Mo got the class picture taken this morning. There’s so many of them, it’s hard to see him, and also hard to get everyone looking good at the same time!
Mark, Diane and I ate breakfast in the Rayburn cafeteria. It was pretty good! Antidotal evidence from staffers says that the Longworth cafeteria is the best.
Drawing numbers for the office lottery started at 9 a.m. in the Science and Technology Committee room in Rayburn. It was packed with members-elect and press. I am surprised that, with all the important things going on in Washington, the press is fascinated by the office lottery! There were cameras in the hall and cameras in the room. Mo got to pick relatively early since his name starts with B. He yelled out “Oh, no!” when he picked his number, and the guy in charged announced, “Mr. Brooks has number 81.” Yes, 81 out of 85. Bummer.
New strategy- find all the least desirable offices and figure out which of those is most desirable! Mark went off to interview more job applicants, so Mo, Diane and I decided to check out all the split offices (all offices have three rooms, in a split office one is not connected by a door to the other two) and the offices on the 5th floor of Cannon (less desirable because not all the elevators go up there and it is somewhat isolated).
I really like the fifth floor of Cannon. The offices are relatively large (965 sq. feet to 1085 sq. feet) and several of them have a view of the capitol dome. The all have a rain gutter that has been turned into a balcony by most offices. Some even have a step stool so they and constituents can go outside. One has a large grill on the “balcony”! They also have their storage units right across the hall. They are called cages because each room has two storage facilities separated by wire fencing. For fifth floor offices, they serve as places to put your refrigerator and, in one case, a table and chairs for staff meetings.
We thought we would probably end up with one of the offices we looked at – in 2008, a fifth floor Cannon office was the last picked.
At 1 p.m. the office picking started. After about an hour we noticed a disturbing trend: the split offices were being picked as were the fifth floor Cannon. It became apparent that we would be in Longworth in a block of office we hadn’t even looked at! Diane and I jumped up and ran out of the room to scope out these Longworth offices.
There is a different style between the Cannon and Longworth offices. Cannon has very high ceilings, being the first built. It has a “cool” feeling because there is lots of marble and painted trim. The members’ offices have a closet and a bathroom, but the other two rooms are pretty open. Longworth, on the other hand, is newer and the ceilings are not as high. It has stained wood trim and lots of built-in file cabinets, drawers, and shelves with glass doors. It has several little spaces connected to the members’ offices and the leg shops (where the legislative staff works). It is generally considered to be more centrally located, and therefore more convenient.
Back to our story. Diane and I looked at a few offices, then ran back to give our recommendations to Mo. To make a long story short, the choice came down to 5 offices that we had never seen before. We went with the one that was the largest, 874 sq. ft. Our office is 1641 in the Longworth Office Building.
Next, we were supposed to choose paint colors, meet with an architect, and make the rounds of about 9 different stations that gave us general info. They were very backed up on the architects, so they gave us a buzzer like you get in a restaurant and told us to come back when it buzzed! One good thing was that they had delicious food and drinks out for us, which was good because now it was after 3 p.m. and we hadn’t eaten lunch yet. We went by the paint color place and got a sample of the existing carpet and drapes (that will stay) and paint samples. Then off we went for our first glance at the new office!
If first impressions are important, I would say this office failed! Instead of entering through the middle room, which the vast majority of offices do, the entrance was through a side room. They really didn’t have a reception area – just a couple of chairs smashed up against some desks. The middle room was full of desks that you had to walk through and around to get to the member’s office. It didn’t help that they were in the process of moving and there were boxes and papers everywhere! The member’s office was nice enough, until we realized that it didn’t have a door to the hall! No wonder nobody chose it!
I was fairly distraught, but Mo seemed not to mind and Mark and Diane kept saying we would fix it up and it would be fabulous. Hmmmm, I wasn’t buying it.
Finally about 5:30 we got in to see the architect and our project manager. Together we came up with a plan that I think will make the office much better. We are making the middle room the reception area. We can’t put up a wall because there is nothing to attach it to, so we are making a divider by using three or four tall shelves. This will make a private area for two senior staffers and give us a place to display cool things from the district. We worked on the lay-out for the leg shop and we think we made a little more room. The member’s office is pretty good as is, since they informed us they couldn’t knock a door in the wall!
Looking back at it now, I realize we have a wonderful office and we will love working there. We are so lucky to have this opportunity to make a difference in Washington, and it really doesn't matter where we hang our hats!
We got back to the hotel at about 7 p.m., after a real roller coaster of a day!
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