George "Dubya"

Here is Mark's version of his cool encounter with the President (well, not the current Mr. President since the current Mr. President doesn't fly United Airlines and Mark definitely doesn't have a boarding pass for Air Force One). Here is the story (Mark actually wrote something for the blog. Can you believe it?):

"We didn’t even know President Bush was on the plane until we were close to Shanghai (figures since those of us in the cattle car are not allowed to associate with the first class folks). When we landed, before we were allowed to get up, they paged all the secret service agents to the front. I had figured that he and his agents would have been escorted off first so I didn’t expect to see him. I was wrong. As we deplaned, I was walking forward to the exit door and I stopped right where my line and the first class line were merging to exit. One of his agents was in front of me and as soon as he passed, right in front of me just a few feet away was G.W. himself. As he passed, I said “Hi” and gave a weak wave (my hands were on my backpack straps), and he smiled back, gave a nod, and said “Hey” softly. He did say “Thank you darling” as well, but I’m pretty sure it was directed to the flight attendant next to me. I mean it was a tender moment, and I have been called “darling” by former presidents before, but it probably wasn’t to me… He walked out and then after a few more agents followed, I got off the plane. His entourage then was escorted off the jet bridge through a side door and that’s the last I saw of him. He seemed nice…and short. I thought he was taller like his dad."