Hey everyone!
This has been an exceptionally busy couple of weeks at work, so I'm sorry for not posting sooner. Things are going well in the nation's capital. Work was busy because we had two conferences at AEI on Thursday - one on the election and another on the changing demographics of voters. Since I have classes on Thursdays I was unable to attend either unfortunately, but I did have a hand in gathering data and setting them up.
But enough work-talk. It's not all that interesting. Things should be much more interesting in three days' time when the Democratic nominee could be certain. Either way, I'm excited to know the outcome.
Last weekend my parents came up! I was very glad to see them, and I knew it would be a better visit than last time because I wasn't sick. At least I've only been sick a couple of days this semester; other people in the house keep sharing colds. I definitely don't want to get that. The first item on our weekend agenda was getting a dress for me to wear to the conservative prom. I finally found one at Macy's that fit really well. We went back and checked into the Holiday Inn and went out to dinner at Legal Seafood in Chinatown. There must have been a Wizard's game or something that night at the Verizon Center, because people were everywhere. Fortunately the wait was only half an hour or so, and we had a great meal.
On Sunday we went to Eastern Market and got some fruit for me. I'd wanted to get breakfast there too, but apparently they only serve breakfast on Saturdays. We ate brunch at a tavern and then shopped around for a little while. I really like Eastern Market, and it's close by my house. Naturally, I thought my mother would enjoy it. Afterward we decided to go to Manasses to see the Civil War battlefield there. I'm a history nerd and will go see just about anything, so it sounded like an interesting trip. We started in historical Manasses and traveled north a few miles to get to the battlefield. I've put some pictures after this post of the trip. (I know I say that for every post, but I will try my utmost best this time. Blogger is not the easiest medium for posting pictures.) Pictures are now officially posted of the parade two weekends ago.
Speaking of parades, I went to another this weekend after the last one was such a success. That's my third parade in six weeks! So when I ask myself what I'm doing with my life, the best answer I can say is parades, parades, parades. Alexandrians seem to be crazy about walking down their main street in a procession of troops and oddly matched characters (there was a guy in a chipmunk costume for this one). So Jen, Kelly, and I took off around 11:30 to go to Alexandria to experience Old Town parade numero dos, and we were not to be disappointed. It was the longest and most random parade I had every seen. There were at least a dozen different bagpipes groups; honor guards from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard; Miss Virginia and Pre-teen Miss Virginia; greyhounds, basset hounds, and HUGE Irish wolfhounds; Storm Troopers and Darth Vader; several troops of Irish dancers; and so much more. It was fabulous in the most random sense of the word. Maybe it's a good thing I don't have pictures, because they couldn't possibly do them justice. It will just have to live on in my memory.
I don't really have anything too interesting to share. Mostly I've been busy at work, and there's not much outside of work to share. Oh! Class on Thursday was really interesting. I should definitely share that. Thursday morning we went to the Comptroller General of the United States' office. David Walker was very welcoming and took a while out his very busy schedule to talk with us. Honestly, it would be awesome to work at the Government Accountability Office. They are funded by Congress but are independent save for David Walker's position (he is appointed and approved by Congress). They are a government watchdog with a very reputable name and are widely recognized for nonpartisan work, as far as I know.
That afternoon we went to the National Alliance to End Homelessness to get an entirely different picture of policy work in DC. We met with the President of the NAEH and learned a lot about the progress made in the past few years with respect to ending homelessness. Apparently the White House budget has made uncharacteristically high apportionments to the cause of ending chronic homelessness, and a lot of cities have reported falling rates of homeless families. It's great to finally hear some good news in this city of stagnant politics. Homelessness is painfully visible at every street corner in downtown DC. Unsurprisingly, progress here has not been as favorable as in other cities. But any progress is better than none at all.
I hope you enjoyed a brief description of what's been going on in my life. Next time I post I'll give you an idea of how the conservative prom goes. I found out that I have a good work shift and probably won't have to work during dinner. I won't be deserting my date!
Love to you all and please send me an email or call or anything if you want to chat! Also, I've posted more pictures on my flickr account. You can go to http://flickr.com/photos/jamie-lowe/ to see those. Enjoy!
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