White House Correspondents Dinner....amazing!

Words cannot begin to describe our weekend in Washington D.C. I am going to try..... It was a whirl wind weekend and unbelievably fun. Let me start from the beginning.

Dave was invited by the publisher of Vanity Fair magazine, Edward Menicheschi, to attend the Annual White House Correspondents Dinner this year. We flew to D.C. Friday evening, stayed at the Mandarian Oriental Hotel and enjoyed a few embassy open houses on Saturday. The weather was incredible all weekend, so we walked around most of the day. We ended up touring the Cyprus and Bulgarian Embassies, which offered native food and drink. The Bulgarian music was interesting and somewhat enjoyable, but the yogurt drink was a bit weird. I decided to get a professional to give my hair an up-do, so 60 bobby pins later, wa-la; I had an 'up-do'. I was advised by my stylist to take an aspirin before heading out Saturday becuase the weight of my hair would give me a headache! I will apologize now....Dave has the camera with him (he's driving his new car back from D.C.), so I'll upload the few pictures I have tomorrow. All the rest will have to come from online. It was not the right place for us to snap pictures.

Vanity Fair had everything set for the evening. We met Edward and his long-time girlfriend, Susan in the hotel bar to start the affair. Jessica, his assistant, gave us all of our information, passes, tickets, driver information. They were such amazing hosts. It was Susan's birthday, so we had fun with that all night as well. Dave and I had our own car and driver for the evening. He took us to the WHC Dinner and there was lots of traffic. I believe approximatly 3,000 people attended the dinner. Secret service was all over the place, a small amount of protesters, etc. Our driver dropped us at the back entrance to avoid the melei, but as soon as we arrived inside, the chaos began. Fun chaos. It was amazing to see all the political figures, new correspondents and the celebrities. Secret service had to be going nuts over this event. It was funny, our names were provided for the dinner, so I'm sure there was a background check, but we were able to walk into the main area and were never asked for I.D. Even when we eventually went through to the dinner hall and through metal detectors, they never asked for our I.D.s. There were many people upon arrival that were not attending the dinner, but came to star watch and these people were screaming. It was, as I said, chaotic when we arrived. I turned around and Wanda Sykes, the host for the evening, was elbow to elbow with Dave. She looked a bit scared with all the screaming :-) I saw so many t.v. news personalitites, but it's horrible, I cannot place a name with most of them. Well, I guess this dinner was for them, so that's why they all showed up! I saw Timothy Geitner-Treasury. Everyone was having a blast and things had not even started. Most of the celebrities were ushered in through the kitchen and on the way out, they were somewhat close to our table. Yes, we were in the back, but who cares, it was a great spot none the less. As we are walking to our table, the doors open up and, let me see who all I can name....

Tyra Banks, Alecia Keyes, Christian Slater, Denis Leary, Johnathan Rhys Meyers (Tudors), Ashton Kucher, Demi Moore, Eva Longoria, Tony Parker, Julia Louise Dreyfus, Kate Walsh (old Gray's Anatomy, now Private Practice - I love this show, by the way), and others on Private Practice - Tim Daly and Taye Diggs. This list can go on and on. After 30 minutes of socializing, (we are standing next to New England Patriots coach, Bill Bilachick.) I have no idea who he is, but Dave does. Bill speaks to me briefly, but I do not pursue this one :-) Edward introduced us to Ludacris. He actually said, "this is Chris". We introduced ourselves and shook hands. I had to ask Edward on this one and then I realized, oh yes, Ludacris. I need to come up with another word, but.... here it is again -nice, he was extremely nice! Dave saw Steve Forbes and went to speak to him for a moment. Mr. Forbes remembered David and they had a chat.

We sit down at our table and Edward has two other couples he has invited. The CEO of Tiffany's - Mike Kowalski and his wife, Barbara and the CMO of Bank of America - Ann and her husband, Mike. I had a wonderful time talking with Mike and Barbara of Tiffany's. They were truly down to earth and so extremely nice. Their daughter is getting married next weekend, so they were anxious to get back to New York to make final arrangements. Sweet. Of course, Barbara had some fabulous jewelry (Tiffany's, of course). It was funny; she said she is not that into jewelry. Ha.
On to the dinner event... We stood for the National Anthem. Stevie Wonder was at the table next to us - a few feet from us. He began to sing the National Anthem (just softly, where he was standing). Dave said, "that's pretty cool, having Stevie sing to our little group". Alecia Keyes was sitting next to us as well.

Awards were then presented to up and coming journalism students. Obama gave a 'laugh your head off' speech. The entire room was rolling with laughter. Wanda Sykes was funny as well but, as we thought ahead of time, she pushed us right to the limit. I ran into Christian Slater on the way to the bathroom. I didn't really see him at first (I was rushing down the stairs), but he purposely says "HI" and it took me off guard. Again, everyone was so nice.

Vanity Fair hosted an after party this year along with Mayor Bloomberg at the residence of the French ambassador. The house was unbelievably beautiful. Our driver delivered us to the front gates and we proceeded to allow our jaws to drop from the scenery. The house (downstairs only was open) had approximately five rooms for all of us to mingle in. The outdoor deck was a nice place to be with the breeze and the full moon.

I think Edward said 200 people were invited. He also said he had to turn some celebrities down due to the smaller size of the party. Why he kept us on the list, who knows? It was almost surreal to be so close to so many stars. Everyone seemed comfortable, probably because there were so many people around to share the fame. It was not very crowded and we all just hung out, talked, drank and relaxed. Take a look at the online photos (link is above) and you'll see. Let me throw out more names and believe me.... this part of the evening was unforgettable.

Eric Holder - Attorney General
Donald Rumsfeld
Mayor Bloomberg
Owen Wilson
Johnathan Rhys Meyers
Ashton and Demi - stayed the entire time
Glenn Close
Julia Louise Dreyfus and her husband
Natalie Portman
Jason Bateman - I didn't see him, but saw the other stars from the show "Arrested Development" - names elude me, but I know faces.
Kate Walsh, Taye Diggs and Tim Daly - Private Practice
Ryan - from "The Office"
Katie Couric
Sully - airline captain
Eva Longoria
Many others that I recognized, but just wasn't sure who they were.

As soon as we arrived, I headed out to the back deck. Edward, Susan and I were hanging out. I saw Donald Rumsfeld and his wife standing close, so I said 'Hi" to them. He was so open and said "What is your name young lady?" Well, that started a fabulous conversation. We must have talked to him for 10 minutes. Dave and I were very impressed with him. We have always loved his style with the media - blunt. He's a funny man without trying to be that way. He told me he married his trophy wife the first time around - his wife is beautiful and was very gracious with us. He is 72 and I assume she is close in age? He told us that they met when they were 14 and married at 21. They live across the street from the French ambassador; which made it convenient to get home! We talked cars as well, German cars, of course. I think that was our favorite conversation! I also wanted to speak to Peter Orzag. He's the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. I saw him on John Stewart about a month ago and was very impressed. He reminded me a lot of Dave. So, we started talking to him, laughing about his John Stewart interview, which went well, but some underling gov't. guy started asking him about work coming up on Monday. Ahh. He was fun to talk to and very approachable. Dave had a short conversation with Owen Wilson, who looked to be having a hard time settling himself at the party. I feel sorry for him; you could tell he was uncomfortable. Dave didn't get the warm and fuzzies with Johnathan Rhys Meyers (line for the bathroom). Oh well.

I saw Taye Diggs and I just finished watching a few Private Practice shows. I walked up and introduced us. Dave doesn't know who he is, but we ended up talking to Taye and his wife, who is also an actress, Idina Menze for about 15 minutes. They are 6 months pregnant, have been married for a while and they told us they're having a hard time with a name. It's a boy. Dave gave his famous advice of "don't tell anyone; they will always give you reasons why they don't like it". It was really cool to talk to them for so long. Taye has a Cayenne Turbo; we were laughing about Sport - Turbo button and my kids telling me to 'turn on the turbo'. Kerry Washington came up and they introduced her. Looking up her bio - she played Ray Charles' wife in the movie. She's a big eco-advocate.

I ran into Denis Leary and his wife several times (no real chats), but they seemed very open. Ryan - from The Office was hammered, so he came to the food table where Edward and Dave were eating ice cream sandwiches. We talked a bit about him being a writer and starring in the show. He was really weird... he talked, then he took off. We could all tell he was wasted. Natalie Portman looked a bit tired and out place (she came alone). She sat down behind Dave on the outdoor deck. He was standing, so I told him to block her. I think she needed some alone time from the misc. people coming up to her. She was so tiny, but very beautiful.

I thought it was extremely nice that Edward, publisher of VF and Susan kept 'hosting' us all evening. They were fun to be around. After a very eventful evening, we decided to call it a night around 3 am. Whew!

Happy Mother's Day to me.... We spent Sunday walking the Smithsonian, the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, the new WWII Memorial and the like. Washington really is a beautiful place. Oh yes, may I be invited back??

Olivia at 5 1/2 years... for the record

Before I forget all the stages of my children's lives, I do want to record this interesting dialogue with Olivia this past week. She is 5 1/2 years old and while alone in the car with me (Zach was playing with Adam), Olivia declares that she does not want to go to college. She said it in a very nonchalant way. Big surprise, Olivia does not want to do anything, be 'signed up' for anything and typically does not want to leave her lovely squishy animals who typically stay at home.

Olivia goes on to say that she wants to live in the outdoors - in the natural environment. Again, this is not a surprise, but I'm trying to figure out where she is getting the idea. Who lives outside - oh yes, naturalist. I ask her how she will make money and Olivia tells me that she doesn't need money. No toys, darling??! No, she will hunt and kill her food to eat, eat plants, live off the land. These are her words...... She has switched from wanting to live in the huge wide expanse of the Taylor Brawner house (in Smyrna) to the naturalist house on Atlanta Rd, which has lots of bamboo and plants growing all around. I think the guy that owns it catches his own rainwater. Honestly, she has it all figured out. As she is telling me all of this, I have visions in my head of my daughter living in a tree with a 'Save the Trees' shirt on her back.

Time will only tell, but I think this girl loves nature and all animals. Her favorite book/magazine that she reads most nights is the adult version of National Geographic. She requests that we tape special shows on the National Geographic Channel. She is a lover of all things natural. Olivia brought home 8 African Tree Frog tadpoles from school yesterday. We are slowly adding to the animal family in our home. I think a puppy may be in our future. Hey, I'll take a dog over a weasel anyday.

This is my record to see how things progress. Again, time will only tell......

Tech Fans

Finally....we made it to a Georgia Tech baseball game. I have tried for the last two years to take the kids to a game and the games end as soon as springtime comes around. There is something about sitting outside in a baseball stadium in downtown Atlanta. The skyscrapers, the lovely Atlanta spring weather and the laid back atmosphere of college baseball. Oh, and a huge slice of pizza to boot! I think the Braves games are too much for young kids, so the smallness of the Tech stadium works in our favor. We didn't last for the entire game, but it was enough to enjoy the evening.

We also had our first happy hour neighborhood party Friday evening. The kids ran around, rode bikes, used their imaginations to play for several hours while the adults - well, you know how we occupy ourselves. I hope it is one of many for our neighborhood; it was a very enjoyable evening.

As you can see, Zach found a way to surround himself with cars once again. Well, Dave had something to do with as well. He took Zach to the Historic Races at Road Atlanta today. Olivia and I opted to stay home. We weren't really invited so we kept quiet, secretly hoping they would not invite us :-) Olivia had mommy time and Zach had daddy time today. I think they need it periodically. Zach specifically asked Dave to take a picture of the 'Tiger car' to show Olivia. He's such a sweetie. Guess what Zach is doing right now? Playing The Grid on the PS3. Dave is quite proud of him - using the steering wheel, gas and brake pedal. Yes, he'll be in go-carts soon.