Our new digs, 526 22nd St, NW. 

IF ANYBODY IS READING THIS BLOG LEAVE A DAMN COMMENT!

Supplies already scavenged from others and trash cans for our new house.

2 futons
1 wheelchair
3 shopping carts
2 Clorox Bleach Mops
4 Brooms
1 dustpan
11 bottles of windex
4 big knives, part of a knife set
20 pieces of silverware
1 silverware drawer organizer
1/2 of a bartending kit
9 red bulls
1 red bull bartending pad
1 martini shaker
7 TVs
2 Xboxs
1 Directors Chair
1 Keyboard
1 7ft tall inflatable bunny


Our giant 7ft tall easter bunny 

It's gonna be a hell of a summer...

MY FIRST DAY ON THE KERRY CAMPAIGN (A RECAP)

*got myself a badge with my picture on it (yes I do look retarded) on my first day (gets me past Secret Service, does not open doors). The other 2 interns who got them had been working there for like 6-8 weeks and were just now getting them.

*Discussed the miracle that is TiVo with not one or two, but THREE democratic operatives at Kerry HQ. My department, research, has 2 TiVos. SWEET. (for those of you who have not seen my TiVo article that I wrote for the hatchet, see it HERE)

*Got invited to a reception with John Kerry for workers and volunteers tomorrow (Tuesday). Not going to work tomorrow because I have to move in but I am still showing up for the reception. Free food too.


*Met former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland, a personal hero. Sen. Cleland lost his legs and his right arm in Vietnam and the Bush administration ran ads comparing his to Saddam Hussein. All because he opposed a twisted version of The Homeland Security department that he had FIRST COME UP WITH. As Bill Clinton put it best, "shame on them, what more could Max Cleland give to his country that he hasn't already given?" One of the TOP reasons the Republican Right makes me sick to my stomach. For shame.

Anyway my grandmother went to chuch with him and his parents at the Methodist Church in Lithonia, Georgia. Mentioned this to him and he gave me a hug and told me to pass it along to her. Fucking awesome.


Me and Paul Begala during the live Hurricane Isabel Crossfire broadcast. 

*Paul Begala was planning strategy and rapid-response in the conference room when I walked in (it's glassed in and I could see it. Very cool, though I do get to see him in my SMPA building regularly. Still Cool.)

Stoked to go back on Wednesday and start up with Research. B.I.O. Bush (Bring It On).

First day of work at the Kerry campaign, they weren't really ready for me to start though. So I'm kicking around the volunteer arena with some other interns who showed up early. I did walk in to see Paul Begala and John Podesta through the glass in their main conference room having a strategy session, that was pretty cool. I'm getting a picture ID today to get me past secret service, getting myself positioned to stand head and shoulders above the other interns who are gonna come pouring in over the next few weeks, and getting myself settled. I found out where the speechwriting office is, I really want to get an in there and move over from research where I'm going to start. But I gotta pay my dues with bitch work first, but this is exciting. Oh and I already got invited to reception with John Kerry for tomorrow night. Pretty cool.

Adam

Someday. Maybe sooner then you think. 

My first day of work for the Kerry Campaign is tomorrow morning. Or I guess, technically, this morning. It's nearly 2:45am and I haven't yet gotten to bed, though you would think I would want to be in peak shape for my first day of work at a Presidential campaign. I'm pretty much hoping to rely on adrenaline and excitement to get my through the first day (before coming home, packing, and PTFOing).

Someone asked me if I was excited for tomorrow and I am, though not like I thought I would be. Don't get me wrong this is the opportunity of a lifetime and I'm going to take every advantage of it, but the last few weeks I've just been in one of those moods where you need something to SNAP you out of the rut you're in. What do I mean by rut? That's not at all a diss on all of the wonderful people who I am lucky enough to surround myself with her, my friends have given me memories (and 1500 pictures from this year) that I will never forget.

But when you're a wounded heart, the world turns slower then you would like. And while dawns come, they never come in quite the fashion you want. I've been told this kind of thing takes time to get over, and I'm of course hoping the thrill of embarking on my dream job (and hopefully dream career) will be just the thing I need.

When you've recovering from love you realize things about yourself and the relationship you had. I'm lucky because I'm that much better for having had her in my life and I'm a bigger, and better, more complete person. But now I understand how falling love means and having your heart broken means that it's that much more difficult for you to do it the next time. It's a gradual system you see, it happens a couple of times, and when there's someone who finally breaches the wall you've built (out of bricks, and mortar, and the third thing *yah sport's night) then that's how you know.

I'd like to thank you all for your well-wishes. Today, I went to commencement on the mall (WTF?!? WE'RE HALF DONE WITH COLLEGE?!? WTF!) and got to thinking about the line I wrote for my high school graduation speech. (Which I may post later)

It's a lyric that has always rang true for me...

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end..."

Tomorrow morning the sun's gonna rise on a new day. Time to seize it.

101 THINGS TO DO AT GW
#21: "Fall in love, fall out of love, fall in love again."
*well this one is 2/3's completed, but I've got 2 more years to finish it off.

-Adam

Blogs De Mi Amigos
"The Blogs of my friends"

So some of my friends maintain blogs too and I would be terribly remiss if I didn't throw them a bone or two. Some of these aren't blogs but just web pages.

Chris "Rez" Miller
"Quid me nutrit me destruit - What nourishes me also destroys me"

Aaron "Chicken Biscut" Bock
"The English Way"
-Live from London, England

Caitlin Harvey
"kittycatcaity's Journal"

Sigberto Garcia
"Siggy's Site"
-Home of the infamous "you know you go to GW if..." list!

Evan Haas
"Haas-ism"

Ryan McGlone
"Ryan's live journal. Holy Shit." aka "Nodecencyleft"

If anyone else has a website/blog you want me to add just let me know.

THE BUZZ

You know those music compilation CDs you see advertised on TV? Well I've found one that's really, really good. It's called THE BUZZ and normally I'm hesitant to recommend CDs like this, but take a look at the songlist below and I think you'll agree it's a great 90s mix. I always resisted the label that I was any one type of music, but this hits my favorites (minus DMB and the Smashing Pumpkins) about dead on. Check it out...or do what I did and bootleg all the songs and make an iTunes playlist of it.

Disc 1

01 What I Got | Sublime
02 What's The Frequency, Kenneth? | R.E.M.
03 All Mixed Up | 311
04 How's It Gonna Be | Third Eye Blind
05 Zombie | Cranberries
06 Inside Out | Eve 6
07 Take A Picture | Filter
08 Shine | Collective Soul
09 Closing Time | Semisonic
10 Good | Better Than Ezra
11 Far Behind | Candlebox
12 You Get What You Give | New Radicals
13 What It's Like | Everlast
14 Cumbersome | Seven Mary Three
15 One Week | Barenaked Ladies

Disc 2

01 Mr. Jones | Counting Crows
02 Hey Jealousy | Gin Blossoms
03 Sex And Candy | Marcy Playground
04 Breakfast At Tiffany's | Deep Blue Something
05 Runaway Train | Soul Asylum
06 All I Want | Toad The Wet Sprocket
07 Little Miss Can't Be Wrong | Spin Doctors
08 Brick | Ben Folds Five
09 Everything Falls Apart | Dog's Eye View
10 Lump | The Presidents Of The United States Of America
11 The Freshmen | Verve Pipe
12 No Rain | Blind Melon
13 Pets | Porno For Pyros
14 Pepper | Butthole Surfers
15 Steal My Sunshine | Len
16 Fade Into You | Mazzy Star
17 Mother Mother | Tracy Bonham
18 Save Tonight | Eagle-Eye Cherry

I’m packing up my books in anticipation of my upcoming move on Tuesday, and I’ve stumbled upon some greats books that I absolutely loved enough to keep. Here’s a rundown of some of the best ones on my shelf.

"Da Vinci Code"
By Dale Brown

-Good and intriguing, but don’t give it TOO much credit. But keep an eye out, Dan Brown is a tricky guy and there are some hidden codes in there that you DEFINIETLY missed.

"Angels and Demons"
By Dale Brown

-Ok well it turns out that Da Vinci Code isn’t so original, it’s just a better written version of what appears to be Dan Brown’s formula. A decent read but nowhere near as satisfying as Da Vinci Code.

"The Cheese Monkey"
By Chip Kidd

I can not say enough good things about this book. Amazing. About a kid who starts off college and studies art, the whole book is gut-bustlingly funny, highly original, artistic, and outside of the box all in one. One of my FAVORITE BOOKS and one that is tough to describe. Pick it up (Jamie and Garrow recommend reading it aloud with a reading buddy).

”Too many freaks…not enough circuses.”
-The new motto from The Cheese Monkey adopted by Jamie, Garrow, and I.

"The Milagro Beanfield War"
By John Nichols

The bestselling novel that captures the pure essence of the kooky insanity that is New Mexico, The Milagro Beanfield War’s tale of a man name Joe who manages to incite a New Mexican town into hysterical antics is the best descriptor of my home state that I have ever read. Any out-of-state New Mexican who is feeling homesick should pick up this book.

“Yet Milagro was a town whose citizens had a penchant not only for going crazy, but also for precipitating miracles. Take, for example, an early nineteenth-century sheepherder named Cleofes Apodaca and the scruffy sheepdog he irreverently called Pendejo, which, translated loosely, means ‘idiot’ or ‘fool’ --- or, translated more literally, means ‘public hair.’ Today Cleofes Apodaca might qualify for the Patron Saint Crazy of Milagro.”

"Black Hawk Down"
By Mark Bowden

Essential to understanding the post-Cold War environment in which the U.S. military now operates, a world of police-operations, urban warfare, and anti-insurgent operations. The book from which the movie was based, it is the most heroic war story of the 90’s. Black Hawk Down is a stunning narrative of the October 3, 1993 battle in the streets of Somalia that involved a hundred U.S. soldiers fighting the entire city of Mogadishu. Thrilling.

More books to come…

Congrats to all the graduating seniors. Adam Greenman and Laura Catzif, both former poli commers and EMDA-140 classmates, will be bidding farewell to this $40,000 a year institution today in a nice little ceremony on THE WHITE HOUSE LAWN (booyah GW). Congrats again kids.

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end..."
-Semisonic, "Closing Time."