Opening Day!

I know, it's not opening day of baseball or any other sporting event. Today was opening day of the new briefing room at the WH! The POTUS and FLOTUS (hopefully you can figure out what that means) came by and cut the ribbon in a brief ceremony this morning. It's supposed to be high-tech. To me, it sort of looks Star Trek-ish in person but it's definitely an improvement. Before they redid it, the place was falling apart!

The highlight of the day was when I'm sitting in our new booth in the basement of the West Wing and talking with a colleague (thankfully about work) when I noticed a slight commotion outside our glass door. The next thing I know in a matter of seconds, the FLOTUS (Laura) was standing over my shoulder and commenting on how much space we have compared to others. I immediately jumped up, punched another colleague to tell her that the First Lady was visiting and somehow made small talk with her. I have no idea what I said. I think I invited her back anytime to just hang out. I was just thankful that I had actually been doing work and not engrossed with my crossword puzzle!

We've been in our new workspace in the basement since Monday but today the whole place was officially opened. Previously, we've been across the street at Jackson Place which I admit, I grew to love. The walls between the booths didn't go all the way up to the ceiling and you could talk to folks at other networks even though the door was closed. I liked the proximity to the other nets. But we have a ton (figuratively speaking) more space in our new booth even though we're with only other network. We're getting used to it. Honestly, I'm surprised it's come together like it has because on Monday morning, we had about ten people finishing and fixing things all around us (in a fairly small size booth) while we tried to work. I've tried to keep a positive attitude about things and come to terms with the whole idea that change is good. However, I am going to point out one thing (well really two things) that I'm having difficulty coping with. We have about ten TV monitors in the room, most of which are hung approximately seven feet off the ground. You can't really see them so much when you are sitting in your seat. To those of you familiar with my vertical challenges, please no short jokes here. But I can't reach any of them without a step ladder. Bringing out the ladder to change the channels or volume seems like entirely too much trouble. Why not use the remote, you say? Which brings me to my second issue. Oh, that's because one remote changes seven out of ten TVs even if you hold the remote right up to the TV you want to turn (obviously I'm talking about one I can actually reach.) It turns into a frustrating game of trying to control the TVs and it changes the meaning of the term "remote control" since there really isn't any control involved. My network's engineers told me that I just needed to put a tape on the TV's sensor and just rotate the tape to another monitor when I want to change the channel. Again, too much effort just to change the channel.

Ok, I'll stop complaining now. I guess it's really not that bad. We did get a new mini-fridge for our space and a printer that works perfectly (until it doesn't). Of course I can't reach the supply of paper but that's another story! :)