Typical Day
At 5:30AM, the phone alarm goes off. Grabbing it from the bedside table like a leopard seizing a gazelle, the Honorable Mayor Donna Mead stops the noise and swiftly tabs over to her emails. Now that she's awake, Mayor Mead plans on getting as much done as possible. She needs to know what she'll be walking into.
She finishes her check-in while doing some light stretching. The good people of Newtownhaven elected her into office because of her promises of swift and decisive actions, and she's going to spend every waking moment fulfilling those promises.
But first, the one thing more important to her than the people of Newtownhaven are the people of Mayor Mead's household: her husband Bob and her children Jen, Matthew, and Jared. After shaking Bob awake to start his own long day at the office, Donna heads downstairs to help the kids prepare for the day.
Matthew's history project needs a little extra TLC (one of the walls needs some extra glue) and Jen has some basic questions about James and how those animals all live in that gigantic peach. Mayor Mead (or "mom" to these non-voters) gives Jen the rundown as she puts together the last of the sandwiches. Walking the kids to the door, she watches them walk to the bus stop.
Like clockwork, the bus is there at 7:10AM. It looks a little smoky out the back. She makes a mental reminder to check in with the superintendent of schools about that.
By 7:30AM, the kids are at school and Mayor Mead is on the road to the city hall. She calls her assistant (already at the office), going over today's schedule in between sips of medium roast coffee. After parking the car in the city hall garage she says good morning to Vincent the day guard as she slides her key.
She continues up to her office, never missing a beat in her Bluetooth conversation. Upon seeing her staff she removes the ear piece, continuing right on as if she had been in the room the whole time.
After meeting with her staff for a prolonged breakdown of the upcoming day (and for Gary to tell his funny story from this weekend like he always does), Mayor Mead is at her desk at 9:00AM and begins responding to all the issues that cropped up overnight. She answers emails and returns phone calls for everything from dog leash laws (she's a fan) to her appearance at this week's high school recital (of course she'd love to meet with the bake sale team).
At 11:15AM, she takes a break from her correspondence and her staff drives her to meet with a local soldier's family at their house. It's just a short distance from the city hall. The late army sergeant is to have a plaque dedicated at the Heroes Memorial in an upcoming ceremony, and the Mayor wants to make sure it is being done according to the family's wishes. After listening to some wonderful stories, Mayor Mead says goodbye.
Drying her eyes, she gets into the car and heads back to city hall where she is immediately greeted by a tiny but vocal group of protesters. They're not happy with her recent decision to close the library on Mondays and Wednesdays. She spends half an hour speaking with the protesters; she knows dealing with disagreement is part of the job. By 12:30PM, she's back inside and taking a break over lunch. Sometimes she'll have her assistant join her, but today she's taking a few moments in peace.
By 4:00PM, the mayor has met with half a dozen citizens. She's smiled and listened and been concerned and laughed at bad jokes (she'd never heard the one about the duck and the hunter before). Then she switches back into mom-mode, leaving to pick Jared up from his after school drama club meeting. As she waits in the parking lot, Donna swipes through the day's news on her cell phone. Out of the corner of her eye, she notices a school bus stalled in the back of the parking lot. Shoot, she was going to call...oh well, she can't fix everything.
At 7:00PM, she helps her husband clean up as the kids all rush far away from their empty plates. Normally she'd call them back, but Bob's in a clean-up kind of mood. They share a few moments with each other and the suds, until Bob reminds her that she has someplace to be. The town council is having their weekly meeting tonight, and they've asked the mayor to sit in and observe. That's their polite way of saying listen and shut up.
Mayor Mead can take it; she has a little surprise in store for them the next morning. Some of the meetings and phone calls today had to do with a little bike sharing project she's prepared to bring to the voters. It's something the city needs and the taxpayers will love, but the old-school city councilors will hate. She kisses her husband goodnight (he'll be asleep when she returns) and heads back out towards downtown Newtownhaven.
She arrives at the 8:00PM council meeting at 8:07PM, making as grand an entrance as the old wooden doors to the council chamber will allow. She shakes hands and says good evening to each of the councilors, noticing a stern look on the chairman's face. She smiles right back, of course; of all the people who won't be happy tomorrow, he's going to be the most not happy. That alone will give Mayor Mead poise as she sits through the next two and a half hours of the droning old man.
Tonight, he gets his say; tomorrow, Mayor Mead will do exactly what the people of Newtownhaven elected her to do: Lead the way.