It's 5 a.m. To wake Anna, or not to wake Anna? That is the question. She did agree to run with me last night, but it was clearly under duress. It was a difficult choice between getting up early or running on the thread mill. I understand where she's coming from. I prefer the outdoors too, but running on the treadmill is much more convenient most of the time because of my schedule, and the fact that I don't really like to leave Donna home alone, even if there is an armed agent standing just outside the door.
I tap very lightly on the door to the guest room and it swings open. "Anna?" I call softly. I don't want to intrude. When there's no response, I peek in and see her still sound asleep. She looks so much like Donna, it's eerie. I wonder if Lulu will look like this when she's a teenager. I wonder if she'll want to go for a jog with me. I wonder if I'll still be able to jog. My heart thumps unevenly at the thought. I have to take care of myself.
I'm going to let Anna sleep. She just looks too peaceful to disturb. We'll find some time to run together later and I'll just hit the treadmill for now.
At 6:30 I walk into the den to wake Conor up.
"Get up, Conor, we need to be out of here in a half an hour." He sits straight up and immediately responds.
"Sure thing, Uncle Josh."
I find Donna almost finished dressing when I get back to our room. Darn. Missed opportunity. But she smiles and greets me, "good morning."
"Good Morning, Donnatella." I say pulling her into my arms for a few quick kisses. With teenagers in the house, and the time pressure we're under, I restrain myself from going any further.
"Hey, can you go get Anna going, while I started toasting bagels?"
"No problem."
Ten minutes later, I hear the shower in our room start. A few minutes later Donna joins me in the kitchen.
"Well, that was fun." She states sarcastically, taking one of the bagels and spreading some cream cheese on it. "I think I'm going to need my cup of coffee right away."
"Our Anna isn't a morning person?"
"Definitely not."
I grab Donna around the waist and pull her tight to me. "I guess she takes after her Aunt." I place a light kiss on Donna's nose. She wasn't the easiest person to get going when we first got married.
"I'm sure it's just a teenage thing. Speaking of which, is the other one moving? I sent Anna into our bathroom so Conor can use the guest bath."
"I woke him up earlier. But I haven't heard the shower. We'd bettter check."
Sure enough, Conor is still in bed. It's going to take a small miracle for us to make it to the office on time.
"CONOR!" I bellow right over his head. He shoots upright again.
"I'm up, I'm up."
"Oh no. I'm not falling for that twice! Get up out of bed now, walk to the bathroom and take a shower. You have 5 minutes. Come on. Get moving."
I'm smart enough to wait until he actually gets up, grabs some clothes out of his suitcase, and walks into the bathroom, before I walk back into the kitchen. Then I pick up my phone and give Margaret a call. I don't want to worry her. I think we'll be there by 7:30 but we are not going to set any records this morning.
I heave a little sigh of relief once we are all in the car and it's moving. Getting two teenagers and a pregnant wife out the door should come with hazard pay. Still, the kids look good. Donna must have briefed them on what to wear. Conor has dockers, and oxford shirt and a tie on. Anna is wearing a summer dress with sandals. The dress is a little short if you ask me, but Donna said it's fine. Anna also has a sweater drapped over one arm.
I greet Larry at the security desk and introduce the kids with a grin.
"This is our nephew, Conor and our niece, Anna."
Larry smiles at them. "Nice to meet you. I need your full names and social security numbers."
"Adrianna Alexis Anderson" Anna rattles off.
"You've got to be kidding me!" I knew Bella liked alliteration, but that's kind of over the top.
"You're hardly one to talk, Uncle Josh. I heard your first choice for the baby is Leonora Lulu Lyman."
I give Donna a little glare. I thought we were keeping the names to ourselves. She just shrugs at me. Well, okay then.
Once I've finished signing them in, the kids are each given a generic visitor's pass. They seem suitably impressed, but I have something better in store. While Donna and I are in Senior Staff, an intern is going to take them over to personnel and get them badges with their pictures on them. They'll make great souvenirs.
Sure enough, when we're done with the meeting, the kids are back with Margaret. They both seem pleased with their badges. They're the same ones we use for "Take Your Child To Work Day." Not close enough to an actual WH badge to worry about someone re-creating it, but the teen version looks official.
"Okay you two. Ready to meet the President?"
They both get a little wide-eyed. They remind me so much of Donna's first few times meeting Governor Bartlet, and then again, in the beginning after he became President. I might tease her about the bambi-esqe naivete, but it's one of the things I love about her. These kids too. How did I get so lucky to get to be part of this family?
Conor stands up and wipes his hands on his slacks. He must be a little nervous. Anna grins and stands up as well. "Ready." She announces for both of them.
They follow me through my office, then into the oval. President Santos looks up from what he's reading as we stand in front of the Resolute Desk.
"New staffers, Josh?" He teases.
"Yes, sir. It's their first day so, I figured they are ready to brief you on Education Reform."
Conor's eyes get a little wider. So does Anna's grin. She definitely thinks its a joke.
But to their surprise, Matt replies "Excellent! This report is boring I'd rather talk about the changes we need in education from some experts. Come on, let's sit down over here and have a chat."
As Matt gets up, Donna herds the kids over to a couch. I'm pleased to see that neither of them sits until Matt takes his normal chair. Donna really has coached them well.
"So Anna," POTUS looks her right in the eye, "what do you think about making the school year longer?"
I'm glad he's giving Conor a chance to warm up. He seems a little surprised that President Santos knows their names.
"Well, sir, I wouldn't mind that much. I like school, that's where my friends are, and since I play Softball I'm already used to having to get up in the mornings for practice even during summer."
I roll my eyes a little. I saw no evidence of that this morning! But even thought her answer has surprised me, Anna's doing a good job speaking to the President. I'm not going to interrupt her.
"I guess I wouldn't mind going year round as long as we got more breaks during the year. Maybe a whole week off every 6 weeks or so."
"So you don't think you'd get burned out?"
"No, sir."
"What about you, Conor?"
Conor gulps and looks to Donna quickly. She nods and smiles at him. She really is great at unspoken support. I wouldn't be where I am today without it.
"I don't know about year round school. I really like summer break. But I guess towards the end it starts to get a little boring, unless you have job or sports. I think we could probably cut summer break down a little and most kids wouldn't really mind."
"What about the teachers? Do you think they'd mind?"
"Oh. I hadn't thought about them. They'd get raises, right?"
"Yes." Matt chuckles a little. "We wouldn't ask them to do more work without getting more pay. I think teachers are already underpaid!"
"I think my teachers would be okay with it. Several of my classes already have summer homework and the teachers already respond to emails. Some of them offer tutoring in the summer too."
"That's interesting. Which of your classes have summer homework?" President really does look interested in everything Conor and Anna have to say, he really is treating this like a briefing. I'm so proud to work for him.
"AP English has a summer reading list, and we have to write a report using examples from at least two of the books. AP US History has a movie list, we have to watch them all, then pick one and write a report on whether the movie was historically accurate."
"Which movies?" Matt likes historical movies.
"National Treasure, Cinderella Man, The Alamo, Miracle, The Fog of War, Seabiscuit and Saving Private Ryan."
"Have you already watched them all?"
"No. I'm about half way through. I haven't seen Saving Private Ryan, Seabiscuit, or The Fog of War. I saw National Treasure and Miracle when they first came out, but I'm going to watch them again this summer."
"Donna?" Matt looks at her, "see what you can arrange, okay?"
"Yes, sir."
Conor looks a little confused. I won't spoil the surprise, but I bet he's going to have the opportunity to watch at least one of those movies in the White House theater with the President of the United States.
"Well, thank you both for that very enlightening briefing. I really appreciate it." The President stands up and Conor and Anna immediately follow suit. I'm so proud of them.
"Enjoy your day here. I'll see both of you on Wednesday at the BBQ, right?"
"Yes, sir."
The President heads back to his desk and I glance at my watch. Donna was able to mostly clear her schedule this week, but I do have a couple meetings that I need to take today. We usher the kids back into my office, where I immediately head to my desk.
"This is your office, Uncle Josh?" Conor sounds fairly impressed.
"Yes, it is."
"So you can just walk through that door anytime you want and talk to the President?"
"Well, yes. I have what's called 'walk in priviledges.' I do usually tap lightly to let him know I'm on my way in, if it's not a scheduled meeting. But I sit in on most of the meetings that occur, and I brief the President throughout the day on things that are happening."
"What else do you do?"
"I read a lot of briefing memos. A lot of briefing memos."
"What's that?" Anna asks.
"It's basically a report. Experts weigh in on all sorts of topics. The President needs to understand what legislation aims to do, and what it will actually do, before he decides whether to sign it or veto it. He also gets a lot of reports on things related to National Security, and the Economy, and Healthcare, and Education. He needs to know what's going on in the world and in this country in order to lead it."
"I also have a lot of meetings about these same things. And speaking of that, I have one in about 10 minutes. So you two are going to go with Aunt Donna up to her office. Just remember though, just because she has a bigger office doesn't mean she's more important than me."
The kids snicker and Donna raises an eyebrow at me. As I kiss her goodbye, I whisper in her ear, "the office isn't the reason you're more important than me, there are many, many other reasons."
Donna brings the kids back at 5 o'clock. I worked through lunch so we could leave an hour early and my backpack is ready to go. Although I'll leave it here until later.
"Hey baby." As I greet her with a kiss, Conor turns a little pink. I don't think his parents are nearly as demonstrative as we are. Maybe it's because they've been married for 16 years or maybe it's because they are more conservative than we are.
"Did you guys have a good time today?"
"Yes." They both answer politely, but not enthusiastically. Watching other people work probably isn't that much fun. But still, come on, it's the White House!
"What did you do after your briefing with the President?" It probably doesn't hurt to remind them about that.
"We saw Aunt Donna's office and met her staff. And then we had lunch in the Residence with the First Lady and we got a tour."
"The Lincoln Bedroom was pretty cool." Conor says quietly.
"Well hopefully, this next part is cool too. We're going to the National Air and Space Museum in a Presidential Motorcade. The Santos Family is coming with us."
"Really?" Conor looks over the moon. It's the most excited I've seen him. This must have been one of the things he wanted to do. Anna looks pleased as well.
Getting to visit the museum after hours is pretty amazing, if I do say so myself. It's been eight years since Donna and I toured it. It was fun, because I was with her, but it was crowded. This is much better.
At the Human Space Exploration Discovery Station everyone except Donna tries on a spacesuit.
"I don't want to take any chance of getting stuck!" She jokes. She's really not that big yet, but I don't blame her. It's really not that comfortable.
Anna and Peter both spend a lot of time looking at the space artifacts, but Miranda is ready to move on.
Peter is also very interested in the Tools of Astronomy Discovery Station. He picks up and examines several centuries of astronomical tools. I'm amazed as he names off astrolabes, quadrants, and celestial spheres. The Museum staff are pretty impressed too.
After that we head over to the simulators, while Helen, Miranda and Donna head over to find a bathroom and then another activity station since Miranda isn't big enough for the simulators.
Anna picks the Spacewalk simulator which tours around the International Space Station on an exciting extravehicular activity (EVA) testing out a new manned-maneuvering unit.
Conor and Peter both want to try the Flight Combat simulator. Conor tries the P-51 Mustang, while Peter decides to try to follow in his father's footsteps, flying an F-18 Hornet. They both come out looking pretty green after fake crashing.
"Wasn't that awesome?" Matt booms at them as they exit their machines. Both boys nod without saying anything.
"Our turn, Josh!" Matt grins heading toward one of the machines.
"No thanks, I'll just wait here."
Matt gives me a bit of a funny look as he climbs in. But I don't let it bother me. I know what my strengths are. I'd never be a fighter pilot.
"Uncle Josh," Peter starts timidly, "that wasn't very much fun. I almost threw up."
"I hear ya, little buddy." Conor ruffles his hair. "But I'm sure not going to tell my friends that when I get home!"
Both boys look a little disappointed in themselves.
"Hey guys, you know it takes all kinds of people to make this world a better place, right?" They both nod, but don't really seem to see where I'm going. "Your Dad," I look at Peter, "is a strong leader, he's a pretty amazing athlete and a great pilot. But he couldn't run this country alone. I'm not any of those things, but he chose me to help him."
This time I look at Conor. His Dad is pretty athletic too.
"It's okay to like to read, and study a lot. It's okay to like newspaper and band over sports. It's okay not to want to be the one that stands up and wants everyone to follow him. It's okay to be the guy that the guy counts on."
They're both looking at me with small smiles and standing a bit taller. I see the girls coming back towards us so I impart one last piece of wisdom.
"And it's okay not to know exactly what to say to girls, if you find the right one, she'll help you figure it out."
Donna comes up and wraps an arm around my waist. "Hey babe, what you guys talking about?"
"How to get girls." I answer, giving her another kiss and watching Conor turn pink again.
"Uh oh!" Donna laughs, looking at Conor. "Are you sure he's giving you good advice?"
"Yeah, I think he is." Conor answers with a little more confidence than usual.