Mr. President

Last night I had the honor and pleasure of shaking hands with President George H. Bush Sr. Originally the volunteer staff was to be a skeleton crew, which didn't include me, but at the last moment I got the call to work in the store. I think that our bosses in the store really like the work that we do there. So I jumped at the opportunity. All I knew is that there was going to be high security and that "The President" would be coming for dinner.

As it turned out, I didn't end up in the store, but at one of the "Welcome to the USA House reception desks. My boss, Elissa, had not been told that they needed a volunteer to check in guess for a private function. It wasn't the main welcome desk, but it was in the lobby that lead to the store. Not everyone has access to the entire house. Many of the people only have credentials to go shopping in the store which is located in the basement or lower level. I had to man (woman) the desk to make sure that only the special guests for a private dinner down on the store level could enter. Besides the dinner for the president, there were 3 other private functions for donors and sponors.

I never realized that the main function of the USA House is to do business. As I said before, only 14% of the USOC's budget is given by the government. The other 86% comes from businesses, donors, and sponsors. In addition to that, people from the Chicago's 2016 bid for the Olympic Games were having business meetings to promote the city. There's lots of high powered meetings occurring on a daily basis.

Getting back to my chance meeting with Pres. Bush. My position at the reception desk was quite uneventful for the first 3 hours as there were only 25 dinner guests for the private function downstairs. Suddenly a secret service agent stood in front of the reception desk and then I knew that the President would be exiting through my lobby after shopping in the store. It happened in a matter of minutes. As he came up the stairs he approached our desk and Benecia (she's in charge of special events) told Mei Li and I to come and stand in front of the desk. I recognized him immediately and smiled. As he approached us, he waved and smiled back. Then he said, "You should look like you are busy." We chuckled. As we stood at attention, he walked closer and warmly shook our hands. At this point the camera man snapped a few pictures. The President was kind, relaxed, and jovial. He reminded me of a gentle grandpa. I enjoyed my brief encounter with the 41st President of the United States.