Warm and Sunny- for at least a few hours!

So right now, I'm in the basement of the White House watching the snow fall outside (by watching, I mean on a TV monitor of a camera outside). It seems like a great day to be snowed in somewhere warm and cozy. Technically speaking, our booth is both warm AND cozy. However, I would hesitate to call it fun. Former POTUS George H.W. Bush and his boy Jeb were here for a little bit this morning. But all things considered, I don't think I'll be laughing nearly as much as I was while getting snowed in back in December at the HoJo's in Lexington with my new BFF. I don't see a ride to Wal-mart and seeing a half-naked fat guy is on the list of things to do today.

So here we are on a Saturday and it's the perfect time to reflect on the past week. It was rather mostly uneventful. I was at the WH for two days and never saw POTUS while I was here. I worked the morning shift which meant I missed the Monday afternoon event with the LA Lakers. Apparently Khloe Kardashian was here with her hubby, one of the players whose name escapes me at the moment. I'm not sure I would have been able to pick her out of the crowd but if I had, I would have told her that I am friends with some of her somewhat distant cousins!

The highlight for my week this week was Thursday when I flew south with POTUS and VPOTUS for a town-hall event in Tampa. I was so excited to go somewhere warm that I could hardly contain my excitement. Do you know that in Florida, in the middle of winter, people don't have to wear coats? It was such a strange concept to me! I think I might finally understand why so many people retire there! Anyway, I was on Air Force One for the day which added a little bit of excitement to my already warm/excited state of mind!

When people find out what I do for a living, the first question is usually "do you get to ride on Air Force One?" I explain that I do several times a year when it's my turn; but most of the time, I'm flying on a chartered plane and that being on AF1 means a lot of work. There's a great sense of responsibility when on that plane. You never know when POTUS is going to pop back to the press cabin and chat. Ok, in reality, that's only happened once for me EVER and most likely won't ever happen again. But there is usually an off-camera briefing with the press secretary and you just have to always be prepared for something to happen.

At first I was a bit freaked out considering that someone had told me that both POTUS AND VPOTUS were on AF1. I thought that wasn't possible- kind of like some parents who won't fly on the same plane but this was a much more serious level- and I turned out to be correct so the extra layer of stress immediately went away. But luckily, nothing out of the ordinary happened and it was a fine flight. I even thought the food was really good (I don't want to sound unAmerican or unappreciative but sometimes that's not always the case!) I was so thrilled to see something beyond a breakfast burrito covered in cheese (I am not a fan) that I think I ate everything on my plate... and it was a ton... scrambled eggs, ham, grits w/ cheese, a biscuit, and strawberry/banana/granola yogurt.

Anyway, we headed down to Tampa, Florida and the minute we stepped off the plane at MacDill AFB, I immediately knew it was going to be great. I got to leave my coat on the plane and I felt the warmth of the sun! It was great and makes me look forward to spring!! As soon as POTUS got of the plane and greeted some folks, we went into a hangar for him to look at a plane. As you might know, I don't have an extensive knowledge about military aircraft. In my book there are three categories.... big, huge, and enormous. This one would be in the enormous category. It's a KC 135 Stratotanker that refuels aircraft in midair. They were doing maintenance on this plane because it has been involved in refueling missions for flights to Haiti. I didn't think that Haiti was far enough away to require mid-air refueling but I guess what I've read about how hard it is to get into Haiti sometimes makes it necessary. Anyway, we (POTUS, VPOTUS, and a bunch of Air Force personnel and the travel pool following/stalking them) walked around the entire plane greetings the airmen working. I wish there was something more exciting to report from the experience but it was a really big plane in a hangar. It can only be but so much excitement!

After that, we went to the University of Tampa gymnasium for a town hall. I've been to numerous events like this for two different POTUS's and it's always an amazing thing to see. It's always a great chance to remind me what a unique place I'm in. These people, average run-of-the-mill Americans are literally experiencing a moment of a lifetime- a chance to see the President in person. POTUS spoke for a few minutes and then took questions from the audience (which I must say were better questions than the last couple of events like this!) After the event was over and POTUS was doing a ropeline, I saw numerous people so excited that they got to shake his hand. A couple of girls were jumping up and down and crying. One woman got so overcome with emotion that they had to pull her backstage to tend to her! The pack of people to get to the front of the audience literally ran people down. It was crazy! If poll numbers reflect my readers, I know more than half don't care for the current POTUS but seeing people who were just thrilled to see and some even shake POTUS's hand sent a tinge of patriotism through me.

We left the event and then flew back home and landed only about eight hours from when we left DC that morning. But I came back with a fresh sense of being blessed (and a full stomach of taco salad from AF1!)