Rain, Rain and Calls Galore

Today was one of the stormiest weather days of my internship yet. While we've had an abundance of rain the past three weeks, the skies opened up while on my way into the Office this morning. As I've mentioned before, when the weather is volatile, traffic snarls and my commute, well, it just goes hawywire!

As you might have guessed, I arrived a wee bit late, after traveling over an hour + to work. I actually got an early start to my commute, as I stopped by my local polling place to cast my vote in the Virginia Governor's Democratic Primary. In case you haven't been following it, the Governor's race has been the focus of national media attention, as one of the first major tests of the electorate in the post-2008 Presidential campaign.

So after finally making it in, the morning shaped up to be extremely interesting, and challenging, in handling constituent phone calls. I fielded quite a few calls from constituents who were expressing their disappointment with the current state of our economy and the President's and Congressman's actions to address it. The callers are passionate in expressing their opinions and they all deserve to have them heard. Although they were at times frustrated with the process of how they communicate with a Representative's office, frankly I was impressed with how nice and patient most of the callers were. As I've said before, in order for representative government to work, you must have good communication with those that you're representing.

One small note, we received a number of 'smart power strips' that help minimize the electrical current draw and help us to be a more eco-friendly Congressional office. Hence we spent some time today finding the best place to install and connect them. Believe it or not, it was a pretty good chore!
Maybe tomorrow the rain will subside and the skies will show some sign of blue again!