Oprah!

the next morning, amber woke me up at 5:15. 5:15! (sorry oprah, but this better be good.) so we got ready for the show, she taught me how to do make up. amber is a sells mary kay and is very very talented. if you need anything, call her. who knew there was such an art to putting on eye makeup. 24 years later, i finally learn!

6:00 am, we're out the door and on our way. we jumped onto the 290 heading into chicago. normally this road is like a death trap waiting to happen because everyone and their brother calls each other and says, "okay, leave...NOW!" and they are all on this road at the same time. but it was fairly smooth. we found the studio pretty easily and there was a line around the building at 6:45! are these people sick?!? amber and i decided that food would be good so we start looking for a mcdonalds. there are only 4.5 million of them in the city of chicago and on this morning we couldn't find a single one. we drove around for what seemed like and hour (about 10 minutes) and then settled on dunkin donuts. after we grabbed some food, we jumped back into the jeep and headed back to the studio. amber jumped in line while i delt with the bitter parking lot guy and we were on our way.

once we were inside we had to wait in this room that i think, before the studio make over, allowed the studio audience to sit while they were waiting to go into the studio. now that the new studio seats more people, there is standing room only. it wasn't pretty. so we waited in there for about 45 minutes...standing between A LOT of women. some of which, i'm not going to lie to you, i thought were men. so about 40 minutes into the waiting game, they start announcing names over the PA system to come down to the studio doors for pre seating. i thought this was like what they do for the airlines where old and 'larger' customers get seated first to assure their safty and comfort. this wasn't the case. during the third round of names, amber looks at me and says, i have a feeling that they are going to call your name. sure enough..."kathryn holt" so off we went to the studio.

when we got down there, they walked us in and there were probably 8 people in there before us. the woman says, "just two of you, follow me." so we walk and she points to these seats...third row, center. this is impossible! we are 10 feet away from the couch that oprah herself sits on. during the ricky martin concert oprah was two chairs in front of me! two chairs! it was unbelieveable! it was absolutely amazing. during the 'pre show' the show manager was trying to warm up the crowd and was asking who had come the farthest and who got up the earliest. a lot of women had gotten up at 4! we got up at 5. the worst was that there was one woman that yelled, "i was so excited that i got in line at 4:45!" amber and i just looked at each other and started laughing. we had MUCH better seats than this woman but we decided to keep our mouths shut.

once the show started it was so cool! oprah was interviewing ricky martin about an organization that he had founded called people for children. he's trying to bring awareness to the childhood prostitution and sex trafficing. it's pretty impressive. i'm completely blown away by what he's been doing. this is an 11 billion dollar a year industry. it's third under drug trafficing and weapon trafficing. and 80% of the customers are AMERICAN TOURISTS. how horrible is that! for the land of opportunity we sure are robbing a lot of little girls and boys of their promising futures. it seriously makes me sick. i'm so impressed with ricky martin.

i seriously turned into a 12 year old girl when he was on stage. i'm so proud of myself. i think he's just getting better with age, like a fine wine. ha ha ha. while he was on stage talking with oprah he was wearing a button down shirt un buttoned pretty far. amber claims she saw his zyphoid process! i just looked at her and laughed. then, during the concert he was wearing this army green tshirt that said 'i believe' on the left breast. i kept thinking back to when my friends and i used to wear our 'i believe' tshirts while in high school. every third friday of the month...i think. but then i thought, this is ricky martin. it could be, "i believe in...traffic. school. home. clouds." who knows. it's a broad statement. however when he then turned to the side so that he could shake his hips and do his dance, i noticed that on his sleeve was an image of Jesus. i was speechless. i believe. and i believe that he believes. i was very impressed with the whole day.

by the way. ricky martin winked at me. seriously. amber can back it up... HHHH HHHH FFFFFFFF (high hopes fulfilled)

after the show we went back to la grange and had lunch at chipotle. love it! and amber and i had what i consider to be one of the best conversations we have had in years. i won't go into details but it amazes me that we started so similarly, kindergarten at mary frank. middle school at schmucker. high school at penn. i went to calvin. she went to hope. (rival schools i might add) she got married and i worked for camp. so many different paths and yet we're in a lot of the same places in life. it amazes me. i am so thankful for amber. i am so thankful for a friend that i can pour my heart out to and know that she'll just smile at me and accept it. she and i went through our love/hate times of our friendship through the 20 years we have known each other but i am so glad that we stuck it out. it was completely worth it.

very convienient that amber and i have been friends for 20 years and this was oprahs 20th year...odd and yet fabulous.

and with that novel, i shall bid you good night. it's 2:10 am so i guess that would be good morning.

good morning.
katie