I cried today standing by the barricade of the TODAY show, and it wasn't because of the horrible banter, the depressing "news" stories, or the fact that we were up at 5:30am. More about that in moment...
First: remember that one of the reasons for deciding to do the scheme was to have the time to do more with family? Sunday was my grandma's birthday. Before we called her the kiddos (that is what she called us when we were little... she also called urinating going "tinkle"... too far with the personal details?) to wish her a happy one we looked up what happened in 1928. We found out it was the year Mickey Mouse was created, the iron lung was invented, and penicillin was discovered. Also, you could get an amazing dress and/or a gorgeous toy for under $5. No wonder Walmart makes sense to the woman -- a little bit of everything and super cheap.
As we wrapped up on the phone yesterday we told her to be sure to pay attention when she watched the TODAY show today (a more skilled writer would have figured out how to maneuver those two todays better... did I mention I've been up since 5:30?). She watches it every morning, but we didn't want this to be the one that she missed.
See, we couldn't fly across the country to smile and wave our birthday cheers, and she doesn't have a computer to enable video-chatting, but we have this conduit from NYC to her front room in Nevada...
We had a lot of fun making signs:
Mine was deemed the most boring, yet vital for our group of posters -- to provide the foundation for the others... I'm going to refrain from excessive commentary on how that often sums up being a mom.
The Sister got the sassy poster -- referencing a funny story we like to tease Grandma about.
Judd the Red Chicken was coming up with all sorts of slogans -- I don't think PR is in his future (we kept talking about audience awareness, i.e. what would Grandma like). I liked this one... though there was one about Sasquatch that was funny... but not really sensical.
The Girl shares her middle name and her fervent love of animals with her great grandma.
Back to our main story. Just after 6am we arrived and were directed to the line. I'll say this, having recently played the getting-to-Central-Park-at-6am-and-camping-next-to-a-ranting-quasi-homeless-man/scalper-for-seven-hours-until-you-get-your-free-Shakespeare-tickets game this summer, the TODAY lineup is a snap. I had a backpack full of games and blankets, the kids had their books and clipboards, but we only had to wait about half an hour before we got to move into position around the barricades. Here's the thing: the driver of the Chock Full O' Nuts truck who was scattering his wisdom to those in line really did sound like he knew what he was talking about: don't bunch up -- go ahead and spread around the perimeter of the barricades. Dude was Chock Full O' Crap. If you ever go park yourself at the South East corner of the rectangle -- that is where viewers watching at home will actually be able to see you for longer than like .5 second. It took us an hour to realize that Grandma's watching efforts would be in vain, and our 5:30 wake-up and vast amount of Sharpie ink was not going to be rewarded. We needed to take action. So we did.
During Tony Danza's interview I handed The Sister my sign because it was the most Grandma-specific and she went and pushed herself into the crowd outside the studio window. I watched the monitor and signalled to her to go left or right or up or down. I'm happy to report that Grandma's initials and our declaration of love was prominently displayed for the last half of the interview. Now who's the boss?
I then asked a crew member where the next outside shot was going to come from and he was sure it was not far from where we were (a.k.a. the only place that had NOT been in a shot up to this point), so we nestled in a bit further down. This is where we met three ladies -- overly middle-aged and obviously Midwestern. Two of them didn't give a rip about the show (amen, sisters), but the third, we learned, had talked of nothing else since they started planning their girls' trip. So there we waited with more anticipation than you would believe: the three gals, myself, my kids, and my sister. Finally the camera man took pity on us and swept past at the speed of light.
"Did you see me? You saw me." Gal #3, the one standing next to me was on the phone with her daughter. She pushed the button to end the call, looked up at her girlfriends and started to cry. I started to cry. They put their arms around her (I restrained myself -- just barely -- seriously), as she said, "I've watched this show for so many years and always wanted to come. Now I have. I was actually on the show."
Gal #1: "It was in your bucket list! You did it."
Gal #2: "We all have our dreams."
If dreaming of Al Roaker is your thing, I can say that he shook hands with all of us -- even The Boy -- who offered his left hand, palm facing the ground as though he was presenting it to be kissed. We teased him about it, and when I explained that normal protocol is extending your right hand with the palm vertical rather than horizontal he said, "Huh. I never knew there was a specific way to shake hands." What do they teach these kids at school? Maybe we were punchy, but boy did we laugh.
We laughed; I cried. I harshly judged the knees of the woman who took Ann Curry's spot. Overall a worthwhile experience. The Girl summed it up well: "It was fun making the signs, and I hope Grandma felt special. The thing they showed on TV of the bison chasing the kid was funny, but otherwise it was kind of boring standing there." To that I will just add that it feels awesome to witness somebody attain a dream. May we all be able to do so in such a sweet and genuine way during the course of our lives. And may we all have grandkids and great-grandkids that love us. Maybe those two things will be synonymous.
We walked home, stopping at the playground for a bit as we passed through the park.
I would be omitting an important part of this year's adventure if I didn't mention that this afternoon -- day three of the scheme -- after math and before the book report explanation -- there was a major tantrum. I'm going to blame my behavior on my exhaustion.
Signing off.
