My daughter's campus adventure

[ex10]

My daughter had a pretty funny thing happen to her on Monday.

She attends Texas A&M university, and lives in one of the old corps dorms on campus. Monday afternoon, she spent a couple of hours filling out a job application as a tour guide on campus for the summer. The application was due to be turned in by 5:00 pm in a building across campus.

So, at 4:45 pm, she dashes out her dorm room, down 4 flights of stairs, and starts running across the quad, papers in hand. (A difficult feat in flipflops, says she.) The rest of her outfit included a pair of shorts with "Aggies" across the rear-end, and a "gig em" t-shirt.

Once she gets across the grassy quad onto the sidewalk, she sees a guy up ahead in a dark suit directing traffice. "That's odd, she thinks to herself. "Nobody ever directs traffic around here, much less in a suit, when it 90 degress." Said traffic director puts his hand up as she approaches him, as if to say "Stop!" Daughter thinks he means the cars on the road, certainly not her! After all, she has to get this paper turned in.

So daughter keeps running towards her final destination, the office building up ahead. As she passes the suited guy, he yells at her "Freeze!!!!" So she stops on the curb, turns around, and he yells, "Don't make a move!" She's wondering, "What the heck?"

As she is standing there on the curb, wondering what is going on, 3 big black suburbans pull up, RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER. As the doors fly open to all 3 vehicles, she steps back to make room for all the suited men with curly phone cords coming out of their ears, jumping out of the vehicles. Somebody else yells at her, "Freeze! lady."

So there she is, standing there sweating profusely, out of breath, wonder what she did wrong? and who the heck is in these big trucks? Just then, an older man, who looks vaguely familiar, steps out of the first suburban, right in front of her. She was frozen, as commanded. He says to her, "Well, hello there, young lady." She, not knowing what else to do, stretches out her hand, and says, "Hello, my name is J*****. It's a pleasure to meet you, Sir." She still is trying to figure out who this elderly man is.

Then the man most graciously takes her hand, and says, "You should meet Senator McCain, here, he is a fine man." As he is saying this, the Senator steps out of the 2nd truck. (OK, this guy she recognized.) So daughter shakes his hand, and then, as Mrs. Bush Sr. is being helped out of the 3rd, suburban, Mr. Bush Sr. introduces daughter to the Mrs. Daughter obligingly nods at the Mrs. and says what a pleasure it is to meet her, as it dawns on her that this is the elder President Bush.

As the whole herd of seriously important somebodies strides off towards the building that she was running for, she stays respectfully behind, and follows at a distance.

She makes into the office to turn in her job application a few minutes late, but midst the hubbub of the dignataries who entered in front of her, nobody notices she is late with her paperwork.

Shew!!

Mom, she tells me later, "That was so ackward and embarrassing!!!! I didn't know what to do!"

I assured her she did the right thing, and that she should be very proud of herself for being gracious and respectful in such an awkward, unexpected situation. When she first told me the story, I thought she had met the current President Bush. Turns out, it was the former President and Mrs.

Ah, the adventures of youth......

[Belle]

How Cool!!! ex10, that's just awesomely neat!

I'd be on an all time high for weeks after that! I'm sure she was perfectly gracious just like her Mama and they walked away thinking, "what a sweet young lady."

Very cool story!

[oldiesman]

Wow what a story. She'll likely remember that for the rest of her life.

Years ago I was walking downtown Broadway in Manhattan, it was around 5:30 am. in the morning, and the streets were virtually desolate.

All at once I see this dark haired guy with a blue suit, walking toward me. Walking around 25 feet behind him was a man in a trenchcoat wearing sunglasses, carrying a thick black briefcase.

When I was around 20 feet away from the guy with the blue suit I look up, looked back down and had to do a double take.

It was Richard Nixon...

[topoftheworld]

What an experience, Ex10! SOmething she'll remember the rest of her life.

Oldies-was this the same time period when Dan Rather was attacked by someone named "Kenneth"?

[oldiesman]

I remember something about the guy who attacked Rather asked him "Kenneth what's the frequency?" :)

I don't remember too well but my incident happened early 1980's or sometime around then.

[coolchef1248 @adelphia.net]

ex what a nice experience for her! where was her camera?? that will be a story she can tell to her grandbabies!

[justloafing]

What a cool story :)

[SafariVista]

Gee Ex10, this sounds like MOVIE material!

You're a good story teller... my heart was pounding, the man in the suit, I felt embarrassed for not being better dressed... would that sweat please QUIT already... will that paper get turned in on time.... :o

Is your daughter smiling now about it... maybe a good one for Reader's Digest? (they pay if your story is used)

[pond]

we have had George W. Bush here twice this year.

no way can you get any where near him.

the roads are marked off and shut down in the path he travels.

no traffic no people , security is very tight.

every one that is any where near him is cleared by securities and he comes and goes in secret both times they switched the site he was to vist the very day of the vist .

he is much more secured than the older president .

but they still have a life long guard up.

Maybe in texas they like him more and do not have to go through all of this .. haha his home town and all.

In NY the news got out that he was coming again and our senators complained to all of us that it will have to be canceled IF he is to come next week because the press found out about it.

they werre angry as heck.

He did come and they switched sites twice. changed times and canceld a vist.

he has never brought the wife . ha

not so friendly in NY .

good for your kid ex 10

[Linda Z]

pond said:

he is much more secured than the older president .

Could it be because more people actually like the elder President Bush??

[ex10]

Actually, George Sr.'s Library is at A&M. He keeps an office there, and has a place on campus he stays. He also is a poly sci advisor. He was my sis-in-laws advisor when she attended in the 90's.

I heard he likes to hang around in the student center and fraternize with the students.

I told daughter that if she gets the tour guide job for incoming Freshmen, she needs to make sure they know what George Sr. looks like. ;)

And she can also warn them about men in dark suits with curly phone cords coming out their ears.

Glad ya'll enjoyed the story. I love writing/telling true stuff that happens in my little part of the world.

[Suda]

Ex10,

You told the story as well here as you did on Live Chat the other night. Even though the George's were mixed up, it was still a great experience. Tell J* we're proud of her for acting like the gracious southern lady she is; shows her mom and dad taught her well. I'm sure both you are hubby are quite proud of her.

Another great story to add to the M* true tales. When I told hubby the story the other morning, he remarked "It's just like the kind of thing that always happened to ex-10's dad all the time. That family has great stories."

Looking forward to hearing the next one!

suda

P.S. Are you going to be able to make it to the GGGW in June - see CoolWaters post - we'd love to have you join us and all the other gals!

[ex10]

Aw, thanks, suda, I thought of my dad too.

When my beloved husband heard the story, his comment was: "Well she is certainly a M*******." According to him, no other family on earth stumbles across good stories the way we do. Ha! :blink:

What I really appreciate, is how gracious George Sr. was. I mean, I'm sure he is used to freaking out students on campus, since he hangs out there so much. He took the time to acknowledge daughter, and put her at ease. Gotta love him for that.

He could have blown her off, and acted like she was in the way. But he didn't. :wub:

I'm quite sure she probably looked like a deer caught in the headlights..... :blink:

[SafariVista]

A comment about George Sr...

My Nephew was on a Navy ship during the first attacks on Iraq.

George Sr made a trip to the ship... Nephew, being prepared with camera in pocket for the visit, was on duty and missed the opportunity to do the 'fun' stuff...

George, ending the visit, heading toward his plane, the dot in the center of a security circle, broke out of the center, came & hugged my Nephew, who was asking if his buddy could snap a picture...security seemed irritated, George said sure, chatted a bit, then returned to the circled walk to the plane…

George & Nephew front & center... security with funny looks on their faces in the background... great picture :)

Your story IS better though Ex... a LOT more action

[I Love Bagpipes]

Like mother like daughter....it all got started with parking cones!!!!

Way to go Ex's gem and the forces that be in the universe!!!

[ex10]

We are going up to A&M this afternoon for parent week-end. I wonder what adventures lie in wait?

Probably just finding a parking spot on campus will be a miracle......

[Tom Strange]

and don't walk on the grass!

[ex10]

Ok we are back from our stint at A&M.

Ohmigosh! I didn't move any parking cones, (though sorely tempted) and we only snuck past campus security once. And we did get away with it, she says proudly.....

We didn't walk on the grass, intentionally, but son and friend did climb a few trees they weren't sposed to.

We went to the baseball game, and the midnight yell, and all I can say is: "Whooop!"

[topoftheworld]

Woo Hoo! Glad you had a good time!