Hello there,

What an eventful day. It started at about 5:50 a.m. (CST) when I woke up and started getting ready. Thankfully, most of my stuff was already packed up and ready to go. Long story short, we packed up the stuff in the car, drove to the airport and flew into DC. For those of you who are really loyal readers, here is the long story:

The flight was really good, probably the smoothest one I've ever been on. I sat next to this one middle aged dude and made some small talk. Eventually, I told him I was working at the Democratic National Committee. His political views could best be described as populist. We got into some arguments about a couple of subjects. One, he said that the government should be completely, 100% transparent with the general public. Although I thought that was a nice idea in theory, I countered by saying that there were some things that the general public should not know in order to prevent mass hysteria (i.e. numerous failed terrorist threats). He didn't bend much, but I think he saw where I was coming from. He also had some views on the Islamic world that were a little misguided. He basically asserted that extremist/jihadist Islam was a dominant theme in Arabic culture. I disagreed citing that there were 1 billion Muslims in the world, most of whom just want to lead a peaceful and happy life.

All in all, it could have been worse. He wasn't a total jackass, nor was he outrageously out of line with my own ideology. In the end he just dozed off, which worked out because I really just wanted to read and not deal with an eccentric personality.

So then we landed and went to the hotel. Man, this place is nice! I don't know how we're affording it, but I guess it ain't on my tab. The hotel is really modern in style--kinda like IKEA came in with an unlimited budget. The hotel offers you a "pillow menu" where you can order up to 6 different types of pillows. Some massage, others stay firm, and others fluff. If any of you travel nerds are interest, it's called "the liaison".

After we got decently settled into "the liaison," we walked around for a couple of hours (probably around 4 miles). It was helpful because I got to trace the route to and from work and figure out where the nearest grocery store was. It was rough because it was in the 20's all day and my feet felt like icesicles after 4 miles of walking.

And here I am. I felt like this day would never come, but it finally did. Sunday is orientation, Monday is work. Going to be busy. Going to be stressful. Gonna be fun!

Tim