Update on the visit

My daughter has a demanding job and plays volleyball every day so getting her on the phone to get the details of the President's visit to the office she works at took some time. There was a lot of security.

Everyone was told that the President wasn't going to do any stop and greet this visit and everyone should just "act normally". When the appointed time was getting close people from the other offices seemed to have urgent matters to discuss with their colleagues that happened to be along the route that the President would be walking from the elevator to the principles office even though they never have any business with those folks.

When the President came in he went a few feet and stopped and said "Hi" to all the people that were rubbernecking to try and see him and at the same time continue the obvious ruse of trying to "work normally".

By chance he stopped two feet from my daughter's cubicle. The principle introduced the office and said that they had kept things going so that she could serve in the administration. The President thanked everyone for allowing the principle to work in DC for the last few years and turned and was standing next to my daughter and turned in her direction. She was a little flummoxed and said "Welcome" but coming after the President's gracious thank you was heard by everyone, including the President, as "Your welcome" responding to his "Thank you", which drew a big laugh from the President and everyone in the area.

The President shook her hand and a couple of others and went on to the meeting.

My daughter is short and has a very attractive and engaging appearance. Her Thai/American blend draws lots of looks when she is around.

She also has a very penetrating look that has caused many of her underlings to shake as they try to explain errors in their work while she just "looks" at them. When we went to her wedding their were a number of colleagues who told about times when they went in with what they thought was a good report only to find it blown apart in 15 seconds and faced with that "look". They laughed nervously as they told the story but their sweaty brow gave away the fact that the "look" had left a mark.

My daughter is known for this look from High School which starts out engaging and pleasant but slowly morphs into a very engaging and somewhat disturbing penetrating "look" if she is bothered by something.

On the email thread where her friends are commenting on the sequence of events was this priceless phrase that will cause me to chuckle the rest of my life:

"Whatever look she gave the President, his conclusion was that he better stop".

My daughter made this comment: "His presence filled the room and the energy that everyone got in an instant was how relaxed and happy he was. There wasn't a shade of difference between the relaxed man you see on the TV and the guy who showed up in the office and made everyone feel in a minute that he had noticed them and made each of them feel completely at ease."

He may be the only person beside her Dad who hasn't felt a little unsettled about being on the receiving end of my daughter's "look"!