GOOD MORNING BALTIMORE

Ok, so it might not sound like it, but the title (and the song that I know a few of you are singing right now) do have something to do with the post. What is that? you might ask. Well, we are going to Baltimore for the weekend. Our train leaves at 2:15ish and we are way excited. I have two briefings on the Hill tomorrow that I have to go to, one with the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and one with Senator Bennett. After the briefings I might be giving a tour of the Capitol to a group of BYU students, but then it is off.

What takes us to Baltimore this weekend? For one it is Father's day, so happy father's day dad and pop; Two, the Orioles are playing the Pirates on Friday night which means I get to go to my first MLB game, in Camden Yards no less; and third, Saturday and Sunday is the HonFest (cue hairspray) and we hope to be able to go and get pictures.

Take a look!



So this week has actually been pretty mediocre until today. We had a pretty good idea that S.3101 was going to the floor for a cloture vote this week but we weren't sure when. We found out yesterday that S.3101 was scheduled for today, and the democrats were trying to get cloture, so that meant that yesterday afternoon and this morning we were preparing a floor speech for the senator. So this morning I was getting posters made, and my supervisor asked me to write a part of the speech, so in the 15 minutes I had before mail duty I wrote like made, and a part of my portion was used. It was really fun to be sitting in the gallery and hear what I wrote word for word. Thankfully the cloture vote did not pass, which means that it is back to the negotiating table. After the vote this afternoon, we all relaxed and finished the day out slow.

So that is about it for now. I really just wanted to brag that I wrote part of a speech. I do have a pretty good story about getting to the gallery but I am tired and don't want to write it all out right now, let me just say that women really should trust us when we say purses should be left at the office, because they will be searched, and items will be confiscated. I had to play the negotiator with Capitol Police to get them not to throw away a constants makeup. So remind me to write about the experience.

I heard Alta reopened. you must be cold in Utah. Thankfully the heat wave snapped, and yesterday was actually quite nice. Tuesday Kerri and I did go to a play at Folger's Theatre called School of Scandal. The second half was great, the first half I felt was too slow, and the actors could have picked up the pace, or the director could have put the intermission earlier because it was dull, but I am glad we saw it.

Check back next week and we'll report on our findings in Baltimore.