Meeting the President

on friday, june 29th, my son, nathan, and i had the privilege of meeting the president of the united states. nathan is a marine and ended his time of service in august. he was on the presidential squadron as a helicopter mechanic who took care of "marine one". whenever a member of this squadron ends his or her tour of duty, he is honored by being invited to the white house to personally meet and shake hands with the president. each marine can invite one family member...a parent or spouse. i got to go.
it. was. awesome!  
there were about 30 in our group. each marine in dress blues...such an impressive sight!  the lighting on this photo is terrible. my camera must have been on the wrong setting, but it's the only one i have.

we traveled into d.c. on a bus from quantico.  the security once we entered the white house grounds was impressive, too. no purses, no cameras once we left the bus. so the few pictures i have were taken with a point and shoot from a moving bus, thus the less than excellent quality.

it was during those hot, muggy, high 90's days we had this summer and involved a lot of standing and waiting outside. so by the time we got inside i was sweaty and frizzy. but it was worth it. being inside the white house surrounded by all that history was amazing. after all the waiting we were ushered into the oval office where each marine and guest was introduced to the president. he shook our hands, asked where we were from, thanked nathan for his service and said "we're very proud of you", then asked him his plans after the marines. we had our picture taken with him and were then ushered out. everything happened very quickly. after greeting everyone, marine one landed on the white house lawn and the president was off.

and i have to say...i'd never been so nervous in my life. i could just see myself stumbling over the few words i had planned to say..."it's an honor to meet you, mister president".  because no matter your politics or how you feel about the man, i very much respect the office. we met the president of the united states of america.  it was an experience i'll never forget. i was a very proud mother that day. still am.
it's now october and we have not yet received the photo taken that day. i hope to post it when we get it. 

Day 2....The Kleinfeld Experience

back in november, this handsome guy asked this beautiful girl to marry him.

and she said "yes".

and we and carmen (her little black dog in all the pictures) couldn't be happier!
which brings us to this past sunday. my two daughters, two granddaughters, and i met my daughter-in-law-to-be and her mom in new york city to go to kleinfeld...yes, the very one featured in the tv show, "say yes to the dress".
before we went, someone asked me if i thought we'd be on tv. and i said i was pretty sure we wouldn't be, because we wouldn't be dramatic enough and had no plans to try to talk the bride out of the dress of her dreams. besides, we all knew ahead of time that she could walk out in a feedsack and look good. it's really kind of disgusting. :)

so here is the nervous bride-to-be, ready to enter the gates. 

the main lobby after checking in for her 10:00 appointment.

 

the large salon area.

i have to stop here and now to say that i seriously fell in love with this chandelier. i think it would look amazing in the snow house in "doctor zhivago".  photos just don't do it justice of course, but that didn't stop me from taking a dozen.

seated and waiting for the bride.

while we were waiting my photographer daughter was trying to think of ways we could surreptitiously wheel one of these dress forms out of the store to bring back with us for her studio. i'm glad to say we resisted our larcenous thoughts and left empty handed.

so, now we have to end this part of the post. the whole reason for being here, i can't show you. she did try on dresses. she did look amazing in all of them. and she did "say yes to a dress"...a stunning, gorgeous, regal dress. 
but i can't show it to you, of course.  until july.
i will leave you with a final photo. a peek of a style she did not choose.  thank goodness.
but she would have looked great in it too. 

coda:  after kleinfeld we were all treated by the bride and mother of the bride to a fabulous lunch at bond 45. we had such a great time.

couldn't end without one final note. 

yes, she fits right into the family.

I'm Spreadin' the News........New York, New York!

i guess it's not too obvious i'm a musician. i relate everything i hear and say to a song. but really. how can you be in a car, heading to ny, with a bunch of fun girls and not sing this?
my two daughters, two granddaughters and i left early saturday morning to meet up with my daughter-in-law-to-be (yay!!!) and her mom in ny city for the purpose of bridal gown shopping in the tv famous "say yes to the dress" store ....kleinfeld!
her appointment was on sunday morning, so we spent saturday being tourists. after checking in at our hotel we met for lunch in east village with my new yorker cousin at veselka coffee shop. awesome ukrainian food! pierogi, borscht, kielbasa, and the best split pea soup i've ever had in my life. 

the building across the street. 
 

i am such a tourist. i spent most of my time looking up. i love seeing the amazing architecture of the buildings, old against new. 

it was neat seeing this place. i have so much music from here.
 

and i don't know why people say new yorkers are unfriendly. this nice man stood on top of his building and waved to everybody. 

we managed to get to battery park just in the nick of time at sunset to catch a glimpse of the statue of liberty.

 

the building used for the facade of the headquarters in the movie "men in black".

the globe recovered from the destruction of the world trade center.

construction on the new memorial building.
 

as i stood there, i could not begin to fathom being in new york on that terrible day.
 

we ended our first day by going to time square. it was crowded enough for me just on a saturday night. i would definitely not want to be there on new year's eve. but it definitely was cool. 

a time square fixture...the naked cowboy. i mean, really?
 

and with two young girls in our party, we had to check out 'toy's r us' with the full size ferris wheel in the middle of the store.  

thus endeth day one. let's just say that i collapsed into bed that night and could not have moved had the building burned down around me.  stay tuned for day two...the kleinfeld experience.