went on the capitol tour today. saw a million big named senators on the floor too! had a lunch meeting/panel/discussion yesterday on katrina victims and senator frist spoke. then later had a staff briefing for today's homeland security committee hearing. right now working on 4 letters to constituents that suck big time. [not the constituents, the letters.] there is just so much research i have to do on each and i really have no clue what i should or shouldn't write. still no sign of the boss except on the floor today voting. my staff is still so amazing.
had fhe last night with roommates and like fifteen other peeps in the ward. was pretty painless i guess, although it did interrupt lsat time.
not sure why i have a headache today after work. had breakfast, lunch, and wasn't too hot today.
nothing else really going through my head. pretty lonely. miss my girl like crazy. i can't wait for her to get her butt out here. hope it all works out.
run: 15 min., 6.8 speed, 1.68 miles.
ride: 20 min., 85 rpm, 6 miles.
goal is to get down to 7 minute miles, then keep that and just add distance.
work is difficult. i have to respond to constituents on so many things that i have no clue about. do you know what is going on in khartoum, sudan? are you current on appropriations bills for african aid? i found out there are no federal grants for all those old rural schools to rebuild new ones. met the boss for the first time today for like ten seconds. tomorrow we all get to formally meet him in a meeting. better have my shoes back from nordy by then. dropped em off yesterday to fix the heal so i don't have a permanent flesh wound.
i'm so tired and hungry. my gut is still nice and plump from being in d-town.
roberts' hearings are going on all around us. really want to go but i have to be in line before 8 am to get tickets. i gotta say though, that guy is so smart. he is amazing how he is holding up against the committee. every desk in every office has a tv on so we all get to watch cspan 3 all day.
over the potomac on the M and i don't think i've ever seen such a full, non-drought inflicted river. this thing is big.
run: 15:00 min., 6.8 spd., 6.8 miles.
ride: 21:42 min., 85 rpm, 6.5 miles.
i really wish my team would make me more a part of it. they are such a tight-knit bunch. i haven't even said what i really do here. well, here's a brief rundown. constituents, or voters of utah, write, fax, and email letters to the senator. the legislative correspondents (lc - mike and will are mine) research and respond to these letters, provide admin support to their legislative assistants (la - amber and nate are mine), attend committee hearings, and meet with lobbyists and constituents. i basically work with them and perform all the above tasks. the la's monitor all legislative activity, write floor speeches for the senator, and meet with constituents and lobbyists. the legislative director (ld - mark) kind of runs the show as far as all legislative stuff. there is also the chief of staff chip, scheduler roxane, press secretary mj, deputy communications director emily, office manager sandy, system admin ryan, staff assistants natalie c and h, and others. in all, there are 23 staff i think. each person has a specific issue that they deal with. working with mike and will, my issues are foreign relations, homeland security, health care, education, environment, and a few specific others. when i write a letter, it goes first to the lc who will usually give it back to me for corrections. once they approve it, it goes to the la who must also approve it. then it goes to the ld who gives the final approval. at this point it will get sent off to the constituent. every letter that either i write or the lc's write will go through this entire process. it's quite time consuming and frustrating at times. every office is different, but they generally all do the same stuff over here on the senate side. over at the house side though, there is far less bureaucracy. vance works for bishop's office and vance will write a letter, give it to bishop who is the only person who needs to approve it. they are dealing with a much smaller district so he can afford the time to read them all, but over here the senators will never read a letter that comes in or that is sent out. some letters have responses that are generic enough that they don't need approval, so these can get out in a day. others could takes weeks or months before the constituent gets their response. our office has basically five lc's and we try to really personalize every letter to the issue raised. imagine though a state like new york or cali, where they get probably 100 times more letters than we do. i assume their letters are much more generic than ours. like i said, it's up to the office. undastand man? enough already.
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