Today we woke up kind of early to go to see the Senator’s staff.  I was a bit tired but I did get to meet a woman name Jillian Youngblood, who talked to us about her job.  We met a lot of interesting women throughout the day. It was a new experience for me and something I wasn’t use to but we still had fun.  Later we had lunch, I had crispy chicken and a big salad.  We met some more people then took a billion pictures!  Finally, we went back to the Code Pink House and some of us napped and then we changed to go to dinner in a nice resturant called Busboys and Poets.  I ate pizza but the good kind.  The day sounds short but honestly it was soooooo long.  Now we’re back in the Code Pink House chilling and making the best of our last day here in Washington DC!

Today is our 2nd day in Washington, D.C.  I started the day by waking up at 6:00am to take a morning shower.  The stairs were creeky and I was afraid that I would wake everyone up.  I was all dressed and ready when the other girls started waking up.  We had breakfast consisting of cereal, eggs, milk, juice or tea.

After breakfast we met up with Lyn and she drove us to meet with the staff of our politicians.  We met staff members of our Congressmen and basically asked them how and why they got started in politics or what interested them.  After the interviews were done, we had lunch in the cafeteria.  The food was delicious and mouth watering.  After lunch, we met up with staff members of Senator Clinton and Senator Schumer.  Today was long, but it felt like it passed by so fast.

The highlight of the day was having dinner at Busboys and Poets.  The bacon burger was juicy and zesty and the cheesecake was heavenly.  We also met with women that were interested in the Girl’s Club and who wanted to know more about us.  They were great and so nice.  I think between Annise, Endrina, Renée, and myself, we left a lasting impression on them that they will soon never forget.

Hey, well today is our second day in DC and we are having a blast!  Today we woke up pretty early.  Most of us were still sleeping when we got in the van.  As the day went by we visited many members of Congress and the Senate.  I personally did learned many new things.  I was very interested in this trip because I am looking into being involved with the Government.  We learned about the different positions in Congress and the Senate.  Out of the whole day my favorite part was when we went to dinner.  We ate dinner at Busboys and Poets Restaurant, it was the BEST DINNER I’ve had so far this year.  It was a nice restaurant to relax in and talk about our day.  The food was great and the dessert was even better!  It was my first time traveling to DC and I loved all the history it has behind it.  I would like to thank the Girls Club for giving me this great experience. XoXo

It is my second day in Washington, D.C. and I have to say that so far everything is great. We had a chance to go to Capital Hill and we met one of Hillary Clinton’s staff members.  We asked some of the women how they got to where they are now and what path they took to work for a politician.  This was so great for me because we touched base on information I am passionate about.  Some of the topics are education, health care, tax reform and how the Government could help more with social service organizations such as The Lower Eastside Girls Club.  I loved doing all of this but, what I loved most was going to the Busboy and Poets restaurant.  Being there was so amazing because the setting was great and comfortable, and the vibe was terrific.  The people there were racially and economically mixed, which I absolutely love.  Having dinner was so delicious and I give my thumbs way up to their dessert.  Gosh, just thinking of their food makes me hungry again.  Well, that’s it for now.  Tomorrow is my last day in D.C. and hopefully it will be just as fun as today, if not more.

We just got back from our meeting with the New York representitives. As soon as I got back, I took of my shoes. Well I had a lot of fun, even though every once and a while we would be told to stay quiet. First we went to meet Gillian Youngblood, she was really cool. She broke down the way funding for small non profits get money from the government and she seemed to be good hearted. After, we went to meet up with some women who worked in different commitiees in the office, they still belong to the same group. After we meet up with Schumer’s people, well the women who work for him. They described him as a “take it as it is ” guy which means a guy who likes to hear it whether in the end he will like it or not. He is also always running around trying to be everywhere or as Jenny would say, that he has clones. Well from what they said of him, I like him because he is a hard working guy who tries to influnce all of New York. Soon after we left and went to take a visit to Hillary Clinton’s “people,” Walker talked about how Hillary inspired her to join her party because she loved what she did. The building were beautiful and when we were going down the hall we saw that it started to snow. It was the prettiest thing so far. This trip has been great. I can’t wait till we go to the resturant (Busboys & Poets). I heard it was great.

Hillary Clinton is the wife of Bill Clinton as well as a woman running for president.
Her full name is Hillary Diane Rodham. She was born on October 26, 1947.
She was an undergraduate at Wellesley College. She entered Yale Law School and met Bill Clinton through some program in
Yale. Bill said he remembered when he met Hillary. She walked up to him and said “If you’re going to keep staring at me,
I might as well introduce myself.” They were inseparable after that. They got married in 1975. Then she joined the faculty
of the University of Arkansas Law School the same year and the Rose Law Firm in 1976. Bill became governor of Arkansas
in 1978, had a daughter in 1980, and Hillary became Arkansas First Lady for 12 years. During her years of being the
First Lady she chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee, co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children
and Families and more. She was elected United States Senator from New York on November 7, 2000.
She is the first First Lady elected to the United States Senate and the first woman elected statewide in New York.
She got a Grammy for her book 1996 book “It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children Teach Us”. Now she is running
for president and hopefully she gets elected. Also she is a Democrat. =D

We took a van to Washington DC. We messed around in the van a lot and then we made a pitstop in Delaware. We ate fries, biscuits and drank all of Renée’s soft drink. I fell asleep in the van so I don’t recall much of the scenery, except house after house after house. Well,when we got to Washington DC, we saw the Capital, woohooo. When we got to the CODE PINK house, I thought, OMG, this is frigging awesome! As soon as we entered we felt so welcomed like a meal in a tummy. They were very sweet and they got us pizza. I think they know us too well. After that, we were lead to the basement and asked to make shirts. Of course, we jumped into action as usual. I made a shirt that represents when Desirée painted her hands red and placed her hands mere inches from Condoleezza Rice’s face. I thought that I would honor that so I decided to mark my hands on my shirt. So yeah thats what I did. Can’t wait until sleep time so I can bother HOLLIEWOODE…………=D

The ride up to Washington was so much fun.  Can you say road trip?!!!!!  We’ve been anticipating for this days to come and everyone is excited.  We finally reached the Code Pink house around five o’clock .  We ate pizza settled in, had a great conversation with the ladies of Code Pink, and now we are decorating shirts with them. I can’t wait for tomorrow.  We will be meeting with several NY repersenative’s staff members.

Busboy is basically a café/restaurant where you can go and relax. A place to have a bite to eat and listen to poetry. It’s a place to read a few books and enjoy their fair trade coffee. I hope we get to enjoy this cozy café when we go to Washington DC from the pictures I saw it looks pretty nice. They also have a private room where you get to see movie etc. Busboy offers a space for a library that educates teens, children, and adults on books that encourages them to question themselves beyond the headlines.

“I was just in Washington, DC and delighted with my visit to Busboys and Poets. Powerful, enlightening, and overall an awesome place. I look forward to return visits in the future and could only wish for a similar place here in New Mexico.”
–Gregory Webb, Executive Director NM Commission for Community Volunteerism

Pierre L’Enfant, designer of the city, thought of it as the Capital City. Jefferson referred to it as Federal Town. Washington, however, considered this undignified, and instead used the name Federal City.

The initial plot of land authorized by the Constitution for the seat of the US government was a 100-square mile area. The first commissioners appointed to acquire the property for the new capital and construct the first government buildings made the obvious choice and named the city Washington. At the same time, they decided to call the entire 100 square-mile area the District of Columbia. Congress later went along with this decision through legislative references to the area.

The city of Washington as designed by L’Enfant did not, of course, fill the 100 square-mile area authorized by the Constitution for the seat of government. The area also included the cities of Georgetown (1751) and Alexandria (1749), which were already in existence. Congress designated the rest of the 10-mile by 10-mile portion outside the corporate limits of these three cities as the County of Alexandria, in the section given by Virginia, and the County of Washington, in the Maryland-ceded portion.

In 1846 Congress voted to give back to Virginia all the land that state had given to the government in 1790 for creation of the District of Columbia. This move returned about 32 square miles of territory to Virginia. Residents of Alexandria and what is now Arlington County, Virginia, thus lost District of Columbia residency and again became Virginia citizens.

If all this sounds confusing, think of Congress trying to enact legislation dealing with the local affairs of this area. Congress tried to clarify the jurisdictional muddle when it established a territorial form of government for the capital in 1871. It revoked the charters of the cities of Washington and Georgetown and also abolished a levy court for the County of Washington. All legal municipal functions were given to the District of Columbia.

Then Congress changed its mind again and decided that Georgetown and the County of Washington should be separate entities. In 1895, Congress legally ended Georgetown’s status as a separate city by merging it with the City of Washington, yet this act said nothing about the County of Washington. Technically, this Maryland-ceded portion of the District of Columbia is still a part of that namesake even though it operates as a separate identity. The slip-up, moreover, has never been corrected.

So, today, a resident of the District of Columbia may be living either in the old County of Washington or in the merged section made up of L’Enfant’s City of Washington and of Georgetown. Washington, D.C., however, is a city in name only - a mapmaker’s designation and the established pseudonym for the District of Columbia.