Week in Review, Yet Again!

Wow, where in the world did this week go?? I planned on it being a relatively easy week at work and a very productive week in the world of packing and moving. Neither truly happened. But that's okay because after the next few hours, I will have Sunday and Monday off for even more fun!

Let's see. I need to rewind. Last weekend, I had an absolutely wonderful visit by my sister Laura and two adorable nieces! Laura had warned me that Raygan had a little bit of a banchi in her and she likes to scream (I had yet to experience this. In my eyes, she was the perfect little angel!) so we pretty much had to prepare our schedule around her normal banchi time. However, that little angel was soooo good on Friday night. Not even a whimper when she normally screams. I'm talking utter cuteness!! Cooing and giggling!! I told her she was making her momma into a liar. I like to think she was just that happy to see me!! Well on Saturday, I did get a glimpse of what Laura was talking about during an afternoon trip to Ikea. I think the precious angel just got sick of being carted around in her car seat. But we survived and by Sunday morning, she was the star of the baby room at the nursery at church! A little bit of the banchi came out while they were leaving but I'm pretty sure it was just because she was upset she was leaving her Aunt Beck Beck. In the picture below, she's actually screaming even though it doesn't totally look like it. Trust me, I still can't hear properly out of my ear.

There was no rest for the weary and I had a full week of fun at work. I spent most of it working in the bureau on a variety of assignments. One day I was tasked with finding a senior adult who was adamantly against POTUS's healthcare. At their house so we could get video of them like working in the garden. Oh and I had about an hour to find someone. I failed at that task but quickly thought to go to the World War II Memorial and stalk old men. That plan worked like a charm. Then on Thursday, I worked on the piece for the infamous 'beer summit' at the WH which I'm pretty sure I lost brain cells over. Then Friday, I worked on a piece about the first 6 months of POTUS's administration. So at least there was some variety there!

Wednesday was the highlight of the week with a road trip with POTUS for him to tout his healthcare reform plan. The first stop was a high school in Raleigh, NC where he had an event in the gym. Luckily, the school was very close to my BFF from high school Catherine so I had a quick visit with Catherine and Lyra and they got a quick glimpse into my work world. We were in Raleigh for a few short hours before leaving to head to Bristol, VA. Apparently in the original plans, they wanted POTUS to go to Roanoke which would have been awesome! Alas, Bristol was chosen but at least they stayed in the great Commonwealth of Virginia. Even if just barely.

The event itself was a town-hall meeting. The twist this time was that it was in a Kroger. When I first saw the planning notes, I thought to myself, "Self, there's no way to have an event inside a real Kroger." But POTUS and his folks proved me wrong. The Kroger employees moved all the fruits and vegetables out of the produce section, set up 200 hundred chairs, and they put on a town-hall. They placed the cuts cameras and still photogs in the bakery. Our workspace was in a small room right next to the Pharmacy. Besides being at Graceland with the previous POTUS and the PM of Japan, this was the second best location/workspace ever on a domestic trip!!

The one major malfunction was that almost as soon as I got to the grocery store, I started getting the warning signs of getting a migraine. I used to have them more regularly but I had kind of grown out of them (no short jokes are really needed!!) I didn' have any migraine medicine with me and pretty nothing except for a Sudafed and a Tylenol Cold and Sinus. I thought I was hosed but lo and behold, we were working in the PHARMACY!! So I took some Aleve off the shelf and promised to pay for it later. Unfortunately, the Aleve didn't really work and I found myself in full migraine mode in a USSS secure area with no where to go. So I found a large gear case to crawl up in the fetal position and close my eyes. POTUS had already started his speech and I was half-way listening and half-way crying in pain with a scarf over my eyes. Unfortunately, the bathroom was on the other side of produce so when I had to run there, I had to wait until right after a citizen asked a question so I knew I wouldn't be on national television in such a sick state walking literally in the middle of the crowd. After the event ended and my friends at the USSS let me leave the building, I spent the next hour curled up in the fetal position in a colleague's rental car (he had come down the day before!).

So what would have been a fantastic day ended up being a bit different! But the good news is that Kroger gave us gift bags that were full of groceries!! So I won't have to buy granola bars, fruit roll-ups, or sticky buns for the next month or so!!! :)