Celebrating My Birthday- Abroad Edition

Finally right?

When I went to NJ for my cousin, Kristin's daughter's 1st birthday party, we talked about going to Live! with Kelly a little bit.  She said she applied for tickets and I said if she got them I would definitely fly up and go.  Well in July she got the letter and sent me a message.  The Editor was out of town on business but I was pretty much decided to go a few minutes later.  Making it even more fun was the fact that the show we had tickets for was September 6th, two days after my birthday!  I booked my flights and then decided what to wear (thanks to everyone who voted!!), and hopped on a plane to Newark.

I'm not really one for surprises, but I don't like to ruin surprises either.  I'm kinda of a delay gratification type of girl.  Live! announces their guests about a week in advance but I didn't find out until Tuesday who the guests were on Thursday!  I did read all the spoilers about Michael Strahan being the new host though.  (And I'm  happy with that- he's great; Nick Lachey would have been good too).  This is Kristin & me's conversation about finding out the guests... (I'm the green, she's the white).

The guests ended up being Katie Couric, James Marsden, and two of the US Olympics Women's Soccer players.

The best thing about this trip was that I didn't have to think about anything other than how to get to Newark.  The Editor got a little more one-on-one time with Noah, though it broke my heart to leave him.  Especially at the airport when he said, "Baby going on the plane too?"  I had a few delays, but I was flying alone, with a carry-on only, and was reading Gone Girl so I was ok.  Another great thing about this trip was I got to spend time with Kristin's 15month old daughter, Paige one-on-one.  She's walking and talking and even learned how to sign 'more' while I was there.  So that was a lot of fun.

Thursday started early, I mean super early.  Our goal was to be in line around 7:30am.  Kristin's husband works in the city and takes the train every day.  So we were Going to Work with him and following his routine.  He got up around 4:30am, I got up at 4:45 and got in the shower at 4:50ish, and Kristin got up & in the shower 5-5:10am.  We were running about 10-15 minutes later than expected to leave the house at 6 but still doing great with time.  Kristin's mother-in-law watched Paige and arrived at 6am (Paige, like Noah wakes up at a more reasonable hour).  Before we left, I took our ticket to the show off the fridge and put it on top of all my bags.  We were going straight to the airport later in the day so I knew it would all make it into the car.

We drove to the Secaucus train station and got on a train for Penn Station.  While we were sitting on the train (still in the early early morn), Kristin started rummaging in her Louis Vuitton.  I had a feeling what was going on, but stayed calm.  I knew the Live! ticket made it into the car, certainly it was in her bag... or not.  So the ticket didn't make it with us into the city.  We got off the train and decided that Kristin's husband would go back to the car to look for it.  He had a monthly train pass.  So we stood around in Penn Station trying to be calm (not thinking that the ticket fell out of the car and blew away), trying to figure out what time we'd get to the studio, trying not to imagine having to sit (gasp) upstairs at Live!.  We decided that even if we didn't have the ticket we would go to the show.  We both had a photo of the ticket on our phones so we'd just give it a try.  No tears were shed but it came close.  In my mind I was thinking, "Really, I paid $250 to come here and not see Kelly???!!!"  But I tried to stay calm and blow it off like it was nothing.  This was a lot of thinking before 8am.  

We got a text that Kristin's husband had the ticket but the train wouldn't make it back to Penn Station until around 7:45.  We went up to check out the taxi line, ready to get in it and wait if necessary (luckily there was no line).  I texted the Editor (who was working before Noah woke up), and he Google mapped Penn Station to ABC Studios (1.9 miles, 10 min cab ride).  Still doing fine with time.

We got the ticket, got in a cab and started to have a little relief; expect for the damn seating in the studio.  We really didn't want to be upstairs, but at this point we were just happy to be going.  The taxi dropped us off in front of a line at ABC Studios and we jumped out.  Then I noticed the was for The Chew.  Seriously? Where was Kelly?  I remembered that when they show it on TV it's always on the corner so we went to the end of the street and got in line.  There were about 7 people in front of us and about 100 people inside the building.  It was 8:10am.  

Not too many people entered the building after us, which meant there were a lot of people in front of us.  We all got different colored tickets inside. What did the colors mean? Were some for upstairs?  Where are we sitting?  There were also two areas for people; one had about 50 people, the other was where we were with about 100.    One highlight of standing in line was Michael Strahan and his beautiful wife walked right by us (5ft away!).  So his hands are huge, but he's not as big as I thought he would be (but our family is really tall so 6'3" is normal).  Which got us thinking again... Was Kelly going to walk in too? Should we look out for her?  Just about now, Kristin let out a gasp.  Kelly?!! (Um, no! Of course, she was in hair & makeup already it was 8:15am).  It was  Rangers hockey player.

Waiting in line.

Finally the line started moving and we were going in!  (We did not volunteer to be bikini dance girls).  We were literally some of the last people in line and into the studio.  They handed out numbers for the phone caller to pick from 1-216.  We were 212 & 213.  But there were seats downstairs!!!!  We sat down in the front row, near the stairs where the guests come in from.  The audience director told us there were better seats, so we stood up and hunted them down.  But they were not next to each other (instead front & back).  So we returned to our original seats; we wanted to sit next to each other.  I knew the other seats were better, so I went back over and asked if anyone would move so we could sit next to each other.  One person said no but the other said yes!  We had great seats now!

best photo of the day taken by Kristin

Photos of the show: Michael Gellman, Kelly Ripa, Michael Strahan, Katie Couric, James Marsden, Jeremy Irons, two US Olympic Soccer Players (I forget their names), Kelly pretending to be Gellman playing tennis, Kelly talking to the birthday man in front of me.

The show was fun and Kelly is so beautiful and so tiny.  And Michael is so friendly and funny.  They shot the live show and then shot a video ad, pictures for a print ad, and then a guest spot with Jeremy Irons for the next week.   During commercial breaks they would come into the audience and ask questions.  When Michael asked about birthdays I wanted to answer but the guy in front of me was celebrating his 50th so he got attention from our area.   The guests weren't really friendly, in out and that was it.  Though the soccer players did take a photo with a girl in the audience.

In a blur it was over.  As we were leaving people were taking photos with Kelly and Michael and I wanted to say, "It's my birthday! Take a picture with me!"  Kelly literally walked right next to me as she was leaving the studio and said, "Bye, thanks for coming" looking right at me.  This was my opportunity to get a photo; it was my birthday after all.  But I totally froze.  I just starred at her.  And she looked at me and walked away.  And I seriously almost cried.

The Editor captured us on TV 5 times (of course, he knew what to look for).

But it was the best time ever!  And even though the morning started rough, it worked out perfectly!  We went to Macy's to visit Kristin's husband and out to lunch before getting back on the train.  I was at the airport at 1:30pm for a 3pm flight.  I didn't get home until after 8pm due to delays (again I was reading Gone Girl so it was okay) though I promised Noah I'd see him and I knew that wasn't going to happen.  I did get to talk to him on the phone.

I took a taxi home and when I walked in Noah was watching Sesame Street On Demand waiting up for me!  And he said, "Momma was at Kelly's house."  I wish!