Here's to the Ladies who Lunch

This post is dedicated to all of my previous Young Womens leaders. It is because of them that I am the intern that I am today. Who would have thought that after 4+ years of college studying International Cultural Theory the information and skills that would be most beneficial when I arrived in Washington would be the ones I learned on Wednesday nights at mutals activities? Seriously. My knowledge of color coordinating, using a glue gun, ironing, DIY bargins, dressing Sunday best, blog stalking, tying the perfect bow, starting with the fork on the outside, how to befriend new girls, how to dance a basic conga, and how to use a phone-tree have gotten me much further than Claude Levi-Strauss' theory on language and culture or extensive hours of ethnographic study and report writing. Kids, go to mutual. You have no idea where it will get ya.

A little FYI on the Public and International Affiars office: basically our job is to make friends with "opinion leaders" (in otherwords, people whose opinion has influence over people: ambassadors, congressmen, etc). We pay close attention to what is going on in politics here in Washington as well as in countries around the world and what role the LDS church can/does play in all. Whether it be religous freedom or having missionaries in different countries, we do our best to protect the interests of the church and the church members be developing relationships with important people. Simply put, it's diplomacy for the church.

Rewind back to skills learned in mutal. A large portion of what I have done so far has had to do with planning events that our office hosts, in these cases, for the wives of Ambassadors. Our first event was called, "Gathering Daisies" and was an event held at the Marriott (yes, as in the hotel Marriot) home. It featured special musical guest SHeDAISY and was attended by the wives of 28 ambassadors from all over the world and many prominent LDS women here in Washington. Think Relief Society activity on steriods. Here were some of my contributions:


This was the gift we gave our guests. Don't be fooled. This was no quick task. I spent no less than 6 hours trimming the treads on 90 hankerchiefs, and several more hours ironing them so they fit in the boxes. This was after, of course, tracking down the exact ribbon and tissue paper. I'm quite proud of these babies.

This is what the bags looked like that we put the hankerchiefs in. Assembling the daisies alone took two days. (P.S. I'm not complaining. It was actually super fun. I'm just trying to put my effort into perspective so 10 years from now when I'm reading this I remember what a labor of love this was.)

I made 150 of these daisy paper clips that were used to display the photographs the guests brought of the sisters in their lives. (you see, SHeDAISY is the Native American word for sisters, and the name of the band of sisters that sang, so "daisies" and "sisterhood" was kinda the theme for this thing.) Luck for me, I was working on these on "take-your-daughter-to-work-day" so my boss' cute girls helped me punch out and assemble these while singing primary songs and speaking in Ubbi-dubbi (ubI uubsed tubo bube thube bubest ubat spubeakubing ubit whuben ubI wubas uba kubid).

And of course, what is a daisy luncheon without daisies. Nothing, right? Well it almost happened due to flooding in South America where these pretty things grow, but we got lucky. 65 removed stickers, bows tyed and flower arrangements later, we had some good looking center peices.

The whole thing came together so well. Unfortunately, I don't have pics of the final results. The best part was, of course, attending the luncheon. You eat yummy catered food while listening to music and chatting it up with important people from all over the world. Like I said, I'm not complaining.

This is me with Ashlee, SHeDAISY, and Mauri. My 10 year old self was doing a happy dance.

THEN.....

The next week our office hosted more ambassador's wives at the First Lady's Luncheon hosted by the Congressional Club. Unfortunately for her, one of the Ambassador's wives was not feeling well enough to attend. Of course, you must fill your table at these kinds of things, so I was generous enough to fill in for her, even though they aren't paying me. I know, I know. Poor me. But an interns gotta do what an interns gotta do.

I only had my iPod to take pics with and no zoom, so I took pictures of the screen instead. Yes, Michelle Obama is just as beautiful and graceful in real life. And surprisingly VERY TALL.

After a lovely meal filled with straight-out-of-movies society women characters, we enjoyed the musical stylings of Gloria Estephan. You know I couldn't control myself any longer.

Their Florida table settings were nice too, I guess. I wonder if they had an intern that slaved over those. Kudos to you.

This was after the event. The big pink bag was a gift compelte with designer sandals, perfume, nail polish, beach towel and water bottle.

So you see, I like Levi-Straus just as much as the next Cultural Theorist, but I really owe my capability to survive Washington to Young Womens leader. A toast to you ladies.