Unpacking and Setting Up the Office

Saturday the three of us staff members met at the office to unpack the boxes that had been shipped from the Anchorage office.   This is part of the glamorous work of being a legislative staffer.  Rep. G. and his wife arrived on the Alaska ferry from Whittier about ten am.  People said it was a three day crossing and part of the trip had some decent swells.  We also compared notes about what we'd heard in the training, both from the presenters and from other staffers. 

We all had one experience in common.  When we told people who we were working for, people who've been here before, immediately said, "Oh, Mr. Amendment."  Rep. G has the reputation, we were told, over and over again, of fixing details in bills.  We also hear - this we knew already - that he's smart, extremely decent, and that he'll work us hard.  

We unpacked the boxes with books and put them onto the shelves in chronological order (the series of law books) but decided we should wait for Rep. G to come in to let us know how we wanted the other stuff put away.  All of us are new this year, so we have to rely somewhat on staffers from other offices until we get our bearings. 

Here's Ted.  Another question I got from people when they learned I was in Rep. G's office was, "Are you an attorney?"  Well, Ted is headed for law school. 

And, Gretchen, the other staffer, recently graduated from law school graduate and passed the Alaska bar. 

We took a lunch break.  Gretchen went to walk her dog and Ted and I went to pick up the suitcase he had driven down for us.  The snow was off the steep hill where we live so it was an easy haul.  Then we met back in the office with Rep. G.

Some of it was pretty mundane - where the chairs go, where to file things, settling which staff member is going to focus on which committees and who would be in charge of basic office functions.  There's scheduling and making daily calendars, constituency work, monitoring emails, etc.