The Week in Pictures (well at least a few)

After about three weeks away, this week I was back at the White House all week (with the exception being on Wednesday when I had the honor of going to New Jersey). Usually, after a couple of weeks away, I can't say that much has changed. The building is a couple of hundred years old for Pete's sake. This week's excitement is that we have a new sidewalk to walk on since they are doing construction on the North Lawn. It's supposed to be a temporary walkway but they used concrete and every thing so maybe it's a bit more permanent!

Ok, I guess a new sidewalk isn't exactly thrilling. Let's see.... On Monday, I jumped right into things with two events. The first one was in the Rose Garden where he spoke about campaign finance reform. The highlight for me is that I got to see my friend Dana who I hadn't seen in a while. POTUS was late which meant we got to catch up a little more but it was stinkin' hot out there!!

Then later, it was the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disability Act. Since I've always been a news nerd, I remember when it was signed (I was in junior high!) Don't ask me why I remember it because I have no idea but it was cool to be there for the anniversary. The program before POTUS included a couple of speeches and some music- including Patti Labelle. She was quite emotional when she was singing "Wind Beneath My Wings" and got choked up several times. Don't judge me but that song just makes me giggle because I have so many funny memories of that cheesy song!
POTUS spoke and signed the commemoration. And then shook hands.

Tuesday, I didn't actually see POTUS. He had a morning event that I wasn't there for but in the evening, I was in the motorcade for him to go to a fundraiser in DC. The motorcade was a bit wild, especially for the short distance. Then we waited outside the Mandarin Oriental hotel while he went in and raised a ton of money.

Wednesday, I went to exciting Edison, NJ for his visit there. I know some days of mine are more glamorous than others but Wednesday fit into the other category. We sat outside in an un-air-conditioned tent in the middle of a Burger King parking lot. POTUS had an event in a sub shop across the street that was apparently a double-wide. It was so small that there wasn't room for all of us so just the pool went in and we sat in the tent. The only time I saw him was when he waved to me from his limo. Did I mention it was hot and to top all that off, I had to fly commercially and got delayed by 6 hours in Newark (currently it's my least favorite airport and Continental Airlines is my absolutely least favorite airline!)

Anyway, Thursday, I saw POTUS again at the signing of the Tribal Law and Order Act in the East Room. I'll be honest, I had no interest or even insight into Tribal Law but this was one of those events that was really interesting. The woman who introduced POTUS had a tremendous story about being raped and then her attacker was not prosecuted. She was really, really emotional telling her story and that event kept my attention (admittedly probably more than the actual newsy events of late!)

POTUS talked about his Indian name being Barack BlackEagle.

I love native American headdresses and wish I had that heritage in my family so I could wear them!!

Then on Friday, POTUS went to Detroit, and I stayed in DC. But I did welcome him home and I'm pretty sure when he waved, he said "Have a great weekend!"