when pigs fly … expect the unbelievable

We’re back from a wonderful brunch at the Bombay Club! And looking forward to a late dinner this evening at The Russia House, 1800 Connecticut NW.

Those of you who know my husband, Jim, know that he never met a stranger, so nothing was surprising when he told me last night that he had met this terrific woman on the flight from Atlanta and we were going to have lunch with her. Her name is Willa Johnson, and she joined us for brunch at the Bombay Club.

Willa is one of those can-do women. She has been a city councilwoman in Oklahoma City, OK, for several terms and now serves as County Commissioner for Okhoma County District No. 1. She was traveling with her friend from kindergarten, Freddie (a woman), and we were met by a high school friend of theirs who was also visiting from Oklahoma City, Horace Stevenson, a McDonald’s entrapreneur. (You want fries with that? No, he said: Supersize it!)

We were accompanied to lunch by one of our students, Marianna Prather, of West Point, MS. Marianna attended West Point High School and the Mississippi School for Math and Science, and then took early acceptance at MSU. As soon as she got on campus, I talked Dr. Wiseman into hiring her at the Stennis Institute of Government (SIG). He’s never been sorry. Although she makes great grades, we keep hoping that she begins failing courses or change her major several times, since we’d like to keep her forever at SIG! My colleague, Dr. Markham, was supposed to join us at the Bombay Club; he decided he’d rather see Beyonce. (Can you believe that? I guess that my cultural priorities just aren’t in order, but you couldn’t drag me away from the Bombay Club merely to see Beyonce. Not when there is pappadam and tandouri chicken otherwise available.)

I want to tell you that Willa (whose campaign slogan has been “Where there is a Willa, there’s a way!”), Freddie and Horace were terrific fun. Jim and Horace are planning a golf outing when we stop over to visit them in Oklahoma City on our way to Santa Fe this summer!

While at lunch, I interviewed Marianna. She is an English major, and has recently picked up a double major in Art (painting). (I was really excited to find this out. First, I’ve seen some of her art work and she is very talented; second, it will mean she will have to stay at MSU longer!) This is her second trip with the SMA to Washington, DC. She was on the trip in Februay ’08, too. While in DC last spring, she snagged a job with Grace Terpstra (our hostess last evening) and she spent the summer of ’08 interning in DC for Grace’s governmental affairs firm. So she really knows her way around Capitol Hill.

Marianna, a Republican, is delighted to be in town for this historic event and she, like Jim, has only high hopes for President-Elect Obama. Like Lee Thorne, she disagrees with a number of the President-Elect’s positions, but appreciates his abilities, enthusiasm and — perhaps more importantly — his challenges. And she wants him to succeed! She confided that she loved the Watergate event last evening and had learned a great deal more about the Watergate incident than she remembered from high school. (I was amazed that the teachers got that far in high school; when I was in high school, it seemed that we never got to Korea — we were living Vietnam at the time, so it wasn’t in the history books at all. This is really true. I never got all the way to the Korean War in any history survey course that I was taught in high school. I confessed to my husband just last week that it was only on my first visit to the Korean War Memorial in DC several years ago that I realized that it was not US against THEM, but that it was a United Nations action. I need to read up on Korea.)

Since we are in DC and doing the cab thing — it’s cold! — we’ve met a number of cabbies who are not what was referred to in the ’70s as “WASPS”. Pakistan, Germany, India, Morocco. And it is just music to my ears to hear them echo my thoughts: “America is a wonderful country!”

With the “We Are One” concert beginning at 2:30 p.m. this afternoon, you could feel the electricity in the air here on the Hill. The countdown has started and you know it! It is an incredibly jubilant atmosphere and, frankly, there seems to be a “we are one” attitude out there. People are smiling at and speaking to total strangers. So far, no one seems to be testy about lines in the chutes or street closings. Everybody just seems happy to be out there. That may change as more people arrive tonight and tomorrow. I heard on the morning local news that while 4.5 million additional people are expected in DC on Tuesday, that so far only 1.8 million of them have arrived. Perhaps the other 2.5 million will make a difference, but I have to tell you that “so far, so good”.

I am delighted to have been born a Texan and to have been brought up in a medium-sized town in Northeast Texas; I am delighted to have found a place in Mississippi to call home. But as I mingle in the diverse cultural context of our Capitol City, I wonder what different people Lee Thorne, Marianna Prather and I would be had we been reared in such a diverse, less parochial culture?

In addition to Dr. Marty Wiseman, Director of the Stennis Institute of Government, and his wife, Bonnie, daughter, Kelly, and her husband, Scott Szczpanski, Dr. Markham, my husband, Jim, and Marianna and Lee (whom you’ve already met on the blog), some of the other students on the trip (in no particular order) are:

Whitney Holliday, a senior Political Science major from Gulfport (who also happens to be Miss MSU and Secretary of the MSU Student Government Association)

Kristen McClellan, a senior Special Education major from Tupelo

Chris Walton, a sophomore History major from Milwaukee, WI

Maris Cooper, a senior from Jackson majoring in Risk Management, Insurance & Financial Planning

Elizabeth Pillow, a senior Communications & Marketing major from Greenwood

Laura Hamm, a junior Political Science major from Tupelo

Carly Mills, a sophomore Political Science major from Drummonds, TN

Mary Margaret Cockroft, a senior Accountancy major from Kosciusko and winner of the 1st Annual Dean Francis N. Coleman SMA Research & Writing Award (more about that later)

There are 18 more students with me that you haven’t met yet. But alas, it is time to eat the Obama-Biden truffles delivered by the hotel just now, and to get ready for Russia House.

The next post will introduce you to more students, tell you about the “We Are One” performance, and keep you posted on the spirit of the city.

More later…

Jim, Marianna and I have just returned to the Phoenix Park from the Russia House. Forty-seven vodkas from the former USSR, as well as 11 beers. Cured meats, Russian sausages, blintzes, chieken Kiev, salmon, herring, and serious Russian caviar. A lovely experience, although the physical structure and interior is a bit down at the heels.

As we returned from the Russia House, a group of a dozen or so of our students were returning from dinner after the concert. “Fabulous”, “incredibly humbling”, “spiritual” and “this is America and what it should be” were comments shared by our students about the concert. Most of the students headed into the Dubliner Irish Pub; Jim and I headed up to our room on the top floor of the Phoenix Park Hotel.

Other students attending:

Katie Allen, junior Political Science major from Jackson

Jemmye Carroll, junior Communications major from Aberdeen

Matt Burrow, senior Political Science major from Jackson

Daniel Fisher, freshman Civil Engineering major from Aberdeen

Kaitlin Ferguson, senior Marketing major from Hoover, AL, and secretary of SMA

Shelley New, senior Political Science major from Starkville

Megan Walters, junior Political Science major from Collinsville

Callie Lyons, senior Biological Sciences major from Jackson

Valerye Windham, sophomore Business major from Grenada

Sarthak Sharma, freshman Political Science major from Brandon

Matt Laird, senior Economics major from Columbia

Ben Lewis, senior Political Science major from Memphis, TN

Whitney Alford, junior Human Sciences – Child Life major from Newellton, LA

Patricia Shouse, senior Philosophy & Religion major from Birmingham, AL

Mary Jordan Kirkland, senior Political Science major from Jackson

Neisha Johnson, sophomore Political Science major from Clinton

John Harris, sophomore Political Science major from Inverness

Emily Lacoste, senior Apparel, Textiles & Merchandising major from Germantown, TN

Only about 1.2 million folks gathered at the “We Are One” concert at Independence Avenue SW and 23rd Street SW. Dr. Wiseman spoke of his personal experience: “You couldn’t help but cry when you joined your voice with the other million folks, led by Pete Seager, singing “This Is My Country” and “This Little Light of Mine”. The fabulous artists sang “Americana” — pure patriotic songs, songs of our country’s ethics and social values, folk songs of America.

Tomorrow morning the students have a tour of the Pentagon, a meeting with RADM Ted Branch, and lunch with Burns Strider at the PR Grill.

More later…

Shortly after I made the entry in the Atlanta airport yesterday, my husband, Jim Mozingo, called my cell. (We are traveling separately; he left Jackson about noon on Saturday.) He was in the Crowne Room about 5 gates down from me. So I ran up and spent a few minutes with him; my flight left Atlanta about an hour prior to his.

Our flight to DC was uneventful. In fact, we were hardly noticed on the flight. (Part of this could be attributed to the delightful behavior of our students — and the fact that most of them were sleeping on the plane. Much of our low profile could probably be attributed to the fact that there was a class of high school students on the plane as well, going to the Inauguration.)

To confirm what we know — that the world is so small — I will tell you about my traveling companions, Major Phillips and Chief Master Sergeant Putnam, USAF. After some premptory “hellos” I found that Major Phillips had graduated from Ole Miss and Chief Master Sergeant was born in Sledge, Mississippi. The three of us had a wonderful trip — we snoozed until the refreshment cart arrived. Thereafter, we had a great discussion about Mississippi, the South in general, politics, Obama, and politics and race in particular (2 Caucasians, 1 African American). We had just plain fun! I feel great about our USAF by just having the pleasure of these servicemen’s company for an hour and fifteen minutes. Clearly intelligent and interested in their world, I offered both of them “retirement jobs” at the John C. Stennis Institute of Government. We can open a new military intelligence/security/history consulting division.

We arrived at our hotel, the Phoenix Park, on North Capitol Street, about 7 p.m. (10 minutes after the President-elect’s motorcade had cleared the area) and immediately repaired to our reception at the Watergate. Professor Tim Terpstra (George Washington and Marymount) welcomed us to a reception in his condo at Watergate West and gave a terrific lecture about the Watergate itself and “Watergate” the event — interrupted vigorously by his wife, Stennis Institute Board Member Grace Terpstra of Terpstra Associates, a governmental affairs firm. Dr. Marty Wiseman followed with a short lecture of Stennis’ input on the Nixon tapes and some random thoughts about Watergate — interrupted vigorously by me. Among other things, I challenged the students to take their pop quiz home with them the next time they went (we discussed answers at the Terpstra’s home) and give the quiz to their parents!

Snow is predicted for today, but so far (9 a.m.) it is still COLD and CLEAR. Public gates opened an hour ago for the Opening Celebration Activities. There are 5 public entry gates which lead to the “We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial” at 2:30 p.m. Among artists scheduled to perform are: Beyonce, Bono, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor and Stevie Wonder!

I have brunch reservations at 11:30 a.m. at The Bombay Club on Connecticut Avenue NW, just off Farragut Square–as in Admiral David Farragut, the most famous Union Admiral of the Civil War (reportedly Bill and Chelsea’s favorite DC restaurant).

More later…