The Long Road Home

I am so blessed to live where I live. It's convenient to just about everything and only about 20 minutes from my office. Even in rush hour, it takes about 35 minutes to get home on a bad day. However, add a few snowflakes and convenience is thrown out of the window!!


While last night's snowstorm will never compare to December 2009's trip to the 'Noke, it does earn a place in the blog history. (That, and really I don't have a lot to report on this week in the news and happenings of Becky!)


Yesterday, the federal government closed two hours early which for some was before the snow started. I decided to leave around 4p (we don't follow the federal government but I just made the decision to leave before it got really bad). I have no idea what happened but almost three hours later, I was not even home yet!!


This is what I saw for most of the three hours. And no, I was not being unsafe by taking a picture. We weren't moving for most of that time.



The normally 8 mile commute was way out of control. I understand people being safe and cautious but this was to the extremes. I saw cars spinning out and getting stuck but that's because they didn't know how to drive in snow. I'm not saying I'm great at it or that I have vast amounts of knowledge but I do know that if you quickly accelerate and then slam on your brakes, it's not good.


I didn't slide too much and actually the roads weren't that bad. I think it was just the massive amounts of people on the roads. I actually wasn't in too bad a mood. I was singing along with the radio, praying for several of my friends, looking at the pretty snow. That is, until about minute #124 when I had to go to the bathroom. This might be TMI but luckily, I have a great bladder and was able to hold it until I got to Brian's place for a pit stop. There were many cars stuck on his road but somehow by the grace of God, I made it up his little hill and into his parking lot before I was about to burst!!


And I really shouldn't complain too much because in this morning's paper, a lot of people had it much, much worse!! Read the article in the Washington Post here.

Hu's in the House

This past week was a busy week with Chinese President Hu Jintao's State Visit to the White House. While I've never been to his country, I'm sure I've seen him several times along the way at a G20 or some other world function. But it was a big deal for him to come here for such an ordeal.

I had prepared myself and got ready for his visit in one main way. I wanted to appear smart. I studied up on the usual stuff of US/China relations. But more than that, I wanted to make sure that I didn't get caught when someone said "Hu's coming to the WH", thinking that was a question. It just never got old. "Hu's on first?" "No, What's on second" or whatever the Abbott and Costello joke was. It just made me laugh every time. Except when I didn't get it a few times when other people were taking my joke and caught me!

I wish I had all kinds of lavish pictures of the official arrival ceremony or the fancy state dinner. I don't want to disappoint you but I never actually saw Mr. Hu. Due to various factors such as my schedule, the timing of events, not being pool for anything, I watched it all from the White House basement. And frankly, I was busy enough so I can't imagine how I would have gotten every thing done if I had actually taken time (and had permission) to attend any of the events. I was so slammed as it was! But it was an interesting thing to know something of such a grand scale was happening feet away from me and I couldn't see any of it! Hollywood stars such as Barbra Streisand and James Brolin and music legend Yo-Yo Ma and designer Vera Wang were upstairs having a good old time and no one came downstairs to the basement to say hello! I was really hoping Vera would take time to say hello so I could tell her how much I love my bridesmaids dress from my friend Catherine's wedding back in 2000! Oh well! Next time!

The only evidence of the happenings were that the Chinese press corps took over the briefing room (another reason I just stayed downstairs!) and that I could smell some of the food being cooked as I went into work. And after two solid days of talking about nothing other than Chinese relations, I was really expecting to be craving some General Tso's Chicken or something like that. And all I wanted was a cheeseburger for some reason! And Brian is such a wonderful guy that I had a cheeseburger (and chocolate milk) waiting for me when I eventually got home! What a guy!!

POTUS and Basketball

Hello Blogreaders! (both of you!) I hadn't realized it had been so long since I blogged until I got chastised by my mom for being such a blog slacker. I'm pretty sure she was one step away from using my first, middle, and last names when calling me out. And for good reason since it's been more than two weeks. That's unacceptable in the blog world! I honestly admire bloggers who post every day. I really don't know how you do it!! Maybe I need to make another New Year's resolution that I will be a better blogger. I guess I need the accountability!!

Well, let me see if I can catch you up on the last two weeks. Um, yes. Not a lot going on. I've worked a lot since then yet, there hasn't really been anything remarkable to report. POTUS and fam came back from Hawaii on the 4th. I was at the WH when they came home. They looked severely disappointed to be back home. I guess I don't blame them. They had just been on a plane for 12 hours (overnight) and when they stepped off, the weather here was approximately 60 degrees colder than when they got on the plane in Hawaii. Plus the girls realized they had to go back to school the next day. I guess they are the typical family except that they have cameras on them to show the world their every move.One thing I did notice is how tall Malia is now. She's not that much shorter than her mom and just to remind you, Michelle is a tall lady (as evidenced from our Christmas picture together). And Malia is 13. Seriously. Obviously the tall genes are on her side but she has totally shot up a foot since the last time I saw her. (I'm still waiting for my growth spurt!!)

Besides that time on the 4th, I haven't seen POTUS since then. He's mainly been laying low with not a lot of public meetings or outings. He met with President Sarkozy (one of my faves) this week but it wasn't a grand affair (for a variety of reasons including the Arizona shootings) so I didn't see them. I was supposed to go to Schenecety, NY with him this week, which I'm sure would have inspired at least one blog post, but that was canceled because of the Arizona tragedy. And then he went to Tucson for the memorial service, but I didn't have to go with him.

So there's not been much to report from the work front lately. The other day, I was sitting in my office in the WH basement and I heard a faint unfamiliar sound. It was a vacuum upstairs! I immediately ran up there and begged the lady to come down and vacuum our booth. I'm not sure the last time the floor was cleaned in there. We used to have a shared vacuum in the basement but it broke many months ago and I'm fairly certain nothing had been done about it. They must vacuum the hallway of the basement occasionally but inside our booth, it had become so gross that when I thought about laying on the floor for a nap, it instantly woke me up because I knew it was too gross to lay there! For the record, they do a great job upstairs keeping it clean because people could potentially see that part if they strayed a little bit from where the tours go. No one goes downstairs except for us which is a good thing! Seriously, the vacuuming was the most exciting thing to happen at the WH this week!

Other than that, I've recently spent much of my free time consumed with basketball. I think I mentioned it earlier, but Brian and I are coaching two city league boys basketball teams... the younger ones are 7 and 8 years-old. And the older ones are 11 and 12 years old. For the record, I am taller than all the younger kids and I am taller than about three of the older kids. I feel my skills and abilities fall closer in range to the younger team but it's fun nonetheless.

Back at the WH Christmas party, Brian asked POTUS for some coaching advice. And POTUS wouldn't shut up about basketball. He asked Brian how old the kids were and then questioned me being a coach (understandably!)! He said the best thing is to teach the kids to get open. Then he went on and on with all these basketball terms that I'm not entirely sure their meaning- back door cuts and screens, etc. I honestly didn't know what he was talking about. FLOTUS chimed in about keeping them moving and not just standing there. POTUS talked about recent clinics he held for his girls and their friends. Seriously, they kept talking to the point that the military people running the picture line had to remind them to stop talking to take the picture. It was seriously one of the longest conversations I've had with a POTUS and I didn't understand half of what was being said.

Brian started off one of the first practices relaying POTUS's advice and pretty much no kid believed him until several weeks later when we had the picture to prove it. There are still a few skeptics. But Brian is sooo good with the kids and I've actually learned a ton about basketball from his coaching. It's like I'm the 11th person on the team because I pick up just as much as the kids do!! Haha!! It's a ton of fun and I even have a whistle!!! In all reality, I'm kind of a glorified team mom. I'm mainly in charge of snacks and water. Those responsibilities are much more in my range of skills. I'm sure the parents (including one set of parents who are both former college coaches and now scouts for the WNBA) have already figured out that I'm not a basketball player or coach. I'm not sure they actually know that I've never played in a basketball game in my life and my experience really only includes playing HORSE in the driveway with my sister (who apparently inherited all the tall genes and athletic ability.) But it's been a hoot!! Last weekend, we had our first games. The younger kids had a hard fought game but we lost by one point. Final score: 4 to 3. Yes, that was a basketball score. I was proud of our little guys and other team just lucked out one more basket than us. The older kids had a great game and won 27 to 21.

Hopefully this weekend, both teams will be victorious!! Too bad we aren't coaching girls in MD (rather than boys in VA) because we might play against Malia or Sasha's teams and POTUS could see how well we're doing with his advice!!