Sorry it's been a while

I realized I haven't posted a whole lot about my adventures these past couple of weeks. Sorry!!
Here's what I have been up to:
Last week Laura and I went to an event hosted by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) on education research and development that featured Sen. Bennett from Colorado. While the event was not particularly exciting, the trip there was. It was pouring rain and we took the metro up to the general area of AEI. Neither Laura nor I had been to that part of town before so we got lost, and wet, and cold. Let me just explain the roads in DC for a minute to help you appreciate the dilemma we were in when we ventured into this new territory. The streets are laid out in a grid pattern like most cities, with the Capitol in the middle. All the North/South roads are numbered and the East/West are (for the most part) letters. Here's the first trick. There are two 1st streets. One on the north side of the Capitol and one on the south,  and the same is true for all the lettered streets, so you always have to know which quadrant you are in. The second trick is that in addition to the grid pattern, there are diagonal roads that cut across. These are all named after states. Where two diagonals cross they interrupt the road and put a circle in that is usually a park or a shopping center. So you have to know where you are in relation to the Capitol and be able to find the road around the diagonals. Naturally, AEI was by a diagonal so some of the streets disappear and reappear at random (or so it seems). After about 20 minutes of walking around in the downpour and becoming well acquainted with the area, we found AEI and learned a little bit about researching innovations in education.
Last week I also had an interview for a staff position in Sen. Thune's office. The interview went really well. I'm very excited about the possibility of working for Thune. I should hear back by next week.
This weekend was Caitlin's birthday so we celebrated by going to dinner at this really nice Thai restaurant in Clarendon. Then we met some of Caitlin's friends and went to a club to hang out and dance. It was a lot of fun. Clarendon is a really nice part Arlington with lots of shopping, food and fun! It's going to be a great place to hang out when it gets warmer.
Ok..here's a contest. The prize is a super fabulous souvenir. 
On Sunday Caitlin, Laura and I visited one place in DC. From that place we saw the following things: the jungle, a dinosaur, a saguaro, coffee, bananas, a Japanese hut and chocolate. Post where you think we went and whoever gets it right wins the fabulous prize!
Yesterday, we took a field trip to the Pentagon and got a super sweet tour! Random facts from the Pentagon tour:

• The tour guides are active military who have 10 days to memorize the 600,000 word script-verbatim. If you add an if, and or but, you're out. 
• They also have 10 days to memorize the entire tour route--backwards. They have to give the entire tour facing the audience--so walking backwards. It's quite impressive!
• They have a candy store, banks, hair and nail salon, and four redboxes in the Pentagon. They also have every fast food under the sun. You could work at the Pentagon and never have to leave! 
• The Starbucks in the Pentagon sells about twice as many cups of coffee a day as people who work in there.
• There's a hot dog stand in the courtyard of the Pentagon that the Soviets thought held the US' nuclear missiles because of all the foot traffic in and out of it everyday. 

We also visited the Pentagon memorial dedicated to those who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks. The memorial is beautiful and sobering. They built benches for everyone who died and inscribed their names on the bench. They grouped the benches by birth year so that you can see the wide range of ages of those who died. Unfortunately, they wouldn't allow us to bring cameras on the tour so I don't have any super cool pictures of the Pentagon. 

Yesterday was also Super Tuesday for those of you who are not as politically in-tuned as those of us nerds here in DC. I spent the evening hanging out with some friends and watching the polls come in. By far the most interesting? Listening to the speeches and then googling random facts about the candidates. For example, did you know that Gingrich has compared himself to Moses, Ho Chi Mihn, and polar bears? Yup. And Santorum's wife is one of 11 children. And Romney's oldest son is four years younger than Newt's wife. And Ron Paul is old enough to have memories of WWII.

We had a great time! It was also great to have people who were excited about Super Tuesday as me!!

Tomorrow I'm attending a Senate hearing on education, my first hearing. I hear they are very long and boring. I'll let you know if that is the case!  

Here are some pictures from this week!

Me, Caitlin, and Laura hanging out in Clarendon

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 Laura and I 

 and pictures from earlier as promised! The President's Day parade in Alexandria. Stars and Bars...really?

 The Kennedy Center

 The church where the Washington's attended.

Caitlin and Laura up to shenanigans.