Take Me Out With the Crowd

So in a recent call home I was chided by my family members for my severe lack of blog posts since coming out to DC. I tried to explain that this was for many reasons:

-A lack of internet connection for my first week and a half out here.
-The signal our next door neighbor lends us usually goes away when he goes out of town on the weekends, so when I actually have time to blog, I have no internet.
-I'm often too busy and/or tired when I have the time to sit down and blog.
-I usually don't have any fantastic or entertaining stories to tell, which is hard for a windbag such as myself.

So I was told that I should just put up pictures and not worry about how entertaining or interesting the actual post is. This has also been tough, because I've been absolutely horrible at taking pictures since I've gotten out here. I took a few of our adventure tonight though, so here you go.

For those of you who didn't read the blog I did of the east coast trip I went on with my Dad and brother last summer, you're probably not familiar with the fact that I absolutely love going to major league baseball games. I don't really have "a team" or anything, but just being able to sit in a ballpark, and enjoy the game is something that's hard to top.

So once I got out here, I wanted to be certain I made it to at least one Nationals game. Sure it's no game in Fenway, but still...

With only two games left, I made sure I was going to the game come hell or high water.
So tonight, we went. A handful of us interns took the metro out, bought some tickets, and enjoyed a good old fashioned ball game. True, the Nationals aren't exactly the pinnacle of baseball these days, and they did end up getting it handed to them by the Marlins, but it was a gorgeous night in the District, and a good time was had by all..
After a couple innings, we all got pretty hungry, and the first foot spot we saw as we left our seats was none other than Five Guys Burgers. I was pumped. That is, until I saw the line and the significantly raised prices.

Not really easy to see, I know, but the line was insane...

Not wanting to wait in a line that long and pay prices that high, we went back downstairs and checked out our options there. That's where I saw this:

The immature kid inside me couldn't stop chuckling at that one, and seeing how a nice bratwurst sounded pretty good, I decided to get my dinner there. So yeah, I had a 7 dollar brat for dinner. It was delicious.Insert Joke here.

We stayed for almost the whole game, but seeing how it was all but decided, and some of the girls were itching to go, we headed out at the bottom of the 8th.

The gang.

So there you have it. Got a few older stories to tell, but still need to steal some pictures from people who actually take them.

So until then...

Good Night, Sleep Tight...

So before I came out here, the only idea I had about the place I'd be living was the pictures I'd seen from the website for the place. Pictures that made it look like my bedroom and kitchen could very well look like this:

So when I showed up, I was quite surprised to see the place looked a lot like the pictures above, only without all the nice stuff or cleanliness, or, well, anything that would resemble the pictures above in any way, shape or form.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like the place was terrible or anything. In my 5 years living in student housing, and my 2 years in Denmark, I've certainly lived in much worse places than this. That was, until this happened...

Around last Friday or Saturday, I noticed that I was starting to develop a strange rash around my wrist and the underside of my arm. I wasn't terribly concerned, seeing how I was still adjusting to living in a new place, I figured I was just having some kinda weird reaction to the cheap laundry detergent I used that weekend, or that I was just allergic to some aspect of DC that I'd get used to eventually or something. When over the span of a day it went from a couple bumps on my wrist and arm, to what looked like small mosquito bites spread over the underside of my arms, by my ankles, and even up onto my neck, the idea of it being a rash quickly went away. Bug bites was the next most obvious thought, but they looked so uniformed and patterned, I had several in perfectly straight lines of 3 to 5 bites on my arms. Then, with a sinking feeling, I suddenly thought to myself:

"I wonder if it could be bedbugs?"

Initially I dismissed this notion fairly quickly, "bedbugs? What is this, 1872?"

But something about it caught hold, and that night I went online to do a little research about the bedbug. The first thing I read about their bites was that it can be hard to tell whether or not it's for sure bedbugs as they're only out for a couple hours in the middle of the night, and people's reactions to their bites can vary greatly. The second thing I read, however, was the statement of my impending doom -- that a common distinguishing trait of bedbug bites is formation of bites in a line of 3 or so, given the nickname of "breakfast, lunch and dinner."

Here are a couple pictures I tried to take of my arms, didn't turn out too great, and I wasn't able to take a picture of some parts of my arms where I have like a good line of 5 or 6 bites right next to each other.

These self shot pictures really don't do the bites much justice, I've got a lot more than what you can see there... And yes, they itch. They itch a lot.

So my immediate reaction upon the realization that we were dealing with bedbugs? We'll say it was something like amping up my anxiety level from my usual anxiety level of about 0-1 to a full scale, Patrick C. Davies - level 11 anxiety status. I mean, what would you do if you suddenly realized your bed was infested by a bunch of these:

Oh and just in case you were wondering, the one pictured above is "engorged" - meaning it just ate. Yeah, disgusting..

Needless to say, I freaked out, and slept in the hallway closet on our extra mattress that night. I got a solid 3 hours of sleep, waking up at 4 am, and not being able to fall back to sleep. I spent spent as much extra time as I could spare the next day studying up on the little buggers on the internet. Turns out, they're making quite the comeback in the United States right now, especially in Hotels, Cruise Ships, and College student housing. I contacted our RA, and the USU internship coordinator (since that's the school in charge of the housing), and they told me to to just toss the old mattress and box spring and use a spare set the guys up on the 6th floor had. So as soon as I got home from work, I got started.

I took off all of my bedding, sealed it up in a garbage bag, and tossed it in to wash on hot, then go through two dryer cycles. I then dragged the mattress down to the dumpster, and got started on the box spring. I was pretty sure this is where the little buggers were setting up shop, and when I looked underneath it, I started to see the brown staining near corners and holes that is supposedly classic evidence of bedbugs. Since my paranoia was in full swing, I wasn't going to take any chances. I stopped at the drugstore on my way home from the Metro stop, and proceeded to completely seal up the box spring in the saran wrap I purchased there. It's not as easy as some of you might think, but it made me feel much safer once the time came to take it down to the dumpster. Last thing I wanted was to have a whole colony of bedbugs fall out every time I shifted or bumped lunking that thing down 3 flights of stairs.

Once I'd gotten rid of all of that, I vacuumed up the floor a good 2 or 3 times, washed the clothes I wore through this whole process, just in case, and took a breather for a good hour or two.

When the time came to go to bed, I decided to take a closer look at the bed frame before I put the new mattress and box spring down. Good call. The first place I looked, I saw what first simply looked like a small knot in the wood was nothing of the sort.

And upon closer inspection:

Little son of a... Luckily I'd purchased some packaging tape to seal up a hole in the wall I was worried may have been an additional hiding place for our little friends, so I promptly stuck Mr. Bedbug to the tape, folded it over and began a closer inspection of the bed frame. The results were disheartening, I found a bedbug in almost every possible hiding place. In a way it was relieving to actually catch a few of them, and know I wasn't crazy or something, but with every bug I found, I became more and more sure that I wasn't about to be sleeping in that bed that night.

One of the ones I caught, for comparison (to be fair, this one was actually already dead, it's just the most un-smashed one I could find. It wasn't the largest or smallest one I found, but a little on the larger side I'd say)

I wasn't about to throw in the towel without checking every last nook and cranny of that blasted thing, so once I was sure I'd caught and taped every last bug, I took a break for a bit and weighed my options. After a half hour or so, I checked on the bedframe again, and saw a pretty small bug crawling right along part of it in the wide open. I killed it, showered, put on fresh clothes, and spent the night on the couch.

The next day I had no fresh bites, came home, dismanteled the bedframe, threw it out, vacuumeed another 3 times, washed clothes again, set up a new bedframe, placed each leg of the bed inside of a plastic cup (I need to find something bigger to put the legs in, that was the best I could find at the time - but supposedly they have pretty bad traction, and can't climb up plastic like that very well), and lined the actual legs with packaging tape - sticky-side out.

Irony? The fact that I've shown the whole world my arms covered in bedbug bites, but my mom is going to be more concerned that I have a picture of my laundry sitting on top of my bed.

My roommate Will found this whole operation to be quite amusing, but it's mostly just for my own psychological well being. As I'm sure many of you can understand, falling asleep for the first few times in the same bed where a large number of pests feasted upon you for a solid week, is no easy matter.

So I slept in the bed last night, and as far as I can tell, I have no new bites from last night. I'm going to give it a few days to be sure, but make sure you all wish for me that the bed bugs won't bite.

The Interns

Last Thursday we were able to sit down and talk to Senator Bennett for the first time since we've been in the office. He had a call coming up, so it wasn't an incredibly long "get to know you" session or anything, but it was quite interesting to sit and listen to him talk for awhile.

Anyways, one of the main reasons we met with the Senator was so we could get a picture with all of the interns and the Senator so the office could send out a press release.

Here's a copy of the picture and the Press Release for your enjoyment.

L-R (me, Mike, the Senator, Molly, McKell, Erika)

And the release:

FOR RELEASE SEPTEMBER 12, 2008
BENNETT WELCOMES FALL INTERNS TO WASHINGTON, D.C. WASHINGTON, D.C.—Senator Bob Bennett (R-Utah) welcomed five interns to his Washington, D.C. office this week who will spend the fall semester assisting the senator and his staff with administrative, legislative, and communications assignments. “This is a historic time to be an intern in Washington,” said Bennett. “These interns have an opportunity to gain a valuable learning experience as the Senate deals with pivotal energy issues and our country prepares for a major national election. I am pleased to welcome this talented group of students to my Washington, D.C. office.” Molly Bennett is a senior at Weber State University studying journalism and art history. She served as the editor in chief for the Weber State newspaper, The Signpost, and also worked as the police reporter for The Ogden Standard Examiner. Molly just completed an internship with The Deseret Morning News. She is from Bountiful, Utah, and speaks fluent Spanish. Justin Davies, of Sandy, Utah, is a political science major at Utah Valley University (UVU). He is an active member of the UVU student government and worked with the Utah County clerk to get early voting machines on campus for the 2008 election. Justin is a graduate of Alta High School and plans to graduate from UVU next April. Erika Morris is a junior majoring in political science at Utah State University (USU). She has been involved with USU’s chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha and served on her college student council. Erika has excelled as an honors student achieving dean’s list status at USU. She is from Logan, Utah, and attended Sky View High School. As a student at USU, McKell Pettingill is a senior studying political science and communications. McKell wrote for USU’s newspaper, The Statesman, and is also a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. She is on the USU dean’s list and is from Layton, Utah. Michael Wilde is a senior at Brigham Young University majoring in economics and looks forward to working in Senator Bennett’s office this semester. He is a student mentor for at-risk youth in Utah County and is fluent in Portuguese. Michael is a graduate of Brighton High School and is an eagle scout. A photo of the senator and interns is below, from left to right: Justin Davies, Michael Wilde, Senator Bennett, Molly Bennett, McKell Pettingill, and Erika Morris. A higher resolution photo is available through the senator's press office.

(Yes I do realize this isn't the most exciting post ever, but hey, it's better than nothing, right?)

9/11

I know, I know, I'm really quite late to be posting something like this -- and for the record, it was never my intention to do so. I thought about it on Thursday, but when the day slipped quickly by, and I the next thing I knew it was Friday the 12th of September, I figured that it was probably for the best I just move on and write something much more "Davies" (i.e., very light-hearted and skirting any and every type of issue that might be deemed 'serious') but seeing how I'm spending my Saturday night sitting in my bedroom feeling like my sinuses are about to explode, I figured I might as well.

As you all well know, this last Thursday marked the 7th anniversary of the attacks on September 11th. It was interesting to be living and working in our Nation's Capitol for that anniversary, especially juxtaposed with the fact I was living half-way across the world when the actual attacks happened. I was living in Denmark as a missionary for the LDS Church at the time, and that made for an interesting viewpoint of the whole event. All of us Americans living in Denmark at the time felt a sense of regret that we weren't at home, getting through this together with the rest of our country. Yet, it was amazing to see first hand, the support and compassion that the Danish people showed. We had strangers recognize us as American and stop us in the streets to offer their condolences, and make sure that our family and friends were all okay. Not once in the year before, or the year after, was I ever approached and talked to by a Dane (well, by a sober/sane Dane)... It was legitimately shocking, not that the Danes aren't good people, because they most certainly are; but it was incredibly unusual for them to pull their wall down and approach complete strangers (strangers they knew might start talking to them about God or religion at that) and show unfiltered and genuine empathy. It was reassuring to see a country like Denmark, one that receives little to no attention from America, pour out their hearts support for our Country as a whole, stand in candle-lit vigils in the town square, surround the American embassy with flowers (as pictured here), and even approach and offer comfort to strange 19 year-old American kids.

This post isn't simply for me to wax nostalgia, but I wanted to just briefly share how living there at that time has made for an interesting personal view of not only 9/11, but of our World. How our World is, and how it could be...

Anyways, being across the Atlantic, I didn't feel the effects any less, but I experienced the personal/internal rebuilding in a very different manner than many of you probably did; and while I will always be grateful for the compassion of the Danish people, I've always felt like I needed to make an extra effort to connect with my fellow Americans when it comes to the subject of 9/11. So every time the anniversary comes, I try to make some sort of extra effort to make up for that feeling of distance.

Which brings us back to Thursday.

They dedicated the new memorial at the Pentagon early that morning, an event I found out later I would have had the opportunity to attend had one of the guys I work for had my number programmed in my phone. Unfortunate indeed, but on the way home from the Capitol, I decided to hop off of the train at the Pentagon stop and just wander down to the new Memorial. I had my camera with me and snapped a few quick shots of it, but unfortunately - not only do I lack the photography skills of some members of my family, but my camera is definitely not one that is going to produce anything all that great regardless of my personal skill... So the pictures below are not going to convey what the memorial looks like at all, but take my word for it that it was a very cool memorial. Each of the little fin-like things coming up from out of the ground represent one of the people who died in the Pentagon or on the plane that struck it. They're lined up according to the year that person was born, and each fin has the name of the victim inscribed on end of it, and each has its own small pool of water underneath. Some of the interns went to the monument last night, and I was told it looks amazing at night, which I wouldn't doubt in the least bit.

They had a musical tribute that night, I didn't stay for much of it, but this is the stage where the naval band was performing.

So as I crunched through the gravel, looking at the years the victims were born, reading some of the names, watching military men and women wandering through the memorial looking ever-stoic, watching children run around completely unaware of their surrounding, watching the ever present security force, and just taking in my surroundings, I started to think about who these people were. Who their friends were. Who there family was. What kind of things they liked to do. I let my mind wander, and tried to envision what it must've been like here and in New York City 7 years ago when I was walking the streets of Copenhagen, just trying to wrap my head around what I'd heard. I tried to think of what defines "heroism" in times like those, and subsequently, times like these.

I hesitate to go on like this, because it's true that 9/11 is still quite fresh on many of our minds, and it can be a somewhat dicey subject to linger upon, especially in the political climate of an election year, with politicians or political parties conjuring the memory of those events for their own benefits; I think it's just as important now as it ever was to use the memory of those days not as a rallying cry for any type of political ideology. Not as a point or rebuttal in an argument. Not as a "chilling reminder" or anything of that sort. No, as I was leaving the memorial two days ago, the thoughts swimming through my mind were not of political ideologies, candidates, parties, or points. It was the drive of the human will. The inter-connectivity of mankind. The perseverance of us all. That's the lesson I like to take away from those events. No matter how much we enjoy to wallow in cynicism or self-pity sometimes, and no matter how much we can viciously disagree on so many things, there are common threads that run through us all. Hate and fear can give way to something much better.

Call me naive, call me short sighted, call me a foolish bleeding heart, I really don't care... Call it hokey and contrived, you're entitled to believe that... I believe in optimism, I believe in hope and a better future, and if there's one thing I choose to pull out of the pit of tragedy that was that day, that's what I'm going to take from it.

I stumbled upon this (http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/cc_insider/2008/09/the-daily-sho-1.html) just today, it's the first episode of the Daily Show aired after 9/11, in its entirety. Jon Stewart is one of the few TV guys who when he talks politics, I listen. He's a lot wiser than people give him credit for, and I thought his words in the first clip were incredible. Please watch at least that part if you have a chance. (just figured I could throw the intro clip right on here, enjoy.)


This is not at all what I was expecting it to be, I haven't just gone off like that on a blog in a very very long time, so I apologize for anyone who actually read through that whole thing, and is now wondering what one earth I was actually talking about.

Don't worry, I'll post something much less heavy tomorrow.

Metro Mania

Ah, the Metro... Much as it is for many of the residents of the Washington DC area, it's practically the backbone of daily life for us interns. We use it at least twice a day to get to and from work, but most days we end up chasing all over town, from one line to the next, to get from one adventure to the next.

I don't know how many of you have been to DC and used the Metro, but it's actually a very easy to use and simple system. It may seem a bit daunting at first for some us sheltered Utahns, but you get it pretty down pat in no time. Or at least you would think so..

So in true Justin Davies fashion, now that I've gotten to the point where I'm basically riding the Metro on autopilot, I go ahead and make some sort of absolutely ridiculous mistake.
Allow me to elaborate:

So I generally leave my apartment at around 8:15 or 8:20, walk to the station, and get on the first yellow line that comes my way; but yesterday morning I was making fantastic time - I left my apartment at around 8 or so, and was excited to be able to walk at a pretty leisurely pace and not end up working up the traditional "welcome to crap loads of humidity" sweat that has been so plentiful the last week or two. I hop on my usual yellow line, just kickin it, listening to the Frames and enjoying my commute. I get out to switch over to the red line at Gallery Place/Chinatown, and when I come up the escalator, I'm welcomed by this:
Now let me tell you right now, this picture doesn't do justice to what it was actually like down there. I thought about trying to take another one, but the throng of people didn't seem to enjoy me snapping flash pictures at our misery.

But no, if you were wondering, this is not what it usually looks like in waiting for a train... Apparently there was some mechanical problems with a train outside of the stop right before ours, so we just had to stand and wait for the situation to be cleared up, and for trains to start coming our way. Obviously the entire crowd couldn't all fit into one train, so it wasn't until about the 4th or 5th train that came that I was finally able to squeeze in. By this point, my slowed down relaxed attitude had obviously taken a pretty big hit, and I all I could focus on was doing my best to put as much space between myself and the big sweaty dude cramming himself next to me. After a fairly swift ride, we reached the first stop, and as it was pulling out of the station, my stomach dropped. I was going in the wrong direction.

Yes, not only did I get on the line going the wrong direction, but I stood in a huge sweaty crowd of people watching the train I actually needed to be on come and go and come and go with very reasonable amounts of passengers on them. Then to make matters worse, I watched 4 or 5 trains on my side of the platform come and go, without realizing that all of them were going in the wrong direction. I was able to squeeze out of the train at the next stop, and get on the one I should've been on in the first place, but instead of starting off my morning getting to the office at a leisurely pace and time, I got there after a very brisk walk and yet another good worked up sweat.

Then to make matters worse - I fell asleep on the metro on the way home and slept past my stop. Luckily I woke up at the stop directly after, but I'm pretty sure I scared the living daylights out of the lady sitting next to me when I jolted awake and rushed out of the train.

Final Score for Friday, September 12th, 2008

Metro - 2
Justin - 0

Blame it on the Rain

So, I don't know know how many of you pay close attention to the news as it relates to the weather, but over the last weekend Hurricane Hannah decided to make landfall around South Carolina and make a trip up the coastline. No one was sure exactly how strong it would be by the time it hit DC, but we did get a couple emails from the Senate Security whatever reminding us to make sure we had emergency plans all laid out, and that we were fully prepared. Most everyone in town was fairly sure the worst we'd see was just a bunch of rain... And a bunch of rain is what we got.

(the path of Hannah, just in case you were overly-curious)

The storm was expected to pass through our part of the coast sometime early Saturday morning, so we decided that since a bunch of us were just sitting around the apartment on Friday night, that we'd just jump on the metro and see where our whims took us. Once we got on, we came to a joint decision to just get out at the stop near the White House and wander around for awhile.

Within the first couple minutes of coming out from underground, it started to sprinkle, and before we knew it we were in the midst of an outright downpour. I'm not talking a good rainstorm, I'm talking at times just a full-on tropical storm Hannah style soaking. The combination of high spirits, warm night air, and warm rain got us all to decide that instead of going running back into the metro station with our heads down, we'd just walk down the street and continue our adventure.

In the end, we never ended up going anywhere exciting, just a couple pictures in front of the White House, a quick stop into a pizza place so one of the interns (who has been dubbed "Intern Dave") could grab himself a slice as well as an ice cream to eat while walking in the downpour. Eventually the rain stopped, half of our group returned home, my roommate Nick finally joined up with the group after taking back one of the interns who decided to turn back home half-way through the metro ride out there, and the rest of us continued our late night tour of the District looking and feeling quite a bit like wet rats.

Here are some pictures of the events of the night for your personal enjoyment:

The rain just getting started at the White House.

Just me rockin the Dwight hair, and Lauren rockin the Alice Cooper eyes. We are awesome.

And with the Dwight yet again. Thinkin of wearing it like this when I get my picture taken with the Senator tomorrow.

It's okay to look ladies. I know that it's fantastic.

Intern Dave loves him some ice cream.

Leon didn't like the rain as much as the rest of us, so he asked the pizza folk for a garbage bag and busted out this little number. Then a block down the road, the girls kept teasing him so he took it off. Girls can be so mean.

Lauren, McKell, and Justin loved the walkin in the rain. It was good times.

Blaine and Leon didn't get into the picture in time. Lauren looked to be surprised by that fact.

This time we were ready. Ready and awesome.

Hurricane Hannah tried her best, but did nothing more than provide us with yet another adventure.

Transitioning.

Okay, so I just want to make this very clear. I know that this first post is going to look INSANELY boring. I've wanted to post on here several times now, but we don't really have the internet here at our apartment complex.

On my second day here I discovered that if I sat in a very specific spot on one of our couches, then I could mooch off of an unsecured network. If my laptop moves so much as an inch, then the signal drops, and the connection speed is horrible at best, but it's the best we can do for now. Fortunately, we have a neighbor who is going to let us in on his network, but he's outta town for the weekend, so once we get that going - and once my desktop computer arrives, we'll be able to get some real posts rolling.

So for now, I guess I'll just have to give you a brief outline as to how my first week in DC has gone down, with much better posts to follow.

A week ago at this time, I sat in my new bedroom, completely lost with no idea as to how on earth the next 4 months were going to unravel. What a difference a week makes...

And what a week it's been at that. One of those weeks where it went by insanely fast, but it was so full of events it felt like it couldn't have only been 7 days. I'd love to go through day by day, and event by event, but I know that there are going to be pictures on the way as early as tomorrow, and there's some pictures of a walk through downtown DC in the pouring rain that would do more justice to that story than any words I could type.

So last Monday morning at like 4 or 5 AM, we got up and drove on out to the airport.

(apologies to anyone who was hoping that this picture of them wouldn't be posted on here, you all look great to me... Oh and Jake was there too, but he refused to be photographed.)

The flight out was nothing special, I had quite the time trying to get both suitcases to an acceptable weight, and I had to help my cab driver from the airport navigate a part of Washington I'd never been to before, but eventually I found myself at my new home.

Ah the view from our balcony... So... Um.... Yeah, we have a balcony.

I met my roommates, both extremely nice dudes. I met the rest of the interns, some pretty awesome peoples. I made my first of several trips to the sports pub for some burgers and good times. I slept with no bedding, and I woke up the next morning with a sore throat. Just as I expected, it turned into a full blown cold that I'm just now getting over...

I spent Tuesday buying bedding, and trying to get somewhat situated. So by the time Wednesday finally came around, I was pretty much good to go. I got to start the first day of my internship off sick as a dog, which was no fun at all, but all-in-all, it was a pretty good week. I'm starting to get the hang of the whole internship thing, the 5 of us in Senator Bennett's office were each assigned with different offices and staffers. I got put in the office to help out with the guys who basically oversee all issues related to taxes and foreign affairs (and any other issues that would fall under the umbrella of those topics). Unsurprisingly to many of you, I'm sure, I was quite stoked when I found out I'd be in the office with the foreign affairs staffer, and while it remains to be seen if that actually pans out into something as exciting as I'd hope, I still find it pretty fun.

So we spent pretty much every night going out and making some sort of adventure, most of the times it ended up being the pub, but we also made several trips into the district for trips to museums or just pure adventure.

For first weeks, it was a good one, and now with a better handle on things, the senate being in session, and a stupid cold looking to be pretty much behind me -- next week should contain much more excitement and better posts.
(not a guarantee)