South Meets South: Yea.... That's Me and Our Future President

I know I've posted this picture before, but while on the tennis trip this weekend one of my friends inquired about how I met him and what we talked about. It wasn't until that moment that I had actually thought back in time to that conversation that we had and realized I had spoken with our future president. Wow! It just makes it all the more surreal. I do think it was such a unique opportunity I had that I should share this with you.

Barack Obama visited Huntsville in July of 2007 for a quick fund raising stop before heading to a high dollar event in Birmingham. So for lunch, my boss took my coworker and I to a private club down the street where Barack Obama would speak to maybe 75 or 100 people. Before the lunch, we had an opportunity to go to the private meet and greet upstairs. How amazing! The mayor was there and presented him with a key to the city.

Then he made his way around the room and spoke with each person in the room. Sometimes it was a quick handshake and hello and sometimes it was a full blown conversation. I was lucky enough to land somewhere in the middle of that range and we spoke for probably about 1 or 2 minutes.

When he finally got around to where I was standing he turned to me and said (roughly people ~ I was in a daze I don't remember exactly what he said), "Hello, Ashley. Pleasure to meet you." (you see... I had a name tag on.... clever fellow)

And I responded....... in the most seductive voice possible...... "The pleasure is all mine. How bout you and me skip this joint. I know a real nice spot on the edge of town the secret service boys can drive us to......"

Haha! Okay, not really.

I told him it was an honor to meet him and that I had... just a month or so earlier... driven to Atlanta to see him at a student rally... but hadn't gotten near enough to actually meet him, as there were thousands upon thousands of people there. I told him that it was an amazing experience to be a part of that crowd.

Here are a few pics of that event.....

way zoomed in so it looks like we were actually close....... we weren't

He recalled the rally and asked if I was a student. I told him I graduated just that past December from our local university. He asked for my major and gave me a big smile when I told him one was Political Science.

He asked if I had a job and I told him I had interned with an economic development company during my last semester of school and was offered a full-time job within the company when I graduated. He seemed genuinely happy that things had gone so smoothly for me. He placed his hand on my back and told me how thrilled he was to see young people succeed.