Give Peace a Chance and the Week in Review

It's either feast of famine. Last week, there was absolutely nothing exciting going on and this week has been insane with activity! So I'm going to try to catch up in one big post! I apologize for the length in advance.


Speaking of feast, I shouldn't say NOTHING happened last week. It was Thanksgiving after all. I had the honor of being thankful at work on Thursday from 6a-1p at the WH which was absolutely deserted. I then headed to the bureau for the catered turkey dinner. Then the real highlight was getting to spend the afternoon at the Wingards with 16 others for a wonderful meal and tons of fun. After that I went over to the Myers' for more dinner and dessert and games. I actually skipped the third dinner and just went for the dessert. Even though I was not with my family (which is where I always prefer to be!), it was a really nice Thanksgiving and I was thankful for not only a great family but really, really terrific friends. (Side note, the last time I wasn't with my family for Thanksgiving, I was in Crawford, TX in a tent eating rice and lentils in the rain with Cindy Sheehan and 40 other protesters. So this year soooo ROCKED compared to that!!)


Ok, back to this week. Did I mention that I was quite busy? Monday through Wednesday, we had Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas in town for peace talks. It's not often that you can use "world peace" as a legitimate excuse for being busy but that was the case this week. Monday, I was in the bureau and produced the evening package (TV term for the nightly story with the reporter's voice with video and then soundbites) and I was planning for Tuesday's trip to Annapolis. There were sooooo many logistics that needed to be taken care of and not a whole lot of answers. But it all worked out.


On Tuesday, I spent about 15 hours at the US Naval Academy where the three leaders were all meeting together (along with about 40 other Arab countries.) It was a historic day because the leaders of Israel and the Palestinians agreed to try to agree. All of the world's problems were not solved in those 15 hours but it was considered more successful than anyone thought it was going to be. And even though I was there, I watched the whole thing on TV. Yep, I missed history in the making because I was too busy with liveshots and couldn't get away for the actual event. But I do have a press pass that says I was there and I guess I was closer than most of the world. Speaking of which, I think half the world was there in the media center. I've never seen so many journalists organized in one place before. We worked out of the basketball arena and I think there were at least 1000 journalists in the room. Security was pretty tight and most of the 1000 seemed like they had never been through a security sweep before. They were shocked when their blackberries set off the metal detectors. I was glad when Wednesday, everyone was back at the WH because it was much more controlled, less people, and a warmer place to work!


Thursday was my favorite day of the year working at the WH- the unveiling of the Christmas decorations. Yesterday morning, I found out at the last minute that I would be handling an interview with the First Lady for my network's morning show. All of the five networks were doing interviews with her so I just had to go represent mine and produce the interview from on site. (By the way, I can't really explain what that means in any terms that would mean anything to anyone but basically I'm just on the phone with the control room and making sure everything goes right.) Anyway, I got to see the decorations (this year's theme is the National Parks) firsthand with only a few other people there. The interview with the First Lady went off without a hitch. I had my picture taken with her in front of one of the trees (unfortunately not the official WH tree) but it was really nice of her to take time to have a picture made with me. I'll post it when I eventually get it from the WH photographer.


But here's the real highlight of the week. In a mid-morning event, the First Lady gave a tour of the decorations and then gave some remarks and took some questions about the decorations. This is one of the only events at the WH where you see a ton of people in the press corps that you've never seen before. Here's why... after her remarks in the East Room, the WH staff puts out the spread of food that they will serve at all the Christmas parties in the State Dining Room. And they invite the press to taste it all. Seriously, I had to pinch myself because this was actual work!! After my second plate of food that included lamb chops (my first taste of sheep in six weeks!) and ham and the best cheese grits ever and some tamales and some salad, etc., I was beginning to feel guilty that I had been gone from the booth for several hours. So I decided to try to feel better by tasting all of the desserts. It worked. They were awesome (except honestly, I was a little disappointed in the bread pudding but the chocolate cake more than made up for it.) The apple crisp and the Bûche de Noël (apparently words for an awesome yule log) were delicious. All of my research will pay off on December 13th when I go to the WH Christmas Party. I'm going to know which foods to concentrate on and which I can leave off my plate.


Today, I'm in travel pool which means I get to go to Mount Airy, MD for an event with the President on World AIDS day. We'll helicopter from the South Lawn (we technically leave from the Ellipse and he leaves from the South Lawn.) I'm convinced that helicoptering is really the way to travel in the DC area. My favorite part is when we arrive back at the WH. It's really really cool to chopper in over the mall by the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. It will be the perfect ending to an exciting week!