3rd to last week in DC

This week at National Journal…
Well, I was off a week for Thanksgiving, and I can say it was a much needed and very much appreciated time away from the office… but it was back to the grind that next Monday.
Monday: This Monday was all about getting back into the swing of things here at National Journal. After being gone a week, it took a bit to get back up to speed on what we had been working on. Monday I did quite a lot of research trying to figure out what my next gallery or slideshow would be about. I tend to spend the mornings researching and then in the afternoons I work on them. This afternoon I worked more with our blog system trying to get some experts added to our list of contributors.
Tuesday: Usually I have class on days like this, but this week there was no class until Wednesday so I was in the office early on Tuesday. Today I worked on a more long-term project that dealt with the 12 days of Christmas… with a little bit of flare thrown in from Congress. I don’t want to give too much away, but a Washington take on this classic is sure to be interesting.
Wednesday: Terry Michael Day! This class was with Kevin Madden who had previously worked with Mitt Romney. It was also with George Condon… who happens to work for National Journal. It was mostly about presidential politics and the campaigns. Madden talked more about the communications aspect of a campaign where Condon talked about covering the White House and how it has changed over time. Today I produced my gallery for the 10 richest congressional districts who would have money to spend this congressional season.
Thursday: It was a busy day because while I was not producing my own galleries, I was working with other people to get theirs done. I was working today with my boss on a gallery based upon a book by David Plouffe. He was an advisor for the Obama campaign. It was simple, but these things tend to be time consuming.
Friday: Today we had our second meeting of the week with Terry Michael and our guest was Dante Chinni, the author of Our Patchwork Nation. It is a book about the different types of regions in our country… and I will be reviewing it for my independent study soon, so look for that review. At work, I found out that the story I had done earlier in the week had been linked off of Yahoo News and was trending pretty well. I was one of the top five stories one day that week.