My First Day

Today, January 11, 2012, was my first day as a state senator. Technically, that is not true. Although I was elected by delegates yesterday to replace Dan Liljenquist,Governor Herbert has not yet made my appointment official. But, notwithstanding that little technicality, today has been quite a day.

Here are ten things I learned/experienced on my first day:

1. It’s hard to get to sleep after winning an election. I mean, it’s REALLY hard. At 3:00 a.m., I decided to take an Ambien. (Don’t worry, I have a prescription.) And after taking that sleeping pill, I was still in bed when Lt. Gov. Greg Bell called me at 7:30 a.m. to congratulate me. I was also barely awake a few minutes later when Gov. Gary Herbert called. Funny, I cannot remember any other morning when either of those guys woke me up!

2. People who wouldn’t even return my calls yesterday suddenly want to be my best friend. Although I cannot prove this to a scientific certainty, I am pretty sure that I received as many texts, emails, phone calls, and Facebook messages during the past 24 hours as I have in the rest of my entire life combined. I’m guessing that this is what it might have felt like if I had been popular in high school. (I was kind of a nerd, truth be told.)

3. Utah Senate President Michael Waddoups has a really nice office. And a big jar of peanut M&M’s. (Me loves me some peanut M&M’s!)

4. President Waddoups took me on a little tour, which helped me realize that I don’t really know my way around the Capitol Building. There are a lot of intricate hallways and elevators, some of which are security card protected. There are also underground tunnels that connect to the surrounding buildings and the parking garage.

5. Speaking of the parking garage (which I remember was QUITE expensive to build), the Senators park on the east side and the Representatives park on the west side. The parking spaces are each assigned to specific legislators, but state employees park in them when the Legislature is not in session.

6. There is a room in the West Building (north of the Capitol Building) that is called the Star Wars room. Pretty cool I know. But nobody has let me in there yet.

7. There is a LOT of paperwork to fill out when you start in the Legislature. Like several hours worth.

8. State employees working in the Capitol are not allowed to call me by my first name. After I told the tenth or eleventh person to just call me “Todd” (instead of Senator Weiler), Ric Cantrell pulled me aside and informed me of this silly little restriction. I was very impressed with the state employees who I met today. They were friendly, competent, and laughed at my jokes. (No one told me whether the laughing was required.)

9. My office will be located in the East Building — above the cafeteria. Senators with more seniroity are in offices near the Senate Chambers.

10. I will be sitting on the front row, second in from the west, in the Senate Chambers. Also, I will be voting last (besides President Waddoups) because my last name, Weiler, is the last alphabetically. I have been told that this is a huge advantage.