New Press Secretary/Wedding Singer

Wednesday was the first time I have seen POTUS all week. He's been kind of quiet all week, having meetings behind closed doors. But there is a new press secretary in the house, Jay Carney. I've actually known him for years when he used to do guest segments on the show I was an associate producer for. I mic'ed him up for years! I wish him the best of luck in his new job!

But that's not him behind the podium in the above picture. Yep, you're seeing it correctly. That's James Taylor!!!!! I got to meet him on Wednesday!!! He came to the briefing room and I got to talk to him!!! I even booked him to sing at my wedding!!!! (Well, sort of.)

No. I am not engaged. You didn't miss that announcement.

But let me back up and start from the beginning.

The real beginning. Well, like many Americans I have always loved James Taylor. I can't tell you how many times I've listened to his Greatest Hits. I love that CD!!! And for a long time, I've wanted James Taylor to sing for my wedding! At one point, I had a plan of marrying his son, Ben, so I could be sure that James would sing at my wedding. Well, Ben doesn't know that I exist and I have someone much more awesome in my life now so that plan went by the wayside. But having Sweet Baby James sing at my wedding has still been in my plans. :)

Well, fast forward to Wednesday when James Taylor was at the WH to receive his National Medal of Arts from POTUS. It was the first time in a while I had seen POTUS but I didn't care about him. I was just excited to be in the same room as James! POTUS said nice things about him and the other 19 winners of the Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal. (I didn't get one but I put it on the list of my life's goals!) And then POTUS handed out all the medals. I'll be honest. I didn't know who most of the people were. Lots of poets, authors, dancers. I obviously knew who Meryl Streep was but she wasn't there. And I knew who Harper Lee was but she wasn't there either. I was bummed about that because I wanted to tell her that her book was one of the few books I actually read completely in junior high and high school and actually liked. Oh well. I did recognize Quincy Jones. But the rest were poets and other artsy people. I guess if you're a world famous poet and you're getting a medal from POTUS, you don't care what you look like. Anyway, back to James. After it was all over, I went back to the booth and had a lot of work to do. But a few minutes later, one of my camera guys called to tell me that James was upstairs in the briefing room! So of course, I ran upstairs and started taking pictures of James. Soon, there were tons of reporters and photographers taking pictures and it turned into somewhat of a small press conference with James!! He was showing off his medal and chatting with us. I'm not sure exactly what he was saying but at one point things got too serious and James was pontificating about politics and POTUS. All I could think about was asking him to sing at my wedding!! So finally, I decided to jump in the discussion and yelled out, "James, will you play at my wedding??" Everyone just laughed! He said "Sure! When's the date?" Unfortunately, I don't have a date because I'm not engaged yet. Instead of just making up a date and discussing it with Brian later, I just said, "I'm not sure. But I can work around your schedule!" James said, "Ok, let me know!!!" Seriously, I think he agreed to it!! Once I do get engaged, after calling our parents, I think the next phone call will be to James!!! :)

Well, after all was said and done and James had agreed to be my wedding singer, I went back to work and just thought "Wow!! I just met James Taylor!! He might play at my wedding!" This was one of those days where I realize how cool my job is!! A few minutes later, I was giving one of our interns a tour of the briefing room and showed her the wall of the old swimming pool under the briefing room where everyone signs when they come to the White House. As we were leaving, I looked over and saw the fresh signature of my James!! It's hard to read in this picture but he said "Got my medal. Feel so proud" Signed James "Fire & Rain" Taylor. I'll guess I'll get him to give me a personal autograph at my wedding. Whenever that might be!!