Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!

After being back WAY too long I am finally getting the time to update.

I came, I saw - Oprah. I must admit getting up at 5AM to primp up wasn't bad. I nursed a Venti coffee from Starbucks to get me through the first party of my morning. The whole Oprah process wasn't too bad. We waited in line then as we walked through the door, the Harpo staff asked us to take our coats off for our coat check. Then we checked in -- I will circle back to this in a few. After we checked in we went through security. Security searched through our purses taking our cell phones, pens and any paper and keeping it in a zip lock bag. After those items were removed we were able to get our purses back. We headed upstairs to a holding room. We are told what the show is going to be -- Friday's Live Show... We waited there for a little over an hour. In the room were big flat screen televisions showing clips with Oprah and some of her notable shows. After an hour there were parties called by name. Turns out these people were hand selected by the person checking us in. They have you take your coat off to see what you are wearing. So evidently we didn't make the cut... No biggie. After the bottom part of her studio was filled in then we were called in by number.

Walking into Oprah's studio was exilirating! The next thing I thought was this place really isn't as big as it looks. I guess the cameras add 15 pounds to the set too. We get seated and we are told who is going to be on the show, Jimmy Fallon and the founder of Facebook and the men in the Christian the Lion video. While I don't really care for the live show I thought it was very interesting to see a live show filmed.

Before the hosts appear on stage there is a woman that comes out to hype us up with music and getting us pumped to see Oprah.

Then Mark Consuelous is introduced, Oprah comes out with Alli, then Gayle.

Oprah seemed to be tired and a little pissy. I was disappointed of her attitude and lack of interaction with her audience. I guess I just expected more. I know she had an after the show tapings where she actually talked to her audience. We all have bad mornings and even bad days. I won't hold it against her. So I think that's what I was expecting. But none-the-less I was very happy I went. We had the opportunity to attend the second taping of the day and we missed out by 3 people! It was a bummer, but obviously it wasn't meant to be. We headed over to Oprah's store and I bought a t-shirt.

We went to lunch at Ed Debevicks and that was an interesting visit... But it was funny. The food was mediocre at best but the entertainment was funny.

For Saint Patricks Day we went to see the Dying of the Chicago River. That was really a lot of fun. We got a nice spot right on the river and froze our asses off. But it was very neat. The local plumbers union uses an orange vegtable based powder to turn the river green and the zip along the river in little boats to stir up the waters. We got some good pics and I got a picture with a Mounted Chicago Policeman.

Later that afternoon we went to lunch at a Thai place. I didn't pick the best dish. I went with the recommended one something with basil instead of what I was eying out. I hate it when that happens! Afterwards we went out to Howl at the Moon and were there until about midnight. We had a blast! They had a live dualing pianists, fiddler and a drummer. There may have been more but I can't recall. We met some really cool people, Kim, Tom, "Bullshirt" dude, Heath, and our waiter to name a few.

Here's to hoping I go next year!