I attended my graduation ceremony for The Washington Center today. It was okay, even though I was 30 minutes late-which infuriates me. I confused the National Housing Center with the Department of Interior and showed up 30 minutes early at the DOI just to find out that I was in the wrong place. Silly me.

On the bright side, I was able to talk to one of my best friends-Matt-for 15 minutes more. I did enjoy that especially since he admitted it was time for me to come back. I do always love being told I’m missed!

Anyways, I was able to talk to my class’ final project partner one last time before he left as well as hang out with my first TWC friend-so the graduation ceremony was cool.

I have officially graduated from Arkansas State University!! Graduation ceremonies were held today, though I was unable to attend!

Once I get back May 16, I will be starting my new job two days later on Monday, May 18, at the Wynne Progress. Yes, I’m moving home.

I am actually excited about the prospect of moving home since I will get to be closer to my family for at least  a year before I move on. Elizabeth is wanting me home for her 21st birthday on Nov. 2, and I as well. I have also already told grandma and mom that I expect some home-cooked meals from time to time!

I helped Cindy buy tickets to come visit me last night. She will flying to DC on Thursday with my mom and sister to pick me up and will fly home with all of us on Saturday. I cannot wait!

I am already planning what we are all going to do-I just hope the weather decides to be nice and sunny! Or at least not rainy!!

Yesterday, Sheila finally left after I met her fiance Al again and Al’s little brother. They were pretty cool, and it was hilerous watching Al’s brother trying to get these huge boxes out the door. He kept dropping something.

I have now moved into Sheila and Cay’s bedroom and I must say I love having my own room-even for a week! I have all my stuff here in the master bedroom just lined up to be packed. It is great! I must say Ever is loving it as well. She has more privacy with her boyfriend Oliver of Mexico, who is staying on here in DC with his internship assignment in a full-time position.

The first of my roommates and fellow PHA interns left today. My roommate Caylah went home an extra day early after she found out another intern in the building was going her way, and my co-worker Monica finished up her internship as the advocacy and awareness intern as well. It was sad in both cases, well for me and not really them.

To finish up the internship, the interns-Monica, Patti and I-created our internship videos. I must say they are awesome to watch. We had video ourselves talking about what we did at PHA and why we recommend our internships. Along with our less-than-1 minute videos, we also created a nice 3 minute video of us talking and preparing for my internship video. We had no clue that the camera was recording and it caught us talking and preparing me to do the interview. It is actually pretty funny to watch.

Patti and I are the next to leave: I leave next Wednesday, May 13, and Patti will leave either the same day or Friday, May 15.

For the roommates, Sheila is leaving tomorrow at 9 p.m. after her fiance and his brother arrive to pick her up, and then it will be just Ever and I.

I cannot believe four months has already passed and the semester is over. It’s crazy!

This past weekend was the last weekend for Sheila and Cay. They leave this Friday, and Johnny has already left for Massachussetts for his 3-week vacation. It is so odd realizing that the semester is now over.

Johnny spent the weekend with us in Rockville. Johnny and I attended the Nationals-Cardinals game where we had wicked seats (at least perfect for me). It was the fifth row up from right field. I was happy with it, and the Cardinals won the game-so great!

Saturday was Rockville’s Cinco de Mayo festival and Johnny, the roommates and I could not resist checking it out. It was pretty great, and we all had so much fun. I was able to buy a huge plate of pasta and a piece of garlic bread along with a coke for $4, and after we ate, we listened to a live band while drinking margaritas.

Later that night, we ended up meeting some interns at the town square while listening to music and we went to one of their rooms to watch the Celtics and Bulls game. A good portion of the folks in the apartment were from Mass., including Johnny and Sheila, so you can guess which team was favored the most!! Luckily, the Celtics won or there would have been trouble!

As it was, we did have our drama in a way. several of us were downstairs while Johnny and another intern smoked when three police officers pulled up and went into our building.

Curious to see where they were going, we followed the last police officer and he led us straight to the room we were in! Turns out a neighbor called in a noise complaint, and the officers just smiled and told us that there was a complaint. Sadly enough, the game had ended right before we went outside for the Johnny and the other intern to smoke, so we were about to head out of the door anyways.

Here is our last group picture (taken Saturday night) of Sheila, Ever, Johnny, me and Cay!

I had a blonde moment this weekend when my roommates and Johnny asked me where I had an interview at. For some reason I thought my Monday morning interview was in D.C., and I was asking them all “where is Wall St. in D.C.?” It did not take long before I was freaked out by their cluelessness and checked out my application in my e-mail. Sure enough-I was wrong! My interview was in New York.

I left my apartment at 2 a.m. Monday so that I could arrive in time for my 9:30 a.m. appointment with a online newswire on Wall Street. Well, I easily made it to the paper without too much difficulty (Penn Station and the subway was hard to navigate for my first time) and I was still early for my appointment. I walked in for my meeting only to be told to come back in an hour. It was a good interview, but the weather outside was dreary and raining nonstop.

My Amtrak train left Penn Station at 2:05 p.m. and I was supposed to arrive back in D.C. at 5:23 p.m. Boy, was I misguided. The train ended up being 41 minutes behind schedule meaning I arrrived at Union Station at 6:30-the same time as my bonus class in Press, Politics and Power. I ended up rushing to class (which only had 4 students) and completing the bonus project-the “I’ve Got A Problem,” ethics game.

Today was no better. I had a morning program meeting to share my civic engagement project with everyone else in my communications and media program. It was interesting as well to hear what fellow interns did. I was especially interested in one of the students’ project, which was similar, if not actually, the Big Brother and Big Sister program. I have always wanted to be a “Big Sister” in the program so I thought this was interesting.

I was at work for 5 minutes today which gave me just enough time to tell my boss that I was not feeling so great and for her to send me home.

I felt horrible, however I know I do not have swine flu which my boss thought I could possibly have. This was at 9 a.m. and it is now at 8:57 p.m.  After lots of sleep and medicine I am actually feeling somewhat better. Which is great!

I am currently working on finishing up my portfolio for The Washington Center, my final for class and sending out an application and resume to a contact that one of PHA’s vice presidents told me to get in touch with. I am actually really excited to talk to her-I think she will be able to tell me more about public relations and communications in general in Washington, D.C., as far as expectations and skills go.

I also received a call today asking to set up an appointment for an internship interview here in Washington, D.C. I was asleep when they called and accidently answered so I was not at my best, however that just means I will have to be on top of it Monday when I show up. The interview is on Wall Street-so wish me luck!!

Tonight I participated in part one of my final for my course Press, Politics and Power. It dealt with communication strategy, and each student played a role in an overall political scene: a Republican president is up for reelection with a low popular vote with a vice president, who is a POW and has an even lower approval rate. The US is in an unpopular war that is stablizing. For the Democrat presidential nominee, she is rumored to have two choices for vice president, a Illinois senator and the CEO of Goodlight, who are rumored to battling privately for the position.

It is now a Thursday night, and the CEO has funded an event for the Democrat candidate at the MET in New York. The president is to appear for dinner at the MET on Sunday. Right before 10 p.m. Thursday, there is an attack on the MET with two MET security workers, secret service and a few others saving the day and lives. There are no deaths and the Democrat candidate escapes unscathed, though shaking, and the CEO receives minor injuries. The Illinois senator is currently on a book tour and did not attend the MET event.

My role: the Illinois senator.

For the final project, part one, my duty was to examine how the attack was going to affect my role as the Illinois Senator. I had to come up with a communications strategy to help my role. It was actually really fun!  I enjoyed it.

It was a great weekend with weather in the 90s all Saturday and Friday.

I have loved having my room to myself with Ever in Mexico visiting her family. Johnny stayed the weekend so that we could all have Chinese delivered Friday night as we watched TV, and then Saturday we made a impromptu trip to Virginia Beach, which is 3 hours away. We even were able to take a tunnel under the ocean on our drive down there-how awesome is that!!

We worked on our tans while taking breaks to go to the water edge and cool off. It was gorgeous. However, by the time we made it back to DC we were drained of energy. While I worked on a class communications project with a classmate, everyone else passed out. Johnny gave my classmate and I heck on our project before passing out smooth on the couch.

Today, we found the doorways to our apartment’s pool area unlocked and snuck out there to sunbathe with another TWC student, Andrea. It felt even hotter today and we had to go to the Rockville square to cool off in the fountain. It was worth it though-we all have a little color to our previous snow white skin!

I have 22 days left before I leave Washington, DC, for Arkansas. Wow. It does not seem right, especially since I am still searching for a job! It is actually scary! I graduate May 9 and I still have no job!

On a positive note-I have my room to myself for the weekend. Ever is attending her sister’s Quinceañera, or birthday celebration. She has been dieting for this event the whole semester and already has a list of food she wants to eat once she is back.