Whenever I go to Washington, a rather tragic thing happens: I get this School House Rock song stuck in my head. And it's not just a passing memory of my St. Mary's theater days. I actually walk around the House and Senate building singing this song out-loud, unaware that I am doing so! Talk about embarrassing moments. (I'm beginning to think they're the story of my life.)
So, what the heck was I doing in D.C.?
As many of you know, I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease in 5th grade at the age of 10. A 21-day visit at the hospital filled with needles and tests left me with news that changed my life forever. Throughout middle school, I was very sick. Steroids helped me heal, but did little to fix the actual problem. Luckily, I finally found Dr. Black who figured out a medicine combination that has worked miracles for me! I have had flare-ups more recently, in junior year of high school and spring semester last year, but I am in remission currently. Crohn's affects over 1.5 million Americans and is rising in prevalence. It is a digestive disease that varies greatly from patient to patient and has no known cause or cure. I have been very involved in efforts to raise awareness and support for the disease since I became involved with the CCFA 10 years ago! Part of my involvement stems from my position on the National Youth Leadership Council, a group of 20 college students who provide programming for the CCFA nationally. As a member, I also get to travel to D.C. once a year to do advocacy work on Capitol Hill.
All in all, Day on the Hill was incredible this year. I had the opportunity to lead a Parent's Forum, for parents of kids with IBD, with two of my best friends, Katherine and Ally. The session was extremely successful, much to our surprise, and the parents were incredibly interested in our stories and experiences. I was also very surprised by the incredible networking I got to do at the reception the first night. I met a woman who works at Google, one of the first female Account Executives at Leo Burnett who managed the Peter Pan and Keebles accounts (the advertising nerd in me was star-struck), and several business people who gave me lots of insight into marketing and branding. I also found out that Bob Schieffer, of the Schieffer School of Journalism, has IBD. Say what?!
Michael and I with Bob Schieffer!
Ally, me, and Katherine before the reception.
Lobbying was also very rewarding! I got to speak to numerous Texas politicians about IBD and about the CCFA and the need for research money. (If you're into politics: the CDC is in new hands and all of those hands are of former State Health Department leaders. This essentially means that they want to use CDC money solely to provide funding to state health departments, which is detrimental to research funding for chronic illnesses, something previously publicly funded only through the CDC.) I felt very official riding on the Senate subway, walking through the tunnels, and talking to staffers (mainly very attractive and intelligent college boys)!
After Day on the Hill, I spent some quality time with some grabbing dinner with Ally and Nick at the Froggy Bottom Pub (appropriate for a TCU student)!
I then spent the night on the George Washington with Ally! Ally is interning in D.C. this summer. We decided to go see all of the monuments at night, which was very cool! There were tons of middle school trips there, but I think we fit right in. We also hung out with some GW students in their fraternity houses! We avoided the Metro after the FBI evacuated me on my first day in town. Guess I look suspicious. I did pack for the entire trip in my Northface backpack which may have looked odd.
Me in the mall with the Washington Monument!
Go Frogs!
Abe and I are buddies.
Home sweet home!
On day two, we visited the Wax Museum and got lunch with Katherine before I headed to the airport. All in all, my mini-vacation was a great weekend get-away! I actually had a couple job opportunities mentioned in D.C. for July and may look into them if I can find decent housing. And if the groups still want me in a week...
This is an SOS.
The family is now headed to the lake for Memorial Day, so my next update will come from no place other than FORT WORTH, TEXAS!
The Waggoner sisters are water skiing beasts. Not really.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Today I got up at 430 for bootcamp again... next went to my internship. Then I went to the Racquet club to get some work done and to Bikram yoga. You could see the sky gleaming yellow and could hear the tornado sirens blaring during class but the instructor didn't really seem to care and continued on as if all was chipper in the world. Then at the end, she was like okay, actually, let's get out in the hallway so the whole class shuffled out and just kind of stood against the wall. It was very dramatic - she had said they had never stopped a class before and I felt like I was witnessing a historic moment, not really since I was just at the White House when Obama, or should I say O'bama announced Bin Laden was dead but historic is sort of an objective term one might say...
Alright, anyway - in honor of Kathryn being in DC, I thought it would be only appropriate to reminisce about my top moments living in that wonderful city.
Seeing the Dalai Lama attempting to bring the visor back in style
Jane Lynch walking by
Standing next to the cast of Glee's table at the HRC dinner and hearing LM sing
Obama speaking at HRC dinner
Lady Gaga performing John Lennon's Imagine at HRC dinner
Walking with TN at the equal rights rally
Getting on the Jay Leno show after eating a "snoop dog brownie" and looking into the camera to say "forshizle"
Eating at Spike from Top Chef's restaurant
Giving Chelsea Handler chocolate covered matzah for Passover
Watching them shoot Transformers 3 on the mall and briefly talking with Michael Bay
Seeing David Gregory around campus
Being on the other side of this fence with the press for Rally to Restore Sanity
Set the night before for Stephen Colbert and John Stewart's rally
Press section
Going to the Mark Twain awards and seeing Tina Fey, Betty White, Fred Armisen, Steve Martin, Jon Hamm, Tracy Morgan, Lorne Michaels, Jane Krakowski, Steve Carell and Jennifer Hudson
Interviewing Mary Carillo
Going to Elton John and Billy Jean King's tournament, press conference and shooting from the court
Sitting with Navratilova, Philppoussis, Stubbs, Billie Jean King, Gambill, Anna Kournikova, Agassi, Steffi Grad and Elton John with Pam Shriver auctioneering
Being part of a counter protest when the Westburo Baptist Church came to protest on the AU campus - largest crowd I've ever seen at college
Hearing Michelle Rhee speak
Going down to the White House and standing on the gate right after Pres. Obama announced Bin Laden was dead
Taking a free pilates class on the top of the Swedish Embassy overlooking the Hudson river
Photographing Colin Powell when he came into the ATV studio
Eating at THE LOBSTER TRUCK!
In addition to being on Capitol Hill in Congressman Cohen's office during the healthcare final vote (and fielding the very interesting phone calls), Editing a midterm election video and staying at the Washington Post until midnight as the election results came in, too many neat things happen in the capitol of this country. Anyway, I love DC and the opportunities it provides.. It appears this was more of me boasting than reminiscing ... BUT I wish you well in DC Kwaggs, don't get too caught up in the political drama that is Washington
Oh MAN, last night was crazy. Just kidding, I went to sleep at 9:30. I think I should just not blog when nothing exciting happens so I can remain mysterious and people will assume I'm too busy doing interesting things to sit at my computer and type a few grammatically incorrect paragraphs.
So yesterday, I got up at 4:30... went to boot camp where we ran up and down the University of Memphis parking garage. It was fun, especially when I put my hand down on the ground to do pushups on one the levels and stuck it right on a cigarette butt.
I didn't go into my internship yesterday because I had to take some staff photos at the Racquet Club. I also had to finish the employee handbook I have been working on so overall it was a productive morning... I also learned how to bind! Kinkos aint going nothing on me... except better printing quality and a friendly and knowledgeable staff. I was going to drive over to Murfreesburo TN yesterday to watch St.Mary's tennis play in the semis of state but that didn't quite work out since i don't have a car. It's hard to road trip without one.
Sat in the stadium for a half hour waiting to take the staff picture
I got really bored waiting for the RC staff to come and was looking around and noticed the railing is basically held up by a plastic tie thing.. cool
I kicked it and found that yes indeed, it was not sturdy in the least and it would be easy to fall to your demise
This is the desk I sit at in the tennis office where I spend my days... mostly complaining, sometimes doing work..
Oh, but look at what was discovered in the back office... this temporarily halts my complaining..
Here is the 18 page book I made/designed/bound... good times, it was tons of fun.(no)
A glance at one of the pages...
I went to lunch @Luchesi's and the production staff from Food Network, who I recognized from when the Waggoners and I went food truck hunting the other night, all walked in shortly after. They were all male and had a lot of tattoos. I decided if I want to get into TV perhaps I should conform a little, obviously on what I can, which would just be the tattoo aspect of the two things I listed. I'm sorry, I think a list has to be at least three things, but as I previously stated, these paragraphs has bad grammar.
I ran from the Racquet Club over to Kathryn's house and it started pouring and there was a tornado warning in the process of my turtle-pace jog and I got drenched. It's okay though because I just looked like I was sweating a lot from being so intense.
After I hitched a ride in a beast of a car, aka my mother picked me up in the golden mini van with 1 automatic door (which I wrote a rap about in middle school) <--that will be included once I find it, which will be once I clean my room, which will be never-- I came home, made myself dinner - attempted to watch a tutorial online of how to animate graphics while simultaneously soaking in all the knowledge one can gain by watching Real Housewives of the OC (which is like -8).
Mom came home later, saw me sprawled out on the couch, told me she was surprised I was not already asleep and I groggily agreed it was getting very late. Then I looked at the clock and it was 8:30. And then I went out to the club. Just kidding.
Until my next set of awesome adventures ---
Sylvia
Last night I ate 13 cookies from the Pepperidge Farm variety pack. As I told Kathryn, I made those cookies my bitch (excuse the language) Oh and this is a lovely view of one (of my 2) misshapen thumbs .. neato
