Most Wretched Hive of Scum and Villiany

Well, I'm back after a three week hiatus from my last post. Since I last wrote, I've been mainly working downtown at the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), which is an advocacy group for small business. I'm working with the Health Care section of their Federal Public Policy department (if the person in charge of checking to see if NFIB's name is being dragged through the mud is reading this, you only have one guess to figure out who this is...). I've enjoyed work so far. I've had the opportunity to see a Congressional hearing in person and saw Dennis Kucinich tear a Canadian columnist a new one, attend a Bipartisan Policy Center press conference, and have watched multiple hearings online concerning health care reform (I recommend stockpiling splints, antibiotics, and do-it-yourself field surgery kits). The whole big picture interaction between government, advocacy groups has been interesting (at least on the advocacy group side.)

Despite having lived in Northern Virginia most of my life, I have never really had a chance to fully experience DC. Yes, I've used the metro and seen the museums but its different than living in the suburbs. Everything here is so close together and crowded, not to mention the limited hours the stores are open (Not like I have the money anyway). Personally, I enjoy taking the metro to work since it's quite and people ignore the heck out of you (As an afterthought, I'm perfectly fine. While I take the red line to work and back, the crash occured after the metro center stop.). I haven't had a chance to get out and visit the museums and spots like that. I did go out for a bit and caught a National games with Stephen and Marynn last week. the stadium was nice but the team is a little bit subpar to say the least.

I've got a few things coming up and I was planning to either go to a friend's birthday party in the evening or a barbecue. The barbecue is basically filled with TFAS alumni from TFAS programs past. Granted it's an opportunity for me to network but I'm little hesitant to do so. You know shyness and stuf like that. In other news, the Capital Fringe Festival starts in less than two weeks!! Which means I will have gone broke purchasing tickets for various plays and transportation to get to them. From what I can tell the performances are located around the DC convention center, which makes it easier for me to go there. I'm checking my finances to make sure I have money but I might have to cut back on Chinese food (or milk the parental money cow).