Let the madness re-begin!

The first two days of the internship had me joining a national all-staff conference call, sending PDC notices to candidates about in-kind donations, and then heading out to the coast for the 6th Annual Native Women's Leadership Forum.

The speakers were great, especially:

• Mary Kim Titla, an Apache and former news anchor running for Congress in Arizona's 1st District.
  
  
• Claudia Kauffman, a Nez Perce and Washington State's first Native woman elected to the state senate
  

Amazing and very inspiring women! As was everyone else at the conference.

Before the conference started, however, I was forced to wander around the hotel/resort/casino. I forgot my laptop back in the Emerald City and the gift shop didn't have any inexpensive, interesting books, so I wandered around the grounds. It's been a while since I've been in an establishment that permits legal smoking inside... and that's how I remembered that the statewide smoking ban doesn't apply to tribal casinos. Which meant I also forgot to pack Febreze....

Also, casinos don't have guided tours or "How to Gamble" brochures for patrons. Or at least this one didn't. (I asked.) So as the (mainly very elderly) tourists played the slot machines (also only allowed on tribal casinos), I had to try and hover inconspicuously to figure out how it worked, while still being the cheap intern unwilling to pay $5 to find out for sure....

Because the conference was running an hour behind schedule, we got back to Seattle too late for the meet-and-greet with another candidate. But Day Three promises more madness.

Aaaaaiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeee!