Monday, November 22, 2010

Thank you Oprah!

I cannot believe what just happened to me a week ago. Let me begin by telling you how it all started.

About a month ago I nominated my roommate Gina's Pin-Up For Vets calendar project on the Oprah Winfrey website. There was a link on her website to nominate someone who inspires you and who is a hero in your community. I thought that this perfectly described Ms. Gina Elise so I went ahead and submitted her name. We didn't think too much about it and went on with our lives.

Then, two weeks ago, we got an email asking if we would like to be in the audience on the show! Crazy, right? We had no clue this was coming or that really bigger things lay in store for us. After much debate as to whether or not we should go ahead and buy those expensive plane tickets from LA to Chicago on such short notice, we finally caved and purchased them. When was this sort of opportunity ever going to happen again? Several of our friends told us that we would be stupid not to go. This is her final season after all. We didn't even know what the show was going to be about!! This led to some serious investigation....


Now if you've been following my blog for awhile, then you'll know that Gina and I travel quite a bit for her Pin-Ups For Vets project to hand-deliver calendars and other merchandise to VA Hospitals. So of course we thought that we should also go to a hospital while we were in Chicago. Let's kill two birds with one stone. We would attend the Oprah show in all its magicalness and also go cheer up some amazing VETS. Logical, eh?
I had never been to the Windy City before so I was ecstatic about the trip. What was there not to be thrilled about: Being at the Oprah show, visiting a VA Hospital and venturing to a new fun city! Well, this trip turned out be the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me! Are you ready for it? The show that we went to happened to be OPRAH'S PART 2 of her FAVORITE THINGS EPISODE!!!!!! Can you believe that?! If you follow Oprah even a little bit, then you know what this episode is all about and how much it means to be in that illustrious audience on the taping of that particular episode! If you don't know what I'm talking about, well, all you need to know is that Oprah generously gives away to her audience members 10-15 of her all-time favorite things. That's right, this show is all about receiving gifts!!! It was insane! I don't really even know how to describe how incredible it was being in that audience and discovering that it was her Favorite Things episode. Let me just tell you that the audience absolutely freaked out!! Tears, hugs, giddy laughter, screams, uncontrollable shaking, outbursts of singing and that was just me! Hahaha! Ok, not really, we were all going crazy!!! I kept hugging and shaking Gina's hands and asking over and over, "Are we really here?! Is this really happening to us right now?!" I had to pinched throughout the show to see if I was awake! Fake snow was falling from the ceiling and the words "Oprah's Ultimate Favorite Things" kept bouncing on the screens everywhere. It was madness in that studio for awhile. Wonder how much of this commotion they got on camera?
Honestly, I still think I'm in shock that this all happened to me. Out of all the people in the world that tried getting on this show, Gina was chosen and she picked me to go with her. I mean, what are the chances of all this?! Mathematicians, help me out....

If you haven't watched this episode yet, then go check it out asap! It aired yesterday so perhaps you die-hard Oprah fans have it recorded or maybe you know of someone that recorded it. I'm in the reddish-peach dress in the second row-front center. I know-they were amazing seats!! I had an stellar view of the entire stage and of course of the lovely Oprah! Sadly, they didn't let us take our phones or cameras into the studio with us so there aren't any pictures from the inside. I was definitely taking mental pictures though the entire time! : )

This Thanksgiving, I am truly grateful for experiences like this!

23 comments:

  1. So so SO SO jealous and so very happy for you!! Bravo to Gina for a wonderful and selfless project.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am beyond jealous too Leah! I'm so happy and excited for you :)

    I DVR'd the episode and will watch it tonight with a nice glass of wine...Tonya told me where you were and what you were wearing so I can't wait to see you on there! Congrats on such an exciting experience!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That sounds like an amazing experience & all around good trip!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. That is awesome!!!! I don't watch Oprah, but I'm going to have to look for this episode to see what she gave away!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I follow your sisters blog/twitter and felt like 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon watching that show today. It was fun watching how excited Tonya was for you on Twitter and I was thinking you were kind of getting hosed compared to Fridays episode until Santa rolled out with that car. I'm thinking you probably don't need those jeans. Anyway, I'm really excited for you and your friend. It sounds like you two really deserved it, congrats!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh man, how exciting is THAT?! You scored big time on that one. Had to come visit from Tonya's twitter....glad I did!

    ReplyDelete
  7. That sounds amazing! You are super lucky lady!

    ReplyDelete
  8. lucky girl. must have been so surreal! happy to see your blog. i will follow! follow me too - a fit fashionista..

    <3 gretchen

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is AMAZING! Super jealous but sooo happy for you.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Holy cow, I got a chill when I read this!!!! How amazing!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. that is AWESOME!!!

    I didnt watch the episode- what "things" did you get?

    ReplyDelete
  12. I can't believe it - how amazing for you! How did you get all your loot home??

    ReplyDelete
  13. Leah I can't believe you were there! I wish I could have seen you on TV! I have never seen an Oprah Show even on TV!!!!
    What kind of cool gifts did you get? I'd understand if you didn't want to talk about them on your blog!
    I'm also very happy for Gina. I hope she gets all the publicity she deserves for such a great cause!
    I need to catch up on your blog. Take care xoxo
    BTW, I saw the pictures of you n FB and wanted to tell you that you look really good with your hair up! Wish I could look that beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  14. So exciting!!! I saw the episode and am veryyy jealous of your loot! I looked for you in the audience, but there were tons of people wearing peachish colored sweaters so I wasn't sure if I saw you or not!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I had just finished watching the episode when your sister tweeted about you being in the audience. I freaked out. Like Poppy said, it felt like 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon.

    And any time you wanna share that pretty little Coach bag you're getting, I can send you my address. (just kidding, not really)

    ReplyDelete
  16. That is amazing!!!! So happy for you! Insanely jealous, but totally happy! :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thank you for all these awesome comments! It was an amazing experience and I am still so shocked that it happened! : )

    ReplyDelete
  18. That's God sending you and your friend a blessing! You both deserve it. My husband and I were on her show a few years back. She did a show about how to safe guard your home from burglars. My house was selected for the show, and they sent a camera crew out to the house to film. This famous burglar came to our house and explained how "safe" our home was! I was 6 months pregnant with my son! I never told anyone we did it. All these people called us up and couldn't believe it was us! Too Funny. I'm so glad I did this Linky thing at the Red Dress. Got to meet YOU :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thank you M.J! So nice to meet you too!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Wow, I bet that would be mind-blowingly awesome. How cool!

    Stopping by from TRDC.

    ReplyDelete
  21. That is so exciting! In a meant-to-be totally full of fate way! Hooray for you both!!

    ReplyDelete