An Evening Even R Hong Could Not Ruin

My sister sent a tersely written email to me today about not updating my blog. I assured her that the moment I got home I would do just that. Now it isn't everyday that you get to meet someone you really admire. However yesterday I and a number of my friends did just that when we not only met but had a lovely evening with the Dean of our College, Dr. David Magleby. Anyone who was a political science or really any social science major at BYU knows Dean Magleby. Not only is he the Dean of my college but he also happens to be the dad of my dear friend Katie.

Dan, David, Dan, and Joe all Washington Seminar Alums

The Dean was in town for an event at the Barlow Center. For those of you who don't know what the Barlow Center is, it is a multi purpose facility that is used for among other things to house the Washington Seminar interns (Dan and I dominated in 2004) and home to the Church's international and government affairs office.

Congressman Wally Herger spoke to a group about how his faith has influenced his public service. I was looking forward to asking him a question about doing missionary work among other members of Congress but some old dude had to ask about entitlements.

I love going back to the Barlow because it brings back so many fond memories. In a lot of ways it was the pinnacle of my time in college. Back in the day when Ray and Todd were clubbing, Keith was calling and Veda was dominating me in water chugging.

The Magleby's and the Barlow boys. Dad the coat looks good eh?

After the talk we enjoyed some refreshments and the company of Tracy and Taylor who work at the Barlow center. I also talked to my new friends Meghan and Adri. I made Meghan turn bright red a la Melanie Beal when I called her out about knowing my man Keith from the old B-Low days. Katie told us that the Dean wanted to go with us for Ice Cream. Now it isn't often that I am giddy but the thought of sitting down at the table with town with one of the legends in my life was something that I was pretty excited about. Not only did the Dean regale us with a story about his time on the hill he also bought our ice cream. What a guy!

We went around the table and told about what we do. I was impressed by the great things that my friends are doing and I like to think that the Dean was proud of these upstanding young people who are in the world doing remarkable things or at the very least in my case on the path to do remarkable things.

We didn't have the bow ties like we had talked about but Katie assured us that the Dean would be back for her graduation. We will be wearing bow ties in his honor.

We of course reminisced about BYU and our glory days there. Dan actually had a class from the Dean, a pleasure I never had although I did get to have a couple of classes from Dick Davis. Yippee!

Joe...not exactly sympathetic to Dan's pain.

Now if that was all that happened you would count it as an extraordinary night without a hitch, that however would not be accurate. No R Hong saw to that. Now I don't really know who R Hong is. I imagine he is a little gentleman working for DC Metro Police. But he did not like Dan Nelson parking behindThai Coast. A place where we had attended the grand opening four years ago. Meter Maid R Hong gave Dan a twenty five dollar ticket for parking in a private lot while not a customer.

But if that weren't enough they put this sticker directly in the drivers line of sight. And despite my best efforts with my congressional ID I couldn't get that thing off. Leave it to the fuzz to do something like that. Dan just drove with it on anyway.

Despite this set back we were champions. We talked the whole way home about how cool the Dean and Sister Magleby were. Katie your parents rock even if your mom won't be my facebook friend. It was an amazing evening topped by an exchange of business cards.