This week marked President Bush's last State of the Union (SOU in shorthand at my network) which made it for a relatively busy week, at least the beginning part of the week. Monday was basically a waiting game for me as my job was to put together the piece for after the speech. So I sat at my desk in the bureau for about 8 hours waiting for the speech. I got excerpts at about 5p and then the speech itself about an hour before the speech. So I was able to pick out the soundbites I wanted before the speech was even given. Once he started speaking, I was reading along and counting down how many more pages we had to go! I thought there wasn't a whole lot in the speech and was grateful it was only 13 printed pages! My correspondent, editor and I kicked it into high gear afterwards and worked on our piece until about 1a and I got home and in bed by about 1:40a. Then a little after 2a, my assignment desk called to ask me a question about the piece and started the conversation with "did I wake you up?" Just a hint, but most phone calls made at that hour WAKE PEOPLE UP! I was able to quickly answer the question and finally was able to get back to sleep around 3ish. I had to be back at the WH early the next morning for travel pool duty.
Tuesday, I was there as POTUS kicked off his final post-SOU tour with a day trip to Baltimore. Really it was only a few hours! We went to a halfway-house of sorts for recently released convicts called Jericho. Bush was there to highlight his faith-based initiative on the 7th anniversary of its inception. It's not often that we as the press corp travel into the hood with the leader of the free world. We were all crammed into this small row house with many vicious dogs loudly barking on the porches of nearby houses. I don't think most people understand the logistics of moving the president around but that was the smallest space I have ever seen for an event! There was only room for the President, the Labor secretary, the director of the program, and two graduates. Apparently, the President was deeply moved by his conversations with these recent convicts and had a good visit. I didn't really talk to any former inmates. The highlight of my day were the helicopter rides to and from Baltimore. We landed at Ft. McHenry which I was proud to say I knew the reason why Ft. McHenry was famous. Thanks Mom and Dad for always making our trips anywhere educational!
The rest of this week has been quiet since POTUS left for the West Coast on Wednesday. I have had time to catch up on expenses and e-mail and sleep! It's actually raining so hard outside that I'm kind of glad I'm stuck in the windowless basement at the WH. I'm thinking the quietness (knock on wood) will be around from time to time more frequently in the next nine months of the election!
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