Stepping Up

The saga continued at work. Without divulging too many details, I’m the new Health Care Legislative Assistant in the office. I’m so thrilled! And this is kind of a big deal! It will definitely help in the job searching department when the time comes in ’09. Before, I was just a floater in the office doing whatever needed to be done. Now I have my own issue and I’ll have my own meetings to sit on, my own memos to write, my own legislation to suggest. I have a real purpose in this office!!!

Appropriations are also keeping us busy in the office. They need to be finished before the March recess in two weeks. Our two approps gurus are off to Germany for a week, and they have to be finished before they take off. Otherwise, their trip is cancelled (not really, but our LD can be very dramatic sometimes). I’m not sure what the whole process entails, but I’ll give an update once approps are due if there is anything interesting to report back on.

The boss gave us a pep talk later in the morning. We now refer to it as the “Come to Jesus” talk. And one of our legislative assistants is now lovingly known as the golden goose, a name given by the boss. The talk was much needed and helped to lay things on the table and clear the air.

After work, the schmooze training continued. Torrey works for BNSF and they were a large contributor to an organization that brings awareness to train suicides. I couldn’t turn this event down. Obviously free food is always a luring feature of the reception, but this event was featuring Academy Award winning actress Marcia Gay Harden from Welcome to Mooseport and Pollock. She recently starred in a film called Rails and Ties that addressed the issue about train suicides.

I really enjoyed this event. Torrey, not so much, because they didn’t serve free alcohol. But I got to meet a couple of his colleagues who were pretty interesting. One works in their press office, but she’s soon moving to Israel because her husband works for the World Bank. I had a great conversation with her about the PR field and how she broke into the biz. She actually doesn’t have her masters, which I thought was interesting, but she said that you don’t really need it for PR. Especially if you have Hill experience, agencies and other organizations really look at that.

There was this other lady who worked for Union Pacific who was a pistol! I’m glad we ran into her, because I was having a hard time going up to meet MG Harden. What was I supposed to say to her? “I loved you in Welcome to Mooseport. I have no idea why you’re here but thanks for being involved.” Lame! So the pistol lady went up to Marcia (we’re best friends now) and introduced herself and then introduced us. I would like to say that I was very surprised at how well spoken and intelligent Marcia comes off, but that’s nothing new. She has always come across that way in the roles she plays and the way she carries herself in the limelight. She’s a very articulate person, and also very beautiful. She was sporting a pretty rockin short do.

Torrey and I had a great conversation with Marcia. We talked about trains and how suicides by trains are underreported because they’re generally classified as an accident. I mentioned that Torrey and I went to school in a town where the train crossed a very busy and heavily pedestrian trafficked area. I know someone died on the tracks while I was at school, but I don’t know if it was on purpose, or if it was a drunk kid on his way home and just didn’t make it across.

Anyways, we had a lovely conversation with Marcia. Asked her about Mooseport, to which she commented that she preferred Gene Hackman to Ray Romano because Hackman is more of a man’s man. We wished her well in the upcoming films she has and thanked her for being apart of the cause. Then we took off and got a cocktail.

Director and cast from Rails and Ties.

Eastwood, Bacon, Harden, and a young John Doe.