Thursday, March 6, 2008

Colors

I learned today that Orange is NOT my color. It's just bad no matter how I put it on. I got an orange scarf as a thank you gift and although it may look fabulous while I'm holding it in my hands, it looks horrendous on my neck. I guess I shouldn't complain because I got it as a gift. Not to say I haven't not worn it because I did, and this is how I know I don't look good in orange. It looks a little on the tragic side on me. What a waste.

Well, maybe I'll try it on again sometime..maybe the shade wouldn't be so tragic and it will be doable.

Sara Bareilles

GOD! I love her music! Sometimes I really wish I could write songs. In another life, I would be a total hippie with an el camino and a guitar in the trunk driving to a different gig every night. What a great life:) I'm saying this with a smile on my heart..

A tour of our Capitol

My sister Deidre came into town a couple days ago and today I scheduled a private tour of the Capitol. Since I have an immunology exam on Monday, I figure the best way to study and be a diligent medical student was to act like a tourist while my sister is in town! So, here's the secret to getting a great tour of our nation's capital...email your congressman/woman and arrange for a free private tour of the Capitol and the White House. The White House tour takes up to a month in advance to plan, so I opted for the Capitol tour only.

So we got to Rayburn building a little after 10 am and immmediately got lost finding the office of Congressman Eni Faleomavaega, the incumbent of 20 years for the territory of American Samoa. When we finally found this office, we were greeted outside by a poster of all of our fallen soldiers. A little tidbit of trivia: American Samoa has the highest per capita deaths of soldiers from the war in Iraq. Seeing the face of Tina Time, a high school classmate of mine, made my eyes watery and insides feel queasy. War took her at such a young age. Before I write another line, I must say that I'm proud of Ms. Time. She makes us all fellow Lions very proud for her courage and valor while she helped fight for our freedom. Irregardless of how I feel about the war personally, you must know that I will forever be thankful and proud of our soldiers fighting for the freedoms I use and abuse everyday. Thank you!

Back to the tour....
So we started our tour with a very nice and articulate man named Joseph who loved to use the "forte". I cannot remember the names of all the rooms we visisted and saw but a few of the highlights are as follows: the original Supreme Court chamber, the door to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, the Dome, the Rotunda, and the room where amendments to our laws are made...the one we usually see on C-Span with the democrats sitting to the left of the room and the republicans to the right. I'm not sure if the Rotunda is the room where Thomas Jefferson used as an office and brilliantly used the acoustics of the floorings to his advantage and eavesdrop on the opposition. You can feel the conspiracy floating through the air in these buildings.

Well, after the tour, we went back to the Congressman's office and guess who we met? Yes, you guessed it! I finally got to meet Congressman Faleomavaega. In actuality, I lost count on the number of times I emailed his scheduler for a possible meeting, but I won't mention that to him. I'm just glad to meet the man, and he was great! Such a nice man! We could tell he was busy as he had his next appointment sitting and waiting on the couches outside his door, but he pretended not to notice and conversed with us about our backgrounds, schools, interests, etc. The man even offered me an internship to work with him in his office this summer. But....that's another story.

All in all, we had a great day! I love it when you don't expect anything to happen and great things happen. It's like planning a last minute roadtrip to Vegas and you come to find out your hotel room was upgraded, you won big at roulette, and got comped a great dinner at a fancy restaurant. Great stuff.

Thanks to Joseph for our fabulous tour today! Totally your forte dude:)