I would do it again. I was actually visible in 2 shots - however, dh and the kids did not "see" me until I came home and pointed out the exact spot to look. (and if I knew how to do that here, I would, but I don't so oh well). I will tell you, in case you watch it in rerun or they put it on Oprah.com that I was the third row, left side of the screen. It all happened so fast, I admit, it was hard to catch.
Anyway, it was a blast! And so fun. And I left with a copy of the last Oprah book (Pillars of the Earth, which I read half of already on my library copy and so far it is fabulous) and the new book: A New Earth. (the audience members got A New Earth and a highlighter/post-it flag pen so we did get similar items).
Teresa (and frankly all the staff, but she is the only person whose name I remember and I talked to her for a few minutes) was VERY friendly and nice. We actually talked about The Other Boleyn Girl as my mom and I were leaving. And she was the person I spoke to on the phone to get the tickets and all that jazz. Let me also say about Oprah's staff - they all know how to dress FABULOUSLY! Seriously, very stylish and cute and great clothes, shoes, jewelry, hair cuts - the works.
The cons. We were told to arrive at 5:00 am. We didn't do anything but sit around and eat a light breakfast (which they were extremely kind enough to provide us) until about 7:00! I think we could have arrived at 6:30 and have been a-okay. Then we did nothing until about 8:30. Between those two times, everyone seemed really sleepy all of a sudden. Things were much quieter, people were actually dozing off in their chairs. But of course, when it was time, all the energy was back! Second, I was secretly hoping Oprah would come back even just to wave hi and leave. Nope. Nothing. If I am correct, she didn't even see the audience until the taping started, so no chance of her coming to see us.
Something interesting I learned: when they run through the practice, they have some one I will lovingly refer to as Faux-prah acting in her place. Very nice women, and very pretty as well. And Faux-prah did come to the back to say hi to all of us and thank us for coming. I think her job intrigued me the most. She read off a script and I wondered if she had other jobs to do at the studio, or if that was it. I'm assuming there was more - but who knows!
The actual show was funny to tape. If you watched it, you know we were shown, oh, maybe 10 minutes into the taping. We were brought out 10 minutes before taping started and we had to stand there. Silent. I had about 2 centimeters of wiggle room (or my foot would have stepped in the bubble juice). I won't lie - my feet were killing me. We could hear everything going on, but could see nothing at that point. That felt weird too. Then it flashed to commercial break and we were hurried off the stage! Backstage we were free to leave or to stay and watch the show on a television they had brought back. We decided to stay (I REALLY wanted to hear the Follet interview and find out the next book). Most of the people left by the time the taping was over. They did an aftershow today - a question and answer session with Follet live. I so wanted to stay and watch it, but my mom and I were the only ones. And Teresa (the very nice person I mentioned above) had to stay there as long as people were left. She said it was fine, but I felt bad and so mom and I left. I believe it will be on-line later though so I'll still get to see it.
We go back next Thursday to actually sit in the audience. We are not allowed to know what the show is (which I guess is normally they way they do it unless it's a special show where they need a certain kind of people - like today - the 100 for the bubble and the audience was made up of people from the book club).
I think that's a pretty good recap of the morning's events. =)
