I went to a Creativity and Innovators Summit at the White House last Friday held in the Executive Office building. Bill Prady went with me. He created The Big Bang Theory and is our executive producer. Johnny Galecki was there, too. So were Tim Daly and Richard Kind and a bunch of really intelligent movers and shakers.
I cried when my car pulled up to the entrance. My grandparents arrived to this country on a dingy boat fleeing pogroms and the Holocaust. How did I end up at the White House? And why couldn’t they still be alive to have me tell them all about it?
Left: The Executive Office Building. Right: The bathroom.
I wore super high heels and a conservative dress and blazer. The floors of the Executive Office building are marble and extremely shiny and very slick. I pictured falling on my face. I switched to flats in the third floor bathroom.
Bill Prady and I wandered around and saw the Indian Treaty room. We had bourbon at 4 in the afternoon with some amazing people who work on education and science things with the President. I never thought that “real normal” people work at the White House. I thought it was all politicians. I met one of my favorite writer’s (Natalie Angier’s) husband. He gave me one of her books inscribed to me. It’s called
Woman: An Intimate Geography
. It’s phenomenal.
Bill and I got a tour of the West Wing of the White House. The Oval Office is really brightly lit. I love the First Lady’s taste in furniture. There are personal unpublished photos on all the walls showing intimate moments, some of which brought me to tears.
Left: Indian Treaty Room. Right: Bill & I at the West Wing.
It overall looked pretty normal. I hear the East Wing is much fancier. The ceilings were low. Some of the Secret Service guards tell you fun things about the art and stuff all around.
It was amazing and almost too overwhelming to even process.
After the tour, Bill and I went to the New Yorker Magazine party at the W. The W looks like you walked into an LA hotel or club. I stayed at a large chain really tacky hotel with a piano on a mosaic island in the lobby.
The tacky hotel mosaic island.
That’s my trip to the White House.
