Annual Girls Weekend

So you'll be happy to know there is no rest for the weary!! My dad and I successfully finished painting my new townhouse on Thursday (Well, if you want the whole story, I was a bit sick in the morning so he did a lot on his own and then he painted the last closet without me on Friday) and it looks absolutely great! I can't wait to actually move furniture into it and live there!! (That's just a couple of weeks away!!)

After four days of heavy labor, I did the natural thing and flew south! On Friday morning, I had an early morning flight to Atlanta so I could meet up with Elizabeth, Becky and Missy for our annual get-together! The last time all four of us were together was last year's trip to Northern Georgia in the cabin in the mountains. This year we went the civilized route and just went to see Elizabeth. The new thing about this year was that we had a whole new form of entertainment and that was in the form of Elizabeth and Casey's 9-month old daughter Caroline. (For the record, if I ever have a kid and name her Caroline, it's not going to be after her because I've always loved that name. I'm just glad she'll have someone cool to share her name with because I've had a cool Becky to share my name with!) We had so much fun just hanging out and playing with her! Literally that's what we did. In fact on Saturday, we didn't even come up with a plan for the day until about 4:30 and that was just to take our hanging out to the pool.

Oh, and of course a crucial part of any girls' weekend is the Nerts tournament. I am not one to brag but let's just say that I consistently win. I'm really not that competitive of a person. I like to win but I recognize that it's not the end of the world when I lose. Except at Nerts. :) I didn't really have to deal with that but on Sunday afternoon, Missy and I and Elizabeth and Casey played with one of their friends who is apparently really, really good. The bar was set soooo high. Sadly, I lost by 3 points before we had to leave to go to the airport. One more round and I think I would have taken him! :)

This is our 8th year of the four of us getting together for some form of vacation and I'm sure I'm repeating myself from an earlier blog post but these girls just rock! We've done some really fun things over the years (from our first vacation to Pompano Beach, to a Caribbean cruise, to going to the Miss America Pageant) and I have literally enjoyed every second. Nowadays, we don't have to do anything exciting. They are just the kind of friends you want to hang out with and catch up. That's exactly what we did. We were still in our pajamas at 4pm and no one noticed! I just love these gals and appreciate all they've meant to me over the years. I thank God for providing me these (and many other) wonderful Godly friends.

So this week has been back to the grind. I was at the White House on Monday and Tuesday but never saw POTUS. Tonight is the press conference and I'm not scheduled to be there. I am perfectly content with watching it from home while I pack. Speaking of which, I've been slowly moving things (one car load at a time) to my new place. And let me just say, I have SOOO MUCH STUFF!! The movers come in a matter of three weeks!! I will have pretty much everything but the furniture over there and I'm sure I'll be worn out by then! On Monday morning, I woke up and started taking stuff over there and by the time I got to work, I totally needed a nap. Who knew that moving was going to be so difficult?!?! (ok, don't answer that... of course it is!)

Out of Africa

I didn't want to leave you hanging so I decided I needed to finish up my travel log of sorts and tell you about Ghana!! On Friday night, we left Italy and flew 6 hours to Accra, Ghana. It was my first time in "real" Africa. I've been to Egypt a couple of times but that doesn't really count. Come to think of it, I wasn't in Ghana for a full 24 hours so maybe this time doesn't count either.

We arrived in Ghana around 1:30a local time (3:30a Rome time) so we couldn't even really see the scenes from the bus. But when we arrived at the hotel, a scene greeted us. A full African band and group of dancers, complete with bongos and tambourines, were singing very loudly when we stepped off the bus. Think African dancers and that's what we saw. I stopped to take pictures and when I was zooming in on them, I realized that several of them were African MEN IN DRAG!! Seriously, my brain couldn't process exactly what I was seeing at that hour of the night!!

But I went ahead and checked in and was told my room was in Hut #19. I had never been told that before! I kept seeing signs for Huts 1-15 but nothing for #19. Turns out that my hut was right on the water (the not-so-famous Gulf of Ghana) and it felt like I was walking to another country by the time I got to Hut #19. When I got to my room, I was amazed! It was like an apartment- a kitchen, living room, etc. Too bad I was only going to be in my room for a matter of hours and 95% of that was to sleep!

So I finished giving myself a tour of the apartment and then got ready for bed. I had to keep reminding myself not to brush my teeth with the tap water. (Remember, I was exceptionally sleepy!) After being so proud of myself for remembering that, I went to bed. About an hour or so later, I heard a knock on my door which happened to be about three feet from my bed. I got up to look through the peep hole and before I could do that, the door popped opened! There wasn't a deadbolt on the door and apparently my door hadn't really latched when I closed it and thought I had somewhat locked it. An African man was at my door wondering if I wanted a second key to my hut. I declined the kind offer but was so freaked out that my door didn't really close, much less lock, that I really didn't sleep the rest of the night! Thankfully it was only a matter of a couple of hours we were talking about!!

So for the day, I was in charge of liveshots and basically I produced liveshot after liveshot after liveshot, all day long. I think it was for something like 15 hours. So I never left the hotel and spent the whole time I was in the country in a hotel ball room. Truth be told, that's more the norm than actually getting time to go to see things like I did in Moscow and Rome!! So I was there long enough to get bitten by a bug on my arm (Come on Malaria drugs!! Please kick in!!) and to see a few random animals (lizards and weird birds and such... no lions, tigers and bears, oh my!) outside Hut #19.

So now I am home and right away got back to life as normal. I even made it to church on Sunday on time. Actually early. We landed around 7a and I still made it home in time to shower and change and got there on time. On a normal Sunday, I run approximately 5 minutes late and that's coming from 4 miles away. Maybe I should commute to church from Africa more often!

Now my parents are in town. They got here on Sunday night and immediately we started working on my new townhouse. By "working", I mean painting and my dad and I have been busy bees. I have to say that I am soooo grateful for my parents to come and help me! We're about half-way done and we still have two more days!!! I have never really painted before and while I can't see a future career in this, I have learned a lot and had quality time with Mom and Dad and how can you beat that?

I'm also grateful that once again, I can say that I didn't get jet-lag from my trip. I have mastered the art of sleeping on the plane and then being able to immediately adjust back to a normal time zone!! Either that or I've just stayed so busy that it hasn't had time to hit me!!!

When in Rome...

I've spent the past two days in L'Aquila as you've seen in my previous post. The summit has been nice and all but really the highlight of my two days here has been my night off the other night. My boss said that I could go back to Rome to rest and I quickly took him up on the offer. I slept for part of the way back to the hotel (2 hour car ride) so I was somewhat refreshed when I got back to Rome. So I decided that I would use my free time to explore rather than just sleeping. Sleeping in this case (despite the fact that I had not slept the night before) was soooo overrated. I've never been to Rome before and this was my unexpected chance. I had really thought I would be at the G8 site the whole time so I hadn't done any reading or research of what I wanted to see. And maybe I'm just culturally slow but the only things I really knew off the top of my head was the Colosseum and the Pantheon. To be completely honest, I don't even really know all the history for those two... I know the basics and part of the basics is that they are OLD!

Anyway, in my sleep deprived state, I set out from my hotel (which is really, really nice by the way!) in the hotel's shuttle service with only myself and my map. Oh and I exchanged a few American dollars into euros just in case. The driver dropped me off at the Spanish Steps and I attempted to start my journey without looking toooo touristy and therefore not getting pickpocketed. Along with those two goals, I aimed to just see what I could see. I walked around the streets and took some pictures of unknown buildings. I really wish I knew I was looking at but it was such beautiful weather and such a nice night that it really didn't matter.

If you've been following me on Facebook, I've been one of those annoying people who updates my status frequently this week. That's because there is actually something going on. Kind of like the frequency of me updating my blog! Anyway, I updated my status to say I was exploring the city of Rome and within minutes, I had suggestions of what to see and where to go. The only down side is that I had a limited amount of time and energy. But one message stuck out. That was from good ol' Mom who said that my grandmother's favorite song had something to do with the Trevi Fountain. And that it was in a movie that my grandmother had seen some 40 or 50 years ago! So I decided to try to find it. And lo and behold I got there without getting lost! (I thank Mom for my sense of direction and map-reading skills!) It was sooooo neat! There were a bazillion people there hanging out at this gorgeous statue/fountain! I decided that I was hungry and wanted real Italian food (although the food in the file center at the G8 has been absolutely AMAZING!) So I found one of the many restaurants near the fountain and ate some incredible tortellini. Seriously, those Italians know how to cook. After dinner, I picked one of the hundreds of gelato places and ordered some chocolate and mint gelato. I took it to the Trevi Fountain and just sat and ate and pondered. It was awesome. The whole experience.

After that, I decided I had enough daylight to try to find the Pantheon. So all by myself, I navigated the streets of Rome until I came upon it. It was really really cool. Like I said, I have no idea how old it is but man, it was awesome. I've seen Nashville's version of it and hands down the original WINS! I walked around the plaza for a few minutes and contemplated getting a second round of gelato. Just about then, my feet started screaming at me. I think I audibly heard them. I was just about to literally hit a wall. So I found a cab and with the help of the address on the hotel stationary that I stole from my room before I left, was able to get back in one piece.

I am definitely putting Rome on my list of places to come back one day when I really have time to explore. There's so much I didn't get to see and so much I saw that I didn't know what it was! But I was ever so grateful for that free time to actually see something. I know I had already gotten to see Red Square in Moscow so I really wasn't expecting it!! Most of the time I'm in a country for work, all I see is what is out the window of the airplane and the bus to the workspace. This trip so far has been much different. We've still worked just as much. But I guess we've actually been in each place long enough to actually see something. Who knows if Ghana will be the same but even if it's not, I'm still a happy camper. Onward to Ghana!!!

Stalked by the KGB

Last night, once the Michael Jackson funeral started, all my worked ended. I can honestly say that I didn't watch one second of the funeral. I of course woke up really early the morning of Princess Diana's funeral but Jacko's funeral would never even come close to comparison. The benefit of MJ's funeral was that my workflow immediately stopped on a dime the second that the funeral procession started moving. And for that moment, I can honestly say that I was thankful for Michael Jackson.

So that left me with a dilemma. Go to bed early (we had to be on the bus at 3:00a) or take another walk to Red Square in beautiful weather. I figured that I could sleep later and when else will I have this chance. I wanted to go by myself but my boss insisted that I take one or two of people with me. I tried to get two of my Becky Protective Detail from the Secret Service to go with me but they were very busy smoking cigars. So instead, I found two of my camera guys and the three of us started walking over the bridge to Red Square, which in total was about a five minute walk from my hotel. Well, as we were walking I noticed a guy sort of walking behind us. He was dressed in a suit and carried a briefcase. A perfectly normal looking Russian man. I stopped to turn around to take a picture of the hotel and I noticed that he kind of stopped too. This kept on happening all the way over the bridge and then all across Red Square. I mentioned it to the guys who started to notice this strange behavior. So we would intentionally walk way out of the way and stop to see if this guy would stop too. And for the next 30 minutes, I was completely stalked by this guy. When I went to a souvenir stand, he stopped too and just stared at me. It started freaking out my camera guys to the point that they wanted to go back to the hotel!! I thought they were wimps!! At one point, my friend Tony just ditched us! But in my mind, this guy was from the KGB and was somehow going to kidnap me and I would never be heard from again. So I decided to play it safe and cut short my souvenir shopping spree. I'm pretty disappointed because when I ended up going back a little later with my correspondent, all the souvenir stands were closed. I guess that just means that I will have to come back at a later date (company paid trip of course!)

Now I'm in L'Aquila, Italy for the next couple of days. Getting here was a little brutal. We had to be on the bus by 3a and I didn't go to bed until 1a (didn't get to sleep until about 1:30a local time). So I got an hour and half nap before leaving Moscow and then I took another hour and a half nap on the plane to Rome. Then we had to get on a bus for 2 hours. My original intention was to take yet another hour and a half nap and that would have gotten me 4.5 hours of sleep. However, the scenery going through the Italian countryside and mountains was incredibly beautiful. Literally breathtaking! Our caravan of buses wound through the mountains, literally through a couple of tunnels, and we were just surrounded by beauty. The sun was also streaming through the clouds so you could actually see the sun rays. It just so happened that on my iPod, a remake of the old hymn "This is My Father's World" popped up. It was so moving that I had to listen to the song at least three times. Eventually after about 90 minutes of the bus ride, my eyes decided they had had enough of being opened and I fell asleep for the last little bit. We're in a town that was devastated by a 5.8 earthquake in April. We're working in a tent (a very, very nice tent) and it's quite nice. At first, I thought the only bathroom option was a port-a-potty but once I found that there are real bathrooms, my attitude immediately changed. Then came time for food and I became a different person. The food is absolutely incredible. I had done a bad job eating in Russia but I think I'm going to be making up for lost time in Italy! I can't tell you what time it is or what meal should be served but I can tell you that the lasagna is awesome.

I just got the good news that I get to go back to Rome on the first bus back which means I have my evening free in Rome. So I'm going to explore. Don't worry, Mom, I'll be extra careful and hopefully I'll find the Trevi Fountain!

All That Glitters is Gold

At least at the Kremlin, it is!! I'm sorry my post yesterday was sooo lame but it was a long day!! I'm glad though that I was able to get out of the filing center so let me go back and share some highlights from my day yesterday.


First of all, I never seem to pack appropriately for these trips. I actually look on weather.com for the weather forecast and once again, they lied!!! Yesterday it was about 45 degrees and cloudy. And of course I didn't have the appropriate coat. I dressed in what layers I had and just survived. That leads me to my first story.

The first event I went to was where POTUS was laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I've seen him do that in America and it was remarkably the same except the soldiers kick their legs pretty high in the most unnatural movement possible. Anyway, back to my story. So we arrive in the requisite three hours early to get swept and in place before POTUS arrives. Well as I mentioned before, I was cold. And the Russians gave us the option of going up the hill to find a bathroom or to sit on the bus. This might border on TMI but I generally can hold it rather than use a potentially disgusting bathroom so I opted for sitting on the bus. First of all, I was the first one on there and the translator had gone with the group to the bathroom so I had to navigate the Russian version of the Secret Service by myself. I was thoroughly magged and the guy going through my bag made me take literally everything out. If you've seen my bag, it weighs approximately 40 pounds and is crammed with enough stuff to survive for three days. So this took a while but I finally passed the security check and was sitting all alone on the bus staying relatively warm. Next thing I knew, about 40 Russian journalists stormed the bus (their security check was not nearly as invasive!!) and for about 30 minutes or so, it was just me and the 40 Russians sitting on a bus. They wouldn't let the rest of the American press on and I was just sure that a) the Russians were all talking about me and b) that somehow the bus was going to pull away and I would never be heard from again. My Secret Service agent (he's on the Becky detail but he's still new and has some things to learn!) really couldn't do anything. Each time the bus moved a foot or two, I got more and more nervous. Luckily they were just re-parking and eventually they let a few more Americans on the bus. Then all of a sudden, everyone RAN off the bus for some unknown reason. I was just happy to be reunited with the rest of the American pool.

The event itself was very somber but I was right at the front there within a few feet of POTUS. I've posted pictures on Facebook but hopefully when I get home, I can add a link to this page.

Then after the ceremony, the Russians told us we would be taking a short walk to the site of the press conference between POTUS and POR. The "short walk" was around the Kremlin and up a hill. If you haven't been here, the Kremlin is enormous. It's not just one building but really a fort and we basically had to walk about 3/4 around the great big red brick wall. Once we entered the gate, it was about a 15 minute walk uphill at a fast pace. I tried taking pictures as we walked by all the churches and cool looking building. By the time we made it to the building, I was just proud of myself for making it alive and without panting too badly. When we walked into the building where the presser was going to take place, it literally made me stop in my tracks. It was soooo beautiful. Gold everywhere. It seemed nicer than any other palace I've ever been to. (Not that I have toooo many to compare it to but I've been to a few!) In my humble opinion, it was a little over the top. Who am I to criticize the Russians but it was almost a little too much. I would have pared down on the gold just ever so slightly!

We waited in one humongous room for several hours and then about 30 minutes prior to the original start time of the presser, they opened the doors to the room where the presser was going to be. All of a sudden, hundreds of mostly Russian journalists storm the enormous door to get a good spot. It was so chaotic. We were led through another incredibly ornate room into the room with the presser, the St. Andrews Room as one local Russian told me, which was equally as ornate. The presser was delayed by about 45 minutes, presumably while POTUS went back to the hotel to change his clothes. I admit, I was getting sleepy and almost fell asleep waiting if it had not been for the Russians screaming at each other and almost breaking out into fights.

The presser itself was actually fairly interesting as POTUS and POR talked about strengthening relations and all the ways they promised to get along. And be BFFs and promise to play nice when it comes to things like nuclear weapons. Clearly it was a bit more in depth than that but I'll let you read all about that on your own. Details details. World peace and so forth. Exciting stuff.

Today I've spent most of the day in the filing center producing liveshots. POTUS gave interviews to each of the five networks and even though it's the day for Michael Jackson's funeral, for some reason we've actually been really busy and doing a ton of liveshots. I've actually been shocked. But in the last five minutes, the funeral motorcade took off and now there aren't any more liveshots and I think I'm going to take a walk in Red Square. I'll post pictures soon!

Inside the Kremlin

So this is going to have to be quick tonight because it's almost 1a and I'm really tired and there's lots to tell about today but basically I spent the day inside the Kremlin with the Russians. There are plenty of stories to tell but basically the good news is that I didn't get arrested and end up in a gulag. Is that a good tease or what? Actually nothing nearly that dramatic happened but I just thought I would get your attention. So hold your horses and I'll tell stories tomorrow while the world stops for the Michael Jackson funeral. Praise God my network's international channel is also covering it! That means I'll have a few hours free tomorrow!! Great blogging times indeed!! In the meantime, have a good night!!

Back to the USSR

Except that I've never been here!! I'm in Moscow! I'm spending the next week on the road with POTUS and I promise to blog on a regular basis. See, there will actually be something to say this week! :)

Last night, I had to be extraordinarily un-American and skip the celebrations for our country's birthday and fly to Russia. I did see some fireworks from small Maryland towns when I was driving to Andrews Air Force Base so I felt patriotic for a brief second. Last year, I missed them as well when we were leaving for Japan. But I guess being on a military base and getting ready to travel with POTUS can count for being patriotic. And besides, earlier in the afternoon, I spent several hours doing American things like eating hamburgers and hotdogs and cherry pie and ice cream with great friends!

So I got cozy into row 25 on the plane and took some drugs and slept for most of the way. When we landed, we actually had to go through customs (which is unusual for us!) and I had no problems!! And actually everything looked a little like Iowa to me. But now we're downtown and our hotel is awesome. My view rocks! And we actually stay in the same hotel for three nights. Of course I'm not sure if I'll be able to sleep. I might have to take drugs again. We ate breakfast on the plane and one hour later when we got to the hotel, we ate dinner. Of course before we even entered the door, we were offered shots of vodka. Shocking I know. I turned them down because a) I don't drink vodka and b) I had to work as soon as we got here.

Anyway, I'm about to take a walk to Red Square in the rain. I'll take pictures but hopefully it will be sunny tomorrow and the colors will actually show up!!