All in a Day's Work

Today was not my typical Friday. It's not often that you get a call at home saying that you have an interview with the First Lady to come in for. It was already going to be a very busy day because we were travel pool and it was the beginning of the WH Global Summit on the Economy. I was working the afternoon/late shift at the WH today and surprise, there was an interview with FLOTUS that just happened to come up for the day. Truth be told, by the time I actually got there, my colleague had set everything up but I decided that face time with FLOTUS can never be a bad thing. So I went up to assist. Actually I didn't do much except take notes and pay attention to what was being said so that we could edit it quickly and put it on the air. Ok, I was just there to be there. I admit it. Do you blame me? Our crew guys made beautiful television and I was just there to say hello in person to FLOTUS. She talked about Wednesday's attack in Afghanistan on school girls going to school (which is an incredibly sad, sad story!) and then about meeting with Michelle Obama earlier in the week. FLOTUS was as gracious as ever and she looked at me like she definitely recognized me from somewhere. I have been professionally stalking her and her husband for the past three+ years and this is the third or fourth interview with her that I've been a part of (ok, the other ones I actually contributed in some way).

Then this evening, the real fun began. As I mentioned, the White House Global Summit is this weekend and tonight was the dinner at the White House. I think I might have mentioned this before but I am pool chair right now :) so I have been helping in the planning of coverage of this summit for the past several weeks. I am so happy that it's finally here and I'll be even happier when it's over with and all will have gone smoothly. It's a bit scary that I have been making decisions or coordinating with five networks on things that will affect the entire world's media. Whoa. If they only knew who was running things! :) Anyway, tonight was the dinner and since we were travel pool, we had a part of the ordeal. POTUS greeted all 24 leaders individually outside the WH tonight but I assigned myself and my network something that was indoors (one of the perks in being the pool chair). So we had to go into the White House and just hang out in the Red Room until all the leaders were inside. I've spent time in the Red Room before at previous Christmas parties and at the party, they let you sit on the furniture and everything. With food on a plate. But for some reason, they wouldn't let me sit on the sofa tonight. I finally begged one of the ushers to find me a chair since we had to wait about 90 minutes in that room. It's a beautiful room that I'm sure is completely filled with history. One of our nation's POTUS's was sworn into office in that room. If you know who that is, you'll win a prize. All I wanted to do is sit down. While in there, I was looking out on the South Lawn and it was so foggy that you could barely see the Washington Monument. So I decided to focus my attention on the artwork in the room which was beautiful. But I quickly got distracted in figuring out how if I were POTUS, I would change the Red Room into the Orange and Maroon Room. I think it could work.

Anyway, after waiting for 90 minutes, all 24 world leaders- from President Sarkozy to Prime Minister Brown to President Medvedev to King Abdullah to President Hu- made their way into the State Dining Room. We were the first ones in the room so I watched as POTUS tried to communicate but no one he was talking to spoke English or even the same language as each other so there were several translators involved. And the weirdest thing was that the translators weren't in the room. They were watching on closed-circuit TV from a tent on the roof of the East Wing. Craziness. They all eventually sat down and POTUS made a toast about how the economy would eventually get better and so they should all toast the future and eat the lavish dinner before them. I offered the WH staff to either be a translator (I know enough French to recognize the words for potato and bathing suit) or if that didn't work, I could be the entertainment. I was turned down on both offers. But my entire five minutes in their presence was fairly cool. I had seen most of them back in Japan in July so it just felt like we were all family! :)

Do you see me in the media in the White House photo above? Of course you don't. That's because as you know, I'm short and also I was getting literally stepped on by journalists from around the world. I had a little window that I could peak through to make eye contact with POTUS and the other leaders. But of course I'm short and so I generally don't show up in pictures. But I'm there. I swear. Ask the King of Saudi Arabia. He'll back me up. We go way back. I've been to his palace.

The Glamorous Life.... NOT!

I know most of you think my job is 100% cool 100% of the time but I just wanted to take a moment to point out that it does have its unfortunate moments. Take this morning for example. POTUS departed for NYC for the day and I didn't have to go with him. But I think it would have been better because the alternative was to stay here and have to go to his departure. IN THE RAIN. Imagine the above picture with a lot of rain coming down. I should have taken a new picture today but I didn't know how my camera would hold up in the weather.

I know I must sound completely jaded and I'm trying not to complain but just rather point something out. I don't know if you've ever stood right next to a helicopter landing and taking off in the rain but it tends to pick up every rain drop and molecule of water on the ground and throw them right into your face. Umbrellas are useless in this environment as they would be torn to shreds in the winds. So you get to just stand there and get wet. Here's my strategy that sort of works. I find the biggest guy there (usually my lighting friend Ron) and hide behind him. He blocks at least some of the wind and rain and I just peak around every minute or so to make sure the helicopter isn't crashing or something. Thanks Ron for taking one for the team today and so many other days! I still got my low wave this morning, although there was a small kid fairly close to me so maybe this low wave was really for her. I'll let her mom believe that.

Meanwhile, I'm glad I won't be here this afternoon for the return. I am getting ready for the global economic summit this weekend. I actually am not holding the summit, POTUS is but I have been involved in the planning of the coverage so I'm pretty much paying attention to it for the next two days and then I head to Chicago to cover POTUS-E or should it be PEOTUS? I'll be doing my first travel pool for PEOTUS on Monday. Apparently it's not that much different that what I'm used to for POTUS except instead of hanging out in vans while he bikes, we hang out in vans while he goes to the gym and gets a haircut. I'm looking forward to my time it the Windy City!

A Becky Press Conference

Sorry I haven't blogged this week yet but it's been a weird week. First of all, I know everyone is concerned about how I survived Election Day. So thanks for your concerns but I had the easiest Election Day ever! I'm covering a man that no one wants to campaign with so POTUS had been under the radar since late last week. I was scheduled for the morning shift on Tuesday and there was absolutely nothing going on. I watched Saturday Night Live episodes online. There wasn't even a WH briefing. I had already voted several weeks before so I couldn't even share horror voting stories. At one point, I was so bored that I actually vacuumed the entire WH basement floor. I am not sure when the last time that place had been vacuumed but suffice it to say I would NOT have taken a nap on that floor. But now you can sleep like a baby there. Except that as of Wednesday morning, things got considerably busier in my little world. I thought I would take a few moments to answer some popular questions in a pretend press conference with myself.

Q: Did you survive Election Night, Becky?
A: Since I worked the early shift in the WH booth, I got to leave early in the afternoon and went home and took a long nap. Then I went to an election-results-viewing party at a friend of a friend's house. It was the first Presidential Election Night that I have not worked since 1992 when I was in high school. In 2004, I was working for the White House Unit and worked all night. In 2000, I worked for the political show Inside Politics and was also working all night long. in 1996, I was interning at a local affiliate TV station in the 'Noke and worked that night. It was a strange thing to not be working, especially when I was fairly involved in covering the campaign for a while. I'm not going to lie, it was a bit anti-climatic but I figure I will be working enough in the next six months to more than make up for the easy night. I did, however, enjoy hanging out and actually eating and not having to work. It was quite nice to be watching like a regular American (who had a blackberry with behind-the-scenes information coming through all night.)

Q: What will happen to your job now, Becky? Will you still have a job?
A: I am fine. I don't actually work for the Bush administration. I cover it for my network. So my job is safe. Well at least I think it is. My network generally doesn't make sweeping changes at a transition unless there is real reason to (ex. complete fatigue or burnout) and it doesn't appear that is the case right now. Usually they leave it up to us to say when to move on. You never know with my network but I'm assuming that I will be covering an Obama administration.

Q: How does this affect you, Becky?
A: Well, the short answer (no personal pun intended) for me is that I will most likely be busier. Of course compared to the last couple of months of covering a lame duck president, anything will be busier. For the next 77 days, we will be covering both POTUS and POTUS-E (elect). So I expect to be spending a bit of quality time in Chicago. Hopefully not over either holiday but it is what it is. Anyway, as you will recall, I'm the network pool chair until the end of the year so now I will be coordinating the travel and all the pools of both POTUS and POTUS-E. The slight problem I'm already having is that the POTUS-E side of things is still not organized and really has no plan. Hopefully all of that will be resolved soon. So I have a few things on my plate but it's all good and I fully expect to be able to handle it all without going completely crazy. Let's see, another way my life has been impacted is the sheer volume of e-mail I'm now getting. Before Tuesday, I was averaging about 400 e-mails a day. Today alone I'm over 1000 and it's not even 4pm yet. And I think it's only going to get worse. I needed a break from deleting e-mails so I decided to blog. So if you e-mail me and I don't get right back to you, it's likely that it's caught up in the 2 bazillion e-mails I'm getting on a daily basis. I apologize.

Q: How long have you been caffeine-free?
A: Ok, I realize that this question is a bit out of place but I thought you would be interested to know (and I'm interested in throwing this out there) that I am celebrating my 13th anniversary of giving up caffeine. That's right. THIRTEEN YEARS without it. I gave it up on a dare in college, had horrendous withdrawal headaches and have not gone back since. Yes, I do eat chocolate from time to time but there's really not a lot of caffeine in small doses of chocolate. I did have caffeine one time by accident when a friend from work brought me some green tea. I assumed since it wasn't a dark tea that it didn't have caffeine. But boy, was I wrong! I had a horrible migraine and learned my lesson. I am not counting that in my caffeine-free streak because a) the tea was a nice gesture from a colleague and b) I didn't know. Please don't count it against me!! I am happy to say that I am never even tempted to have caffeine anymore. Not even cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper. And I am even prouder to say that I have pulled many all-nighters and too many crazy work hours without much sleep (most especially in the last three years), and I have been perfectly awake without the help of drugs.

Q: When will we get to see you or when will you be able to take some time off?
A: You may or may not be asking this but I wanted to proactively apologize if I have been or will be a bad friend in the next six months or so. I have been pretty blessed in the past to have figured out a way to keep things fairly balanced and still work as much as I need to but keep the extra-curricular activities going strong. I am hoping to do the same this time around but realize that this is a bigger assignment than I've ever had before. And I'm literally on a team of 6 who will be bearing the burden for my network for the next six months. So while I have a huge list of people I want to come visit (and many of you are on that list) , it seems more likely that I won't be able to go anywhere until next summer.

Q: How do you feel about covering President Obama?
A: I'm not discussing partisan politics here but I will say that no matter what your political slant is, I think we all realize that this is a historic time in the life of our country. I feel extremely blessed to be where I am right now. I will literally be on the front-row to history and face to face with the first black President. I'm guessing in time, I'll get a low-wave from him too! :) But I'm excited to be covering such a historic time. I also know it's going to be a lot of hard work and that I will be stretched and challenged. POTUS-E will definitely keep us on our toes and there will be unbelievable interest in absolutely everything he does so it will definitely be a challenging time. I am looking forward to the return of the press charter (I am sooo over commercial airlines!) and being in a press corps where more than 10 people travel with the leader of the free world. On a serious note, like I said earlier, I feel completely blessed to be doing what I'm doing and know that I'm here only because it's where God wants me. And if He has a different plan for me, He'll let me know and I'll gladly move on. But in the meantime, I'm going to soak in every moment and appreciate the unique place where I am. I'm looking forward to getting to know a lot of people in the new administration and helping them figure out how to run the country! :) And I'm hopefully going to have a lot of fun along the way experiencing exciting times.

Ok, this press conference is over. If there are any other questions you'd like me to answer, leave them in the comments section and maybe at a future virtual Becky press conference, your question will be answered.

HIGHlight of the Week

So another week has passed and we're getting closer to knowing who will be the next person I will professionally stalk in the role of POTUS. But in the meantime, all's quiet on the western front at the Casa Blanca. Or at least not many people are really paying any attention. I had a fairly routine week of work and POTUS had a fairly quiet week of activities. But on Thursday, I was once again in travel pool. (I think the WH looks to see who is working on my network's WH schedule and then they plan a trip if it's my shift.) We just went down to Quantico so it wasn't a long and grueling trip. We went for the graduation of the FBI Special Agents. The last graduation ceremony I went with POTUS to was the Air Force Academy's graduation last May which took about six hours in the cold and rain. This was so much better because there were only 43 graduates. I joked that I think there used to be 44 or 45 but they thought it would be cool for POTUS 43 to speak to 43 grads so they must have flunked a couple on purpose. Last week he met with 43 Middle Eastern advocates, this week it's 43 graduates. Hhmmmm.

Anyway, once again, I digress. It was a quaint ceremony with only about 800-900 people. The travel pool was seated at the bottom of the stairs to the platform so I was the first person they greeted once they had received their badge. I was right next to their instructors who congratulated them. We also must have been in the crying baby section. There were three or four babies/toddlers sitting right next to us who had reached their limit of sitting still right about the time we arrived. I felt bad for those moms who were trying to quiet their 14-month old right as POTUS began to speak and they had run out of Cheerios and goldfish. Since I keep the nursery at church, I knew that they were up against a huge challenge wrapped up into their precious children. It was quite comical because as soon as one would quiet down, another one would start up. POTUS even noticed all the crying and made some comment about how he made people cry. Of course the moms were completely embarrassed that the leader of the free world had called them out but they were a bit helpless. Luckily, the WH had released the speech the day before so we knew he wasn't going to be saying anything all that important. It did provide quite a bit of entertainment to the travel pool to watch the scene.

I noticed that each agent, like USSS agents basically fit into one of a few categories. You have the "Tall white dude with dark hair who wears the generic trench coat and glasses" category. Then there's the "Shorter and bald who can take down someone three times his size" category. You've got the "Chick who could easily snap your head off if she has reason to" category. And then (while unfortunately politically incorrect) "Other who can kill you just by looking at you if necessary" category. Every single one of these men and women looked exactly what you would picture when you hear "FBI Special Agent" and I feel safer knowing they are out there protecting you and me. Some of the grads had their family members present their badges to them and then they would all have their pictures taken with the FBI Director and then POTUS. I was sitting next to one proud father who was so moved by the experience that when I looked at him, I could physically seen the pride in his eyes. It was quite moving.

We had choppered down to Quantico which I decided is really the way to get around up here. We avoided the headache of I-95 and getting stuck in traffic. (Not that we get stuck in traffic with POTUS too often but avoiding all the cars was awesome.) And the helicopter ride is kind of fun. POTUS leaves from the WH but we leave from nearby Ft. McNair and meet him in the air. (I can't say that without thinking of a church hymn.) We catch up with him and he flies beside us the whole way there and then at the end, we speed up and land before he does so we can watch him land. The ride this time was beautiful because you could see all the fall colors. I don't think this year has been a particularly vast display of fall colors on the trees but from the air it is absolutely beautiful. It looks like a patchwork quilt of colors and was so breath taking. I can't see how you see things like that in nature and not immediately think about what an artist God is!

After the FBI ceremony, we choppered to a different part of Quantico (who knew it was that big!) to visit the HMX Marine One Squadron. These are the guys that fly Marine One and the support helicopters wherever we go and POTUS wanted to thank them for their service for the past eight years. I haven't really ever seen them without their helmets and goggles on and I had no idea there were so many in this unit. We didn't actually get to go to the event but when Marine One landed, it pulled up closer than we normally get to the chopper and POTUS went into the party in the hangar. We went to hold in a room in a building nearby.

Then for the third time in less than three hours, we got back in the chopper and flew back to DC. I'm guessing that not many of you have done this before but choppering around DC is really cool. I wish there weren't airspace restrictions and more people could do it. Sometimes we get to land on the WH ellipse which is even cooler but even Ft. McNair is just a neat place to land, right by the water after flying over all the monuments. Very cool! Plus an added bonus is that you get earplugs each trip so just in case I ever need them, I have a huge stash of them in my bag.

Other than that, there wasn't a lot going on this week and I'm sure this next week there will be even less. But it's only a matter of time before things get really crazy again so I'll try to savor each quiet moment!

Becky v. Best Buy/Geek Squad

I am not a computer genius. I admit that. But I do have common sense. One morning a few weeks ago, my home computer just wouldn't turn on. Being the genius that I am, I quickly realized there was a problem. I took it to a friend who said it was probably a power supply or motherboard. I decided that I would take it to Best Buy/Geek Squad to get it fixed quickly and not to bother any of my computer-oriented friends. BIG MISTAKE!! I have had the most horrendous experience with the Geek Squad!

Most who know me would say that I am a patient person. I would agree! :) I hate confrontation like that so I would rather be patient and let things work themselves out than to cause a problem. But this time was different. I took my computer in on Columbus Day and told them I thought I had a problem with my power supply or motherboard. The guy behind the counter quickly figured out that I really didn't know what I was talking about and couldn't tell him what a motherboard was if he paid me a million dollars. So I quickly knew that he was going to try to take me for all I was worth. And did I mention that I can be a bit of a sucker? Because I agreed to have my files backed up for a mere, I mean extraordinary price. And I of course needed an official diagnosis. I figured what the heck, let's just see. They said it would be done in 3-5 days and they would call me to tell me what was wrong. So 8 days later, I still hadn't heard anything from them so I called them. Once they actually picked up the phone, they were sooo unhelpful. At one point they couldn't find my computer. Then they said it was in the service center waiting on a part (which was impossible because all I had asked was for them to diagnosis the issue.) I asked to speak to a manager. They said there was no manager on duty but they would have the manager call me. Which he or she never did. Then repeat this routine for the next 5 days. Every day I called. No return phone calls and many calls to them where I was put on hold for long periods of time. Actually, there might have been one return phone call but it was so unintelligible of who was actually calling that I'm not quite sure. The only thing I could make out was that they would call me back in a few hours. And when they didn't, I figured it was someone from the Geek Squad.

So I decided to go into the store and see the manager face to face. They had found my computer and had done the backup but not the diagnosis. The manager was apologetic and didn't charge me for the diagnosis and said he would immediately do it and call me back within a few hours. I've learned not to hold my breath for these people so when he didn't call back, I wasn't shocked. So the next day at work in between meetings, I spent about an hour on the phone trying to get my poor computer's diagnosis. After I got hung up on, my co-worker was so mad at Best Buy/Geek Squad at this point, she offered to yell at them because she said I was still being too nice. She gets hardly anywhere with them too and gives up. I decided to go again in person because the manager seemed to be a bit more receptive in person. Of course he wasn't working and the assistant manager is the one who had hung up on me previously in the day and had yelled at my co-worker. These people were unbelievable!!

But here's the bad part. I caved. He gave me a discounted price for fixing my computer (and I had quickly called around town to see what my other options were and it was going to be a little more expensive but not nearly the headache.) and I caved. I figured if he fixed it while I was standing there, it would still end up being cheaper than if I took it somewhere else and I would be finished with these people in my life. I am not an angry person and fairly laid back but these people made my blood boil. I just wanted it to be over. Of course, after I agreed to just have it fixed, the assistant manager was completely rude to me. He never once apologized or expressed any sympathy that the situation had gotten out of hand. In fact after the transaction was over, he just walked away and never said "Thank you." or "I'm sorry (I've held your computer hostage for 16 days when it only took 7 minutes to fix)" or "Have a great night." Even if he didn't mean it, you say it because that's what you call CUSTOMER SERVICE. This guy had the people skills of a brick wall and just made me soooo mad. I just took my computer and stormed out of the store and was grateful when it actually worked when I plugged it back in when I got home. Oh and the diagnosis? The power supply which is what I suggested from the beginning thanks to my friends.

For the record, I will NEVER take anything to the Geek Squad and I'm really mad at Best Buy for not holding their tech people to some sort of standard/accountability. I will think twice before buying something there, most especially anything computer-related. So I've filed a complaint with the corporate headquarters but I fully don't expect to ever hear anything from them. So I'm blogging about it so I can tell others what a horrendous experience I had and that it happens ALL THE TIME. I can't tell you how many people I've told my story to who have said that the same thing happened to them. So please, whenever you have any computer issues, support a local computer repair shop because a) they will probably fix your computer in about 1/145 of the time the Geek Squad takes and they won't "lose" your computer. And b) they will more than likely treat you with the respect and dignity that any human being deserves.

Ok, my rant is over. I feel better now.

Happy Birthday Cayton (and Mom!)

Last weekend I got to go back to the 'Noke to see the fam. I love them. I know you're supposed to love them but I am not just saying that! The biggest part that was missing was Kay who couldn't come from St. Louis. I went home because there's a chance that I won't make it to the beach for Thanksgiving or to the 'Noke for Christmas. I'm coming to terms with the fact that I might not get to be with them for the holidays (it's easier to prepare mentally for that and then be surprised if it works out for me to see them!) So I took the opportunity to see them while I could. I'm sure most people think it's crazy busy for me right before the election but really this is the calm before the storm. It's still busy for a variety of reasons but I am relishing these calmer days for me because after the election, my life will be insane. We'll be covering POTUS AND POTUS-elect. Again, it's a bit of mental game because I'd rather be prepared to be insane and then be happy if it's completely manageable rather than the other way around.



Anyway, I had a great weekend in the 'Noke hanging with the family. Cayton turned 5 and her party was on Saturday. She and my mom actually share a birthday but really Mom gets very little attention. Sorry Mom but Cayton is much cuter! :) Her party was a Tinkerbell theme and thankfully I didn't have to dress up like Tinkerbell. I just don't have the right wings. Anyway, Cayton is just one cute kid. I know I'm completely biased but the fact is that random strangers recognize that she is completely cute so I know she is. And they don't even know her personality which is so funny!! I'm her Aunt Beck Beck and proud of it! The party went off without a hitch and thankfully the rain stopped just in the nick of time to have the moon bounce! Praise Jesus because we would have had a lot of kids just bouncing off the living room walls! After the party and for the rest of the weekend, we had fun playing with her new toys and just being silly. I love that kid! I'm still her Beck Beck Silly Girl!

I'll never post anything like this again....

I feel really weird posting this but I think it might be the easiest way.... some of you had heard that there was some article about me in the VT alumni magazine and asked to see it (Thanks to Pastor Don and then Roger at church!!) Actually it was in the alumni magazine for VT's College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences so the readership is not that numerous but just in case you care, I've pasted the link to the article below. It's about an award I received last April at Virginia Tech. (I actually found out about the honor last November!) I was honored to receive the award at a nice ceremony in April and quite humbled by the whole experience. I really think the only reason they gave it to me was that after this year, I'm no longer considered a recent alumna! I'm also guessing that the competition was not that great this year! I would have thought that there was some smart biology grad creating some cure for something out there but maybe they are in another college at VT!! Anyway, here is the article and all I can say is that I think most of it is true. :) Did I mention how weird this is to post something like this about myself??

http://www.clahs.vt.edu/pdf/Spheres-fall2008.pdf (it's on the next to last page... that's how important it really is in the grand scheme of things!!) Also, thanks for all the notes of congrats! I can't believe you actually saw it! And seriously, I don't consider it a big deal but apparently more people read the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences magazine than I thought!! :)