.  All were pleasant and positive, but I was sleepy.  Couldn’t my mind have done this in dream form?  For whatever reason, I struggled to fall asleep for the second night in a row.  Blah.

Tuesday was virtually a repeat of my Monday.  I got up, managed to leave my house early, got stuck on the Metro, and arrived at work later than I normally do (not that I was late, I just like to be early!).  Our Tuesday sessions were a little slow moving (I think it’s because I was sleepy) but our group brainstorming resulted in our project moving forward!  I was quite excited (even if my other groupmates were not) about the progress we made. 

Tuesday night was a pleasant surprise:  I found season 7 of HIMYM on an online site!  Score! However, I was sleepy, so after only a couple episodes, I decided I should probably shut it off and get some sleep.  So, I disconnected my laptop…and tried to sleep.  Key word, tried.  I am not sure why, but my mind decided that it wanted to go into overdrive around the same time my body wanted to just sleep.  I partially blame this on too many late nights at college.  Dang awkward times to be productive! (11pm-1am for those who are curious). 

Wednesday I got up late, and I didn’t care.  I was too tired to worry about 10 minutes.  Luckily, the Metro decided to actually return to its normal level of inefficiency, as opposed to the increased level of inefficiency.  Work was, as usual, entertaining.  There was some excitement in the air, as we all started talking about the healthcare ruling.  The Institute had brought in Randy Barnett to speak about the case (he represented Small Businesses in the suit against Obamacare) and things were looking pretty great. 

Until Thursday happened (after another sleepless night—this time because of excitement and anticipation). 

The Communications team sits on the 3^rd floor near the Policy team, and they have two different TVs they keep on at all time.  Well, the majority of the 3^rd floor ended up in the Com-space.  We had Fox on one TV and the SCOTUS blog on CSPAN-3 on another.  After a quick and glorious moment when we saw Fox report “Mandate struck down” we realized that the reporting was wrong.  The SCOTUS blog kept reporting, and…our office grew silent and solemn.  After about 30 minutes of watching the outcome, various individuals started to leave the room.  Some with hopes of finding the silver lining, some disgusted, and others were just shocked. 

I could write an entire blog post on how I feel about ObamaCare, but I am sure most of my readers have read plenty on the matter.  In summary, our office was horrified at the ruling. The majority of us would be working on whatever project we had on our desk, abruptly stop and just rant for a few minutes on the ruling. 

While this was a storm cloud over my day, there was a small silver-lining.  That evening I was going to attend an America’s Future Foundation event.  The event was being held on K-Street (that horrible, horrible street, or, for those of you that don’t know, the street where most Lobbyists reside) at the Microsoft headquarters.  The HQ was amazing.  The walls were lit up, everywhere; there were giant screens and just an amazing amount of technology in the room. 

We (that is, Sam, Garrett and I) mingled with a bunch of other KIP interns along with many other individuals.  The panel discussion was quite interesting, discussing the difficulties of cronyism and how business has taken a very negative turn in government involvement.  I really enjoyed it.  However, I won’t bore you with the details.

After the panel, I was quite hungry. I had not eaten since lunch. There had been appetizers at the event, but not nearly enough to fill me up.  So, the three of us wandered to find food.  After being disappointed with our selection, we settled for Cosi (and I do mean settled).  Cosi, for those who don’t know, is similar to Panera. 

The food was edible, and the conversation, as usual, was humorous.  The only logical thing to talk about, of course, was one another.  So, we insulted the heck out of one another.  It was most certainly required after the terrible day we all had had!  We chatted until I noticed that the staff at Cosi was cleaning and locking the doors.  I took this as a hint that they were closing.  So, Sam and I parted ways with Garrett (he was headed on the Red line, while Sam and I get off at the penultimate and final Metro stop on the Orange line towards Vienna) and headed home on the Metro.  Of course, Sam and I had to talk about Garrett while he wasn’t around (Only kidding)!  After a lovely chat covering a range of topics, from dress shopping to significant others, it was time for Sam to depart.  I enjoyed the rest of the Metro ride back in silence (And by silence, I mean, I listened to music) and finally made it home. 

I was worn out, so I quickly got ready for bed and opted to skip any episodes of HIMYM (it was around 11 when I finally got back and everything ready for the next day).  So, I called it a night and attempted to fall asleep.  While most nights this week I had struggled to fall asleep and stay asleep, this time I only had difficulty falling asleep.  After getting to sleep, I managed to stay that way until my alarm went off.  Thankfully!

Finally, Friday.  Friday morning I met with a couple other interns and our HR manager to discuss how we liked the program so far.  We had coffee at the Bayou (a coffee shop that was in our building) and had a very enjoyable chat.  After our little meeting, I had to return to work—meaning scroll through 6 different states newspapers and a blog to look for examples of cronyism.  This was extra depressing, since everything was talking about the SCOTUS ruling L.  However, I made it (and even found an article that was beneficial to us!) through and started on some less depressing work. 

Each month CKI/CKF has an employee brownbag luncheon where everyone gets together to just have lunch and chat with people they don’t normally see.  It was quite entertaining (especially since there was cake and pie!) and I got to have a pretty interesting discussion about the merits of Psychology and how it, while being a soft science, has led to some major benefits in the world.  I know—I’m a nerd!

As usual, I called it an early Friday—but this time not to go sightseeing.  A group of us from CKI/CKF (along with lots of other KIPers) were headed to the CATO building to hear an intern specific discussion on “10 Reasons you are probably a Libertarian.”  It was a very fascinating event (And the Cato building is huge!) with a reception afterwards.  I met a few individuals from American University who reminded me of the ultimate east-coast preparatory school boys.  They had slight English accents and were just…fun to talk to.  I enjoyed our conversation, but I couldn’t help but feel a little odd.  I am learning more and more that my grassroots, rural upbringing is not something that is common in the DC area.  At least, not among the individuals I have met.  The funniest part of the situation involving my east-coast friends:  One was from the Lexington Area of Kentucky.  I mentioned going to school in Louisville, and he 1) was surprised to hear I “knew how to say it” and 2) knew where Bellarmine was.  That makes 2 people I have met in the past 2 or three weeks.  Small world.

Upon completion of the reception (translation:  When the Cato staff kicked us out) it was time to search for real food.  Garrett, Mike, Scott (a friend of Mike’s from HIS), and I decided to try our luck at finding something to eat.  We meandered towards the Metro—with hopes of finding something or else heading in a direction where we could find something.  As we wandered and discussed various topics relating to economics and the SCOTUS ruling, we ended up passing a Thai restaurant.  Mike noticed their sandwich board had their happy hour drink specials listed on it (I’ve come to realize every intern over 21 in DC drinks to some extent, with plenty of happy hours to quench their thirst).  I had never had Thai food before, so I was game for trying something new.

The restaurant was small, but nice.  I ordered Panage Kai (I think) which is Chicken in Peanut sauce with broccoli.  It was wonderful!  Apparently Thai food utilizes peanuts well, because all four of us ordered something different (well, sort of.  Mike ordered the same thing I had, except he had Tofu in place of chicken) and each dish had something peanut related.  I was very pleased with my order.  I attempted to eat it all, but there was simply too much!  I definitely will look forward to getting Thai food more often!

(Thai and Indian places are both on my lists of places to locate once I return to Louisville).

After dinner, Garrett wanted to wander to U street, but I was worn out (my body was finally starting to give in to its lack of sleep), so I left him in the care of Mike. Scott and I both headed towards Vienna on the Orange line while our friends headed to U Street. Scott is an incredibly interesting individual, very intelligent and talkative.  I enjoyed getting to have dinner with him and hear his stories.

I finally made it back to my apartment and was ready to enjoy the AC and relax.  I also had plans to skype my friend Jena.  She is currently on the last leg of her study abroad adventure, and is in Rome.  I am incredibly jealous and was excited to hear about her adventures! 

I suppose before I continue, I should mention that the beginning of this week started out relatively nice, with highs in the lower 80s.  By Wednesday, this was old news.  We were setting record highs with humidity that made it feel like you were walking through water.  Friday was no exception. 

For those who are not familiar with weather, extreme temperatures sometimes lead to extreme storms.  Well, around 10:30, this combination occurred in Ohio, W. Virginia and Virginia.  I was relaxing in my room, getting ready to watch a couple episodes of HIMYM and kill time until I was to skype Jena at 1am, when I heard the wind start gusting, followed by some thunder and heavy rain.  I was quite happy for a split second—I love storms—until the power flickered once, twice, and then kicked off for a few seconds before flickering a third time, and going out. 

Well, living in the Midwest, I am no stranger to storms. I wandered upstairs, hearing my IF wander around looking for flashlights and lamps.  I opened the door to see a very dark sky (darker than even the night sky) and rain being blown horizontally.  Yes, the rain was actually going sideways.  It was intense.  Well, my basement was nice and cool, so I decided that I would just wander back down there and relax for a while until the storm passed and the power came back on.  I send Jena an email from my phone, a warning just in case my power was still out come our agreed upon skype time. 

And then I waited. My phone was pretty low on charge, so I plugged it into my laptop and decided to let it charge that way.  Well, whenever my laptop would hibernate, my phone would stop charging. So, I pulled up my windows media player and listened to music while my phone charged to keep my laptop from kicking out on me.

I was getting sleepy, so I decided I would take a nap before skyping Jena (I was optimistic the power would be back on. I was used to going a few hours without power after a storm).  I turned my music down low, turned by laptop so the screen’s light didn’t hit my eyes, and set my phone’s alarm so I would wake up in time to skype…and then I dozed off.

Well, I woke up when my alarm went off…and it was dark.  My microwave clock was not on and I did not hear the hum of the AC.  Dang.  Still no power.  Well, I had to settle for emailing Jena via my phone if I wanted to communicate with her, so that’s what I did for a little while, until I could barely keep my eyes open. I stayed awake long enough to see my laptop die, meaning my phone would no longer be charging.

I was optimistic that the power would kick back on during the night, so I plugged my phone into my wall charger, to ensure it charged once the power did come back on. 

Well, let’s just say I blame my naiveté on being an Intern. 

Culture Swap

6.24.12

This Sunday was a bit of a “switch-a-roo” for me.  I had made plans to take my landlord’s father to mass with me (he is very interested in all religion), but I was met with a surprise when I went upstairs:   The whole family (except for my landlord).  Turns out, the mom and sister were very interested in attending Mass as well.  They said if I would allow them to come to Mass with me, they would fix me lunch (Indian Style).  Of course, I am always more than happy to take people with me to Mass—the more the merrier! 

So, after having a quick little discussion about some things, we loaded up into my car and I headed for one church that I knew I liked (I didn’t want their first experience to be at a church I knew nothing about!).  Our Lady of Good Counsel was our target destination. 

Upon arriving at OLGC (which I love, by the way), my IF had a few questions, but really seemed to enjoy the Church.  I think my favorite question before arriving at OLGC was if they should wear shoes or not (I learned that in a Hindu temple, you do not wear shoes).  After chuckling a little bit, I reassured them that it was perfectly ok to wear shoes (in fact, probably encouraged). 

I like to get to Mass at least 15 minutes early when I am attending a new church so I have plenty of time to pray and take in my surroundings.  While I had been to OLGC before, I wanted to make sure that my IF had the full experience of the church—and they certainly were not disappointed!

After we had been sitting for a few minutes, one of the Ushers came up to us and asked us if we would be willing to bring up the gifts.  My IF looked incredibly confused, so I jumped in and mentioned that, while I was Catholic, this family was not.  Of course—and say what you will, but I see this as the embodiment of the Catholic faith—the Usher saw no problem with this, and asked all 4 of us to bring up the gifts.  I could tell that my IF was a little nervous but also very excited!  They kept questioning me about how people are picked, and why, of everyone that was there, that we were picked.  My thoughts (from my limited knowledge of seeing how this Church operates):  the Church likes to have a family bring of the gifts, and it was just God blessing them. 

Mass was a little confusing for them, and, unfortunately for them, I was not the best guide during the service.  I seldom follow along in the Missal—choosing instead to listen and pay attention to those reading the word—so I wasn’t completely sure where I could find the step-by-step instructions.  However, they managed to make it through the whole service, engaged and everything.

When we brought the gifts up, I was thrilled to see the joy on their faces.  God is very good. 

So, after Mass, they had a few questions to ask (specific roles, why they were not allowed to take communion, why they were asked to bring up the gifts, etc., etc.  very standard questions) which led to discussion the entire way back home.  The mother was just glowing with happiness.  She kept thanking me for allowing them to attend.  I felt a little awkward, and made sure to let them know they were more than welcome to attended whenever they felt like joining me! 

Upon arrival back home, I went to change, and they set to work on lunch.  I am not going to lie, I was a little concerned.  After all, I can be a…ummm…selective eater at times.  Turns out, my worries were for naught. 

We set down for lunch and I was still a little concerned. I planned on trying everything, so I did not appear to be rude.  This was a great idea on my part, because it turns out I liked everything (except some cold fruit/vegetable salad with a strange dressing/sauce mixed in). I will say this:  Indian food is not meant to look pretty.  We had naan, bean and lentil soup (I don’t know how to spell what it is actually called), chicken in a delicious orange sauce, rice with vegetables mixed in, and the aforementioned salad.  I don’t consider myself a bean’s kind of guy, but I had two and a half bowls of the soup.  Oh, and we had a “side sauce” that was green and very spicy.  I am not sure what it is called, but it was very good on naan.  My IF was amazed this was the first time I had ever had Indian food, which led to questions about what types of food I have had (Mexican? Chinese?  Thai? Etc., lol).

After a delicious lunch, I tried like no other to help clean up, but they absolutely refused to let me help, instead Jenny (spelling?) and her mother cleared the table.  After a little more discussion, I wandered back downstairs and worked on some reading, piddle around, and ended up watching Netflix.  I finally finished off the sixth season of How I Met Your Mother on Netflix.  I was a little disappointed, because Netflix did not have season 7 up! However, I viewed this as an opportunity to actually utilize my time in a more effective manner (ha. We will see how long that lasts!). 

Overall, it was a very good day.  I thoroughly enjoyed getting to partake in my culture swap experiences, and I look forward to many more in the years to come.  Heaven knows there is so much more out there that I have not experienced.  And I am finally opening up my food horizons (shocking!) along with expanding my economic and free-market knowledge.  It is going to require quite the discovery process, but hey, I’ve got time.  That’s the joy of being an Intern!