36 Things About My 36 Hours in NYC

1. Sleepover at Ruben's house Friday night since we had to wake up at 5am Saturday to catch the 6:30 bus. (found these crowns in Ruben's host family's house...I suggested a sleepover picture!)

2. Four and a half hour bus ride at the back of the bus with some annoying middle schoolers who wouldn't stop talking while I tried to sleep. 

3. Arrival at Penn Station, adventure figuring out the subway system to get to our hotel in East Village (near Chinatown). The subway system is a lot like DC's metro, but just exponentially more complex. It's also disgustingly hot and humid inside the underground stations. Like, being inside a mouth. Like, it's not even worth it to take a shower if you've gotta go down there. Gross. 

4. Eat at Little Italy, a really picturesque place and yummmm. Feel like I'm Julia Roberts in Eat Pray Love. 

5. Get to Times Square. Taking it all in, at first I'm stupefied and loving it. After about an hour, I'm like "dang, it's suuupper crowded and really quite dirty here. I'm kinda over it." But really cool to see it. 

6. We get $32 student tickets to Mary Poppins at the Amsterdam theater (on 42nd Street!)

7. Wander around Times Square, visit the huuge Toys 'R Us store, and Hershey's store.

8. It starts raining, so we take temporary shelter in Sbarro. Walk to Rockefeller Center, see NBC studios, among other cool Rockefeller center stuff. 

9. Realize we're one block away from St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Basilica of Archbishop Tim Dolan! Walk up to the Church right in time for 5:30 mass. God provides!

10. Walk back to 42nd Street for Mary Poppins. MIND IS BLOWN BY BROADWAY. Absolutely magical show. Musicals can really have an incredible effect on me. I was ecstatic at the end and beaming at the employee in the aisle next to me, who smiled gently back, probably laughing to herself at the star-struck Midwestern. I am just thrilled that we got to experience this show. 

11. Experience Times Square all lit up! Pretty amazing. (reppin' the 3-1-4 once again)

12. Sleep 5 people in a room for 4 for about 7 hours. Aren't we cute?

 13. Wake up early(ish) to depart for Williamsburg, Brooklyn, otherwise known as "hipster central," according to our very own hipster, Ruben. Actually ended up being one of the coolest places we saw in NYC in my opinion.
14. It used to be one of the worst ghettos in Brooklyn (a woman I work with at CareNet told me this--she actually grew up there!), but now is a super artsy young sorta-thriving area. We saw the Flea Market on the riverside, ate one of our most delicious meals ever in a local eatery, and saw a beautiful skyline view of New York.

15. Hop back on the crazy subway. See an impressive independent performer (there's a whole bunch of musicians who utilize the subway users as an audience).
16. On our way to the 9/11 Memorial, experience a street show by 5 guys who did break-dancing and gymnastics, and really commanded the crowd in a powerful way. (Clap! Come in closer, guys!), and by the end were pretty uncomfortable because they didn't just ask for money, they almost robbed with kindness. They were very clever and smart (making it a contest for which state would give last, etc), but it was borderline not okay.
17. Visited the World Trade Center Memorial. Very powerful.

18. Get back on the subway, have an emergency bathroom back necessity and get off the subway.
19. Realize that we wouldn't have made it to Central Park anyways, (by now it was 4pm and we had to leave for our hotel to grab our bags by 5pm to make the bus)
20. Decide to walk back to our hotel, and do our activism on the way.
21. Yes, activism! Read this awesome post by fellow intern, Lindsey, about the experience! The previous week we had ready-ed flyers about Obama's extreme pro-abortion stance coupled with SFLA's "ivoteprolifefirst.com" initiative. Education pieces encouraging pro-lifers to vote pro-life first. Also see my blog post about why voting pro-life first matters.

22. It started raining again. Took shelter in Urban Outfitters.
23. Made it back to our hotel to grab the luggage we had left there, and high-tailed it to Penn Station.
24. Four and a half hour bus ride back.
25. Drive thru DC back to Ruben's (we had parked at Union Station), realizing how much we LOVE Washington DC. It is so clean and so pretty and so calm compared to NYC!
26. Sleepover again at Ruben's since Leslie and I live an hour away and had to work early the next morning.

27. New York was really awesome, and I'm glad we went, even though it's definitely not the city for me. Just too darn big and busy and dirty.
28. But it was an incredible melting pot of ethnicities and races, and that was cool. I've never experienced anything like it.


...

29. I'm only at 29! That's awkward. But you know, I guess I did sleep for about 7 hours, so technically I only had 29 waking hours in NYC. So count yourself lucky because I'm cutting myself short tonight. That's my trip in a nutshell!

Now I can say that I've been to New York City for more than a 2 hour layover with my family back when we flew to Sanibel Island (and still managed to buy an I Love NYC shirt).

I must admit, this has been in my head since: "I want to wake up in the city that never sleeps..."
New York, New York!!

Last Wednesday: All on the anniversary of Humane Vitae

So I've got a lot to update you on, since I haven't written in a while. Last Tuesday I revealed that I'd be meeting Justice Scalia, and the following day--I did! Here's a summary of last Wednesday:

Technically I didn't meet Justice Scalia, because there were about 50 students in our group, and we just listened to him speak and then answer questions for about 30 minutes total...but I was sitting front row directly in front of him! It was a very neat experience, even just being inside the Supreme Court Building. We even got to sit in the Court itself after hearing Justice Scalia speak. The Justice certainly commanded the room ("why don't you stand up when you ask that question? it shows some respect"), but he was also incredibly amiable and humorous ("wow, we've got a crowd...I should've been charging!") He began with 2 remarks, first about the beauty of the American system of government, and then about the subject of "judging judges" on their decisions.

For all my lawyer-hopeful friends out there, he gave in response to a question some advice: 1. Make sure you actually love the law. That's essential, because you'll be immersed in it. 2. Live a balanced life, don't just work. Care about the people in your life, make time for hobbies and don't develop tunnel-vision. and 3. Work hard, of course.

Can you spot me??

Since it was too late to go back to work, the Missionaries decided to go to the Holocaust Museum, something we'd been wanting to do all summer. I had never been before, and was eager to experience it, in a strange combination of excitement and dread. The most well-known part of the tour is that each visitor gets an identity card, with the name of an actual person who experienced the Holocaust. As you make your way through the exhibit, you turn the page of the booklet, and at the end you find out if you survived. I did not. 

The most powerful moment for me was walking through the railcar, one of thousands that were used to mass-transport the people who were to be exterminated at the concentration camps. About 100 people were crowded into each car, sometimes not seeing daylight, food, water, or a bathroom, for days. I forced myself to linger in the car for a few minutes with my eyes closed, imagining the horror. 

Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and author of 57 books, including Night, is one of the most famous and powerful voices from the Holocaust. Here are 2 quotes from him that should strike a deep chord within us all: 

• “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” 
• “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” 

After the Holocaust Museum, we checked our phones and Ruben, another intern, had messaged us about an opportunity to see a preview showing of the film Obama's America: 2016 by Dinesh D'Souza. The showing was at a theater in Georgetown, and we decided to go. The documentary presented some interesting facts, and was aesthetically impressive. However, I struggled to leave with any strong convictions about Obama's "real plan" for America. I don't doubt some of the facts, but the film was definitely conspiracy-like, and I wouldn't adopt all its theories without lots more questioning, as is my inquisitive nature. 

Then we walked around Georgetown a bit and found Johnny Rockets for dinner. A full day!

P.S. It was the anniversary of Paul VI's encyclical Humane Vitae (Human Life) on Wednesday, which made the experience of the Holocaust Museum even more compelling, and even Justice Scalia's remarks about justice. 

Now I lay me down to sleep...

'May the peace of Christ hold sway in our hearts' Weekend updates to come soon hopefully! Only 6 days until I join the Phillips homecoming!

Just a spoonful of sugar!!

Intermission at Mary show Poppins on Broadway...its MAGICAL! Ahhhh so cool. also caught mass at St. Patrick's. God's been good today.

An Encounter with the Divide

This picture illustrates a divide. 

Two office buildings, separated by one wall. Two staff teams, 

full of compassionate people, but with completely different missions.

On the left: AAA Women for Choice

On the right: Amethyst Health Center for Women, Inc. 

Can you guess which one does abortions and which is a pregnancy resource center? Probably not.

 Here's the story: 

I went on an adventure today. It lasted less than a half hour, but it was truly powerful. I pulled up to these office buildings to see the abortion clinic that I have been told about that is so close to Care Net in Manassas (where I'm doing my 3rd rotation). Amethyst Health Center. There it was, sure enough. I found a spot to park and noticed a woman standing near the building eyeing me, and as I got out of the car I realized she may think I was seeking an abortion myself (their abortion days are Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday). She said in a friendly manner "Can I help you find something?" I smiled told her "I'm here actually for an unusual reason..." and explained that I was interning with Students for Life and a pro-life student who just wanted to see the clinic and maybe pray if abortions were going on. 

I ended up talking with Mary, Assistant Director at AAA, the abortion alternative clinic, for quite some time. Amethyst, the clinic next door, was performing abortions today. She said she thinks they do about 8 on average, although one day they heard 20. Yes, "heard." Since they share a wall, they can hear the aspiration (vacuum) machine most often used for surgical abortions, and sometimes, they hear screams or wails through the walls. AAA Women for Choice is located where they are because they want to reach out to women who may feel that abortion is their only option, even literally so from next door. "Free Pregnancy Test" is displayed prominently on their window, and on abortion days, Mary stands outside the clinic (on her side of the "line") and will vocally offer the women going into Amethyst resources and alternatives. 

It's not too uncommon, or uncommon at all really, for a pregnancy resource clinic to be located so close to an abortion clinic. They follow all the rules, and they respect the woman's choice of which door to walk in, but they do all they can to show that abortion is not their only option. In fact, Triple A Women for Choice is very much like the pregnancy resource center Care Net which I just started the last part of my internship with. I am truly amazed by the good work centers like these do. Their concern for these women is completely genuine and they are so self-giving. Of course they are also concerned for the baby in cases in which the woman seeking help is pregnant, but I have learned quite clearly that their intention is, above all else, to minister to the woman in need. Pregnancy Resource Centers (PRCs) are not political places; they transcend politics. They are the hands and feet of the pro-life movement, giving proof that abortion is not the only answer to a crisis pregnancy. They are a beautiful ministry, and I wish I had more beautiful words to describe them right now. 

Actually, check out my friend/intern Leslie's blog on this very topic here: 

Anyways, this experience was so powerful because I literally stood at the divide of the pro-life/pro-choice debate. The parking spaces in front of each clinic are marked "Reserved." On one side, "Reserved AAA" and on the other, "Reserved AHC." The physical divide is simply striking, yet it represents the ideological divide our nation faces on the issue of abortion. As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm reading Abby Johnson's book unPlanned right now. For those who haven't heard of her, she is a former Planned Parenthood director from Texas, and the book is her powerful story of crossing the line into the pro-life movement. 

I'm glad I stepped outside of my box for a little exploring this morning, and it also felt like I was stepping into Abby Johnson's world a bit in experiencing the tension in between sides. When it comes to abortion clinics and PRCs, there is compassion on both sides of the divide, but truth and freedom lie in life, not death.

The Inconvenient Truth About Abortion

I am really proud of this latest blog post I wrote for abolishabortion.com. I encourage you to give it a read despite its length! (If you've caught on at all, I tend to be a bit long-winded.) 

The topic is Obama's voting record on the Born Alive Infant Protection Act as Illinois State Senator. His votes against this life-protecting Act was and still is of extreme interest to pro-lifers, and a fact they like to tout when exposing Obama's pro-abortion record. However, I'd read conflicting things about it from the other side, and struggled with the oft-made statement which seemed extreme to me that "Obama supports infanticide!"  So I wrote this, an informed, balanced, pro-life account of the facts and a possible way to interpret them without being an extremist. Make no mistake, I think it's abhorrent that Obama voted against BAIPA, but I think we need to be educated before making claims. I conclude with why I think that, regardless of his defenses, voting against this Act was pretty darn unacceptable. 

https://www.abolishabortion.com/blog/inconvenient-truth-about-abortion

Cool Things That Happened Last Week...

FYI: I don't have many pictures to offer (yet) because at many of these events, I wasn't taking pics but some of the other interns were. Once they upload them to Facebook, I will update this blog post with personal pics!

TUESDAY

Conservative Leaders Meeting. 2 of the other interns (Anne and Chris) and I joined Kristan Hawkins, SFLA Executive Director, for her quarterly Conservative Leaders meeting in downtown DC. This meeting took place in a frigid conference room and lasted over 3 hours, but it was awesome because there were leaders from organizations including: Eagle Forum, American Civil Rights Union, Family Research Council, Judicial Action Group, Concerned Women for America, Galen Institute, National Right to Work, and the Heritage Foundation. It was really neat to hear their updates on current projects. Much centered around reactions to Obamacare, preparations for Get Out the Vote campaigns, and getting Obama out of office. But what else would you expect?

5th Annual SFLA Summer Social. The entire Students for Life staff and the interns helped put on this fundraising social held on the 6th floor of an office building in downtown DC not far from the Washington Monument. There were about 80 people in attendance, and I got to pour the cherry lemonade punch and chit-chat with donors, potential donors, and other important people! It was great fun, and really inspiring. Congressman Trent Franks and Kelly Anne Conway were present, receiving awards from SFLA for their service to the pro-life movement.

The Missionaries with Kellyanne Conway after the Social. 

WEDNESDAY

Intern Debate, Conservatism vs. Libertarianism. The CATO Institute (a libertarian think-tank in downtown DC) hosted a debate between 2 CATO interns and 2 Heritage Foundation interns (a conservative org). Leslie and I headed to the debate right after work, but didn't get there till 7:45 because we thought it'd be more fun to walk around a whole bunch of unnecessary blocks (it started at 6:30). We heard about 20 minutes of the end, though, and then met up with Ruben, who had heard the entire thing. They are supposed to be putting the debate online, so I hope to go back and listen to it, because I was really darn curious to hear what they talked about! I don't understand Libertarianism all that well or know very much about it, so this was an awesome opportunity. 

Co Co Sala with Rockhurst friends. After the debate, I had plans to meet up with Melaine, the RU friend I've met up with a few times already, and Jackie, my roommate from freshman and sophomore years at RU. Jackie was just in town for 2 short days participating in a conference, and it worked out perfectly for us all to meet up at this swanky chocolate bar that Melaine's been talking about all summer. Leslie, of course, came along, as did Ruben, and Cory, a girl who Leslie and I had met on Capitol Hill during our weeks with Congressman Harris. We ran into her after the debate and invited her along! Jackie brought a friend who was in DC with her for the conference, so it was quite the social event! And like I said, this chocolate bar was faancy. Not where I'd usually spend to drop $15, but the beautifully presented plates of chocolate scrumptiousness were worth it that night. It was so great to see Jackie!

Remember this pic? This is Cory, the intern we met on Capitol Hill
and ran into on our way to Co Co Sala Chocolate Bar!

THURSDAY

Christ in the City: Praise and Worship with Adoration. The past few weeks, I have been really craving some community praise and worship and adoration, good old Catholic style. Through the Arlington Young Adults group we've found, there were a few options, but the dates never worked out. We found this one, though, with the Washington Diocese at St. Patrick's Church near Chinatown. The usual 5 Missionaries (me, Leslie, Chris, Ruben, and Lindsey) jumped on this opportunity and soaked up the Jesus time. Afterwards, they even had a happy hour and Chris, Leslie and I enjoyed a free beer! (I felt like I needed to show someone my ID or something)

This is St. Patrick's. Just a few blocks up to the right is where the
 Planned Parenthood petitioners that I'm about to talk about were stationed!

Prequel to Adoration: The Missionaries Encounter Planned Parenthood. Yeah, on our walk from the Chinatown metro stop to food before Christ in the City started, we came upon 4 teens (2 on each side of the street) wearing light blue "Planned Parenthood Federation" shirts who asked if we wanted to sign their petition to "Protect Planned Parenthood." Caught off guard by their sudden presence, we walked by politely shaking our heads no (well, Leslie said "no way", hah, good for her). As we continued to walk towards food though, we mutually decided that we had to take this chance for dialogue. After all, weren't we called Missionaries for Life for a reason? Over dinner, we came up with a game plan. We had about 20 minutes before the Adoration started, so we split into 2 groups and casually walked by the PP supporters, and then engaged in conversation about what kind of support they were seeking. Now, this conversation wasn't as ground-breaking as we were hoping or expecting it would be, but it was pretty cool. The teens we talked to varied in their reasons for supporting Planned Parenthood, but they all believed that it was doing good things for health, particularly that of women. We respectfully shared why we couldn't support Planned Parenthood, and then, we did a lot of listening. 

Sidenote: God's been really hitting me hard with the realization of how important listening is to a relationship. More than anything else, people want to be listened to, not spoke at, especially when it comes to issues like abortion. It is very wise to ask questions, and to listen attentively, about why the person thinks what they do, and to draw it out of them. This is finally starting to sink in to my ever-blabbering self. 

Anyways, that encounter was totally unexpected, and totally cool. I immediately picked up reading the book by Abby Johnson, former PP director, called Unplanned. I've heard the argument for support of Planned Parenthood many times, (that they do great things, that abortion's only part of what they do, etc) and I have many friends even who find no fault in what they do, but still, talking to these energetic, passionate teens on the street ignited my desire to understand even more where they're coming from. Their compassion may be misplaced, but they do have compassion. We as pro-lifers need to remember that. And hopefully a few things that we said planted a seed in their thoughts. Like Tina, the intern director at SFLA, always says: We are seed sowers and waterers. We more often than not will never see the harvest, but our efforts will not be in vain. 

Some pretty exciting things happened last week, but I also was home basically just to sleep. So you get the update now. The end!

Big News!

Hey guys. I have 2 pieces of big news for you that I've been waiting to share:

1) I am meeting Supreme Court Justice Scalia tomorrow at 10:30. No joke! We've been invited for an intern meeting with Justice Scalia that was organized by Dr. Michael New, an amazing pro-life political scientist who has an amazing network of pro-life and conservative leaders in DC. What an amazing opportunity!! I am very much looking forward to it and realize what an incredible chance this is.

2) Also exciting, the other Missionaries and I are headed to the Big Apple this weekend! Bus to NYC at 6:35am Saturday, hotel split in the city, and then 7:30pm bus ride back Sunday night. We thought of this a few weeks ago and made it happen. Bus ride is $50 round trip, and hotel $34 a piece. Not too shabby. This will be my first time ever in New York (besides the 1 hour layover my family had there 4 summers ago...we bought a "I heart NYC" shirt too, haha)

Wowsies. Right? Crazy stuff. I can't wait.

Thinking of you all! Can't wait to share my experiences of this summer with you, and to hear about your own, which I'm sure are no less grand :)

May the Wilberforce be with you.

This past week has been extremely packed and extremely wonderful.

I'll work backwards and start with the weekend.

This weekend SFLA put on their Wilberforce Training Weekend for the 11 Wilberforce fellows they've selected for the school year. These fellows get appointed a national pro-life leader to be their mentor whom they skype with throughout the year, and they are in communication with SFLA all year as they work to bring change to their campus, and do assigned leadership and pro-life readings. The Missionaries got to join the training weekend, and it was incredible.

I'm actually not in this photo (because I'm not a Fellow), but here are the 11 Wilberforce fellows with Kristan and Brendan. This is the face of the pro-life generation. It's real. 

Friday at work we spent the day preparing for the weekend, and Friday evening's part of the program was mainly introduction. The Missionaries actually left the program early to hold out spot in line at the Imax theater where we saw a 10:30 showing of The Dark Knight Rises (the third movie in the Batman trilogy). This was something we had planned to do for weeks as one of the staff's weekend events (Amanda, social media coordinator, is OBSESSED). It was a pretty good movie, but made getting up the next morning pretty darn difficult!!

Saturday's theme was Pro-Life apologetics. Scott Klusendorf of the Life Training Institute led most of the day's sessions, and despite being tired, I was captivated by his expertise at conveying the pro-life message smartly through biology and philosophy, and in a manner accessible to the average person. I've heard many defenses of the pro-life position, and there are many different strategies in which to defend life, but Scott simplifies the whole discussion into one question: What is the unborn? If we can establish that the unborn are indeed persons (through biology), and then establish that human life has value (through philosophy), we can make an effective case. Scott has amazing materials and resources for people who want to become pro-life apologists.

Not in this photo either, but here's Scott Klus engaging us with apologetics. Note Chris and RJ's striped shirt theme.      RJ was a MedSFLA intern, a Fellow from last year, who spent just this past week in DC with us. 

Sunday was all about activism and practicality: how do we make a pro-life nation a reality? We heard from almost all the SFLA staff about their areas of specialty:

• Phil, the Northeast Field Director who boasts an athiestic, vegan, pro-life worldview, spoke about Activism (protests, tabling, graphic image displays)
• Amanda, Social Media Coordinator who placed her own son for adoption a few years ago, spoke about domestic adoption 
• Ashleigh, Pregnant on Campus Coordinator who spent 2 years volunteering at Maggie's Place, a home for single mothers, spoke about the need for college campuses to become more friendly to pregnant and parenting students
• Tina, Assistant Director who spent numerous years working for Rachel's Vineyard, spoke about the reality of post-abortion healing 
• Jon, Director of Med Students for Life, spoke about the MedSFLA initiative and how through spreading MedSFLA groups across the nation in medical schools, we are going to see a shift in our lifetime in the practice of medicine (Med Students for Choice is at EVERY medical school in the U.S.)
• Kristan, Executive Director, spoke about SFLA's Get Out the Vote initiative and why it is vitally important that pro-lifers pledge to vote pro-life first in this upcoming election. 

We also heard from one of the nation's leading medical experts, Angela Lanfranchi, MD, FACS, on the Breast Cancer-Abortion link. 


I'm telling you, it was incredible. I learned so much and was set on fire for this cause even more. It was also amazing just to meet the 11 Wilberforce students from across the country who are also passionate for the cause. And after the weekend ended, the Missionaries went to mass down the street together, and then Leslie and I spent our first night home in over a week with Maureen, Dan, Nola, and PBS's Masterpiece theater. 

Epilogue:

We may have a different look about us, but we
are following in the footsteps of this dude. 

William Wilberforce was a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade in the British empire in the early 1800s. He was an incredibly influential leader, but had to persevere for decades before seeing the change he desired in his nation. The pro-life cause champions him as a mentor in the fight for justice. You can see why: 

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”

“We are too young to realize that certain things are impossible... So we will do them anyway.” 

“Accustom yourself to look first to the dreadful consequences of failure; then fix your eye on the glorious prize which is before you; and when your strength begins to fail, and your spirits are well nigh exhausted, let the animating view rekindle your resolution, and call forth in renewed vigour the fainting energies of your soul.”

Voting Pro-Life: Issue or Responsibility?

I've given a lot of thought to this issue and wanted to craft a thoughtful blog post about it.

Please read and let me know what you think!!

https://www.abolishabortion.com/blog/voting-pro-life-issue-or-responsibility

...Part II

So Saturday, Sunday, and Monday just flew by! Spending the weekend with my brother and mom exploring  parts of DC was incredible. I'm so glad they made the trip out to visit me. It was pretty darn hot all weekend, but we survived.

Here's the gist from Sunday onward:

We started Sunday with 10:30 mass at the National Shrine (the same beautiful Basilica I went to on the 4th of July). Then we went back to the National Mall area (this is all by metro), walked through Federal Triangle (which was really neat and I had never seen before!) and went up the tower at the Old Postal Office, which boasts an awesome history and also one the best views of DC.





















After that we met up with my cousin Matt, who's been living in DC for quite some time now and who generously lets Leslie and I park in his neighborhood when we metro in. We spent a few hours in the Natural History and American History museums together. 


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Robert: "Why did the chicken cross the road? ...
to get to the other museum" Robert had me
 knee-slapping all weekend. 

With a giraffe! That's drinking
from a watering hole!
What excitement!

awkward
space

Robert acts like I'm embarasssing sometimes.
I don't know at all where he gets that.

Left: in front of Federal Triangle with Matt! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We rounded out the day with some performing arts at the Kennedy Center--a free orchestra performance in the Concert Hall! (I'm a rockin' tour guide, let me tell you). And then, a leisurely walk through the Georgetown area.

After 2 days in the heart of DC, today we decided to take it a bit easier. We finally got the kind of sleep the Phillips family loves (the 9-10 hours kind of sleep, ha), and left our hotel at 12 to go to Old Town Alexandria, the nation's 3rd historic district, which has a very rich history. George Washington's boyhood home, General Lee's hometown, big location for domestic slave trade in 1800s, and more. We rode the free King Street Trolley up and down King Street, and got off to see a few shops and for lunch at the Hard Times Cafe.                                          

And I'm the embarassing one?

My favorite stop in Alexandria was the Torpedo Factory. It was this absolutely captivating collection of art galleries that had previously been, take a guess, a torpedo factory during the war! Its interior was SO cool, and there were dozens of galleries with all kinds of mind-entertaining art. I'd really like to go back sometime, and wish all my artists friends could see it. I'm definitely going to have to take Ruben, our proclaimed "hipster" intern.

Today, also, was my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mom! Soo we planned an impressive 4-way call operation that was a surprise to her until I handed her the phone in the airport before I said goodbye. With Mary in Rhode Island, Julie in Kansas, and only 5/8 of the family in St. Louis this summer, I think she was really happy to have us all there at once (kinda-sorta). I am so glad she's my mom :) She's the bomb mom.

Well, back to the office tomorrow. Hope you are all doing well!!

The Phillips' Take DC

So I don't think I had even alluded in my blog to the fact that my brother and mom were coming up to visit me in DC--I definitely meant to earlier this week but the week got away from me and I barely posted at all!!

Regardless, my brother and mom are here right now! We are in our hotel getting ready for our second night here actually. They got in yesterday morning, went on a tour of the Capitol while I was at work, and then I met them in Crystal City. Last night we just relaxed and went to a "Wine in the Garden" low-key concert near our hotel. Today we probably walked a few miles on the National Mall, and visited the Air and Space Museum, National Aquarium, White House Visitor Center, and saw the Washington Monument. 

It is great to have them here, and to be able to show them around for a few days (they leave Monday night). We're planning to meet up with my cousin Matt at some point tomorrow as well! 

Here are some pictures to enjoy :) 

Bro Ro and I in front of the White House! (He is thrilled.)

Mom with the space shuttle--her dad (my grandpa, of course), worked in Cape Canaveral.
We saw the SkyLab too. Cute to see my mom excited about this kind of stuff. 

Mom and Rob in front of the Smithsonian Castle

P.S. I finished my 2nd rotation this past Friday! So my official time in the Students for Life office is over, although I'll likely be there for at least a few days in the next 3 weeks. My next rotation (starting Monday) is supposed to be at CareNet, a pregnancy resource center. However, they don't have the capacity they expected to have for 2 interns at once, so Leslie and I are probably going to split the time in half. I've got a lead on some volunteer time with another pregnancy resource center that's kinda on our way, Life Choices. So it's kinda up in the air where I will be next week! I'll keep you posted. 

A post about last weekend coming soon!

Learning to be Creative Extremists

Forgot to post this earlier in the week when I wrote it. Here's my latest blog post for abolishabortion.com. It  goes on studentsforlife.org's blog reel as well.

Looking Ahead: The End of Abortion in the U.S. 

http://abolishabortion.com/blog/looking-ahead-end-abortion-us

Feels Like Home

Tonight I felt very blessed to be at Pat Troy's in Old Town Alexandria for Theology on Tap with dozens and dozens of Arlington Catholic Young Adults. The topic was "Shrewd as Serpents and Innocent as Doves: Evangelizing a Hostile World," and it was excellent. 


Most excellent was that amazing and overwhelming feeling that hit me in the middle of the Q&A session as I looked around the Irish pub/bar and saw so many young (20s and 30s) faces glowing with the same love for the Catholic faith. How amazing is it that so many young professionals chose to spend their Monday night listening to a talk on Catholic theology? All just gathered around with a beer and some good friends, there to learn more about our faith and to build community. AWESOME. People are so GOOD. Our world is so GOOD. There is so much beauty and truth out there, which is easy to forget when I get down. But when I come to events like this, I am infused with hope, and try to remind myself not to forget these beautiful moments when all hope seems lost again (because I'm a dramatic 21-year old). 

Anyways, the Catholic family really is truly universal. My sister Mary is living in Connecticut this summer earning her Master's in Education, and she posted this as her facebook status a few weeks ago: "‎1,200 miles away, the Mass still feels like home." 

She's exactly right. I love being Catholic. And I love that even here, so very far away in Washington DC for the summer, I can find a group of passionately Catholic young adults who are engaging our culture with united beliefs and purpose, and all united in our beautiful Eucharistic and apostolic faith. 

So, tonight was a blessing :) As it was a few weeks ago when we were all at Pat Troy's for the Young Adult Catholic Trivia night... and every time Leslie and I go to 10:30 mass with Maureen and Dan... or when we pray before meals... or how we sometimes say a rosary on our way to work. I am blessed. 

"Lord, in my zeal for the love of truth, help me not forget the truth of love." (St. Thomas Aquinas, a quote from tonight's talk on evangelization)

A Capitol Fourth!

Missionaries for Life in Our Lady of Guadalupe's chapel, patroness of the unborn!

Well celebrating the 4th of July in Washington DC yesterday was pretty amazing. We had the day off work, and began the day at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in northern DC...which is BEAUTIFUL.They have 70 chapels lining the Basilica, each one to a different title of Mary. Each chapel is so ornate and in the style of the Marian apparition it honors. SO cool. This was my 3rd time seeing the Basilica, but it was still amazing.

The Basilica right after Mass ended. So many people!! Such a beautiful Church!!

They had the closing mass for the National Fortnight for Freedom campaign to pray for the protection of religious liberty in regards to the HHS mandate. The Basilica was PACKED with people--luckily we got there just in time to still snag a seat because mass was 2 hours long. Very moving to see so many people devoted to the free practice of their faith.





Then we metro'ed back to the National Mall area, and got PotBelly's sandwiches for lunch. At around 5 we headed to Capitol Hill to get a seat for the concert, which started at 8. This was the "A Capitol Fourth" concert that gets broadcasted on PBS. We were sitting ON the Capitol lawn... we had to keep reminding ourselves that this was not your everyday occurrence. The concert, which only lasted from 8-9:10, had quite the lineup of performers, including: Tom Bergeron as MC (host of America's Funniest Home Videos), Matthew Broderick and Kelli O'Hara (Broadway stars), Josh Turner (country singer), Kool & The Gang, Mercedes from Glee, Megan Hilty from Smash, Javier Colon, Phillip Phillips (winner of the past American Idol, loved him!), John Williams (composer of Harry Potter, Star Wars, and much more!), and The National Symphony Orchestra.

Left: Bringing the 3-1-4 to DC! (Leslie, Chris and me--the STL interns); Right: "Look at me I'm at the Capitol!!!"

So that was pretty neat. 

And then the fireworks! Which went off over the Washington Monument. I must confess that the fireworks did not blow me away, as you would expect fireworks at the Capitol of the United States on the Fourth of July to do. I couldn't even hear them which is my favorite part! (because they were on the other end of the Mall). Still, it was pretty cool to be there.

Happy 4th of July, everyone!!

Bonus picture! The night before July 4th, the Missionaries got together at Lindsey's house to barbeque and watch a movie. We went to the grocery store to get food and Ruben found this sweet cookie cake. Born in the USA, y'all!

"I mean, it's like, one cell": The Case for Personhood

Sorry to bombard you with so much to read, but here is my newest blog post for AbolishAbortion.com. Let me know what you think in the comments section!!


http://www.abolishabortion.com/blog/i-mean-it-s-one-cell-case-personhood

The Week in Pictures

Well, really this is going to be a little more than just this past week, because I haven't posted about anything besides Supreme Court stuff in quite a while! I'll start with the Thursday before last...

THURSDAY, 6/21

Leslie and I took a self-guided tour of the Capitol and the Library of Congress. 
This is an artsy/awkward (call it what you will) shot of my head in the Capitol dome.
Proof I was there! 

And my artsy shot of Leslie's head and the Library of Congress's beautiful ceiling. 

We were then *directed* to leave work early (2pm) so that we could visit Annapolis, Maryland's capital of course (about an hour outside of DC, 2 hours from Leesburg). And after working in a Maryland district office for 3 weeks, we were excited to see what all the hullabaloo was about! And to try crab cakes...

We split a crab cake, each got a bowl of soup, and shared an Annapolis sunrise ;)

When we texted our host "mom" to let her know we got to Annapolis safely, she responded,
"Look out for the cute middies!" We soon gathered she meant the young handsome midshipman who
attend the Naval Academy...my response was "They're everywhere!" :) (they kinda were..)

The beautiful chapel on the Naval Academy's campus!
Andy Harris's office assistant insisted that we see it. 

Annapolis is right off the Chesapeake bay--and proud of it!

Very cute, quaint Main Street. After dinner we got famous ice cream cones from Storm Brother's, which Harris's scheduler insisted on. (We pretty much dedicated each of our activities to one of the staff members.)

FRIDAY, 6/22

This was our last day in Congressman Andy Harris's office, as I posted last week. It was a bittersweet day, and we got a series of photos to commiserate the occasion. 

Left: with the seals of Maryland in Andy's office (and our badges!)...

The very kind Sam, another intern who we really loved, took this picture for us. 

Right: every day leaving work, we would pass Todd Akin's office. We finally went 

in to say hello! Congress wasn't in session, so we didn't get to meet Todd, but we 

talked to his very friendly staff who took a picture of us with the Missouri flag! 

After work, Leslie, Chris and I decided to use our spare hour (since our bus doesn't leave West Falls until 6:55) to visit the Smithsonian of Natural History. 

I took this for my friend, Sam, who wishes she was Australian. Lots of cool stuff here, though!

Getting home Friday became another unexpected adventure. We made it to West Falls right at 6:50, with FIVE minutes to spare until our bus comes, right? WRONG. Buses can leave whenever they want, apparently. Well, it left without us, so we were again stranded... we decided to hop on a bus to Our Lady of Hope (which we had done once before back during the days of bus-time confusion), hoping that Dan or Maureen would be able to come pick us up before too long. We ended up spending a nice meditative 40 minutes or so watching the sunset through the rain. 

Though it wasn't in our original Friday night plans, it was pretty darn nice. 

Chickfila followed. I already posted that victory picture though :) We hadn't eaten dinner after the museum and before the bus-mishap, so naturally we were quite hungry. Plus the East coast is all about Chickfila, so we had heard about it so much since being here, and had a serious craving. I told the guy behind the counter when we arrived at our 2nd Chickfila (this one was thankfully still open!) that it was like walking into the Promised Land. I don't know if he understood how serious I was. 

SATURDAY, 6/23

no good pictures taken today, sorry

I posted real briefly about my plans last Saturday. After a 9am hour of adoration for the "Fortnight for [Religious] Freedom" (which ended up being a celebration of Mass, which was awesome), all the interns met up Saturday afternoon to see For Greater Glory. Then we spent a brief time at Arlington Cemetery, which was incredible. It was very brief because Leslie and I had to walk 8 minutes from the Arlington metro stop to one of Congressman Harris' legislative staff's house for dinner with him, his wife, and another of the interns at 6pm. We were on the 13th floor of an apartment complex with a straight-shot view of the Air Force Memorial and the Pentagon. It was really neat! As Leslie said, this is kinda  how she imagined our summer being--networking with awesome people and doing grown-up things, like dining on shrimp fettucine discussing what it means to be pro-life as the sun sets over a beautiful skyline. 

SUNDAY, 6/24

Sunday was very relaxing, 11am mass at St. John the Apostle, and then I took Leslie's car to Tyson's Galleria to meet up with my friend Melaine, who is also interning in DC! We had been wanting to get together for a while, so it was very nice. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory and then walked around a bit and looked at the extremely pricey items I would be able to or desire to purchase. (Try to prove to me that there's a pair of high heels worth $990.00...I don't think so.) 

This girl bought me a piece of hershey chocolate cheesecake! She rocks!

MONDAY

Our introduction to the Students for Life internship rotation came with a bang--meeting at the Supreme Court in anticipation of the release of the ruling on the Affordable Care Act. It didn't come out Monday, obviously, but we prepped for Thursday. Then we worked a bit from Brendan's, one of the staff, house nearby the metro stop. After work Leslie and I went over to Ruben's host family's house for a while, finishing our weekly blog posts and killing time. Becaaaause we all met up at Pat Troy's in Old Town Alexandria for Catholic Trivia night with Arlington's young adult group! 

Catholic Trivia was great fun. We didn't do so shabby either!

TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY were pretty uneventful. We worked normal hours at the SFLA office in Manassas. We have gotten to know the staff better and I've been working on some office administration projects with Tina, the office manager. 

We did get ice cream together Wednesday evening. It was nice for all the interns to chill together and talk about our anticipations for the next morning, the "big day" with the release of the Obamacare ruling. I would have put up the photo of all of us with our ice cream, but I didn't take it, and Ruben still hasn't put up his pictures!!

THURSDAY

See previous post about Supreme Court ruling day.

Here's something I didn't mention in that previous post, though. After getting home at about 4pm and showering, I was exhausted (we woke up at 4:45 am that morning). I went down for a nap, intending to get up a few hours later, but I slept thru to the morning!! 13 hours of sleep. That's probably a record for me (though I've always loved to sleep). I guess I needed it!

FRIDAY 

Another normal day at work. We're still getting into the groove of what kind of work there is for us to do. The office runs pretty smoothly, so we're trying to find our place. I did a LOT of reading Friday on Obamacare, particularly how it affects abortion. More to come on that business later :) 

In brainstorming something fun to do with our evening, Chris came up with going to the Kennedy Center to see a 7:30pm showing of "First You Dream: The Music of Kander & Ebb" (http://www.kennedy-center.org/events/?event=TMTSG), and we very spontaneously decided to buy tickets from StubHub at 5pm, and we barely made it to the show. To be specific, we walked in at 7:28 in our casual Friday workclothes, and were directed to our seats which were... 

in the front row!!! Holy schnikeys!

This place was fancy-schmancy. 

That was pretty amazing. Amazing luck, and amazing show. It was a musical revue with songs from musicals such as Cabaret and Chicago. The songs were a lot of fun to watch and listen to. We grabbed dinner (another late dinner) at Roti Mediterranean Grill right near the FoggyBottom metro stop. As we were eating, a massive storm rolled in (more luck). The rain calmed down long enough for us to get back on the metro and make it home safely (though not without our individual difficulties...finding a gas station that still had power, dealing with trees down in neighborhoods, etc). The greater DC area is still recovering from that storm. Ruben (pictured in the middle above) is still out of power at his house. 

SATURDAY

After a late night, we got up early to meet Ashleigh, one of the SFLA staff, at the Eastern Market in downtown DC, just a few blocks from the Capitol. It was your typical Farmer's market, which means it was AWESOME. 

By the end of the day, I had probably consumed a whole peach from all the samples I tried (which were delicious, by the way). There were so many neat crafty things, like the wind-chime type decorations pictured to the left with Lindsey and Leslie. 

We also ventured inside "Capitol Hill Books", 

which was THE most intense bookstore I've 

ever been to. Every nook and cranny was covered in 

books. Bookshelves lining every wall, even the staircases!

This picture only begins to illustrate. 

We then continued to Pennsylvania Avenue to have for lunch the Hill-renowned "Good Stuff Eatery". 

I don't make superlative statements like this very often (at least, not this seriously), but I think I actually had the best burger I've ever eaten there. 

from left to right: Ashleigh (SFLA staff), Ruben (who's a real-life hipster), Leslie, Lindsey, and Chris

We rounded out the day by visiting the Smithsonian of Native American History. 

Aren't we cute? This is outside Native American museum. Super sweet architecture. 

Oh, 2 more things. 1) I became a celebrity among the other interns because I can speak Spanish and when we got lost on our way to the L'Enfante metro stop, we asked a woman if she knew where it was, and she was looking for it too, but she didn't know English. So we searched for it with her, and I had a lovely conversation with her, inter-cambio style (me practicing Spanish, she English). She was very nice, and we all made a friend (she gave us a hug and "beso" on the cheek before she got on her metro car. 2) I also got sunburned yesterday. Real bad. 

Well folks, that brings you up to speed on everything that I've been up to! (for the most part). Today has been very relaxing. We went to 10:30 mass with the Whalens (the power was out, so it was kinda toasty, but other than that it was your normal amazing Eucharistic celebration), and then lunch at Not Your Average Joe's (this is the 3rd time Dan's treated us there--it's one of his favorites. The place we got Arnold Palmer's with sugar-coated rims at, remember?). Today is a special day though because it is Dan and Maureen's 45th anniversary. Leslie and I got them some flowers and ice cream sundaes. Can't wait for what's in store this week... I'll keep you posted! Sending love to you all!