Since most people still ask me: No, I don't work for the White House or the federal government. My network and my job would still have operated at a normal crazy-busy level whether or not the government shutdown. But it did cause for the level of the normal crazy-busy to escalate quite a bit. I had the duty to work a full day at the WH on Wednesday. Usually we split the day in half so no one person has to be there from sun-up to sundown but it didn't work out like that for Wednesday and it was my turn to take one for the team. And honestly, it wasn't bad at all. It was just a long day. And longer than scheduled. The morning was fairly quiet- well at least not busier than normal- and POTUS left to go out of town to Philly for the afternoon. It was such a lovely day for a helicopter departure! I was so excited because it was the first time that it was actually enjoyable to go out to watch Marine One depart. 
We watched POTUS's event where he talked a little bit about the budget deal talks but his focus was on his energy plan. As soon as he wrapped up his speech, he headed back to the WH and that is where things got a little crazy. 
We headed out for his arrival and we knew that as soon as he got off the plane, he was going to the Oval Office to meet with the congressional leaders. At this point, I was in hour #13 of my day and was a bit hungry. Leaving the WH for food was not an option, so I ate out of the snack machine. Let's just say there are not a lot of options there. This picture was from a previous day but the options weren't much better. No one has touched that chicken salad or tuna salad since the Reagan days, I'm convinced.
POTUS and the congressional leaders were huddled in the Oval Office and obviously I was not. There were all kinds of rumors of what would happen if there was a deal or not but basically we just waited and quietly speculated when the meeting would wrap up and if there would be a deal. We were doing a ton of liveshots and it was busy to say the least!! Then all of a sudden around 10:45p, we heard from the overhead system "Two minutes until the President in the briefing room!" Luckily, we were prepared as a just in case but we had no idea that it would be that quick. POTUS comes out and gives a statement to about two dozen reporters who had stayed late. 
Then immediately afterwards, everyone ran outside to the stakeout location for the congressional leaders to talk. Usually running at the WH is discouraged but I guess that a mass of people running out of the building didn't freak out the Secret Service too much. They made their comments, we did a few more liveshots and I had a bit of loose ends to tie up and by 11:45p, the Secret Service were walking through the press area and kicking us out. So I survived my 16-hour work day but it was a scene repeated for both the next two nights. For those two nights, I let my colleagues share in the fun!! One insane night at the White House was enough for me!
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