got to stompin in the Air Force One

last weekend i flew out to cali to attend H's work holiday party. it was held in the Air Force One Pavilion of the Ronald W. Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, which is basically a colossal glass room built to show off the plane "at a 2° incline creating a feeling that it is taking off on another important mission."

courtesy of www.reaganlibrary.net

it's hard to see, but on the balcony to the left of this picture (where the big red soviet flag is hanging) is where we entered. in order to get downstairs, we had to walk through the plane down to the bar, set up where the oldschool police car and that one guy are. then later we followed another set of steps down to the right, where they'd set up dinner. it's better lit because of the floor-to-ceiling windows.

before we got onto the plane, they stopped each couple to take a photo for a souvenir. looking back, we should have waved like they do in all the presidential pr shots, but they shuffled us through so fast we didn't even have time to think, let alone set down our programs. they didn't give us much time to look around in the plane, either, but that didn't stop me from asking questions. the first was if it were true that any plane the president is on is technically "Air Force One." yep. in fact, the guy told me, in a verbose and rehearsed way, that nixon thought it was ridiculous to have a private plane, so he bought two tickets on United one time and didn't tell anyone. secret service found out right before and spent a ridiculous amount of money getting clearance for the plane and all the people on it that cost so much more than just having a private plane. so after that, they've always had a private jet. they have a mural on the wall opposite the one with the windows that shows every Air Force One that all the presidents had (some have different paint, etc.) and they have a very tiny United plane way off in the distance to mark the one flight that had caused so much trouble.

the other question i asked was of the sentry guarding the little kitchen area, where they had a luscious-looking fluffy chocolate cake, topped all around with cherries. though it was plastic, i was hungry enough to comment. the woman nearby said reagan kept one of those on board at all times just in case it was someone's birthday. plus he really liked chocolate cake. before i could ask about more trivia, the backlog of people forced us off the plane and into the party. it's a shame because there were several plane guards who obviously are well-versed in reagan-air-force-one-ology and i am rarely short on questions. besides, i wanted to have good anecdotes to come home and tell my pops, as ronnie is his favorite president.

the rest of the party was pretty standard. hors d'oeuvres, a buffet, drink tickets, a dessert table. they handed out awards for outstanding employees and even had a comedian. David Crowe had a great bit about second-hand drinking (click on video 1) that i thought was a gem. it got a big laugh, which was tricky because they put him on while people were eating an experience killer for any comedian. i thought he was funny.

we ate and chatted and then H was heartbroken that neither of us won the 42-inch flatscreen television they were raffling off. he wanted it so badly that for .025 of a second he considered dancing. yeah, they'd put on some ridiculous song when they called out the numbers and if you didn't dance to satisfaction, they wouldn't let you have it. that must have been some sweetass television, too, because this guy likes dancing as much as he'd like a root canal.

at the end of the night, we froze our collective booty off while walking up the hill to the car. being from chicago, i hadn't brought a dress coat to go with my red dress because, duh, i was going to southern california. however in a cruel temperature snafu, that day it was 20 degrees COLDER in southern california than it was back home. and today it SNOWED. there is something just a little messed up about that, but i'm not going to complain because it's probably the last minibreak i'll be having for a while.