i met arnold schwarzenegger last night

So on the first night of my second class at grad school, the director of our local Chapman campus walked in and simply announced:

"Actually, the whole Tuesday night program has been invited to meet the governor."

As the Czechs would say: "Cože?"

Our professor---this was news to him, too---joked that we were going on a field trip and that we would all have to sign permission slips. We laughed. He said, no really, you have to sign permission slips.

We did. It was no hassle, but less funny than the first joke.

And last night we all filed into a conference room in the governor's office in the capitol in Sacramento, where we met some ordinary people who are doing amazing things. We were met by cabinet officials, the governor's chief of staff, his cabinet secretary, the former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and then the Governator himself. He chided most of us for not wearing any green on Earth Day.

Thankfully he did not pinch us. The man has huge hands. I couldn't take my eyes off of his huge hands.

To be honest, apart from the genuine coolness of his story and the honest celebrity appeal, his story was the least interesting, but I think only because I've heard his story before. It was a cool opportunity to get to hear from our state's most public public servant (although I sincerely imagine he feels the same way about us). It would be fascinating to pick his brain (no, not like in Total Recall) for more reflections on what he calls the best job he's ever had.

All in all it was the coolest Civics lesson I've ever been a part of. After the Q&A we were led onto the floor of the Assembly Chamber, where the professor who set this all up, who is also an sitting assemblymember, described her job to us right where she does it. It is far too dry and unfitting a comparison to say that it was like an "I'm just a bill on Capitol Hill" lecture, but in the end, all of her stories and discussion covered all the same material.

Oh, and Happy Earth Day, Mr. Governator, sir.