So another week has passed and we're getting closer to knowing who will be the next person I will professionally stalk in the role of POTUS. But in the meantime, all's quiet on the western front at the Casa Blanca. Or at least not many people are really paying any attention. I had a fairly routine week of work and POTUS had a fairly quiet week of activities. But on Thursday, I was once again in travel pool. (I think the WH looks to see who is working on my network's WH schedule and then they plan a trip if it's my shift.) We just went down to Quantico so it wasn't a long and grueling trip. We went for the graduation of the FBI Special Agents. The last graduation ceremony I went with POTUS to was the Air Force Academy's graduation last May which took about six hours in the cold and rain. This was so much better because there were only 43 graduates. I joked that I think there used to be 44 or 45 but they thought it would be cool for POTUS 43 to speak to 43 grads so they must have flunked a couple on purpose. Last week he met with 43 Middle Eastern advocates, this week it's 43 graduates. Hhmmmm.
Anyway, once again, I digress. It was a quaint ceremony with only about 800-900 people. The travel pool was seated at the bottom of the stairs to the platform so I was the first person they greeted once they had received their badge. I was right next to their instructors who congratulated them. We also must have been in the crying baby section. There were three or four babies/toddlers sitting right next to us who had reached their limit of sitting still right about the time we arrived. I felt bad for those moms who were trying to quiet their 14-month old right as POTUS began to speak and they had run out of Cheerios and goldfish. Since I keep the nursery at church, I knew that they were up against a huge challenge wrapped up into their precious children. It was quite comical because as soon as one would quiet down, another one would start up. POTUS even noticed all the crying and made some comment about how he made people cry. Of course the moms were completely embarrassed that the leader of the free world had called them out but they were a bit helpless. Luckily, the WH had released the speech the day before so we knew he wasn't going to be saying anything all that important. It did provide quite a bit of entertainment to the travel pool to watch the scene.
I noticed that each agent, like USSS agents basically fit into one of a few categories. You have the "Tall white dude with dark hair who wears the generic trench coat and glasses" category. Then there's the "Shorter and bald who can take down someone three times his size" category. You've got the "Chick who could easily snap your head off if she has reason to" category. And then (while unfortunately politically incorrect) "Other who can kill you just by looking at you if necessary" category. Every single one of these men and women looked exactly what you would picture when you hear "FBI Special Agent" and I feel safer knowing they are out there protecting you and me. Some of the grads had their family members present their badges to them and then they would all have their pictures taken with the FBI Director and then POTUS. I was sitting next to one proud father who was so moved by the experience that when I looked at him, I could physically seen the pride in his eyes. It was quite moving.
We had choppered down to Quantico which I decided is really the way to get around up here. We avoided the headache of I-95 and getting stuck in traffic. (Not that we get stuck in traffic with POTUS too often but avoiding all the cars was awesome.) And the helicopter ride is kind of fun. POTUS leaves from the WH but we leave from nearby Ft. McNair and meet him in the air. (I can't say that without thinking of a church hymn.) We catch up with him and he flies beside us the whole way there and then at the end, we speed up and land before he does so we can watch him land. The ride this time was beautiful because you could see all the fall colors. I don't think this year has been a particularly vast display of fall colors on the trees but from the air it is absolutely beautiful. It looks like a patchwork quilt of colors and was so breath taking. I can't see how you see things like that in nature and not immediately think about what an artist God is!
After the FBI ceremony, we choppered to a different part of Quantico (who knew it was that big!) to visit the HMX Marine One Squadron. These are the guys that fly Marine One and the support helicopters wherever we go and POTUS wanted to thank them for their service for the past eight years. I haven't really ever seen them without their helmets and goggles on and I had no idea there were so many in this unit. We didn't actually get to go to the event but when Marine One landed, it pulled up closer than we normally get to the chopper and POTUS went into the party in the hangar. We went to hold in a room in a building nearby.
Then for the third time in less than three hours, we got back in the chopper and flew back to DC. I'm guessing that not many of you have done this before but choppering around DC is really cool. I wish there weren't airspace restrictions and more people could do it. Sometimes we get to land on the WH ellipse which is even cooler but even Ft. McNair is just a neat place to land, right by the water after flying over all the monuments. Very cool! Plus an added bonus is that you get earplugs each trip so just in case I ever need them, I have a huge stash of them in my bag.
Other than that, there wasn't a lot going on this week and I'm sure this next week there will be even less. But it's only a matter of time before things get really crazy again so I'll try to savor each quiet moment!
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