A Typical Morning At The Office

I'm at the district office from 8:30 to 1:00 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Usually I end up there about 15 minutes early, because of the time I drop my son off at school. Now that that's over with, we'll see if that changes or not. There are two interns per shift, and if I get there first, I usually pick up the newspaper and put it in the waiting area. Then I listen to the voicemails that have accumulated overnight and take any relevant messages.

The rest of the day is a mixture of basically whatever needs to be done. This consists of talking to constitutents on the phone, doing any necessary projects around the office (e.g. one time one of the staffers brought in about 500 sheets of records from a constituent's ongoing case and said "I need two copies." That took a while.), and occasionally taking a project from the Washington office. Those things ususally involve updating adresses or other constituent records in some way.

There's a lot of variability, mostly because you never know what is going to happen when you pick up the phone. One time it could be someone calling to give a quick opinion on an issue or some proposed legislation. Then the next time it could be someone with a serious axe to grind, who may or may not even live in the district, and usually nothing comes out of those calls that we can work with. If nothing else, they certainly keep you on your toes.

Between all of that and shooting the breeze with other interns, and taking care of walk-ins, the half-day shift goes pretty quick, and I leave at 1:00 to jump on the freeway to get to my regular job on time.