Mundae: The usual staff meeting. Usual time. 9 am. I sat on the outside this time (next to PB...teehee). Charlie went around and asked everybody for their agenda...as usual. When he got to my boss she pointed out that this was going to be my last week interning there and made all the stuff I had been working on seem extremely important. I guess it seemed that way because they didn't have to slave over all of it. Then just as I was about to thank everybody the Senator starts up and says something like "Yep, Grace, I've gotten nuthin' but great reports. Thanks for everything, it's been a real treat" So after hearing compliments like that, I believe I gabbed on for quite some time about what a pleasure it had been and what an experience it was. Whew, those meetings always end up making me cheery and giggly...which I don't believe they're supposed to. For the rest of the morning I figured out that the only way to survive in that office is by not listening to anyone's conversations. Since its such a small office, every word of every phone call/hallway conversation can easily be heard. So, if I don't care that Stephanie's applying to preschools regardless of the fact that her baby hasn't been born yet...I don't listen. If I don't want to hear how Tempe got pink eye AND strept throat on her flight back from Italy...then I don't listen...every one of the six times she told someone today. These kinds of conversations drove me to the coffee room several times, which then led to one of my favorite parts about interning at NTI. After spending about 6.2 minutes preparing the perfect Japanese green tea, I come out of the coffee room to find about ten Ambassadors arguing in different accents about whether or not the "creamy topping" on the coffee would add too many calories. The stuff that goes on around this place is insane. I was later put in charge of organizing a reunion for Senator Nunn's former staff. So I wrote to people who live on streets like Army Navy Avenue and Security Lane and then I called people who work in places like the Pentagon and referred to the reunion as "getting the old gang back together!" and know Senator Nunn as "The Samster" or "Samalicious". Insane, I tell you.

2sday: My favorite day. Conference call day. Grace feels important day. The TV spots and interviews are being shot in NY this weekend (look out for them soon I guess...) which took up most of the discussion time. Not much else I can report, though. I have to keep something to myself or else I won't feel as important and the point of Tuesday would be ruined. After the call, though, Carrie, Cathy, and I talked about other "business stuff". So, of course, we made Carrie tell us what else she's going to be doing in NY while she's there for the shoot. She told us her godfather works with the photographers for the New York Times so she's going to lunch with him and a bunch of NY Times photographers. I believe that's when the 16 year old in me blurted out "OH MY GOD, that would be like my dream!!!" To which she replied "Well, If you're ever in New York, I'd be happy to give you his number so you can get together." Then the 16 year old in me fainted, got up, brushed herself off, smiled and said "That would be great!" The rest of the day was filled with mind-numbing work. At one point during the day I actually asked Mariah if she was a Mariah Carey fan. Her amazingly intelligent answer of "yeah" made me admit how cool I thought it was on my first day to be working with someone named Mariah. That made us giggle for about 10 minutes...which made me 10 minutes behind my assignment to collate about 1208423905 pieces of paper. Damn work. Then a lady actually got mad at me for making two hundred copies of something. "Too many trees and too much time...that's all it's wasting!" she said. I wanted to tell her that she could say that to the professor at Harvard University who would be without any material for his course based on nuclear threats without these papers. Then I reminded myself that I was just an intern and much better dressed than she was....which ended up being more satisfying than saying anything to her. Oh well.

Week's almost over. Kinda wish I could stay. I feel like I'm just getting settled. Isn't that how it always goes?