Mr. Dungan Goes to Washington

It's hard to update when the internet isn't installed...

So sorry it has been so long since my last update...The Internet hasn't been installed in my apartment so I've been having trouble stealing the Internet long enough to update for all the days I've missed! So here we go...I'm going to try and back track into this last week (and weekend) and remember enough to fill y'all in.

Saturday:
After waking up I was picked up by Mom, Doug, Papa and Uncle Len (he drove two hours to meet us...it was really nice) at the apartment. This was our day to, you know, sight see and what not. First, however, we needed to get my apartment set up a bit more which meant bringing in this great chair Len brought down for me and shopping for some cheap furniture to make the apartment complete. We all went to Costco first and got some food (really really good food...Len is a master of Costco speed shopping...it took us half the time it would have taken me to grab all of that stuff) and then hit up Ikea for a few pieces of cheap furniture ( a book shelf and lamp for my room...made it look like a real room rather than a spartan white box with a cot in it). After all of that we hit up the mall for some monuments. It was crazy rainy and chilly but to tell you the truth I wouldn't have had it any other way. If you know me, you know that I love the rain and that I love American history, so to stand on the spot where MLK Jr. delivered his "I have a dream speech" and look out over the entire mall, all saturated and cloudy, was incredible. I love that sense of historical presence you feel at times like that. It's part of the reason I love DC so much...I feel it nearly all the time when I'm here.

That night was fairly mundane...just kind of hung out and went to bed early (which has become a trend since I've been here).

Sunday:
I woke up and was picked up by mom, Doug, and papa so that we could hit up the Smithsonian air and space museum (which we missed the day before because it closes at 5:30 pm...who closes that early??). It was incredible! Once again with the historical presence I was talking about...just seeing the actual plane that broke the sound barrier or the capsule from Apollo 13 is one of those things that humbles you on the spot. After the museum though all of them had to leave which was...ya know...pretty sad. I enjoy my family so much it's hard to see them off even though I know I'll being seeing them again soon. I'm just glad that they were all here to help me get settled in. It made the transition extraordinarily more simple.

That night I believe, once again, the interns all sat around and talked.

Monday:
I woke up ridiculously early that morning and just kind of...wandered about the apartment for a couple of hours until I had to get ready. I think I was still just excited for work, but it was not fun to wake up that early. Once I got on the metro and started heading in, however, I was fully awake and ready to rock. At work that day we were just gearing up for the book and what not.

In case I haven't said this before, Mike Lux just released a book called The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be. I've read some of it already (mostly when I'm typing up excerpts from the book to put online...) and it's really very good. The majority of people who are reading this would probably like it quite a bit and should buy it if they get a chance. I promise I'm not just saying this because I work for the guy, I'm saying it because it is both an easy read and fascinating. Anyway...now that I'm done plugging the book...

After work that night I came home, made ravioli, watched the West Wing, and slept. Like I said, early bed has been an increasingly common thing which, if you know me, is really weird.

Tuesday:
Monday night was the first night here that I actually slept "well". I passed out around ten and woke up right on time for work Tuesday morning. Finally I felt completely rested. Going into work on Tuesday I was in a good mood and it showed when I got in. I was working quickly and had a good attitude...up until about...noon. That's when the wheels came off. Adam, someone else in the office, had asked me to mail some packages and drop a copy of the book off at someones office. This relatively mundane task quickly became a 2 hour affair. First, I took a wrong turn on the way to the post office. After wandering around downtown D.C. for about 15-20 minutes with a box in my arms I ran across a FedEx and I figured "hey...this is just as good right?". I walked in and started getting the packages ready when I realized that I had left the sheet of paper with all of the addresses and names on it back on my desk. By this time I should have already been done, and I hadn't started actually sending them. Embarrassed by this fact, I sprinted back to the office (yes...I ran, full speed, weaving in and out of lunchtime sidewalk traffic, in D.C....I looked ridiculous). After grabbing the list and apologizing profusely to Adam, I ran back to FedEx and wrote all of the names on the packages . When I got to the desk to send the packages, however, I found out that I had to write all of the information on these stupid cards rather than the packages. Frustrated that this was taking so unnecessarily long, I made a couple of errors on the slips and had to keep starting over. Then, an employee came over and let me know that the slips I was filling out for express were actually for ground and the ground ones I had filled out were actually for express (Adam had specified which packages needed air and which needed regular). I. was. Pissed. Finally, I angrily just bought the envelopes I had used and left searching for a real US post office. After walking around for another 30-40 minutes with a box full of giant packages in my arms (I felt like Podunk George from Kansas to the max at this point) I found the post office and got the packages sent. Turns out the USPS was literally right around the block from where I work. I should have gotten there in about...2 minutes and mailed things in about 10. Instead, I took about 2 hours and looked like a fool. Once I got back to the office I just worked quietly and sat with my head hung low. It was pretty un-fun.

That night KU played K-State (I think it was Tuesday) and all of the interns went to this bar/grill called porters which is KU place. It's owned by and run by alum I believe and all of the people who were there had graduated from KU. It was fantastic! I felt like I was back in Lawrence again what with all of the blue shirts and Jayhawk talk.

Wednesday:
Work was substantially better. The book was officially released so the majority of my tasks were about that. Up until that point I'd been spending a lot of time creating and refining Mike Lux's wikipedia page (I think it's pretty good, thank you very much) and just doing prep work for his book, so this was a big day. I spent the majority of the morning running errands (and not getting lost!!) like giving offices around D.C. a copy of the book and making sure local bookstores were carrying it. Let me just say it's pretty cool to see his name in Borders. In the afternoon I just poked around online seeing if any blogs had picked the story about Mike off of Huffpo or about his book.

After work I was exhausted and just came home, ate at a great little diner with the roommates right by where I live and passed out early.

Thursday:
The day started out pretty badly. I woke up at 9 and had to be into work around 9:30. Luckily for me I'm crazy fast when I need to be and got into the office at 9:45 (which is totally fine with them) and didn't get in any trouble. I think the problem is that I've been getting some sort of sinus infection, which I get a lot, and was just terribly groggy when the alarms went off. Either way, this made me quite flustered and so I spent the majority of the morning in a sort of adrenaline fueled haze.

Since this was Thursday, the KU interns all had their first "seminar" this afternoon. These are just times when we all come together and do something like listen to a senator speak or see a monument. So around 2 we all met at the capitol and talked to Stephene Moore (Dennis Moore's wife...she's in charge of us here sort of) and had a lecture about safety from the head of capitol security. He painted the ugliest picture of DC he could have in order to scare us into not doing something stupid...it was kind of good that we heard it but it wasn't anything I hadn't heard before about being in a big city. After that, we took a tour of the capitol which, I'm sorry, is still incredible to me. Just to be in the heart of it all and to see the history and really feel what it's like to be there...I don't know...I guess it's that historical presence I was talking about earlier, but I just loved it. Some other people seemed fairly bored because they'd been there before but I just couldn't get enough. The entire time we were there and talking about the history of this country all I could think was "GOD I love this country". I know it's ridiculous and probably lame, but I really do.

After the tour a few interns wanted to go to some restaurant and hang out, so we wound up at the Hawk and Dove on Penn. ave. It was really cool! Right away when we walked in we saw some congressman eating a steak and a bunch of hill staffers getting drinks. As the night went on it got packed and was full of people who I'm sure had some importance even though I didn't recognize them. I would love to just go back there and sit and watch who all walks in. Afterward I just took the metro back and sat around watching shows on my computer until I went to bed! I'm up far to early...again...but since it's Friday I'm not too worried about it. I'll be able to sleep in tomorrow and get all caught up on my sleep.

So that has been my experience thus far. It really has been great. I hope work keeps going well and that I get on a more regular sleeping pattern. I also truly do plan to update this daily once I get real Internet access, it has just been hard to get the stolen one long enough to update. Also, I plan on my daily posts being more detailed and writen substatially better...it's just early and I'm trying to get it all down quickly so I can remember everything.

Hope all is well in your lives, and you know I miss you all!

Oh, and a very happy birthday to Ms. Emily Lux! Hope it's good and you know I wish I could be there for it.

posted by gdungan @ 4:12 AM