I Saw Obama

Yes I saw him, no I did not actually speak to him, but as one friend put it, I know from first hand eye witnessing that he is in fact real.  Not that I doubted it, but its like seeing Elena Kagan, you will forever read about them and thier contributions to history, but you don't actually ever get to see them in the flesh.  i was less than one hundred feet from him, with only a window pane between him, his Marine 1 private helicoptor and me! I would have broken through the window and rushed up to touch his shoe, but the window was bulletproof, and therefore not even capable of breaking if 1*0 pounds of deadwight started jumping on it. I don't know any of you well enough to reveal my weight on here. Anyway, I should start at the beginning....and that beginning starts on Friday.

Not that wednesday and Thursday were not great, but there is just not much to tell, average days and Talledaga Nights. haha. I don't even know what that means. Anyway. Friday.

Went to keith Ellison's office and spoke to his top foreign policy aid and he was amazing.  He was telling us his life story and how he got into working for Human Rights and how he got to his position now and hes only what..hmm...30 something? He graduated from Berkeley and went to UCLA's grad school, and I was impressed from the beginning.  Then he gives us seniors advice on our career paths and I was enthralled because he is the only speaker who has reaffirmed my own life goals.  He said the Peace Corps was a fantastic idea, and that knowing spanish (and wanting to work for congress) is one of two important things, the other being how to use facebook and twitter, so I think now i need to get a twitter...how many of you readers would follow me?  Anyway, it was just uplifting to hear a complete stranger say (even if he didnt realize it) that YES I CAN DO EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER WANTED TO DO! In regards to helping people and the path to getting there.  So that was great!

Then my class spoke to the Muslim Student Association and that was pretty legit, we heard their stories and now I have 4 contacts for my research paper.  Then I studied for a bit, took a nap and played monopoly with Amalee and Billy and that was fun.  Then the night turned super sour when I got into an argument about politics. Really silly actually but there is definitely some lingering resentment for some comments made afterwards that had nothing to do about politics. Anyway, can you blame me? DC is possibly the most politically active city in the world, whoever isn't talking politics or party lines just shouldn't be in the city! Like my mother says, if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. 

Anyhow, because of that night, I didn't get to bed till...oh about 4:30-5 and guess who had to be out of her room at 8?! Me! And my roommates and Maria, so that we could go to the White House!! So if I was a bit happier than usual its because the effects of the liquid courage I'd had the night before had not worn off.  So, we get ready in record time and run out of the metro, and I swear we should have been in a movie! Running down DC streets, looking supa fly in our professional gear, the sun was shining, the air was biting, it was a gorgeous day.  Then we get to the place where the tours start, show our ID and then are told to turn off out cell phones. And I don't know how and start freaking out that the secret service people are going to neve let me into the White House again because I violated the most basic of codes.  But Amalee turns it off and she and Lily laugh at me...but then we enter the White House. 

There are pictures everywhere. Of former presidents, of the Obamas and then I see the white pillars that constitute the front of the white house and practically faint because I can't beleive that I am IN THE WHITE HOUSE.  I make about a billion and one jokes about me just getting acquianted with my future home.   Then we see a secret service person in front of a blocked off section of the house and we ask him about it, and its to block of the elevator entrances for the Obamas to use if they should want to get off the second floor (which is part of their living quarters) and go to the rest of the house.  My knees go weak at the fact that I am breathing the same air as the Obamas. Then we are still talking to this secret service guy (he was pretty cute, and there was four of pretty ladies) and we see this guy go past the secret service guy and is about to go past the panels blocking that wing from view when he stops and asks us who we are and says that he works for the Obamas personally and do we want to see a pic of him with Obama? Sure! we say, and we make small talk with the ss guy, and then the other guy comes back and shows us a picture of him and Barack and Michelle Obama! We say "cooooool!!!" and then he says he has worked at the White House for 27 years, 5 presidents, and do we want him to be our personal tour guide?! Heck yes we do! Then he walks us around, saying hi to every secret service person we see and then he stops in the Green Room and says, "you see those pads out there on the lawn? My boss' personal helicopter is coming in to pick him up today." and since he is nice, he waits with us to see the president board his copter and fly off to Camp David.  So we talk until we hear the helicopter come.  Before that we are talking to this secret service guy who is really cute! haha.  then the copter comes and lands less than 100 feet from us and right in front of the WH. We wait for a bit in front of a window and make small talk.  Then President Obama and Michelle walk out of the White House! We all surge forward, Maria screams in my ear, and I'm pretty sure I am rendered speechless as I see our president saunter out of the WH and towards his Marine I. Amazing. I just follow him and can't believe that I am seeing him. Its incredible! Then he shakes the pilots hands (which I think is very nice of him) and takes off and my life is complete. I wave to my President until the helicopter is out of sight. A small sigh of contentment escapes me. 

I don't care what happens after that, so that when the same secret servie guy from before tricks me in the Blue Room about who james madison is, I just flirt back, give him my name and float away. Then we are outside and our tour guide is beaming because he knows he just fulfilled the entire DC experience for 4 youngins from California.  We treat him to lunch and then chat, walk him to the White House and made a new friend! Awesome!!! He was so nice!

And then we all sleep from 2:30-6ish, eat dinner and then play scrabble and apples to apples and just have a fun low key night.  Brett is a riot, let me just say that!

Haha, okay so then Sunday, I go to church and then study for a midterm on friday. Lookit me, studying FIVE days before the exam...I'm impressed with myself! Oh! another landmark: i finished my 5th consecutive journal! This last journal lasted me 2 years, from Jan. 2008-Oct. 2010. Cool huh?! Now today, after my internship, I get to buy a new journal! yay! 

OOHHH! i also got my itinerary for Jordan and Egypt yesterday! Egads, i'm excited! Except I hope I don't get nervous and throw up fifteen times like I did the first time I rode an airplane and went to Mexico...

okay, well, I need to keep focusing. Will include pictures soon! 

peace.