One More For The Road

I have so much to say and so many things flying through my head, and I don’t know where to start.

New York City was amazing. A.MA.ZING. Just being there and seeing all of these places that I’ve only ever heard about on TV was overwhelming enough, but add in doing video interviews and a live TV show, and this has got to be definition of “surreal”.

I suppose I should just start at the beginning, right? As most of you know, I got the phone call from the Calorie King media rep last Wednesday, asking if they could send my story and before/after pics to this show who was doing a segment on ‘Digital Dieting’. On Thursday, Producer Dan for The Morning Show With Mike and Juliete called and did a phone interview, and Friday he called to say they wanted me on the show.

I was unsure about going. Eric couldn’t get the time off and I didn’t want to go alone. What do I do with the boys? Who would take them to school and watch them while Eric was at work? How would I coordinate all of this in a matter of hours? Not to mention that this would be the first time I was ever without either Jacob or Eric. In the last few years I’ve gone on vacations, but I’ve always had one of my boys with me.

Originally they were going to fly a camera crew to California over the weekend and do all of the preliminary video stuff and I would fly to NYC on Monday. Instead they decided it was more cost effective to just fly me down a day early. This was my preference, anyway. It would mean that I could actually see something of NYC rather than spending 2 days on a plane for a 10 minute segment. My sister Caysi was going to go with me until we realized she didn’t have valid ID to get on the plane, and so I decided to take Caytlin. All of this was so last minute. I didn’t get the message about flying in a day early until Saturday morning, and asked Caytlin to go at about 10am. The show set us up with drivers for the whole trip, so we knew that we were going to be picked up at 1am to make our 7am flight out of LAX. The day went by so.fast. I decided we’d try to do all of our luggage as carry-ons so we wouldn’t have to worry about checking baggage and all that (which proved to be a blessing when we were flying out of JFK), but they also wanted me to bring pictures of myself. Since we have mostly digital this meant making a CD for them which would have been fine except for my computers annoying habit of overheating and shutting down. I also had homework I had to finish, boys to make arrangements for, and of course I wanted to spend some of the time with Jacob and Trevor before I left. It made for a very busy day. Oddly enough, it took me right up until 12:30am to finish everything so I only had about 20 minutes to relax before the driver got there.

This driver and car were really cool. It was kind of an old limo, with only 2 seats. But there was this bar thing in there and the set up was really classy. We got to LAX 2.5 hours early, which was a little early but worked out well. We were in separate seats (since I reserved hers and Fox reserved mine) so we had to do some finagling to get her to a seat next to mine. Luckily she’s a minor so we had that going for us, because they changed our seat arrangements and not others. Also, the check in area was packed, and security took forever. Once we were through, grabbed some food, and went to the bathroom we only had about 20 minutes to wait before we boarded the plane.

The trip was pretty uneventful. The plane was really nice with these great TVs on the back of every chair so you could watch TV or purchase movies or play games. We had a connection in Cincinnati, but it was really easy to navigate the airport. Landing at JFK was a kick. We circled forever as we waited our turn to land, which made for some great sight seeing. We met up with our driver at baggage claim and headed to Manhattan.

Every stereotype about NYC drivers that you’ve heard is TRUE. They are NUTS. If they think the people in front of them aren’t going fast enough then they’ll just make another lane. I don’t know how many times we got flipped off on the way to the hotel.

Our hotel was the Hotel Mela right in Times Square. It’s on 44th and 6th, right down the street where they film Good Morning America. Of course we didn’t know that until Tuesday morning or we would have tried to check it out. But Sunday night we got to our hotel at about 700pm or so. We dropped off our bags and then headed for Times Square. We ate dinner at Ruby Foos, a dimsum restaurant suggested by the front desk. It was great, and really fun to people watch while we ate. After dinner we walked. And walked. And walked. I made Caytlin give in and head back to the hotel at 10pm. You figure that by that time I had been up for about 26 hours, give or take about 2 hours in the car ride down there. I was EXHAUSTED. What’s odd is that the excitement and the adrenaline were enough to keep me going. It wasn’t until later (as in, this morning at home) that I’ve really felt tired.

Monday morning I set my alarm for 5am to go running in Central Park. Since it was still really dark still I decided to reset it for 6am. I left the hotel at 6:20 and headed the few blocks to the park. This was SO FLIPPIN’ COOL. To able to run in Central Park (to even be running at all, but then to take it to NYC and the park) was just……absolutely perfect. I didn’t venture too far into the interior because I didn’t want to get lost, but the periphery that I ran around was gorgeous.

When I got back to the hotel, Caytlin was up and showered so I hopped in then got dressed and all done up and we met our driver downstairs at 8:30 (after paying $33 for breakfast at a restaurant down the street. We each had an english muffin, Caytlin had a cup of cottage cheese, and I had a bowl of fruit. And this cost $33. Crazy.). The car took us to Mobile Video Productions, in this warehouse type building. The biggest lesson I learned is that nothing on TV is what it seems. On the video they show where it looks like I am in this cozy little room. NOPE! It’s actually this rather large room with all kinds of lights and shadows and such. The crew was fantastic, and made me feel really comfortable. Mike is off camera the entire time, asking me questions and making me clarify when things I’ve said didn’t sound right. Then we did the whole “introspective thing”. I had to stare at myself in the mirror; play on the computer; practice being serious and thoughtful. Then they took us down to Madison Square Park so we could do those walking segments you saw and also the video clips of the fountain. I told the guys that I was going to be so good at introspective that I’d never have to fake it again. This whole experience was easy. I wasn’t nervous, mostly because I knew that their job was to edit everything and make me look good.

The entire session was about 2 hours. I changed there so I’d be in comfortable “seeing NYC” clothes, and the driver who had been waiting for us gave us a ride. We ended up back at the hotel after all, so Caytlin could change and I could drop off the clothes I wore that morning (the jeans and black shirt). I had asked the guys that morning, “if you had to see as much of NYC as you can today, how would you do it?” At their suggestion we took a cab from the hotel to Battery Park and the Staten Island Ferry. The ferry is free and we got a really good look at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. From there we headed to the financial district where we saw Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange and the World Trade Center Memorial. Being there so few days before the anniversary was really humbling, and all I could do was look around at the buildings around the site and think of the horror of that day. It kind of served to bring me back to the present for a while and helped keep me grounded.

We checked out the Trinity Church and ate gyros from a street vendor. Then we ventured underground and took the subway to Chinatown. Well, we tried to take it to Chinatown. After asking 4 different people, we still managed to get on the wrong train and ended up headed for Brooklyn before a very nice young man sent us to a different train. FINALLY we made it to Chinatown, where Caytlin was in heaven. She is so obsessed and in love with the Asian cultures, and this was pure bliss for her. She even got to walk through the Buddhist temple. We walked that entire afternoon: Chinatown to Little Italy to Greenwich Village to West Village. At that point our legs were so tired that we headed downstairs to the subway and managed AGAIN to go in the wrong direction. A quick disembark and then on to the right one headed north. We got to the hotel at about 7:15, and I had the front desk make reservations for us at Bobby Flay’s NYC restaurant, Bar Americain. Very expensive, but very worth. Some of the absolute best food I’ve ever had. We assumed that since this was one of those places that made you order side dishes separately that the portions would be small. WRONG. We didn’t even touch our side dishes. It was fantastic.

We spent the rest of the night seeing Time Square again and taking more pictures. We got back to the hotel after 11, which was not what I intended the night before a live interview. But I was up at 6am, and even thought to order room service the night before so we didn’t have to fit in breakfast. (Yes, I am the idiot who didn’t know there would be breakfast provided in the back room at the show). There was a car at the hotel at 730, but they couldn’t get to our hotel because the street was closed. It was the Fall Concert Series for Good Morning America, and they had set up a stage for Jessica Simpson. So we got a quick concert in on the walk to the end of the block and the car. The trip to the studio would have been faster by foot, but this service is kind of required in order to make sure you’re there on time. When I got there they did my makeup more (I was told to come with my hair and makeup as I usually do them and then they would touch up). Their “more” was very weird for me. I wear makeup but strive to make it look natural. I know they have to put extra on when you’re on TV, but I felt pretty ……. made up. They played with my hair for a brief bit, and that’s when I got nervous.

I hadn’t really let myself think about it all that much up to then. But once all the primping was done Producer Dan came over to prep me. Every question he asked I totally blanked on. Honestly, I was so nervous my stomach was quivering. What you didn’t see in the segment was all the breathing I had to do in the back room and asking Heather (the other interviewee on stage with me) to hold my hand. It was crazy. During prep, Dan left me alone for a few minutes and then asked me the questions again after putting things in perspective. He reminded me that I wasn’t talking about a subject I knew nothing about. I didn’t need to memorize any facts or make a sales pitch. I just needed to tell my story. I was so focused on saying the exactly.right.thing that I was overwhelmed by the questions. And wouldn’t you know that they didn’t even ask me all of the 5 questions I was prepped for. And there were points that Dan thought were good and that I should say on camera that I never got a chance or remembered to say.

As of this morning, I didn’t want to watch it. I was afraid that I would see it and nitpick. I was totally content with my perspective of the experience and didn’t want to ruin it with second thoughts about my phrasing or my makeup or my hair. yes, I am my own worse critic.

Eric and his family convinced me otherwise, so I just watched it about 2 hours ago. I only gave in because I realized I couldn’t remember any of the questions they asked me. That’s how nervous I was during the show, and how fast everything was moving. My final opinion? I think my face looks fat. Or the camera really does add 10 pounds. But it was good to know that I didn’t act like the Beverly Hill Billy I felt like. Instead I just thought I looked on camera completely different than I do in “real life”.

Overall? It was absolutely, completely, totally FANTASTIC. I had a fabulous time, and once I am able to process everything I am sure I will live off the memory of it. Right now it seems like a dream. I can’t believe I was in New York City, much less there on a free trip doing what I was doing. It still hasn’t sunk in, and Caytlin and I would be walking and then suddenly stop and say, “We’re in New York City.” It’s mind boggling. It was also incredibly exciting to see all of the behind-the-scenes stuff. It was a lesson in TV and these types of shows, and I loved it.

After the interview our driver took us to Rockefeller Center. Monday was clear with not a cloud in the sky; Tuesday was overcast and running to the point of a downpour but we toughed it out. We bought umbrellas from a street vendor and walked back to the hotel rather than catching a cab. Our clothes were SOAKED, which wasn’t a big deal since we were changing into comfy clothes for the plane ride anyway. We saw everything down there that we could possibly see in the 2.5 hours we had left. We did the Top of the Rock tour and spent a lot of time on the 70th floor of the Rockefeller building. We went inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We walked around the area where they do the Today Show, and got shots beneath the sign for the Rainbow Room. Once back to our hotel we changed, checked out, and ate lunch at the (hugely overpriced) bistro at the hotel. At 1:30 the driver picked us up for the ride back to JFK, and we were on our way home.

We touched down last night at 730pm, and the driver was waiting in baggage claim. We got home at 11pm, almost exactly 72 hours after leaving home for NYC. I can’t believe how much we saw and everything we were able to do in the short amount of time we had. You figure that out of the 72 hours, 15 were spent flying, 10-12 were spent sleeping, 8 were spent traveling between locations, and 6 were spent doing interview-related stuff. And that’s not including the time change, which shortened our trip even more. With what we had, Caytlin and I definitely made the most of it, and we loved every minute.

The following pictures are not in any order and there are a few duplicates. I tried for the last 2 days (it is now Saturday, 2 days after I wrote this out) to get WordPress to allow the pictures in the parts of my story where they belonged. This proved to be impossible, and I give up. So enjoy, random as they are!