Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Ms. Jenkins Goes to Washington....barely!




Here are some pics from my trip to DC! I went on my very first business trip (awww) for Arts Advocacy Day to lobby our congressmen for more arts funding. It was a very cool experience to be on Capitol Hill and walk through the halls of the Legislative Assembly buildings that have been there for hundreds of years (is that right?) and where decisions of utmost importantce have been made (some good some not so hot). I heard awe-inspiring speeches from arts advocates, congressional leaders and even a celebrity or two (check out the pic of me and Chris Klein from "American Pie" above. I never realized the important role arts plays in the lives of children and how to helps bridge gaps and brings communities together. OK enough preaching - the real good part of this story is how I almost didn't even make to DC in the first place!


I met this really cool chick on the plane from Wichita who works for the senate and we hit it off right away. We were both heading to DC so after getting into St.Louis and quickly (remember this folks) checking the status of our flight to DC , we decided that we'd spend the next hour waiting for our flight at Chili's over beer and chips (of course). No, we didn't miss the flight because of this - we got back in plenty of time and waited patiently in the boarding area while our plane was delayed for 30 minutes to board. It wasn't until we had our tickets scanned that we were told (very rudely) that we were waiting for the wrong plane!! See, DC has like 3 airports, and the codes are pretty damn similar. We were waiting in line for the Washington ICT airport, which was boarding at the same time as our ACTUAL flight, (something like Washington IDA). The American Airlines lady was totally horrible and basically told us we were screwed - our real flight had left on time (of course) half an hour ago and there were no more flights headed out that night. We were kind of freaking out at this point but I have this ego complex of thinking everything's like the movies and here comes the exciting part where I find a loophole and save both our collective butts. Sure enough, we found out that Southwest actually had a flight leaving in an hour - BUT they were at a seperate terminal that required taking a subway, running through the terminal building and pretty much undressing en-route to security - oh yeah, all while booking the flight on my cell phone with Southwest. We made it with minutes to spare and all I could say was "Man...that was brilliant!" Shout out to Southwest - you are the best!! - American Airlines Sucks!!!

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