Once upon an Oprah tale

First of all, thanks for all the tips and comments from my last post. Costco is sending a new kitchen and UPS still sucks. On a brighter note, DHL came today with 9 boxes (9 very large boxes) and boy what a difference. DHL Boy rang my door bell (only once) waited till I answered (unheard of) and made sure I was the right customer (a first in shipper etiquette). Then he proceeded to tell me he had 9 very large boxes that he assumed were Christmas presents (what gave that away?) and asked me where I would like them unloaded (you're asking?). He loaded them methodically in my garage, storing the boxes with pictures in the back so the anonymous boxes covered them up. Then, THEN (are you sitting down?) he knocked again to make sure I was happy with where he'd set things. I wanted to hug him (though the B.O. force field he had up around him kept me at bay). I did, however, tell him my UPS Girl story and thanked him over and over for being so courteous. Go figure.

Now on to the goods. Some of you would like to know how I ended up on Oprah. Hubby is reading this right now and shuddering, I guarantee it. Oh well.

It happened like this. 9/11 hit and threw us all for a loop. I visited Oprah's site (I was a much bigger fan back then) and clicked a link that asked "How has 9/11 affected you?". I started typing, clicked send and never thought about it again. Three weeks later the first producer called to chat. A second producer called a day later to chat with Hubby. A week after that, an entire production crew flew into my tiny little town and shook things up!

It was an interesting experience, to say the least. The topic of the show was "What Matters Most". Apparently (I honestly can't remember what I wrote) my email had talked about how things in our marriage had been a little shaky and how I had taken my Hubby and kids for granted up until that tragedy. (If we're being honest though, who wouldn't have said something similar?) Anyway, once the producers got to our humble abode, they reminded me a bit of the Donahue show. They sort of fished for the answers they wanted and skipped over the stuff that wasn't juicy enough. By the time we'd finished taping our segment, Hubby and I were both feeling pretty uncomfortable about the whole thing but how do you call Oprah and say "Thanks, but no thanks!".

I think it was a week or so after that that we were to fly to Chicago (yes, our room was at the "All Suite Omni Hotel") but lo and behold, we got stuck in some crazy weather in Denver (the pilot called them 'microbursts') that kept us from landing until after our connecting flight to Chicago had departed. We ended up spending the night in an airport hotel (courtesy of "O") and watching our show at home the next afternoon. They still ran our segment, but we were spared the front row seat with Dr. Phil. (Oh yes, it was a Dr. Phil show. Can you imagine???) At the end of the taping, Oprah commented on my cute boys. That was the definite highlight.

So, there you have it. I never made it to the studio for our taping but 5 months later 3 girlfriends and I went to Chicago and the producer from our segment hooked us all up with front row seats to a taping. Ironically, it was a Dr. Phil show (all before he got his own).

Just so you know...I've never sent in another email to Oprah.

Oh, and for fun, here's the link to the show. I don't think any of the video works but if you click on the gallery, we're the 5th pic (I think). Notice how young #1 and 2 are (ooh they're soooo cute!). And check out my sweet hair. NOT Hubby's fave.

http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/tows_past_20011009.jhtml