Love Like This Life

WOW. It really has only been a couple of days, yet I feel TERRIBLY behind on this blog.  Today I stayed home from work, sick.  I'm wheezing, coughing, sneezing and my back hurts in this weird way it's never hurt before.  So, I sat on the couch with a heating pad for a couple of hours and watched just about the limit of television I can take in one day.

So, here are some updates...

Thursday, Eric, Nikole and I went to the White House for Mrs. Bush's holiday preview.  We were there to do a story I started dreaming up roughly 3 weeks ago about how the White House is "going green."  Yes, me.  I am not usually this into pointing out the fact that I thought of something (hello - I'm a producer) but I feel obliged because the Washington Post totally stole my story!  Yep. That "2 page list" the article references - was totally put together because of MY inquiry.  It's cool, though.  Lucky for the world, I am just enough of an amateur that the Post taking my idea makes me feel more like a real journalist in this big, crazy, DC news world.

You know when they're serving food, you're going to have a massive press corps!

I was totally stalking out the food on my way in!

Chicken Fried Steak - at the White House?!?!

I'm so IN.

They debuted this year's Christmas card.. would you believe they'll send out 895,000 cards?

Good thing they don't have to pay for postage, I'm sure...

This is the picture I took so that Helen Thomas could see what the art looked like.  She couldn't see it from where she was standing, so me and my digital camera were her eyes!

That scored me this picture with Helen!!  She told me I was smart to think of taking the picture of the painting.  Helen Thomas thinks I'm smart! Yessss.

Shout out to Nikole for snapping this shot!

Then the First Lady made her entrance.  You could barely hear what she was saying, over all the camera flashes!

She was taller and thinner than I thought she was (why is that always the case - TVs suck!)

I was fascinated by the whole thing.

Mrs. Bush revealed that this year's theme for the Christmas decorations at the White House is "Holiday in the National Parks."

You can read a lot more about it here.

When it came time for questions, I asked my question - right after Helen, my new buddy. :)

Ha ha... too bad I stumbled all over my words, but thankfully Mrs. Bush was patient with me and answered the question - about what the White House is doing to "go green" with respect to decorations this year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc5WHFK4HGw

I could feel my heart beating in my throat and it was all I could do to keep it inside my body.

I was so impressed with this little girl.  She was at the press conference with her little "Scholastic" notebook. 

Okay, so at first, I wasn't so nice. I'm jealous! I wish I was here when I was 12 instead of 28, but hey --

I let her have my spot and after a little convincing, she asked one of her questions to the White House Executive Chef.

Sooo cute!!

Then, we were off to shoot the decorations!

Here's Eric hard at work.

Meanwhile, Nikole and I were touring around and taking pictures of ourselves in front of the Blue Room Christmas Tree!

This is so "West Wing," no?

Green Room.

Red Room.

Tulips in the Red Room.

Breathtaking.

Green Room garland.

So fresh.

Meanwhile, Eric was still working...

When we were finished with our work - it was time to sample the White House holiday cuisine in the State Dining Room.

On the White House China with real silverware.

Yess!! This is what I'm talkin' about! And, by the way, the Chicken Fried Steak I was stalking out - was divine.

Too bad we were pretty much KICKED OUT as we were finishing up dessert! Ha.  Nikole and I totally closed down the State Dining Room.

This is the gingerbread house this year, it's done to scale and dipped in white chocolate.

Something like 300 lbs of white chocolate and 100 lbs of gingerbread.

That's not something you can make out of a tube!  Thank God for freight elevators...

It really was a blast.  So much so, I didn't mind the 14 hour day that it was. Clearly, one of the most memorable experiences of MY LIFE thusfar.

It's not everyday you get to question the First Lady of the United States.

We all had a blast and we have White House napkins to prove it. :)

The tour was totally what I needed to inspire me to put up my own Christmas decorations.  More on that, later.