I had a painful start to my day, as soon as I got out of my car, I hadn’t even opened the door all the way, I was stung by a flying insect I didn’t even get a good look at, and my hand swelled up and turned red immediately. I wandered around the building until I found the cafeteria and got ice (and some weird looks). While this was no means a learning experience it was certainly a highlight of my day. The only thing happening that day was another session, where the House of Reps would be voting on a few bills, and eventually the budget. As I took my seat, the Speaker informed everyone that the session would most likely go on until midnight, as they have to nitpick the entire budget, so I only saw the discussion on the individual bills. The bills on the docket included important issues, like one on the sex offender registry and a telecommunications box that was a potential carcinogen. To my surprise, however, the most contentious debate was over the bill I mentioned in day 1, about interior designers and architects. So many reps would ramble on about the issue, blowing it, in my opinion, out of proportion. I spoke with Representative Martin afterwards about it and he agreed that many important issues don’t get the debate they deserve because so much focus is on industry-related bills, and from what the reporter told me yesterday, this often has to do with which side (interior designers or architects) have the most money or influence in the General Assembly. Outside of the very heated debate about windows and low bearing walls, the members seemed pretty friendly with each other. One pulled out a basket of fruit to share, another said there was donuts in his office anyone could grab. And another made a point of personal preference, stood up, and gave a speech about his fellow rep and to wish him a happy birthday, and told everyone that “he loved chocolate”, after which everyone who had chocolate candy on their desk gave him some of theirs. It was honestly the cutest thing I’ve ever witnessed. Although I was annoyed by the interior designer bill, it was nice to see how nice the 120 members could be to each other.