today i met bill clinton.

here is the full story.

after lunch a faculty member comes rushing into the office to tell us that he's just passed bill clinton on the high street.  we are shocked!  bill is in town!  one of the admin members goes to stalk him and finds that he has landed at the bear, a pub right around the corner from our college.  four of us rush out - my friend liz (also in the photo), larry, and michael.  we're all americans, we're all democrats, and we're all freaking out.

we get to the bear, where there are several security guards standing around and trying to look nonchalant.  liz and i go inside (NO ONE STOPS US) and into the doorway of the room where bill is sitting.  total, there were about 15 security guys in the tiny pub, drinking beers and waiting for their lunch, and bill is chatting away with these two americans who i think were sitting there when he arrived.  there isn't a huge crowd - we appear to be his only stalkers so far.  he is VERY thin, but it is him.

one security guy comes up to us and says "are you just going to stand there gawking?  he's trying to eat his lunch!"  i apologize (ahh!  i hate confrontation!) and say we can go, which he clearly wants us to.  i lean over to liz and tell her this.  as we're backing out of the room, bill yells "do those girls want a picture?"  WE DO, and we rush back inside, where bill shakes our hands and pats the bench beside him so we can take a picture.  I AM SITTING NEXT TO BILL CLINTON.  our friend larry walks in, and we introduce him, and then for 20 minutes - no exaggeration - we talk to bill about how we're teachers (he calls it "the noblest of professions," and thanks us for our work), and he proceeds to chat with us about romney's jobs plan and how it won't work, his thoughts on charter schools, and how paying teachers more will help improve student achievement.  he's a talker, a policy guy, making eye contact and making us feel really special as he rambles on with his thoughts on any number of subjects.  after about 10 minutes his food arrives (he had tomato soup and a guinness), and i try to leave - "thank you so much for talking with us - we don't want to interrupt your meal!" AND HE KEEPS TALKING.  we stay, obviously.  at some point he's talking about chelsea and how she's overextended and he's never going to get grandchildren at this rate and how he's lived longer than all of his grandparents except the one who wore overalls all day and farmed from sunup to sundown, but with all the new technology women can have children so much longer, and if chelsea has a kid when she's 50 he'll be 84 and that will be fine.  liz tells him at least chelsea's married - that liz and i are basically chelsea's age and are behind her on that front - AND BILL GRABS LIZ'S ARM AND OFFERS SOME DATING ADVICE: "worry about the other things" - as in, the man will come when you stop worrying about it.

oh, bill.  we enjoy you.

finally he says, "it was so nice meeting you guys," and we thank him profusely and tell him we're proud democrats and shake hands again and say our goodbyes.  we freak out only when we leave the bar, calling our parents on the office phone and skipping around and reenacting the conversation for everyone.  i think about how i would love to call my grandma, if she were alive, to tell her all about it.  she'd have something witty and racy to say.  it would be awesome.  it still IS awesome, of course, but it would be awesomer.

aaaaaaand then the shit hit the fan at work.  but that is a story for another day, probably not on this blog...