Washington Politics, Future Husbands, and a Dab of Semen

This was my annual trip to Washington D.C. as a representative from Minnesota at the "Zero Summit to End Prostate Cancer."  I became involved with advocating for Prostate Cancer Research through my BFF Tamara Jett, whose father has fought Prostate Cancer.

Tamara and I traveled together to the summit, and visited with our State lawmakers to advocate for support in tackling a cancer that effects 1 in 6 men. You may remember my BFF Tamara from "Please Don't Speak Directly to the Title Holder" and our trip to Puerto Rico a few months ago.

Tamara and I seeing if the Obamas were at the Capitol and wanted to hit happy hour with us.

No such luck on having happy hour with the Obamas, so we went to a Congressional Reception instead.  We were happy to be reunited with our friend John who is a Physician's Assistant in St. Cloud Minnesota.  We met John at last year's summit.

Natalie, John and Tamara at the Congressional Reception

John is a great guy, and very knowledgable.  During the summit I realized that I may have over medicated myself and feared I would OD right then and there on the floor of the Summit while Congressman Barrow was giving a speech.

I didn't want to interrupt what was a fabulous talk, so I texted John who was two seats over to make sure he knew what medications I was taking, so he could share that info with the paramedics should I pass out.  John assured me that it was impossible to OD by taking Zyrtec, Midol and Advil together.  I think his phone died after that because he stopped responding to my text messages.

Aside from what we learned in the summit, I learned a few other things about Washington D.C.

1. You should never say "Let's photo bomb that press conference" in front of police holding giant guns while at the Capitol.  For those who don't know, "photo bomb" means to jump in the photo when you aren't supposed to be in it.

2. You can not take photos in the cafeteria of the Senate building, or you will meet the Secret Service, who will eye you intently until you leave.

3. D.C. is a great place to meet potential husbands for your daughters.

I met a very impressive young man at the Summit who is at the top of my list for potential husbands for one of my daughters.  He spends his summers in D.C. interning, when he isn't back in high school in Miami.

He is too young for my daughter now, but I gave him my card and said to stay in touch as in 10 years I thought they could make this work. He liked her photo, so I have high hopes.

They left our table and never returned shortly after we spoke, but I'm sure it's just because they wanted to go add "Marry Natalie's daughter" to their future calendars.

Tamara and I have traveled quite a few times together and we work like a well oiled machine.  Despite that a few things occured that made me question her commitment to our friendship.

First off, on our return home she refused to switch seats with me when I found a semen stain on my seat.  I always give her the window seat because she likes to lean on it and sleep during our flights.  I'm thoughtful like that.  She knows how grossed out I get by these kinds of things, but she remained unhelpful during my plight, beyond laying down a piece of paper for me to sit on, covering the semen stain.

It's obvious what this is!

On the next leg of our flight there was a seat between Tamara and I.  Thankfully one without body fluids that we could see.  I decided to kick my shoes off and spread out a little, so as to decompress from the last flight and trauma.

Tamara had the audacity to say my feet were "hummin", which apparently means the same as stinky.  After all I had been through, you would think she would be more understanding.

Tamara giving my feet the evil eye

I sat in semen on the other flight to ensure her comfort.  I thought it a bit rude that she would complain about an alleged slight odor. I gave her a chance to redeem herself by buying matching cheesehead hats while we laid over in Wisconsin, but she would have nothing to do with it.

Me trying to get Tamara into the spirit of Wisconsin

Washington D.C. is always a great place to visit.  The Prostate Cancer Summit was a success and we were even able to squeeze in some fun, shop for a husband for my daughters, and narrowly escape getting an STD from an airplane seat.