And I'm sitting here on Capital Hill.*

Yesterday I got into politics.


It turns out that even things as glamorous as Politics have their ugly sides - like getting up at 5:30 in the morning (the thought still makes my stomach turn).

Marissa came and picked me up at 6:00 AM and we started our adventure to Fairfax, VA. We saw Eric Cantor's (correct me if I'm wrong Marissa) little caravan - just proving that they all have to get up way too early.

I learned about Slug Lanes - okay, so I heard about Slug lanes - I still don't really get them. But I am going to investigate them (if I remember). Maybe I'll post about this (maybe I'm the only person who has never heard of this before).

Once we got to Fairfax, we stopped at a McDonald's to get something to eat. The kid at the register asked me what I would like and I said, "Sausage biscuit." Then I realized that there may be a certain way to order these - I haven't really eaten breakfast from a fast food place in so long, so I kept talking, "is that the right way to order it?" and he was like, "huh? do you mean from the dollar menu?" The dollar menu? I don't think McDonald's had a dollar menu the last time I went, but a dollar sounded good so I acquiesced, but not before I felt super stupid for not having the confidence sufficient to order a dollar sausage biscuit.

When we got to the event, Marissa introduced herself with a whole tongue twisted name/title/location kind of thing and then there was me...Just Jess...so I started to introduce myself in new ways, "I'm Jessica with Marissa P.", "I'm Jessica, Marissa's assistant". Then we got to work. Marissa gave me a clipboard, my job for the day would be to get signatures on a petition to put Mitt Romney on the ballot. Which - as it would seem - he is not on the ballot yet, each candidate needs a certain number of signatures to be on the ballot (note to self for when I decide to run as an independent party). Let me just say - getting people to sign a piece of paper is NOT a strong suit of mine. I don't really like talking to strangers but in person beat over the phone so I took the clipboards and went to stand on the sidewalk with the sign wavers.

I had a good time - once I got more comfortable - and I learned a lot. My favorite part by far were the little old ladies who are very involved in politics. They were very opinionated and I couldn't shake the feeling that I was in a crowd akin to a Twilight crowd - except it was old women and politics as opposed to young girls and Edward Cullen...okay - correction, Twilight as a whole. Their talk was the crazed talk of Twilight fans - there excitement to see this man

(Mitt Romney in case you don't know)

was equal to that first moment in the first movie on opening night when Edward Cullen first appeared on the screen (don't act like you don't know what that was like - and don't judge me for knowing what that moment was like....it was peer pressure).

But yes, the main attraction of the event was that Mitt Romney came to Farifax. It was cool, I've never seen anything political (live - I've seen stuff on TV). My desire to not treat people like celebrities kept me from trying to shake his hand, even though this kind stranger gave me tips and offered to be my wing man so I could get in and get the once in a lifetime picture...I just couldn't do it. So - I finally figured out the zoom on my camera and took pictures from a distance instead.

Overall - I had a good time. Once I got comfortable (and once they gave me Romney stickers to hand out) asking people to sign a petition wasn't so difficult. I got to meet a lot of interesting, politically charged people. Because of the clipboards Marissa had given me, everyone thought I was in charge, including some international news crews. I was asked at least 3 times if I was Iris (who I later got to meet - she was in charge). I just began to explain that the clipboards were deceiving, I was not in charge - but I could point out someone who was. It was funny to me that people kept thinking I was in charge - when I am so politically immature that I didn't even know what our Governor looked like until yesterday...oops - I probably shouldn't mention that.

Now I just need to pick up my copy of "Politics for Dummies" so I can start to catch up to the people I met yesterday.