{"id":1263,"date":"2013-12-02T21:59:23","date_gmt":"2013-12-03T02:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ashmontera.wordpress.com\/?p=121"},"modified":"2014-11-21T16:36:12","modified_gmt":"2014-11-21T21:36:12","slug":"all-in-my-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/2013\/12\/02\/all-in-my-head\/","title":{"rendered":"All In My Head"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Preface: This post is a little weird because it&#8217;s literally all in my head (or exactly what I was thinking\/ feeling that day).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/travel-industry.uptake.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/24\/travel-blacklist-investigation\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/travel-industry.uptake.com\/blog\/files\/2009\/07\/rayburn-house-office-building.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" align=\"BOTTOM\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is such a struggle. I walk up the marble steps and in through gold trimmed doors. Wait. First, the metal detectors. First time? Shoes off. Jewelry off. Coat off. Sweater off. Underwear off\u2014at least that&#8217;s where I felt the final destination might be. Step to the lady security guard. She gets to feel me up for a mini bomb or gun that I don&#8217;t have. I mean, I guess they always have to check.; It is the Rayburn Congressional office building.<\/p>\n<p>Down the tomb-like hall\u2014which literally looks like every other hallway. Take the elevator to 4<sup>th<\/sup> floor. Palms sweaty. Check my phone three times to find the time hasn&#8217;t changed. Look at the man in his nice suit as he presses the 2<sup>nd<\/sup> floor button. I wonder if he&#8217;s a Congressman? Oh god. I really have to pee. Walk down another tomb-like hallway. I wonder if I look like I&#8217;m in high school. I think I look old for my age, but I feel as if I have a stamp marked on my forehead that screams: \u201cthis one is new.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bizbeatblog.dallasnews.com\/2013\/10\/hensarling-listen-we-get-it-the-presidents-not-going-to-allow-repeal.html\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/bizbeatblog.dallasnews.com\/files\/2013\/10\/empty-hallways.jpg\" width=\"443\" height=\"362\" align=\"BOTTOM\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Walk through the massive office doors as tall as the ceiling. The blue carpet is nice; almost makes the office feel warm (instead of an arctic tundra like the hall). A nice young lady asks me if I&#8217;m the new intern. I smile and pray three times that\u00a0my voice doesn&#8217;t shake or crack when I speak. Lost cause. My vocal cords are all over the place. She leads me to a desk. Phone. Computer. Copy of the New York Times.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m asked to go over new bills and legislation for inconsistencies\u2014after I finish sorting the mail. (Sorry constituents; your letters may have went in the trash.) Nothing makes sense. It&#8217;s all an inconsistency. The words are too big and the sentences a little too complex. I avoid the legal section like the plague. After seeing the first page, I save it for last. My brain hurts. After stalling in the photo section of the <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"The New York Times\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/\"  rel=\"homepage\" rel=\"nofollow\">NYT<\/a>, viewing every slide show from fashion to exotic homes, I go back to\u00a0the legal section. I only make it four lines before giving up again. I instead start a list of all the other places I&#8217;d like to be\u2014like on vacation, my bed, the coffee shop down the street. Maybe even the bathroom.<\/p>\n<p>I never finish the legal sections of the legislation. I slip it back on my supervisor&#8217;s desk with random scribbles and question marks. I just can&#8217;t finish it. I even manage to take a 20 minute nap after completing my list. I feel like the laziest person ever, but honestly, I am never going to make it through that thing without a greater sense of willpower, caffeine (or interest in the material) than I currently possess. Again, lost cause. Back to the Times. Maybe I&#8217;ll just take a long lunch. They won&#8217;t miss me. Wait. I&#8217;m a horrible intern. Maybe I&#8217;ll ask to pre-read more of the Congressman&#8217;s mail. Yeah, I&#8217;ll do that; some constituent author just sent an advanced copy of his book. It looks terrible.<\/p>\n<p>I still didn&#8217;t see the evidence.<\/p>\n<p>  <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/gocomments\/ashmontera.wordpress.com\/121\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/comments\/ashmontera.wordpress.com\/121\/\" \/><\/a> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/pixel.wp.com\/b.gif?host=ashmontera.wordpress.com&#038;blog=58094947&#038;%23038;post=121&#038;%23038;subd=ashmontera&#038;%23038;ref=&#038;%23038;feed=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Preface: This post is a little weird because it&rsquo;s literally all in my head (or exactly what I was thinking\/ feeling that day). This is such a struggle. I walk up the marble steps and in through gold trimmed doors. &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/ashmontera.wordpress.com\/2013\/12\/03\/all-in-my-head\/\">Continue reading <span>&rarr;<\/span><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/pixel.wp.com\/b.gif?host=ashmontera.wordpress.com&amp;blog=58094947&amp;post=121&amp;subd=ashmontera&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/2013\/12\/02\/all-in-my-head\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1894,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[109722],"tags":[24314,60085,110497,88324,109703,85468,110495,89353],"class_list":["post-1263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-student-blog-project-2013","tag-creativity","tag-new-york-times","tag-personality","tag-rayburn-house-office-building","tag-syndicated","tag-thought","tag-washington-dc","tag-writing-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/wrpg211\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}