New Session

If this week is any indication of what session in its entirety is going to be like, it's going to be the roughest one yet.

I knew Wednesday was going to be really tough, since it was my last day working for Senator Coash...but it ended up being one of the saddest, disappointing, heartbreaking and most embarrassing days of my life. I thought I would keep it together...and it turns out I was sorely mistaken.

I started out in the Coash office, just taking care of a couple of things, until I met up with the Kolterman clan at 8:30am. I got to meet Senator Kolterman's extended family and attended his swearing in by the Secretary of State. Once the legislature convened at 10am, I went out to the floor to watch from the wings while the new senators were made officially-official when they were collectively sworn in by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Shortly thereafter is when things went south. After the obligatory pomp and circumstance, the elections began. They voted for speaker first...and Senator Coash lost to Senator Hadley, 19-30. I was very surprised at how lopsided the vote was...I'd expected it to be much closer.

I wanted so badly for him to win...for his sake, for the Legislature's sake...and for my sake. If he won, I would know taking the job with Senator Kolterman was the right decision and that the gamble paid off. But it didn't. I loved my boss and hate change, so knowing the switch was "inevitable" if he'd won would have made it easier. Once the vote was taken, I got teary and headed to the bathroom to dry my eyes and compose myself. Once I could breathe and keep a relatively straight face, I headed back out to the floor.

Big mistake.

I ran into Senator Chambers as I was heading in. He was nice enough, saying that he thought Senator Coash was taking it well, that he'd be ok and that this is what happens when you put yourself out there. I started getting a little teary again and said I thought he'd be ok too and that these things happen...and I think Senator Chambers wisely didn't engage me any more due to man's universal fear of crying females.

I walked into the chamber and stood next to David, my (former) coworker. He asked me if I was ok and I said no, but was doing ok until Senator Hadley was called up to the front to be sworn in as speaker.

The waterworks started and there was no stopping them.

I got off the floor as quickly as possible - I'm sure some people saw me, but not too many, I don't think.I was heading back to the bathroom when David called after me. He unlocked Senator Coash's office door (which is between the floor and the bathroom) for me, so I could have some privacy...which was greatly needed 'cause I bawled. Like, couldn't breathe, streaming tears, sobbing.

Did not see that coming....so much for planning ahead.

After a bit I was able to go back out and (mostly) maintain my composure. Got a bit sniffly, but held it together for the most part. That is until when I was back in the Coash office, finishing up some random this and that, and a fellow staffer/friend came in and started nagging me about just staying with Senator Coash. Cue more waterworks. Poor David was stuck in there with me for that one...which was so embarrassing...but there was nothing I could do about it. She wouldn't let up, telling me I should just tell Senator Coash how I really felt about it, since she was sure he had no idea how upset I was about leaving. I told her no, since it was unfair to him to know, especially since he wanted me to change offices (to Kolterman) for my own good. Coash only has 2 years left as senator and he liked the idea of my being set with a job for at least 4 years by starting up with a new senator. Plus, I'd been trying really hard not to let him know how tough this was for me, since I knew it was already hard for him that I was leaving and I didn't want to make it any worse for him.

The only thing I'm grateful for is that I wasn't actually in tears in front of either my old or new boss. That would have been every kind of awful.

The icing on Wednesday's crap cake was my laptop getting annihilated by the tundra-like temperatures. I'd left it in my car, since we were "homeless" and I didn't want it to get stolen as I wandered about the Capitol office-less...which was the worst idea ever, since extreme cold apparently does terrible things to electronics, like causing you to get the "white screen of death."

Thursday was not as bad, but its own kind of terrible. We finally got our room assignment around 11:30am...a shared office. The other senator seems nice enough, but at least one of his staff is a massive jerk liberal. She's run several dirty campaigns against people I've helped out...sending out mailers & setting up websites with outright lies about them. Needless to say, we're not going to be buddies.

After the previous senator was fully moved out, we started to get settled in the office. This was to a limited extent, since we were phone and internet-less. There isn't a whole lot I can do without access to a phone, voicemail, email or our calendar...so once the furniture was moved around and I stocked the office with random office supplies (pens, tape, staplers, letter openers, file folders, etc), there wasn't much else to do.

The worse part of the day came just before lunch, when it was announced that a fellow staffer - a 30-something year old legislative aide named Chris - had passed away that morning. He hadn't shown up for work and after being unable to get a hold of him after a couple of hours, his father (also an LA, but for another senator) went over to his apartment and found that he was died. We were told yesterday that he had died in his sleep...but from what I've heard today, he actually committed suicide. So very sad. He a really nice guy and I can't even imaging how hard this must be for his dad...a new session, working for a new senator, stuck in the freshman office shuffle...and your son dies. Out of the blue. Awful, awful.

Today we at least have internet...but still no phones. I also don't have any idea what Senator Kolterman's schedule really looks like, since anything on it was put on his other work calendar, which I can't access...which makes my job harder. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be doing a lot of catch-up work this weekend (not unexpected),

So yeah...needless to say, I'm ready for this session to be over and done. Like I mentioned before, it will all be fine in the long run (other than for poor Chris and his family)...but right now it's very, very hard.

TGIF.



~ Katie