West Wing, Baby!

Yesterday afternoon, I had several frantic texts and messages from Kristine saying she needed my birthday and ssn immediately, as we were going on a WEST WING tour at 7pm. Of course I would be in the middle of giving a two hour tour when something so important was going on...no worries, everything worked out!

As the end of the day is approaching, I had to finish a copying/stapling job before heading out for the weekend. Although this was an easy task, it was extremely time consuming. When I realized there was no way I was going to finish all of the stapling by myself (mind you, Joe had left hours before in order to go home to NY for Easter), I started delegating piles to be stapled. Unfortunately, Anne was the only other intern available to help. Because of this, I had to delegate to full-time staff members so I could get out of the office on time. Crazy, but once again, it all worked out!

Our West Wing tour was postponed because some VIPs were still in the White House when we got there. So we had a drink with our favorite WH security guard (who was taking us on our tour) at a bar down the street, and then had our tour around 8:30. After standing in a *holding cell,* we walked straight up to the West Wing and got to use the same entrance that Condi and other Cabinet members use!

The first few halls were lined with extremely recent pictures of the president's adventures. We were able to walk out into the Rose Garden, and even take some pictures. Cameras were only allowed to be used when we were outside and in the press room. So unfortunately I don't have pictures of the Roosevelt Room, the main conference room, or the Oval Office. However, I did sneak my foot under the museumy ropes just to say I'd been in these places. The Oval Office was much smaller than I would have guessed, and so was the Resolute Desk. But it was a scene straight from the movie National Treasure II. I LOVED IT!!!

Although we will be forever grateful for Officer Willie D for getting us a West Wing tour, he wasn't very knowledgeable about the things we were seeing. I tried listening in on the other small tour groups traveling through the West Wing, but they got suspicious quite quickly. Nonetheless, it was an amazing visit to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave :)