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https:teamjoella.blogspot.com

Partial week in review

So in the grand scheme of things, my week wasn't all that exciting. I did have to actually work for five days in a row but don't worry, I survived. Besides the world peace issue, there were a couple of highlights to work this week.

On Thursday, I visited my first nuclear plant, Browns Ferry in Athens, AL. We were in the middle of NOWHERE, but I guess that is the only place people will let you put a nuclear plant. Driving onto the plant, I felt like I was getting ready to go visit Homer Simpson at work. It was very cool. The place where we were did our liveshots was in a nuclear control room simulator. They let us push all the buttons we wanted. At first when I went in there and saw my camermamen Mark and Burke messing with computers and pushing and pulling levers, I'm not going to lie to you, my heart skipped a beat. I had to keep reminding myself that even though I was at a nuclear plant, this was only pretend!!!

Then on Friday, I was back at the WH and on my way into my office, I was harrassed by about 1000 Vietnamese protestors. They were really angry at Bush for something but I couldn't tell what they yelling about. He was meeting with the Vietnamese president at the time so that's why they were there. But they got upset with me when I refused to join their protest!

The highlight on Friday was the Celebration for Black Music Month in the East Room of the WH. Who knew June was Black Music Month? Well, I do now! I am positive the WH has never been rockin more than it was on Friday, especially since the Clinton years! Maybe even more so! It was such a great little concert! And to see Dubya doing his white-man head-bob thing was worth the price of admission (albeit that obviously no one had to pay). There were three groups that performed- a 15 year old named Karina Rashin or something like that; then KEM, a man who was formerly homeless and now makes millions by singing with his band. But the highlight was the last group, Nuttin' But Stringz, which is two brothers who were classically trained Julliard violinists. They played the violin but also danced and rapped and sang, all at the same time. It was actually quite entertaining and Bush really enjoyed it, especially the part when one of the kids was sort of breakdancing while still playing the violin!

So I survived my full week at work. Now I'm on vacation until July 3rd just to recuperate!

Keep on praying for baby Ella and her parents!! They definitely still need it!

Happy Birth Day Ella!

Welcome to the world Joella Gale! She was born this afternoon to my good friends Joe and Katie and weighed in at 7 lbs 4 oz. and is 19 inches long. While pregnant, they didn't know if it was a boy or girl and I was really hoping they would name the baby after me no matter what but I guess I'm going to have pretend that she has a silent 'Becky' in there somewhere.

But on a very serious note, little Ella has had a rough few hours of life so far. She was diagnosed with an extremely rare skin disease that has her skin fragile like butterfly wings and she can't fight off any infection and has difficulty staying hydrated. Her vital signs are really good and she's a fighter but things are a bit stressful right now. She was moved from Alexandria hospital to Children's Hospital a few hours after birth because her condition is so rare and the best place to treat her was at Children's. I talked to Joe tonight and he sounded much more upbeat than when I talked to him earlier in the day. Like I said, Ella is a fighter but she is definitely not out of the woods yet. They took a biospy of her this evening and within three days, they will find out the severity of the situation. Joe and Katie have so much faith and believe in miracles and the power of prayer. So they covet the prayers of everyone. Please take some time out in the next couple of days to pray that Ella's condition will continue to improve and that the prognosis is good. Also pray for Joe and Katie (Katie especially as she is recovering in a different hospital than Ella) and that they will be comforted and will continue to have such strong faith and positive attitudes.

This isn't world peace we're talking about

Wait! Actually IT IS! So Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was at the White House today to meet with the President to discuss the situation in the Middle East. I had to work the early shift today and we were requested to do a 6a liveshot this morning (which means we get to work by 5a but I didn't make it there until 5:15a). So we're all ready to go at 6a to talk about this fairly significant meeting between two world leaders. We get bumped by the breaking news of the fire in SC which is understandable. But then after waiting for 25 minutes on the roof of a building across from the WH (we can't get onto the WH lawn until right at 6a and there's set-up time and all that), they killed our liveshot for a story on Bubba the cat who's ridden around with some truckers for a million miles. And they said the Middle East wasn't really news. Come on people! It's a cat! Maybe it's because I'm not really a pet person but it's a CAT! Now I'm not saying that all the world's problems were solved by today's meeting but it was definitely more significant that the million mile cat. Sadly according to the stats though, the cat did get more hits on the website than the story on Middle East peace. What is going on with this world?!?!?!

Friends from the 7th grade

Yesterday was a fairly busy day at work but nothing exciting enough to blog about. The highlight of my day was definitely last night when I got to see two friends from high school! I've known Huyen and Christine since the seventh grade which is a pretty long time. Huyen lives in Leesburg with hubby Ryan and baby Rasine and Christine lives in Texas with hubby Jamie. I hadn't seen Christine in several years. The cool thing is that the last time we were all together seems like yesterday and we were all able to pick up right where we left off. In fact, it didn't seem like anything much had changed since junior high and I think we look like we really haven't aged that much either. Huyen just has a baby now (who is entirely too cute!) and Christine lives a couple of thousand miles away! I had a great time hanging out with them and Huyen's husband Ryan. Ryan might be the only person I know who loves Card Sharks so much he e-mails with the host and his wife and also has the entire DVD collection of What's Happening! It was just a great evening and was soooo good to see old friends again and I'm already looking forward to the next time we all get together!

Working 9 to 5 (well not exactly)

Yesterday, I came back to work and life resumed as somewhat normal. But not before I had a great, culturally diverse weekend. Please don't take any of my comments the wrong way but I hit more than one end of the spectrum of experiences on Saturday. I started off my day by going to Ernest's graduation from Eastern Senior High School in DC. It happened to be the 13th anniversary of my high school graduation but I don't remember mine being nearly that interesting. Let's just say that I thoroughly enjoyed being the lone marshmellow in a sea of hot chocolate. The ceremony was full of energy (like I've never seen before) and I was soooo honored and proud to be a part of his family watching him cross the stage!

Then I spent my afternoon at the WH Garden Tour. (Yes, I am a dork for going there on my day off.) I have spent many moments out on the lawn and rose garden, etc. but I never knew anything about the trees or gardens I've been standing under or staring at for the past couple of years. It was quite interesting. The coolest thing I saw that I didn't know existed was the childrens' garden (towards the south end of the south lawn) which is where grandkids of the presidents have put their handprints in bronze. It was rather cool! The best was seeing George P.'s handprints from years ago! I'm still holding out hope for him (even though he's apparently happily married)! There are a couple of more open garden tours this summer so if you want to go, let me know!


Now I'm forced to actually be at work but in my free time, I'm figuring out if there is any possible way for me to retire any time in the next couple of years. I'll be honest, it's not looking very promising! :)

On the road again!

Yes, it's another blog from me about my week even though I'm not doing anything fun or interesting at work. In fact, I like this not-working-thing, um I mean- "working" from home thing a lot. Today I jumped in my Jetta for a roadtrip. I realize the price of gas is high but it's not like I drove cross-country. I drove down to just north of Harrisonburg, VA to meet my brother-in-law to hand off something for my sister and niece that was too big to mail. Anyway, I decided to take my time coming home, skip I-81 and enjoy seeing my commonwealth! So I drove Route 11 from Broadway to Strasburg, pulling over at any neat store that caught my eye. First of all, George (not #43 or #1 but my B-I-L) and I stopped for lunch at this cool little diner in New Market called Southern Kitchen which was absolutely cute and had REALLY good southern food. Then I visited at five or six antique stores all along Rt. 11. It's not like I can afford any of the beautiful furniture and things I saw, but it's definitely cheap to look! I also saw a sign for a covered bridge so I took some random road and saw the Meems Bottom Bridge. There were a TON of historic signs along Rt. 11 that I tried to quickly read as I drove by. I think if you stop to read them all, it would take two days to get back to DC. But apparently a lot of important battles and things took place along that road. And did I mention that the towns of New Market, Mt. Jackson, Woodstock, and Strasburg are absolutely adorable?!?! I loved it and highly recommend it for a daytrip!

I ended my drive home with a stop at the Great Strasburg Emporium and they don't lie. It's great!! It was an enormous antique mall and most of the stuff was really cool. I almost ended up walking out of there with a corner cupboard (although I have no corner to put it in) and a collection of old china (but no place to put a china cabinet in my house!) I also saw an old silver clarinet that had it been an oboe, I would have forked over the $500 on the spot. (Yes I am a total nerd!) Luckily I made it out of there with only a fruit smoothie and a bag of Route 11 chips, truly fitting!!! I just need to get a bigger place to live and then I can buy more than potato chips!!

Oh by the way, I saw perhaps the largest turkey statue in the world- a sight which you just don't see everyday!! (Apparently the county I was in is one of the leading turkey producing counties in the nation!)

Seriously, tomorrow when I actually have to go to work, it's going to be a total shock to my system! At least it's TGIF!!

Hanging out with the other George W.

I know I said a couple of days ago that you probably didn't want to hear about how I've spent my quiet (knocking on wood) week but too bad!! Yesterday was spent shopping and today was such a pretty day that I knew I had to do something outside. I thought about going to Harper's Ferry but I didn't want to deal with the traffic and I had to be back to town by 5:15pm for a meeting at church. So I decided to hit the attraction in my backyard (figuratively speaking), Mount Vernon. I had been there about 8 years ago during the Christmas season but it was cold. And today's weather was absolutely perfect!! Of course I had to dodge every 8th grader from the state of Nevada, a group of Mormon boys and an obnoxious guy who seemed to be alone but was telling the crowd that he was a self-taught expert on George Washington. He claimed to be a descendant of George's brother or something like that. But then after looking at George's family tree, I think I could make somewhat of the same argument. I saw a family name on my mom's side as the same as George's youngest brother's fifth wife! But whatever. It was an extremely enjoyable afternoon!!

They have done a fantastic job with the new museum and I highly recommend it! I learned more than I ever thought was possible about America's first George W. (as the President likes to joke EVERY time he mentions him) and was just impressed overall with the museum. They have created the most true-to-life looking version of the first president which is really cool and really does look real!! It was interesting when I thought about all the ways that Washington influenced the presidency. But my main reason for going was that I wanted to walk through the gardens and enjoy the outdoors. However, I also made the decision to break in a new pair of shoes from yesterday's shopping spree and after four hours, my feet were not cooperating for me to see all of the grounds. But there's good news. For only $5 more, I could purchase an annual pass so I only need to go to Mount Vernon one more time before I get my money's worth. So anyone coming to visit me in the next 365 days might be forced to go visit our founding father's home!

Random thoughts of my visit to George's home:

* The "necessary", which is Washington's version of a portapotty, was much much nicer than what we had in Jamestown. But who am I to complain. Our founding fathers really did have it pretty rough! That whole Revolutionary War thing kind of puts things into perspective!

*One of the best parts was watching one of the eighth graders from Nevada running into a glass display case sooo hard it knocked her out. I tried not to laugh but it WAS SOOOO funny!! I'm not that cruel- she was able to stand up and eventually walk away!

*I was only mistaken for an eighth grader twice and only found myself mixed up with an Asian tour group once. I was never, however, mistaken for a Morman (I didn't have a bike helmet or a white shirt with a nametag. That helped! :) )

When the cat's away...

The mice will play! Well at least the mice that aren't traveling! This morning the Pres left for eight days for a trip to five or six countries and since I didn't go on this trip (it wasn't my turn), I am having a very light week. Like I got OFF of work this morning at 9:00 and the only other day I have to work is Friday. I'm taking my comp days from working a few weekends.
So you likely won't get any other updates from me this week because somehow I doubt that anyone wants to hear about how I spend three days "working from home" (which means I am periodically checking my e-mail and maybe I'll switch from Lifetime to my network for a few minutes at some point!) I'm really looking forward to this week!