Summer of changes

That summer was a pretty wild one, as far as summers in my life go. I was interning in Congressman Hobson's Lancaster Office, which I really enjoyed, and learned a lot. Both Richelle and Branden were working there with me, so it was fun and the staff, which included Milia's mom, was really fun.

My relationship with Mark, on the other hand, was not going so well. I had talked to both Tiff and Milia about it, extensively, and looked to them for advice. We were fighting a lot, and nothing seemed to jive the way it had when we first met. Things we had agreed on suddenly were strong points of contention. One day, while at the Congressman's, I decided that I was going to end it. Our phone call that night certainly ran the gamut of emotions, but after about 2 1/2 hours of talking we did break it off.

The first thing I did was call tiff and Milia so we could commiserate with ho-hos, Monopoly, and Strawberry Daiquiris in Tiff's basement. Friends at the best, let me tell you. :) I'm not going to dwell on all the psychological things that were going on, because this isn't the place for it, but it was a very odd next few weeks.

In July I went back to D.C. with Branden and some of our CR buddies for the National Convention, where I went to my first black-tie dinner at the D.C. Hyatt (well I think it was a Hyatt) and heard Karl Rove tell us tales of his CR days with Lee Atwater, which were pretty awesome. Sitting down at the table reminded me of the dinner scene in Titanic , and it wasn't until Branden and I gave everyone a dinner setting primer that we sat down. It was a great convention (parts of it ended up on Fox News), and the Ohio CR Federation won the Best State Organization award, which was pretty awesome. I was also asked by our state chairman to be the OCRF's PR Director for the 2003-2004 year, which really excited me, so of course I accepted. It was so hot in D.C. this time, but we did manage to get in a night walk around the city and see all the monuments, which was really cool. I really fell in love with D.C. this trip, since it was so nice in the summer. We had to get up early for sessions every day, so we would eat breakfast in the hotel or at Cosi and watch the morning commute and see the people rushing around on the sidewalk-- we felt very cosmopolitan. :) Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and a great way to kick off an Election Year.

I had also decided to try living in Capital's off-campus (some off-campus... like one block from campus!) townhouses that year with two of my sorority sisters and another girl I knew. We all moved in August 20, with Branden and his roommates Steve, Rob and Chris living catty-corner from us, and Andy and our other CR buddies living next door. It looked like senior year was off to a good start.