Masthead Menu

  • About this site
  • Contact Me
  • Archives
  • Mastheads
  • Shop
  • FAQ
  • community
  • view
  • view
  • view
dooce® - dooce.com

Mrs. Armstrong goes to Washington

So I get a call yesterday at about 11AM and the guy is all WHITE HOUSE! ARE YOU INTERESTED?! And as much as I would like to tell you that he had a New Jersey accent, sadly, I can't. He didn't. How incredible would that have been, though? The guy that calls from the White House going IS YOU READY FOR DIS?

CUZ I KNOWS A GUY WHO KNOWS A GUY.

Of course, I said. Why yes, I'm interested, how did you know? Was it the Obama sign we had glued to our window in 2008? Was it my husband's many incoherent and at times hostile twitters? (I apologize now for all those he may have referred to as a "freakburger"). Was it the deafening cheers you heard from this side of Salt Lake when health care reform passed? No, none of that? Then I'm going to guess Rahm Emanuel got that letter I sent him on pink, perfumed stationery. The one I kissed with my glittery lipstick. The one Jon signed, "And me, too, sweetheart."

I've been invited to participate in a White House Forum on Workplace Flexibility, and they told me I might want to hold off saying anything until they had completed my background check. Because no telling WHAT they mind find that I haven't written about in way too much detail here. No, really. Too much information. Heather, stop. STOP NOW. HEATHER. No one wants to hear about your episiotomy, HEATHER.

Actually, I wrote a New York Times Bestseller that says otherwise, JON.

Seriously, I get invited to the White House, and he's all NO BURPING, NO FARTING, AND BY ALL MEANS, WOMAN, DO NOT TALK ABOUT POOP IN FRONT OF THE PRESIDENT. Well then, why did he call?

So yeah, that background check. I keep going over and over in my head everything I've ever done that might be unsavory in the last twelve years since I stopped practicing Mormonism. Since I stopped living like a nun. Well, since I stopped repenting like a nun.

And thoughts of unpaid parking tickets (none) or maybe forgetting to tip a server (never) keep popping into my head. I can see it now: "We heard from Stephanie at Chili's. She says she brought you five Diet Cokes and you left her nothing. How could you?"

Oh, wait! What if they find out about those two unpaid parking tickets from BYU that my dad paid for me. So that I could get my diploma. Well then, THEY AREN'T UNPAID, NOW ARE THEY?

(Reminds me: Dad, I owe you forty bucks.)

If they find something in the next day you can count on the fact that I will report every detail here, and be all OBVIOUSLY I DON'T REMEMBER, I WAS HIGH. Except not, because I can count on one hand the number of times I've been high in my life, and I remember every single thing I did during every moment, including thinking that I had stolen a bottle of steak sauce from The Smithsonian because I thought it had expired a thousand years BEFORE CHRIST. I turned to my Jewish boyfriend at the time and yelled HOW THE HELL IS THIS THING STILL LIQUID?

I will take notes in my head, as good as it is after all these years of living without repenting, and you can actually follow along with the live webcast. I'm hoping to bring a few perspectives to the table, having been broke off my ass and living in my mother's basement, to being a stay-at-home mom with a husband whose workplace wanted to ignore the fact that people have families, to starting my own business, hiring employees and managing their needs, and trying to find the right balance between the time I spend working and the time I spend with my family, a line that gets blurred probably too frequently.

Anyway, here's hoping the background check goes well. SHHH, EVERYBODY! Don't tell them about the time I got fired for this website!

Good morning, DC:

03.30.2010 Daily 135 comments

Tweet

Previous Post Next Post
  • montana mommy said:

    wow, that's big time, congrats!

    03.30.10 - 06:59 AM / 1
  • TexasKatie said:

    Congratulations, Heather!!! Can't wait to see you farting in front of the President!

    03.30.10 - 07:03 AM / 2
  • Hey Emilie said:

    Dude. So. Freakin. Rad.

    03.30.10 - 07:03 AM / 3
  • Anu said:

    Wishing you the very best. Hope you do get to meet the president.

    03.30.10 - 07:04 AM / 4
  • kayakgrrl said:

    Wow!!
    Did I say wow, 'cause.. wow!!
    This is awesome. So glad you got the call!

    03.30.10 - 07:05 AM / 5
  • jg said:

    Good luck! You're very fortunate to be meeting such an inspiring man.

    03.30.10 - 07:05 AM / 6
  • Starshine said:

    Your secret is safe with me, sister!

    03.30.10 - 07:07 AM / 7
  • pooptoast said:

    Oh honey, there is nothing that you could say or do that would upstage VP Biden... SO LIVE IT UP!

    03.30.10 - 07:09 AM / 8
  • janey_13 said:

    That is so freaking cool!

    03.30.10 - 07:13 AM / 9
  • Tam4797 said:

    Woot! Bring the Power Heather! We'll be waiting for descriptions of the White House bathrooms!

    03.30.10 - 07:13 AM / 10
  • eleanorstrousers said:

    Dear Lord, just don't wear flip-flops. When that girls' soccer(?) team met GW in flip flops it was all that the Washington Post covered for a week.

    03.30.10 - 07:14 AM / 11
  • dae610 said:

    I work next to the White House...shoot an email if you want to get a drink! Although I'm still nursing a Manieshewitz hangover from last night, so you'd have to go easy on me.

    03.30.10 - 07:15 AM / 12
  • Daddy Scratches said:

    I will give to you the advice my wife gave to me when I got to spend the day at Eddie Van Halen's home recording studio, a.k.a. 5150: At some point, you have to go into the bathroom, look in the mirror and say to yourself, "Holy shit! I'm at the freaking White House!" (except she told me to say "Holy shit! I'm at freaking Eddie Van Halen's house!" because I wasn't at the freaking White House ... but you get the point).

    Congrats. Can't wait to hear about the experience.

    03.30.10 - 07:16 AM / 13
  • banana-mama said:

    IS THIS GOING TO BE ON C-SPAN? Because that will be like the two greatest influences in my life converging. Please tell me it's going to be on C-SPAN.

    03.30.10 - 07:17 AM / 14
  • dietdplovingmom said:

    Congrats! I don't have anything witty to say, but I am geniunely happy for you.

    03.30.10 - 07:18 AM / 15
  • svatura said:

    I am so excited and I wasn't even invited. They can call me for a reference check...I am very good at being accurate without being entirely truthful. :) yay!

    03.30.10 - 07:20 AM / 16
  • Curiosity said:

    So excited for you!! Please tell him that 300,000 of his closest friends say hello.

    03.30.10 - 07:20 AM / 17
  • Ena Murphy said:

    I live in Fairfax, VA right outside of DC. Maybe a drink after your speech? :-) Congrats!

    03.30.10 - 07:24 AM / 18
  • Katie D said:

    This is absolutely amazing. Congratulations!

    03.30.10 - 07:25 AM / 19
  • Frugalista said:

    Workplace flexibility? Understatement. You and Jon have sort of invented a whole new workplace. Would love to see policies that help more people do the sort of thing you two have done, so thanks for helping the government look into that!

    03.30.10 - 07:25 AM / 20
  • nicholee said:

    That is so cool! I don't have anything witty to say either. But, wow! That's just awesome.

    03.30.10 - 07:26 AM / 21
  • Megan Ellen said:

    Wow, awesome opportunity to have your say. If you're not going to fart, can't you at least burp?

    03.30.10 - 07:28 AM / 22
  • the adams family said:

    That's awesome. Hopefully, you get to see Kumar (yes, Kumar works @ the White House now!). He held the door open for me at the CVS on 15th & K.

    Oh, are you going to meet Bo?

    03.30.10 - 07:28 AM / 23
  • rainy_day said:

    Seriously, major congratulations. Please tell the President how much we all love him!

    03.30.10 - 07:33 AM / 24
  • sarahdoow said:

    Congratulations, what an exciting opportunity!
    By the way, you're totally rocking the iPhone photos with this latest app. I loved the one of Marlo "helping" Jon especially.

    03.30.10 - 07:43 AM / 25
  • Blahggy said:

    Paving the way and giving hope to mommybloggers everywhere!

    03.30.10 - 07:46 AM / 26
  • codydidwhat said:

    Can't wait to hear more about this! I don't have a family yet, but I'd love to be able to have a flexible schedule someday when I do. So excited for you to be at the White House!

    03.30.10 - 07:49 AM / 27
  • jenwilson said:

    My husband keeps telling me to keep the episiotomy to myself too. What is so bad about an episiotomy that is so bad? Seriously.

    I hope you have an amazing time, and there'd better be a photo with you and the President.

    And also, good luck. Not that you need it, but good luck anyway.

    xoxo

    03.30.10 - 07:56 AM / 28
  • ChristineQ said:

    Congrats!! I'm only about 30 mins up the road from there so if you want a tour of beautiful downtown Mt. Airy, MD, I'll hook a sistah up! :-)

    03.30.10 - 07:56 AM / 29
  • Janice said:

    Congrats! What could be next but Dancing with the Stars.... Does this mean that Jon's gonna quit retweeting stuff. I had to unfollow...

    03.30.10 - 08:03 AM / 30
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • ›
  • »

You must have a dooce® Community account to leave a comment.

If you've already registered, login.

If this is your first time posting here, snag a free account.



Footer Books by Heather B. Armstrong
It Sucked and Then I Cried by Heather B. Armstrong

It Sucked and Then I Cried

Amazon

Barnes and Noble icon

Other Vendors

Things I Learned About my Dad in Therapy by Heather B. Armstrong

Things I Learned About My Dad in Therapy

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Elsewhere

  • flickr
  • Twitter
  • Recently

    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011

    © 2001 - 2012 Armstrong Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Powered by Drupal. Hosted by Liquidweb. Footer Feedicon RSS Feed Footer FM badge FM Living Advertise on dooce®