No. This waits for no man. For yesterday the Universe smiled upon me. Birds sang. The sun was shining. It was beautiful.
First, let's back up. I have had a framed autographed picture of Bill since I was ten. I voted for Hillary. I am unabashedly pro Clinton. My desire to be among them is second only to my desire to marry into the Kennedy family.
My brother is back for the holidays and last week suggested that I take a day off work for us to road trip to Little Rock to see the Clinton Presidential Library. From Kansas city it is approximately 7 hours each way. That's 14 hours of driving (through some freezing rain no less) and only 2 hours in Little Rock. It was crazy. It was fun.
Hey Arkansas, how You doin'?
Mad camera aiming skills (PS here we're still on the Missouri side and still freezing.. so ready to make it to sunny AR and their 54 degrees!)
At last!! We made it around 1 pm. Pay no attention to the guy out front on foursquare and facebook telling the world his location.
Hooray for the Presidential Library!!! (steve holt)
In the exact replica of the cabinet meeting room.
Sitting in the president's chair. Those cost 20K each, so keep the swiveling to a minimum, will ya?
Signing up our friends and family for the email list. You're welcome Dad!
In an exact replica of Clinton's oval office. Check out the Remington, just like yours Dad!
And best for last. We only had 1.5-2 hours to spend there and then we HAD to get back on the road (as it was I got home at midnight). We walked down the street to the Clinton bookstore to load up on memorabilia. There were secret service everywhere in the store so we wanted to loiter as long as possible to see if anything happened. Our library tour guide had said Bill was in town for the library's Christmas Party that night (if you're wondering if we considering applying to work there, you are correct).
I was in the back of the shop, and the back door opens and BILL CLINTON and his entourage step through. I was only two feet away and was the first thing that he saw. I clearly looked as though I was going into cardiac arrest (an alarming sight to pass I would imagine), so he stopped and shook my hand and asked me my name. I'm not entirely sure what I told him but I did ask to take a picture. Unfortunately I COULD NOT find my camera or my phone anywhere in my purse. This may have had something to do with the my speech and motor skills failing me at the time. (dear God Lauren find your camera say something funny/charming/hilarious/memorable). The secret service told him they needed to keep moving. I yelled at Bret who was ten feet away to grab his camera. Apparently he had been fumbling for it in his pocket anyway and then proceeded to drop it on the floor. A secret service guy took the photo. They walked out of the room. Then Bret and I died with happiness. We left the shop and went next door to celebrate with beer and call the family and put this baby on the internet PRONTO.
