White House - West Wing

Having powerful friends is of little use unless you can exercise that power for your own benefit. Last month, I was able to accomplish this rare feat when Tracy and I were invited to a tour of the White House. Before you turn up your nose and declare, quite correctly, than any schoolkid can get in the White House for a tour, please bear in mind that this was not the proletarian East Wing tour. This, my friends, was the fabled West Wing. A place not open to the public, and where mere mortals such as myself dare not tread.

Obviously, the tour was arranged by Ron M., and I don't know if he had to expend any silver bullets to pull this off, and I didn't ask. I was happy enough just to get in to where all the action occurs. The no-camera policy precluded the capture of any truly interesting photographs, but a few were obtained before we began.

If you look closely in the picture above, you can make out Tracy, Kara, and Austin just before we entered the facility. Note that we are inside the perimeter at this point and located on a street that separates the White House from the Executive Office Building.

This was my favorite picture that I took that day. This image of the seal was taken inside the vestibule that you saw us entering in the previous picture.

Due to the quality and knowledge of our benefactor, we eschewed the standard guide and toured the facility ourselves. Once inside we took a look at the latest installment of official White House photographs that adorn the visitor's lobby. We were even lucky enough to find one that had Ron in it. Austin and I took the opportunity to visit the men's room just so we could say we did. We took a quick look at the West Wing dining room and headed upstairs.

One there we took a brief detour outside to the Rose Garden. The shot you see above was taken there. It's hard to tell from this picture, but the windows here are to the Cabinet Room and the Oval Office. We left here to visit the Cabinet Room, which is the nearest set of doors in the picture above. The Cabinet Room was interesting both in the fact that all of the cabinet members had their names engraved on brass plates mounted on each chair, but that we found out that the Wall Street bailout meetings were held in this very room. In a subtle recognition of his standing, the President's chair is slightly taller than all of the others and is in the middle of the oval table rather than at one end.

There is a small office for the Presidential Secretary beside it, but it was not open. Next we visited the star of the show; The Oval Office. As head-of-state residences go, the White House is actually rather small, and as a result, visitors are often surprised at how small the Oval Office actually is. I found it somewhat larger than expected. When we were told that President Bush was using the Kennedy Desk, Tracy commented on the famous picture that showed John John sitting under the desk at his father's feet.

There was no opening in this desk, but a helpful guard explained that the desk actually has a door that swings open in front of it. This door is visible in the picture to the left. This desk is known as the Resolute Desk. The HMS Resolute was abandoned in the Arctic in 1855, but was rescued by the Americans the following year. When it was decommissioned about 20 years later, Queen Victoria had twin desks manufactured from the timbers and gave one to President Hayes in 1880, as a show of gratitude for its rescue. With the exceptions of Johnson, Nixon, and Ford, every sitting President has used this desk in the Oval Office. I am not sure if the kids grasped what they were seeing, but as a student of history, this was a rare treat.

The last stop of our tour was the Press Room. This is a room that we have all seen during news conferences, and it was here that I had my first real surprise. This room is tiny. It is so small that all major news outlets are issued a single seat. The room itself is not much wider than the following picture of the lectern.


We left after that, but I can't thank Ron and Amanda enough for the tour and, although my children are not likely to grasp the significance of where they were until they are much older, it was a lifetime event for all of us.

Christmas Lights 2008

After overcoming a persistent fuse problem, this year's lighting is complete.

Kellie on TV

You hear about these sorts of things all the time, but they have always happened somewhere else to a host of unknown souls. A few days ago this all changed with the news that a BDHS Phys Ed teacher has been charged with sexual contact involving not one, but two 16-year female students.

Not good news by any measure and interested parties can read the sordid affair here or here.

The news has garnered a lot of undesired attention to our little school and one interesting fallout is that a local news station (WJLA - Channel 7) was at the school today for a live report. It is mentioned here because Kellie appears in the newscast video. Kellie appears very briefly in the school parking lot at 1:04.

A New Chapter

One the traits that Lumbee Indians share with our Native brethren is the respect and honor we bestow on our Elders. Because of this, I have had the unique opportunity in my life to spend considerable time talking to people far older than me. The impression I am left with is only correlated with various written interviews with other elder men and women. This impression, to put a name to it, is that we get older in a physical sense only. As we age, we feel the effects of our physical lives somewhat more, we realize that our bodies have aged and we are far more slowly to heal than we were on our younger days. This is normal. What I am talking about here is the glacial changes we discover in our minds. All the discussions I have had with Elders is that we can perceive little change in our minds. We don't "feel" any different at 80 than we did at 20, insofar as our self identity is concerned. We age physically, but our inner selves seem to stay effectively the same.

Why the long explanation here? My point is that I don't necessarily feel any older than I did at 20 than I do now, but occasionally things conspire to force the reality of my 43 years squarely to the forefront. Yesterday, two of these "things" just happened to occur on the same day when I was able to share in two seminal events in Kellie's life. On this unusual day, I was granted the opportunity to ride in a vehicle, operating on public roads mind you, that was driven by my 16- year daughter. Later that evening, I was on hand to witness her hard at work on her first job.

This brings me squarely back to my point. How did this happen? One day I am buying half a pizza in Metcalf Hall, a Wednesday night ritual during my college days, and the next I am sitting in a new Pizza restaurant in Gainesville, VA watching my oldest daughter run credit cards in a restaurant. I don't feel like a different person, but the circumstances are worlds apart.

Lest we think this post is about me, the real story here is that Kellie now has a Learner's Permit and a job, two life-changing events that are enabled with the passing of her 16th birthday.

Girls on the Run (w/Pics)

This past fall, Kara joined a running group in her school called Girls On The Run (GOTR) that introduces girls to running and the associated benefits it provides. Kara seemed to enjoy the bi-weekly events that really don't involve much more than running for an hour before school. The entire affair culminated in the 2008 GOTR Reindeer Romp, a 5K event held last weekend at the Reston Town Center. Here, all the participating Elementary Schools in Northern Virginia met for a fun-run to conclude the 2008 GOTR program. We were told to expect 5,000 runners and while I haven't seen an official count, there were thousands of participants.

Last month, Kara's group held their practice 5K at her school and I ran it with her. Just for comparative purposes, they clocked everyone and Kara posted a 46:37 (46 Min, 37 Sec) time for a 5K. For those Americans yet to embrace the Metric system, this is 3.1 miles. The practice run was simply laps around the school and her time reflected the boredom of familiar surroundings.

We arrived last Saturday on cold Reston morning after fighting the hordes pouring into the Town Center and Kara joined her classmates. They used staggered start, but did use an official timing system that read start/stop times for the 5K from a magnetic strip applied to each participant's shoes. After the even started, we joined yet another line of patrons at the local Panera's for a little breakfast. Knowing that we had about 45 min before she arrived, we took our time and reported to the finish line after about 35 minutes had elapsed.

The surprise of the day was that we found Kara had already finished the event and was quitely eating the post-race snack provided the sponsor. Maybe it was the challenge of running with the crowd, the encouragement from her peers, or the stamina and endurance that is wasted on the youth, but Kara posted an incredible improvement in here time. She ran the 5K in an official time of 30:11, shaving more than 16 minutes from her time of less than 2 weeks before. Better yet, she ran the fastest time of anyone on her team.

Kara was beside herself and I applaud her efforts at testing and exceeding her known limits. For once she pushed herself physically beyond the known parameters and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It's always a joy to see your children flush with a sense of accomplishment and personal pride. I extend my personal congratulations for a job well done.

Pre-Race

Post-Race

Antarctica Bound

As I write this, my parents are vacationing in Antarctica. A little odd, I know, but my parents, my father in particular, dance to a different drum. They left last Wednesday for Miami, then to Buenos Aires, Argentina for two days. They then flew to Tierra del Feugo to board a boat that took them to our southern-most continent. Obviously, they are arriving in the middle of the Antarctic summer because regardless of how insane it might be to visit this place, to go in Winter is suicidal. They have really gone off the grid on this one, but I hope to file another report complete with pictures when the come back. They are due back on December 16th.