Theta Convention!

Our Chapter Flag!

All of our Convention Girls

Tucson Arizona!

This weekend I went to Tucson with my sorority for our national convention. It was so fun and I was so glad to see everyone before I leave for my semester abroad!

When I arrived I made friends with the Yale president because she was here by herself and so much fun! We talked about the huge differences between our chapters and then I introduced her to the other OU girls and we asked her about secret societies (P.S. some of them pay for your grad school!) The convention was a lot of talking and sisterhood but it was also so fun to be with my friends all weekend!

We had dinner with some girls from Purdue who had a horrible time getting to the resort because of bad weather. They had to fly into Phoenix instead (where the Kappa convention was happening) and then take a 2 hour shuttle to Tucson with no bags! I let them wear my dresses the next day and shoes because all they had were t-shirts and were very nice.

I learned a lot and it really made me appreciate the history of Theta and how diverse every chapter is. We were one of the largest groups there and ended up winning 6 awards which was so great since they don't give out many! Even OU's Panhellenic won an award and Norman Alumnae chapter too.

It was a fun break from working and I was so privileged to be able to attend.

At Work with Ted Leonsis!

With Ted, the Owner of the Washington Capitols, Wizards, and Mystics and a Cofounder of AOL!

Today Ted Leonsis came in to talk about his new book and he was so cool! He was very inspiring and I kinda felt like I was at a camp listening to a motivational speaker, so now we all need to go make our lists of everything we want to accomplish before the end of our life and have the motivation and faith to do it!

I will be working on mine tomorrow with Sarah and will update this with some highlights and any suggestions can be added to my comments section!

Around the City with Friends

Friends out shopping!

Sunday I took the bus for the first time and it was like unlocking a great door to let me get into the city without having to park! Glorious!

I went to Dupont to meet up with Ashley Zumwalt (who was visiting for the weekend), Madelyn and Dana. First I went to the farmers market and got some fresh veggies which was great, then we went to Zorba's for some Greek food. We had the best baklava ever and when we were leaving this crazy lady came up to us asking for us to go shopping through her suitcase. Dana was too nice to say no so we followed her over and had an awkward few minutes, but it was an experience!

Then we thought we were supposed to get on the metro when really we should have been walking where we were going and so we proceeded to run up the downwards escalator so that we didn't have to ride down two-flights then back up. Luckily no one fell but we did almost run into one lady who was riding. Whoops!

We ended up walking the wrong way just to get on a metro somewhere else, so it was all in vain but was still a fun story!

Next we went shopping in Chinatown and got some frozen yogurt (which is a big step for me because I had never tried the fruity flavors before). Then Ashley and Madelyn headed out so Dana and I went to Barnes and Noble in Georgetown for awhile but then she had to head out so I stayed and read for about an hour where I had a bizarre sequence of people join me at my table to read.

The first girl just sat and didn't say anything but kept staring around the room instead of reading so it was distracting. The second girl asked if she could sit with me, sat down, and then started crying and talking to her mom in another language for like 20 minutes! I obviously did not get a lot of reading done so I went back to meet Madelyn for dinner at Zed's on M street. It was a very adventurous day for me, greek, ethiopian, and fruity fro-yo all in one day!

At a Private Colbie Caillat Concert!

With Colbie at the Event

She's so cute!

We were basically right next to her!

With her guitar player!

So today was a rough day at work. We had to come in at 11:30, get Starbucks, have a little meeting then head off to Chinatown for the concert!

Rebecca got an invite from the popular Tommy McFly in DC to come to this private event today for Colbie Caillat, and she didn't know who she was, so I told her and said I wanted to go! So we all went and had such a fun time! She was so sweet and chill and it was so much fun! It was sweet because she was actually nervous talking in public!

After the event we basically had the day off and went for mexican at a great place there with the radio people! Tomorrow all of our work will be completed on our laptops by the pool, so as you can see I'm leading a rough life right now!

In the Projects

For obvious reasons I don't have a lot of pictures from this trip to Price Georges County for work! I have been working the night shift for the past week with Rebecca and Sarah so we have been doing live shots at 10 and 11pm.

Monday night we went to report on a fallen officer from the county to show his makeshift memorial out of his car. When we arrived around 9pm no one was there and we were supposed to look for people to interview. So, when people came out of the house we approached them to ask if someone wanted to and an older man told us he didn't mind us being there but we needed to move so that they could "hang out" and not shoot the house. Then he told us that only "Big Sexy" did the interviews around there and we met him. He was very sweet, like 6'5 tall guy who told us he would go put a shirt on to be on television. And what does Rebecca say when she meets him, "Well Big Sexy, that is what they call me around here as well so I'm not sure what we're going to do about that!"

Apparently we weren't moving fast enough for them, because they were really wanting to hotbox in their car without getting caught by the media, so ironically, they called their police friends to make sure we moved. It was quite the scene when they showed up, all of the sudden there went from 5 to around 12 people on the lawn making calls, and chatting while they watched Rebecca do her live 10pm shot then interview "Big Sexy".

It was a totally different experience from being in the newsroom and was very interesting!

Mentioned in Mike Allen's PLAYBOOK!

OK so next funny story time! Tonight we went to the CNN 30 year reunion party (more to come on this later) and we run into a guy who Rebecca knows and says oh are these your infamous interns? We were all confused as to how he would know who we are, especially since we were the only interns/college people at the party, and he proceeds to tell us that we were talked about in Mike Allen's PLAYBOOK for Politico (the guy I mentioned in the other post who the New York Times says the White House wakes up to!) So apparently a few days ago they woke up to talk about Rahm taking pictures with Rebecca Coopers interns haha!

The story is at:

http://dyn.politico.com/printplaybook.cfm?uuid=21A01104-18FE-70B2-A8142D98ED8030B7

In a Fashion Blog!

The Editor and Chief of Washington Life Magazine Nancy Bagley, Sarah, Myself and another Dog Lover!

Ok so second ALMOST embarrassing moment in DC!

The fashion blog site is:

gabgirlglam.com

Earlier this week Sarah and I got sent by Rebecca to a Pawtini Happy Hour charity event for the DC animal shelter. Everyone brought their dog and it was really fun!

When we first got there we saw these girls with a dog that looks like Sarah's so we went and talked to them, asked where they worked (they did not say Washington Life!) and luckily we left it at that!

Then a girl from this blog site came over and asked to take our picture and we chatted about the dogs for a bit longer.

So Sarah and I go get a table and talk about the other two interns at the party and we wondered what the place they were interning was like.

The party goes on, we meet the hosts and some other interns then I chatted with a guy who is high up at Microsoft working on a whole new blogging system for them that he said may leak the name to us at ABC-7 before anyone else! (I gave him my penguin business card!)

But this is not the point! Fast forward to today when Sarah and I find the blog and show Rebecca the other interns we met while were looking through DC magazines for people to invite to her next charity event. She takes one look at the picture and says "Well that's Nancy Reynolds Bagley, the Editor and Chief of Washington Life Magazine!"... The magazine I am literally looking at at that moment with a big picture of her on the inside cover!

Sarah and I look at each other and immediately wonder if we said anything to them about being interns because we were so embarrassed! Luckily we didn't, but who would have thought!

Out at a Party with Rahm Emanuel!

With Rahm!

Some of Rebecca's Friends including Mike Allen, who the New York Times says is "The Man the White House Wakes Up To!

Going to the Party at Buddha Bar!

What an evening! Yesterday was the best day of "work" ever!

Rebecca and I went to pick up Sarah to work on some things before the party at this fun little place called Hudson's. We chatted about the possibility of her hosting one of her charity events there and met the manager who was very nice.

Then we went to the Buddha Bar for a party hosted by Bloomberg for Rahm Emanuel's former chief of staff. We were a little early and there was another party there before ours but Rebecca saw some people we knew so we chatted with them for awhile and ended up getting our picture taken by DC Magazine! Maybe we'll be in the next issue?

When people started to file out we got a table and chatted with one of Rebecca's friends from the previous party and his friend from the British Embassy. They were really funny and ended up inviting us to the Embassy this Saturday to watch the England vs. US game! Then after this party we are going with Rebecca to a CNN reunion party with lots of cool people, so it won't be a boring weekend!

Anyways, when the party started to fill in we went to mingle and met some really cool people! First we went and met Rahm, then we met some of the people putting on the event, then we met a lot more people but what I remember was an ambassador, two of the people who helped start MTV, the wife of someone high in the CIA, and many others! All very cool!

Georgetown!

At Georgetown Cupcake with my Stuart, Allison, and Madelyn

Today was a free day so I drove to Georgetown to meet up with some friends! I finally figured out how to park by the theatre and met up with Stuart and Allison. I thought I knew the way to the cupcake place but I was definitely wrong and we ended up having to turn around. When we finally found it I knew we were there because of the line down the street to get in!

Since we had enough time we decided to wait outside in line and that is where the picture came from. The cupcakes were good! Better than Hello Cupcake!

I bought extras to bring back to the boys and then we went to the theatre. We saw Get Him to the Greek which was pretty raunchy but funny and then went in search for a place to eat.

Since we are all pretty indecisive this took awhile to decide where to go. We ended up going to Snap! which is a crepe/panini shop with a cute outdoor patio and we tried to figure out how to get everyone home.

Stuart was planning on taking Allison back when I asked her where she lived. At first I didn't really know where she was talking about and then when she told me her main streets I found out she lives literally across the street from me!

This was exciting news because now we can go to all of our activities together!

Here's a map of how close we are, zoom out so you can really see!

View My Saved Places in a larger map

Fun with the Dupin Boys!

Finn, the youngest, really liked his cotton candy!

Gus and Max racing

Thomas (Max's friend), Max and Gus fishing

Finn carrying his horse

The boys with their cotton candy!

Today Rebecca had to work and go to the Emmys (she's nominated for one!) so I've been taking care of the boys this morning!

Thomas's sisters go to a French immersion school which was having a festival in Bethesda so I drove them over there and we had a great time! There were lots of games and prizes so they loved that!

Finn sadly wasn't big enough to ride the horse so he got to play some other games and won more tickets than the older boys.

Now were back at home playing Wii Lego Star Wars and ordering pizza so it's been a pretty good Saturday!!

Thrills and Spills!

ABC-7!

On the Set

With Rebecca's Old Intern Gaby

The Assignment Desk

Our little area

Entrance

The Set While They Were Filming

Weather Area

Front Entrance

The Building

Today was quite the adventure! Rebecca is sick and doesn't have a voice so she couldn't come into work today. Since I don't start work until 11:30, the bus I would have needed didn't run then. Soo what did we do? I had to drive Rebecca's car, by myself to work! AHH! Talk about hitting the ground running on learning my way around! So I get the directions and immediately veer off course, I don't think I ended up taking any of the roads Rebecca told me kept me off the highway because I'm pretty sure I ended up on three different ones by the time I got there and somehow ended up on a different bridge than the one I was supposed to take!

Miraculously, I ended up there without having to turn around anywhere and was able to park the car in the garage with no problems!

So the work day started off really slow and that's when I was able to go snap all of these pictures. Then I got assigned to go out to film a package (a segment where a reporter goes out and interviews people) with a different anchor, Kathy. Kathy is a one woman show who hosts, films, and edits all of her work so she definitely needed some help with her equipment.

Our story was on a construction company suing DC for hiring a company to build a hotel for their convention center without really shopping around. Not exactly ground breaking stuff but still very interesting!

We went and picked up one of the guys working on the project and we went out to shoot on the site. It was unbelievably hot! So we got all of the footage and then rushed to the Attorney Generals office to get a quick interview with him, turns out we were at the wrong office! So we had to get over to the other building as quickly as possible and there were not parking spots!

So I stayed in the car while Kathy ran up to get the shot as I sat, parked illegally on the street. This didn't seem like a big deal till a cop came up to me and asked if I was looking for a ticket. As opposed to saying "Oh no my boss is just across this street going through security to interview the Attorney General and will be back in about 20 minutes," I replied with "My friend just ran to that ATM there and will be right back!" Luckily he was satisfied enough with that to move on, so no DC tickets for me yet!

When we got back we watched the anchor who was filling in for Rebecca and then I went to go eat with the old intern and her friends for their last night in DC. Nothing eventful happened from there and I got back in the dark fairly easily so I'm feeling much better about my navigation skills!

Oh ya!

DC Embarrassing Moment #1: Today I bought some groceries at CVS in the ABC building. As I went to grab some Dr. Pepper cans, 2 fell down and proceeded to spew all over myself, Gaby, and the floor. I will now be known to them as the Dr. Pepper girl... lovely

Go to http://www.washingtonbusinesstonight.com/ if you want to see Rebecca's interview with George Allen, the guy I read the book on, and the segment I worked on today!

It doesn't work on my mac but if you have windows media 10 or higher it will!

My Job!

I ate all my mexican food!

National Building Museum

Canadian Embassy

Dana and I at the Canadian Embassy

So I haven't taken any pictures of my job yet, but let me back track first!

I finished Memorial day weekend by hanging out with Dana and the brother of an OU Professor (Dr. Landis). We went to the Newseum where it has the whole history of journalism, which I thought was a pretty appropriate starting place considering my internship. It was also crazy expensive to get in, like $20! But it was worth it to see all of the exhibits and to understand the industry a little more.

Next we went to a really great Mexican restaurant where I ordered amazing seafood quesadillas and ate the whole thing! (Which is a big deal if you've ever eaten Mexican with me before).

Then we decided to go to the zoo and wander for a bit and I got some really cute pictures of animals, that I didn't have room to put up. We almost got locked out from being there so late and I thought we were going to have to climb the fence! Luckily it all worked out.

The next day I started my job at ABC-7 and learned about how the newsroom works and watched Rebecca do her show. It all seems really cool and being behind the scenes is really different than watching it on TV.

Today was Gus's (the middle of Rebecca's three boys) play of Goldilocks and the three bears. He was a little pig, which was already funny, and then during the songs he stood up and danced around when all the other kids were shy. It was really cute and I told Rebecca, not only is he a little pig, he's a ham! I will put pictures of them up later.

At work Rebecca was having George Allen, the former governor and senator from Virginia, on her show. She said she needed to read his book that he has just written, What Washington Could Learn from Sports, before the show. What I later realized that that meant me reading the book and highlighting all of the important parts, which was really challenging but fun and then I went through all the news articles about him while she worked on our other story.

Brace yourself AT&T potential customers, apparently they are changing all of their new plans so that there will no longer be unlimited plans. (If you are already with them you're fine) So if you are planning on getting an iPod or iPad, plan on paying for all of the megabites that you use on the internet and even texts. We drove to the Washington Post to get an interview from their technology reporter and then went outside an AT&T store to interview people about the change.

It was the other intern and my job to get the people to interview which is surprisingly hard. I honestly felt like I was on the South Oval trying to pass out flyers and convince students to come to an event haha! It was really cool and the link is below if you want to see what exactly it was that we worked on!

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0610/742091_video.html?ref=newsstory

After work I went to the OU DC Alumni Club dinner where we got to mingle with all of the other OU interns and alumni. This was the first time I saw my other friends and I received my internship scholarship! It was fun to see everyone and sort of made it feel like we were back in Norman tonight!