I'm a Three for Three in White House Tweetups!

Yippee!  The White House has selected me to attend the March 14, 2012 Tweetup where the President and the First Lady will greet UK Prime Minister Cameron and his wife for their first visit since the British elections.  This is the third time that I have been picked!  Next month’s event is right up my alley because I have a BA in International Economics degree and traveled to London, England ten years ago during Queen Elizabeth’s jubilee.  Immediately I complete and send my Excel spreadsheet with all vital information because I will be front and center. 

The Week That Was

Attending the White House Tour and covering the White House’s State of the Union Tweetup made for an eventful week. The tourists aligned outside of Hamilton Place behind the Treasury Department; however, unlike the Christmas tour neither camera nor purses were allowed. A man brought his camera and a lady brought her purse. I recommended to both of them to walk across the street to the W Hotel asking customer service to hold it for them until the tour concluded. The nearby hotels housed tourists so they understood. I met with fellow bloggers and others in the line. Walking into the White House, it felt different without the lights and trees. The residence looked naked. I remembered all of the adornment. My group did get the funniest tour guide that I ever had. He admitted that he was a Secret Service man (Who knew? I originally thought, but, then it made since they were responsible for protecting the President. That would be the best Secret Service job in the world!). The group also had a toddler who though made noises, didn’t cry. He was very well-behaved for 45 minutes.

Once the tour concluded, I walked home to drop off some of my White House memorabilia then scheduled lunch at the downtown DC Morton’s Steakhouse. Lunch was divine but more importantly the hostess remembered my name and seating preference over one year later. That customer service made me seriously reconsider the restaurant given that my favorite didn’t accept reservations for 1 anymore. I ate shrimp and scallops plus people-watch. The atmosphere resembled the Palm and every other high-end steakhouse. I returned home getting ready for my second Tweetup. 

This was my second time at the White House and was ecstatic that the Eisenhower Executive Office Building has wi-fi allowing me to carry my laptop there. The security procedure was late so the guards were scrambling. I sat four rows behind because of the rush making my photos blurry. Mind you I never used my wi-fi connection so I was very happy for assistance. Finally, I got the Internet connection and started asking my Twitter followers for more State of the Union questions. Once President Obama started there was so much Internet traffic I was forced to use Apple Safari over Internet Explorer. I tweeted so much that I thought Twitter would put me in Twitter jail. There were so many people retweeting my posts it amazed me that I could paraphrase President Obama’s speech. After the speech ended, administration officials spoke to the bloggers. I didn’t exit until 11:15pm. The 17th street McDonalds closed forcing me to huff all the way to 19th & M streets which stayed opened until 1am. I bought dinner returning home around 12 midnight. 

I was happy that I took Wednesday off to recuperate because I was up since 7am. Usually I worked from 7am to 4:30pm but the White House schedule stretched until early Wednesday morning. When I came back to work at Thursday I was so giddy knowing that I was registered for the Agency’s International Accounts training program. This course expanded my network letting me exploit opportunities in another directorate. I felt that I accomplished so much in my current position and though I loved my Agency, I needed new challenges. The training program exposed me to new stuff. Since it was down time, I also got to reexamine my personal interests. I decided to switch my science interests from physics to biology because I had more classes underneath my belt with the latter. In high school I took biology, botany and anatomy & physiology. NASA’s Astronaut program mandating pure science degrees over social science degrees (I have an economics one.), motivates me to pursue it. While enrolled in UDC and taking calculus III, I learned that the physics majors only had to take calculus II. If I had that kind of math proficiency certainly I could master biology or physics. Most of my math credits covered the UDC’s biology major leaving me only the science part. I ordered Biology Essentials for Dummies and was glad that I had because if I purchased Biology for Dummies it would had whooped my butt. That was too much information and biology required a lot of memorization!

Friday was the Commerce Department Combined Leaders Development program graduation. I volunteered as the floater/usher taking Deputy Secretary to her seat. How cool was that? I wanted to give back because the leadership development program helped me in my career. Tonight it helped me understand that I was frustrated not getting the proper management opportunities on my job so I registered for ServeDC and Greater DC Cares. I possessed project management certification so I was qualified to do the work. After completing the online orientation, I would RSVP for February leadership volunteer program. I would volunteer my way towards becoming a manager or a director. I owed that clarity to the Department’s program. It was very rare that every single day was eventful but this week was the exception.

White House Holiday Open House and Christmas Tree Tour

White House Holiday Open House and Christmas Tree Tour
I follow the White House on Twitter and when it posts the Tweetup link, I click on it registering for the event. I am thinking ‘What the heck?’. The last week of November I received an email saying to respond by noon; however, my boss and I were so busy with the deadline that I didn’t see the email until 12:15pm. I feverishly completed the registration form praying that the White House would had penalize me for my tardiness. When I received the confirmation, I jumped for joy running out to buy a new digital camera specifically for this event.

The instructions told us to meet at 17th and State Place NW to pass security before entering the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. After going through the turnstiles and obtaining our passes, we walked through a maze from the Eisenhower building to the South building where lo and behold there was no wi-fi for the Tweetup. Luckily, I had my small notebook where I jotted down notes and photographed all of the White House staffers: Tina Tchen, the First Lady’s chief of staff; Brad Cooper, Executive Director of Joining Forces non-profit; Jon Carson, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Public Engagement; Aneesh Chopra, Assistant to the President for Technology and US Chief Technology Officer; Macon Phillips, Special Assistant to the President and Director of Digital Strategy; Laura Dowling, White House Florist; and, Bill Yossess, White House Pasty chef. I asked Jon Carson about if the Administration considered nationalization the $50 billion infrastructure program to reduce unemployment like FDR did with the New Deal and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Carson thanked me for mentioning the American Jobs Act provision then explained that FDR didn’t solely rely on the federal government to create jobs. He partnered with private companies to hire workers when unemployment was 25%. He also mentioned that President Obama was trying to broker the same deal with the American Jobs Act.

The Tweetup ended with all of the participants leaving the South building for lunch and upload photos and post tweets. I ate at Café Soleil right down the street off of 17th street NW. Afterward I walked through Executive Park to 15th and Alexander Hamilton Place for the Christmas Tour. Receiving this invitation was awesome because normally you must contact your elected official to obtain approval for a White House tour. I was on the grounds with the other Tweetup participants and several others. After going through three checkpoints, we entered the White House. Every single room contained Bo, the Obamas’ pet dog. The Florist and Pastry Chef said that Bo was a big factor in the Christmas designs. There was Bo made of recycled material and another one constructed from marshmallows and licorice. Finally, the high school choir sang Christmas carols in the foyer next to the White House front entrance.

This Tweetup and Christmas tree tour were more than just goodwill promotions appeasing people. They were informative granting us access to key White House personnel. The Christmas Tree tour embodied the season presenting ebullient decorations throughout the House. I loved both events and couldn’t wait to register for another Tweetup!