Grunt of a grunt!

I started my new job on Thurs. as a Committee Clerk for the House of Rep. during 2007 session. I had a vague idea of how the job was going to be but over the past two days of training have gotten a better idea of what the next 4 months will really look like. First off, I have been assigned two committees to work on, Health Care and Wellness and Human Sources. Health Care and Wellness is apparently a pretty big committee and Human Sources a small one even though they said they gave me two small one's....they lied. My friend Alyson also has two committees but everyone else only has one which I guess means that Alyson and I are just that cool. Because I have two committees I also have two LA's (Legislative Assistants) these people are the grunts to the committees themselves, they get paid more, have more stress, and even get their own personal assistant...me! So technically I am a grunt of a grunt! That is the not so glamerous way of putting it. There are some glamerous parts in that I get to be on t.v. so if you have Washington State public access t.v. you can watch me do my duties during the hearings. Not all of my hearings will be televised but the one's that are will be watching me running around the room passing notes, passing papers, making sure the testifiers don't approach the dais (bench where the Reps. sit), taking votes when it is an executive session and they need to vote on a bill and that is my duty during which the camera will be tightly fixed on yours truly as I try not to mess up the names of my committee and hear whether or not they just say AYE or NAY. It sounds kind of like a simple job and it will be but my job is to make sure that all the little things get done and there are a million little things and if one is forgotten....bad things! I have tons of paperwork to do when I am not in hearings putting together bill books for the Reps. and running paper all over campus, which I will most likely get one of the pages to do for me. There is filing and all kinds of forms that need to be filled out and it's all very confusing. Good thing both of my LA's are great one of them is named Rebekah who just graduated from UW with a Poli Sci major and is way cool just like all the other Rebecca's I know and the other is Lucinda who is in her late 20's and is married with no kids, she admits on a regular basis of having a queen complex and likes it when her husband calls her "Your Majesty". This makes me a little nervous but she has so far seemed way nice and not interested in making me one of her servants just a friend so I am o.k. with that, plus she is LDS and so we have that in common. There are actually 6 Mormons that I work with so far out of about 40 people so that's cool. My first hearing is on Monday but it's just a work session and so I won't have to do much but I am still stressing out about it and my LA is really stressing out! In a week or two when both of us have our heads on straight and actually get the hang of this we will look back and laugh that we stressed so much. I am so happy I have this job and can't wait to learn more and be apart of the legislative process in the great state of Washington. WooPee!!