POTUS's Post- SOTU swing

Say that ten times fast! It's not easy!

Well this year, I didn't have to work late for POTUS's annual State of the Union speech (SOTU for short). So I had the privilege of watching it on my couch. I had the advanced text so I followed along and took note of what lines garnered applause, etc. But the second it was over, I had to hit the hay because we left early the next day for a five-state, three day tour.

Actually it turned into a four-state, three-day tour for us. Only POTUS and the travel pool made it to the fifth state. Which was fine by me.

We started by heading to Phoenix, Arizona where we would be in place and work from while POTUS stopped in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Nothing against Iowa at all but I can't say that I missed being there too badly because it was 75 degrees in Phoenix and just lovely.

We were at the Intel plant in Chandler, Arizona and POTUS spoke in front of some construction of something hi-tech. Forgive me for not remembering and/or understanding exactly what that was. All I know is that it was big and we worked out of a tent in a parking lot for about eight hours. And so there were no restrooms, just portapotties. I hate portapotties. I only use them in cases of emergency. But eight hours is a long time. This might be in the category of too much information but I was successful in avoiding having to use them!
So POTUS came and spoke but the only story anyone was talking about was his meeting on the tarmac with the governor of Arizona. I was asked to write a short wire story about it and next thing I knew, it was the top story on my network's website.

We scooted off for Vegas for the night. I had been up since about 2a so by the time we got checked into our hotel close to midnight and my colleagues wanted to go out, I promptly turned them down. I think I'm too old for that any more! Not that it was ever my scene to begin with! Anyway, after a lovely short night's sleep in a nice hotel, we got up and went to the UPS facility in Las Vegas so POTUS could make some more remarks. While he was talking about his SOTU themes, I was trying to figure out if I had any packages at the facility that I could just pick up while I was there!From there we headed to Denver, Colorado where POTUS visited Edwards AFB. He spoke to several hundred airmen about more SOTU stuff. I think he was tired by this point. I know I was! We were only on the ground in Colorado for about three hours total. If I had been there longer, I would have tried to go visit my former youth minister and his family. But alas, there was no time!
After his speech there, we hustled off to Detroit to spend the night. Once again, we got there about 1am and some of my colleagues wanted to go out. Again, I said no and went to sleep. I had to be on a bus at 6a the next morning!!

Our final stop was actually in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan's football practice facility. I was so tired by this point that it actually took me a couple of hours to realize where I was! I realized that I don't actually like Michigan because we played them in this year's Sugar Bowl and should have won that game but didn't due to a terrible call by the refs. It was a bit crushing to hear POTUS congratulate them for their victory. But instead of causing a scene, I decided to keep my mouth shut and thus not getting in trouble and loosing my press credentials. :)

Wild Week in Sports at the White House

Actually wild month in sports at the White House!

In the past two and half weeks, POTUS has welcomed every national championship team under the sun to the WH to celebrate their victories. And I have been to every ceremony. I might be exaggerating a bit but I've been doing this job for quite a while and I don't ever remember having to go so many of these things in a row. I should say, "getting to go" because I do realize there are many, many fans that would love the opportunity to see their players face to face with POTUS.

So the first team up was the Dallas Mavericks. I am proud to say that I knew who many of those players are. I can also proudly say that I watched nearly every moment of the championship series against the Miami Heat. I can't say that watching every moment was my idea but because my wonderful fiance loves basketball, we watched all six games. I knew who Jason Kidd and Dirk were from the Mavs. I felt like an informed journalist without having to do any studying up!

About a week later, it was the St. Louis Cardinals turn. Again, I think we watched every moment of the seven game World Series too. I have always loved the St. Louis Cardinals. Well not always. But ever since I lived in St. Louis one summer during college where I participated in a summer missions project. We lived within walking distance of the stadium and went a couple of times. I saw Ozzie Smith in his last season. A few years later, my sister moved to Missouri for school and now lives in St. Louis so my entire family likes the Cardinals but I'd like to say that I was the first. I didn't recognize as many players because there were more of them and they weren't wearing uniforms with their names on their backs. But it was fun to be there nonetheless. Of course, in the middle of the event, I started to get a migraine so I ended up snapping a few pictures and then running back to my office before I got sick.Finally, it was the Boston Bruins turn. I don't pretend to know about hockey and the players and I might have well been in an event with famous scientists because I knew none of them. I didn't know their story to victory and hadn't seen any of the championship. But I know enough to know that the Stanley Cup is a big deal so getting to see it once again in real life was a chance that many people would love. To me, it looks like a big punch bowl but I know it has special meaning to many others!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year!! Better late than never, right? My goal was to update the good old blog before mid-month and technically I made that goal. Now I realize the goal I set was pretty lax but whatever! Here I am!

I do want to apologize to my handful of faithful blog readers in advanced because I am quickly realizing that planning a wedding takes a lot of time. And even if you don't intend on having an elaborate affair, even the basics take time. So in the next 100 days until the wedding, much of my free time will be devoted to taking care of those 100,000 details that need to be decided.

But I know that 2012 is going to be an awesome year! I'm fully confident of it!

Let me see if I can catch you up in the past few weeks....

I worked the week before Christmas... mainly waiting for Congress to figure out the whole payroll tax extension thing. I'll be honest, I've already forgotten 75% of the details that were being fought over even though it hasn't been that long. I figure I'll read up really quickly to refresh my memory the next time the story comes up. It happens every year it seems. Congress has to finish up business before recess. POTUS can't go to Hawaii until it happens. And I get stuck working until right before Christmas.

However, right before POTUS left, he did what he did last year and came and shook our hands before getting on the chopper. He did the same thing last year but this year it was much warmer.

Brian and I left later that evening to head to Roanoke to spend Christmas with my family. Before I go any further, let me reiterate that I love, love, love my family. Love them. Everyone was there and I was so glad to get to see Katherine and Mark and Nolan. We had a wonderful time with everyone. There were many happy memories made and no drama. But it was anything but quiet and relaxing. Any household of eight adults, an 8 year old and two 2-year-olds and a dog is a hopping, active place. Ours was no exception. We had so much fun playing with the kids and hanging out with everyone. Maybe it's because I'm old but it wore me out!

I'll update in the coming days with more pictures but my nieces and nephew are the most adorable creatures on earth. Seriously, they are. They all love Brian (I don't blame them!) and he loves them too! We just had a great time!

I think my most favorite memory was on Christmas Eve when we were trying to do our family Christmas Eve tradition of singing carols around the piano and reading the account of Jesus's birth from Luke 2. The two little ones were a bit restless, to say the least. It was past their bedtimes and crankiness was somewhat prevailing. But I put them on the piano bench with me and we sang carols and Christmas songs. They sang their hearts out to Silent Night and to Frosty the Snowman and of course, Jingle Bells. But their little voices were so incredibly precious!

Spending Christmas morning and watching it through their eyes was wonderful. It reminded me a lot of my childhood since many of the traditions are the same as what we did!

Katherine and her family and Brian left the madness on Monday and I had a few extra days to spend with the rest of my family. Cayton and I had one day together where we went to get our nails done, try on flower girl dresses and we saw the Muppets Movie. It was just quality time with my family and I wouldn't trade it for anything!