I Went to the Bathroom in The West Wing
That's right, the real West Wing. I strolled along the Colonnade leading to the Oval office; I listened to the Chief of Staff bark orders at a lowly white House Staffer; I stood in the Press Secretary's office; and most importantly, I went to the bathroom fifteen feet from the Oval Office (the soap was even Walmart brand, now that's American!).
My roommate's friend is a White House staffer and a few weeks back she offered to give us the nickel tour of the West Wing (I can't believe I am only writing this now). It was pretty cool. Though sadly, due to renovations, we didn't get to see the Press room.
We started the tour by watching the President arrive home on Marine One. I kind of feel bad for the guy. Not for the typical anti-Bush reasons but for the sheer amount of work involved for him to do anything. There were Secret Service flanking the path the President would walk about every 20 feet. Guys in full SWAT attire with machine guns around the perimeter of the grounds (later we saw the sniper guys also, no idea where they were originally located though). There were two Fire trucks (one on each side of the lawn) with firemen in burn suits (they looked like spaceman) and three Marine helicopters. Plus a hundred or so spectators. Before the president could get out, there were two more Secret Service Agents that exited Marine One and secured the perimeter before finally letting the President and the first lady get out. Seriously, it seemed like a lot of work -- and even more of a hassle -- just to come home. It kind of reminds me of something Rob Reiner said after shadowing President Clinton for a few days, "Who would want this job?"
I am pretty sure I couldn't handle a routine like that day in and day out -- after all, back in the day I didn't drive my Jeep for like a month because the driver side door broke and I deemed it too much work to enter/exit through the passenger side door. If something so small unmotivated me to drive places, I can only imagine how unmotivated I would be to travel if everywhere I went involved fire engines and snipers.
After watching the President land we began our "official" insider's tour of the West Wing. The first thing I noticed was that the actual West Wing was nothing like the television show The West Wing, but a lot like the movie The American President. The offices are spread apart and pretty private. The hallways are small and claustrophobic with pretty low ceilings. And for some reason -- on TV and in the movies -- the Oval office always has dark blue carpet. Well, right now the Oval Office has a super bright rug that really makes the room feel light and airy, quite a contrast to the rest of the dimly lit wing. All in all, I thought the interior was quite posh and nice. Also, contrary to what I always see on TV, it looks like most of the staff does get the weekend off.
My roommate's friend seemed to know every minute detail about the West Wing, the President, politics, pop culture, and everything else for that matter. For instance, she mentioned the reason they designed the West Wing TV show set so different than the actual West Wing was because they needed the atmosphere to appear frantic and hectic with everyone close together and busy. She was so informative that another staffer, who was giving her family a tour, joined our group so they could hear everything too.
My favorite story was that they had to take the President's Blackberry away because he was spending so much time sending out emails and there are evidently all kinds of weird legal issues when you send out emails as the President, especially if they are those forwarded type emails so popular in the workplace.