Words and Light

The Missouri House Budget Committee convened at 8 a.m. Wednesday to review amendment proposals and vote on the House’s version of the state budget for fiscal year 2010. After breaking for 10 a.m. session in the House chamber and lunch, the committee reconvened and didn’t adjourn until 11:50 p.m. on Wednesday.

That’s 14ish hours of committee hearing.

I was there for 11 of them.

Right now (3 a.m. on Thursday), the only story I’ve got written and published is a pretty basic rundown of the 13 House bills that comprise the House’s version of the budget and that were passed. But I am currently in the process of collecting/compiling data to write up at least one — if not two or three — more story about the proposed budget that was just passed. Hopefully I’ll have those done before I head back to Jeff City around 9 a.m.

But just for fun, here are the bare-bones facts of my personal experience in covering the House Budget Committee hearing yesterday:

• When I arrived (12:30 p.m.), the hearing room was standing room only. So I stood. In heels. And the day before (Tuesday), I’d twisted my ankle that I’d sprained a year ago. So that was a little painful.
• I stood — in heels, with a bum ankle — for about eight hours. That’s how long it took before people started leaving and there were seats available.
• All I’d eaten before arriving at the hearing was some soup and a cookie. When there was a 15-minute break around 7 p.m., I had a bag of baked Lay’s potato chips. Until I got home about an hour ago, that was all I had to eat all day.
• When Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, found out I hadn’t been there for the morning part of the hearing, he told me I was disappointing my parents by not doing my job. When I told him I’d been in class all morning, he then said I was definitely doing my job. Hmm.

As for the title of this entry? I forget who it was, but when the new radio reporters arrived at the bureau this semester, I told one of them that Rule No. 1 in the statehouse is to wear comfortable shoes. A woman who was standing nearby said, “Very true” and nodded emphatically (I didn’t know who she was — and still don’t).

Comfortable shoes are a must if you’re going to be chasing legislators around the statehouse or standing in a crowded committee hearing room for eight hours at a time.

Unfortunately, I broke Rule No. 1 today.

I wore my black strappy heels — because they are the only dress/business shoes I can wear with my leg splint, which I needed because of my bum ankle. Put another way: because of my bum ankle, I had to wear uncomfortable shoes while standing for eight hours straight.

Of course, that’s just the way things always seem to work!

And now to hammer out this story/these stories before I get ready to return to Jeff City. I have about five hours to do this. Let’s go!

Update (10:35 a.m.):

My fuller story has been posted! Click HERE to read it.

And now I am back in the bureau, after getting two hours of sleep, and have no idea what’s in store for me today. Oh boy.