Earth Day with Oprah

I've got to start this off by giving a little background......in the fall of 2005 Keith brought up the possibility of us moving to Wisconsin for his job. We were currently living in Washington state and we had both grown up in the west, so the midwest seemed like a completely foreign place to live. I was like "Wisconsin?!? What's in Wisconsin?!" I visualized farmland, cows, and us eating a lot of cheese. It honestly just didn't appeal to me. Then he explained that we would be close to a good-sized city - Milwaukee - and that we'd only be 90 miles north of Chicago. My first thought was "Oprah's in Chicago! I can get tickets to Oprah!" And that was all I needed.....I was suddenly ok with it. Who cares that we'd have no family anywhere close or that we'd have to endure winter 8 months of the year - I might get to see Oprah!!

Three and a half years later: I relentlessly pursued calling (and calling and calling) and emailing to get tickets to Oprah but had gotten nowhere. I finally started to accept the possibility that it was not meant to be. And then last Monday I got a phone call and the caller ID said Harpo Studios (!!!) I got two tickets for Wednesday's show! It took some coordination to get everything arranged, but Wednesday morning at 4:30am, my friend Laura and I were on our way. We waited in line outside, and then we waited in line inside, and then what felt like hours later they let us into the studio (it was so cool to see it all in person.) They were doing a live taping, so there was an exciting buzz in the air. I still don't know what "live"means, as it was 9:00 in the morning and I am pretty sure Oprah is on in the afternoon most places....maybe it is live in Chicago? Anyway, the theme was Earth Day, and I was just SO relieved it was that topic and not any of the other shows they've been showing lately (a few examples: child pornography, brothels, flesh-eating bacteria, Lorena Bobbitt......need I say more??) Oprah came out right before the show started taping, barefoot and holding high heels in her hands. She complained about ther feet during the breaks, and at least one segment I know she did barefoot, before switching to a different pair of shoes entirely. During one break she asked the audience how to store basil in her kitchen, just a lot of random stuff like that. Afterwards there was a bit of a continuing discussion and some questions, and that was about it. One of the most interesting parts of the whole experience for me was meeting a woman from South Africa (she was part of the audience and sat by us.) She had called in over 5000 times to get tickets, and when she finally did, she and her family flew out here on their first visit ever to the states, JUST to see Oprah. Luckily she was able to get a hug with Oprah and her picture taken. I don't even think Oprah believed she came all this way just to see her. And then we all got some free stuff, which was pretty cool too :)

So I guess that's really all to say about my Oprah experience. Was it fun and entertaining? Yes. Life changing? Not really. And not that I thought it would be. I was really impressed by what they had to say about how to be less wasteful and more environmentally friendly. In fact, I am going to try a few things and hopefully post about it later to see how I do. I am just so happy that my "dream" of seeing Oprah came true. What more could I ask for?



Oprah chatting with "eco-living expert" Simran Sethi.




Garbage floating in our oceans (yuck!) These pictures, by the way, are from the website, we weren't allowed to bring cameras inside. I have a picture from my camera of Laura and me outside of Harpo studios, and I'll put it on here as soon as I figure out how to get it off my camera (that might take awhile....)