Damn. CFJ SST Capitol Day
So I skipped school today to stay in sacramento for CFJ’s Statewide Strategy Team Capitol Day… basically, our lobbying day. A short summary: Went to a community art center called “Sol Collective”. Learned about bills, prepped ourselves with workshops etc. Media session was basically all about twitter. Had lunch and dinner there.
Got to the hostel we were staying at. It was a mansion. It was beautiful on the inside. Super detailed everywhere. Got into our rooms then met back downstairs and split up the SST into groups. I was going to meet the staff of two assembly members and a senator. We prepped what we were going to say. Then we had free time. We ran around downtown, but nothing was open. Slept.
Morning of, we walked to the state capitol. It was.. so pretty. Marble walls everywhere. The elevator doors were gorgeous. The ceilings were beautiful. We got to the top floor and prepped for our meetings. My first meeting was with the staff of the senator. It was scheduled for 11:30.
1st meeting went well. The lady was really nice, but she was on a time crunch. I got kind of nervous. I didn’t do well as the other meetings.
Lunch - so we took a lunchbreak. I ordered a hamburger and fries. It was a “restaurant”. The food was fresh and delicious. It looked like a buffet, but everything I had was made to order. The dining hall was pretty fancy looking.
2nd meeting. It was pretty nice. The guy was so boring though. We walked across from the capitol to the Legislative Committees building or whatever. There was a white supremecist boycotting outside of the capitol, while an Occupy group was chanting shame at them. I talked about Mr. Pena. The guy was like, “These teachers should be fired.” I felt super bad. I cried. haha.
When we got back from the 2nd meeting, it turns out we had had a room reserved for us. It was awesome looking. There was a panel with microphones, which of course we’d play with, and a ton of seats. Felt pretty fancy.
3rd meeting. So the 2nd meeting almost made me late to the 3rd meeting. This was the San Jose region of CFJ meeting with assembly member Nora Campos. I met with one of her other staff last year. This time, the staff member was a lady who was new. She was sooooo nice. She was really beautiful too. She was supportive of a lot of what we did. I’m glad we spoke. Even though I wasn’t as prepared, I felt so badass when I pulled everything off. She was extremely pleasant and attentive to me.
4th meeting. Sergio, one of our organizers, asked if people wanted to attend one last meeting. A lot of us were tired. I volunteered. Good experience. :) We met with the actual assembly member, not his staff. His staff sat in the background. I was nervous cause I thought more eyes would be on me, but it wasn’t the case. I started off as the first speaker and did okay. But when I started talking more and I saw his staff member nodding and agreeing with what I was saying, I felt awesome. Brooklyn, one of our members, had a golden moment. I’d be more specific, but I’m too lazy to get into detail. It was the perfect way to end the long day. Perez, the assembly member, was super supportive of us, so we went out to the elevators laughing and complimenting each other on our performance. It was gold.
Went back upstairs to our headquarters. Went outside to take pics. Then ate at this thai place. Drove home.
