Jumping the Fence

So as I presume you've seen, POTUS and Congress figured out a debt deal. Thank the Lord. I mean, yes, most people think it's good for the country. But for me, I'm talking about how I can begin to get back to a normal life. I'm not complaining, just pointing out the facts but I have worked quite a bit lately. Like in the last three weeks, I've had one day off. The debt talks have been a very important story so I've just been doing what needs to be done. But that has included a lot of late nights hanging out in the White House basement working. And honestly, I haven't minded too much because I'm a news nerd and want to be a part of big stories like this one.

I haven't blogged a lot about the past two weeks because frankly there hasn't been much activity. Mostly a lot of sitting and waiting and finding out detail by detail of various plans. To be honest, I even got lost in some of the minutiae. And it seemed that I didn't see POTUS for days and days.

But on Sunday night, as you know, there was a breakthrough. I had spent the past few days working and trying to avoid eating every meal from the WH vending machine. By the weekend, the only things left in the vending machine were 13 cans of tuna salad and one Big Texas cinnamon bun, all of which has been there since the Reagan administration, I'm sure. So when we heard that they were nearing a deal, I couldn't have been happier. I was eating a slice of leftover pizza when all of a sudden, I found out that POTUS was going to be coming out to the briefing room to speak about the deal. We had exactly 12 minutes to get everything set up and ready to go. I won't go into the details of the slight chaos but by the time POTUS walked out, my outstanding crew guys had done a great job of setting everything up. POTUS made a statement and I ran up to the briefing room to take pictures but of course, that was the exact moment that my camera decided not to work correctly. So all I have are two pictures from my blackberry. Oh well.
So Monday, I was fine with working late because I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Honestly, I'm having a hard time remembering which day is which. It all kind of blurs together now. But by Tuesday afternoon when I realized that I might not have to stay late, I was so excited that I might get home before 10p!!

But then it happened. One of my network's shows was being anchored at the WH on Tuesday (which added a few extra things to my day to begin with!) and about 15 minutes before it was over and I was about to go home, a man jumped over the WH fence!!!

We've had our fair share of abandoned bags or packages (most of them end up being some kid's lunch box or backpack that they've left behind), but an actual fence jumper is more rare. Since we were live for the show, we had the whole thing live on TV. The man on the ground. The Secret Service with the guns drawn. Like big machine guns. They apprehended the guy and took him away for questioning. But he had also gotten over the 10 foot fence with his backpack and I knew that was a terrible thing. So immediately, we were in lockdown and were stuck inside. Of course, I immediately began to make calls to see what information I could get but since the situation was still ongoing, details were few and far between.
So for the next couple of hours, I was stuck inside with about a dozen other journalists. I was trying to figure out if there was any way for me (and some colleagues) to get out a different door/gate than the one where the suspect was being held. But since they hadn't determined that the backpack was safe, we were out of luck. I was getting hungry and was actually considering eating that tuna salad in the vending machine.

I've never been held hostage and in this case, I know it was out of an abundant concern for my own safety that they wouldn't let us leave, but I was getting quite antsy. Seriously, I was 15 minutes away from being able to leave work after and incredibly busy, stressful story and this man had caused me to be absolutely stuck. No amount of sweet talk or begging was going to get be out of there. So I made some phone calls and sent some emails and tried to figure out a way to get out. We had finally found a WH staffer who was supposedly going to be able to lead us out a different gate but just as that was happening, the Secret Service came in and announced "ALL CLEAR" and we were able to go home!!!!

In all honesty, it didn't last nearly as long as I feared it would. I didn't have to eat the tuna in the vending machine and I was able to get home "early": at 9:58pm!!