basic daily life...based on last monday

Monday started as always with my roommates waking me up around 5:40. Getting up, showering and getting dressed for school! At 6:30 we start our walk over to the Library of Congress, go through our first metal detectors of the day. We congregate towards the elevators where one of us uses our passes to take us all up to the attic. Once at the attic we pour out of the elevators first to our lockers then end up in our seats for morning assembly.

It is a Monday so the schedule for classes is 1-2-3-4-5. Congress does not convene until 2 pm which means that it's a 11:30 day at school. The day starts off with French, however since M. Hobson is not there, Sacha and I have a study Hall. Next I move to British Literature, then PreCalculus. After third period we have a ten minute break, then Physics and Psychology. At 11:30 the final bell of the day rings and we get our bags and head over to work. (Everything above isn't necessarily set to those time, but that's how life is every morning.)

We walked to work, dropped all our stuff off at the Page Cage (our locker room), then signed in at the Democratic Page desk with Ms. Keating. After that the six of us who are Documentarian Pages head over to Mr. Cooper's desk one of our work supervisors, he works in the Office of the Clerk. He then took us through the general procedure which each of us would go through when Docing. First you head of to the Legislative Resource Center; their printing office where you pick up any of the bills you may need for the day (you may pick up 1/2 a box of papers or two or three). At fourty minutes before the House convenes you turn on the bell system (this tells members when the house is in session, in a recess, or voting), next you go and raise the flag. When the large clock in the House Chamber reads quarter till you turn on the first bell; alerting members that there is fifteen minutes before the House convenes (however there's a very low turn out when the house opens so most members just ignore those bells). When the clock strikes the hour someone enters with a Staff and we press the convene bell. Then the Speaker enters (this is usually a Speaker Pro temp, however every fourth day Hon. Pelosi starts the day) introduces the person leading the Pledge of Alleigance, she introduces someone who offers a daily prayer, and the then she approves the daily journal from yesterday. At this time if the Speaker was Hon. Pelosi she hands it over to someone else, if it already was a Speaker Pro temp, they stay for about two hours then switch off.

The reason that no one shows up for this is because it's just morning session, it's generally slow and may involve the discussion of a few bills of little conflict (for ex. naming a post office or courthouse). Soon after these kinds of bills are discussed the speaker will put the house in recess until most likely the first vote of the day. When that happens the Docs may leave their desk and stay near by incase they need to ring more bells to signal the house is back in session.

For voting procedure a bell must ring to signify the start of the vote (the first one of the day is always fifteen minutes) and when they have ten minutes left. The system is old so the bell must be rung at 10:07 (the clock counts down), therefore past pages always write "remember the 10:07 bell!" During a vote members come in from all doors, mingle with each other, and vote.

After all votes most members go home for the day...however there's a lovely thing called special orders which occur after all Legistlative business if over and may last up till midnight everday and until whenever on Tuesdays. This is when each side (Democrats and Republicans) have two hours they can use that night just to talk--most likely to an empty chamber. Everynight the Republicans use it to address energy; their American Energy Act and to attack the Democrats for doing nothing about energy. During special orders members may speak for one minute, five minutes or after talking to their party's leadership use one of their party's hours. This is why some times the nights can be very very long. When special orders are finally over and the speaker has called the House adjourned the two Docs at the desk remove the water, turn off the bell system and pull down the flag.

Then we have to fax our times in to the dorm and the school (cause depending on how late we stay school is later for us the next day) and then they call a police escort for us, we get our stuff and walk back to the dorm.