I have good reason to stop the presses, so to speak, and interrupt with this unannounced broadcast.
My daughter, Angel & I, met and shook hands with THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!
Really, it was just your average day. I had taken Angel to Gadet practice and stopped at the stop light right in front of the highschool. A processional began to pass in front of us and my first reaction to Angel was "there must be a funeral passing through". The more I looked, the more I realized this was not your usual processional. I quickly changed my thoughts and was scanning my brain as to what was going on in our area today. Oh yes, President Obama was scheduled to be in our area. But not at our high school. So I was stumped. Was this the President or not? Once the group had passed I dropped off Angel then put the van in park to walk over & see what was going on.
I passed a friend and she confirmed that yes, it was the President. I almost left. I mean, I was suppose to go pick up Mandy & Nina from cross country practice. Even if this was the President it's not like I'm going to actually see him. It was said he was there to visit the football team. Yet, I had this gut feeling to park the van and walk over to see what I could find out anyway. I joined my friend, we were only allowed to go so far into the parking lot. We saw the President get off the bus and taken to the field where the boys were practicing. Soon the high school principal & district superintendent joined us. Soon the secret service man closest to us approached and pointed us to another area. He told us to go by that group of people, that they were now letting walk up to the field, and talk to that agent and the he MIGHT let us through. So we take off, I walked a little ahead of the group....I was nervous, excited & giddy. As I approached the agent I could see him on guard, everyone else was behind a certain area, yet here was a group of people approaching from a closed off area. I made sure my hands were out of my pockets & approached him with a smile. I knew I had a split second to make or break this situation. I told him (as in statement, not question form) "The secret service guy told us to come over & have you wand us & let us through". I was not giving this man the option to maybe let us in. I made it sound like, this is what you are suppose to do. I was taken off guard when he got aggravated and yelled "WHO TOLD YOU YOU COULD GET IN?!?!?!" (Apparently ss doesn't like to be told what to do....oops). My friend right behind me said "we are with the principal and district superintendent" who then walked up behind us. I suppose that was a better reason so he wanded us and let us through the guarded area. (The newspaper reported that no one else was let in after us, so we barely made it in).
We waited in a gated area right off the football field. All of us nervous & excited. In addition to press and White House staff, I realized that I was surrounded by students, teachers, administrators & other school personnel. Other than being a parent with kids in the school system I'm not sure if I was really suppose to be there. I just happened to be with the right people at the right time. (See it pays to be a friendly, well known & involved parent in the community). Soon we saw the President come closer to our group. He stopped and talked to a bunch of students. I now know at the time that Angel was in that group. I didn't see her then, she told me later. I only had my cell phone with me so I was snapping whatever pictures that I could. He shook every one's hand. Some people said something to him. I had no clue what to say. I just shook his hand and said "Thank you". He was very nice & friendly.
Just thinking/writing about it gets me all worked up again. I mean, I am no personal fan or supporter of him personally. Actually I'm not a political person AT ALL. I am fairly clueless on anything political. Ignorance is bliss. Jim takes care of all of that for me. But, no I did not vote for him and don't think I ever will. HOWEVER.....HE IS OUR PRESIDENT!!!! I fully believe in respect and support of whoever is in that office. Why pass up that opportunity to meet this man who will forever be in our history books. It was, in fact, a truly historical moment for me in my life.
So I'm all happy & giddy about it all. Angel also said that it was pretty cool that she got to meet him & shake his hand. The whole dance squad was there, they got a group photo with him. They were scheduled to have team photos taken. Angel did NOT get the memo to come in practice clothes then change later for pictures. She was in full uniform. Which to me worked out perfectly because in that group photo it otherwise looks like a regular group of girls. With Angel in uniform it's like she represented the whole squad as they posed with him. This picture was taken on another mom's camera:
I don't truly believe in "just happen to...." or coincidence or chance by any means, even though I am often guilty of saying those words (as I see I said above). I believe in a perfect masterful plan for my life that I am often not privy to until it happens. This incident probably won't have any true bearing on the big picture of my life. But for yesterday, at that day and that time....it was all meant to be.
Here is one of the pictures I took of President Obama on my phone:
Here are some pictures that were posted on the Register Mail.website. I haven't been able to obtain the actual pictures yet. I was able to print the page then had to rescan it into my computer. You can see all of the pictures here. You can see Angel in pictures 19, 20, 21, 23, 24 & 25. You can see my shirt in picture 2 and me in the crowd in picture 28.
Angel shaking the President's hand!!
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