Didn't See That One Coming

Wow is all I can say to how this day went.  First I'll start at the beginning of my day which started with answering the phone almost as soon as I walked into the office.  Between noon and six I wrote down over one hundred messages, most of them being to tell the Congressman to vote no on the new compromise that came out of this weekends discussions.  The calls were mainly from two different emails that were sent out by advocacy groups and I began to easily tell the difference through the wording that they used and that I had to hear repeated over and over again.  The calls always seemed to come in sets of threes and since there are only the two phones in the front office, and the staffers were busy going through the new legislation, by four o'clock we had twenty-seven voice-mails from those calls that went unanswered.  I also saw an increase in the number of news organizations calling from back in Oregon for interviews with the Congressman.  Also worth noting is the huge increase in camera crews in the Cannon Rotunda.  They were set up all around making it so that there would be camera crews in the background of shots instead of the yellow and cream pillars; however some of the groups fixed this by turning their cameras around, opening the windows, and using the Capitol as their background.  By six it was being reported that the vote would take place at six-thirty so I decided to head over to the gallery a little early in order to make sure I got a seat which was good because they were soon having to open other sections to fit all the interns that had come over.  I saw the end of the debates on the bill and then had to wait through a fifteen minute roll call that started just before six-thirty.  Finally it was time to start voting on the bill and it was much slower in gaining votes then before.  Most of the Congressman were sitting around in groups and I assume discussing who was voting which way and what that meant for them.  Within the first five minutes not even half of the House had voted although it was easy to tell that almost all were present in the room.  The big change in the game happened within five minutes till the end of the voting time as Congresswoman Giffords walked into the House chambers for the first time since being shot in the head back in January.  The reaction by the whole floor was amazing as I watched Congressmen on both sides of the House, who had been fighting over this legislation for months now, all rise to give a standing ovation to the Congresswoman.  The security in the gallery got worried as we all followed suit but it was hard not to stand and applaud a woman who had amazingly beaten the odds.  Soon the Democratic side of the floor looked more like a mob as the Congressmen tried to get closer to her.  In the middle of all the clapping the yea votes finally passed the half way mark and then the votes flooded in as the clock counted down its final minutes.  The bill passed and is to be voted on in the Senate at noon tomorrow where it is said to have enough support to insure that we do not go into a default.  Nancy Pelosi soon got to a podium and was able to formally welcome back the Congresswoman.  I found out later tonight that no one knew that she was coming until it was announced about five minutes before she walked onto the House floor.  She said that if the vote had come to a close finish that she would not have wanted to be the cause of a default and so she made the journey out to Washington.  It was truly just an amazing event to get to witness first hand.