A Visit With Kelly, Michael and Ben

        Have I ever mentioned NOT being a morning person?   Oh....trust me when I tell you, I'm not!  I think I take after my mother!    I'll have to tell you about her some day soon!  
Anyhow, my niece Shannon had 5 free tickets to the filming of the Kelly & Michael show in NYC yesterday so she invited my 2 daughters, my sister and me.  We were pretty excited to have something fun to do for the day so made a plan to go in....  Did I mention you have be be outside the studio at 7:15 am?    REALLY?   I live in New Jersey, at the shore!   That's a little bit of a hike.....

So, I was up at 3am and on the road at 4am with my sister and niece to meet up with my 2 daughters in Bayonne.  My oldest daughter Jennifer just moved there with her husband and Sarah was up overnight after having spent Monday in NYC taking a baking class at the culinary institute making macarons!    Anyhow....  We took the Light Rail from Bayonne into Hoboken/Jersey City and got to see NYC waking up  :)    Have you ever seen a city wake up this color?    I swear.....the sky was absolutely gorgeous at 5:30 in the morning.....

     We then had to take another train into the city, change over to a subway, walk up and down innumerable stair cases, dodge taxicabs and crazy drivers but we made it on time.....and then you stand and wait  :)    They do have a Chock Ful Of Nuts coffee truck out front and you can have coffee, hot chocolate, hot sandwiches etc, courtesy of the show, but that would mean taking off my gloves, and it was not happening in 22 degrees......

Here is Shannon (my niece), my youngest, Sarah and my oldest, Jennifer, standing outside the studio as we got there.  Notice the smiles?  Yeah, we were all smiling before we stood for 90 minutes or so out in the cold  :)

      So, they let you into the studio 10 minutes before the show starts and quickly get to instructions etc.    We had upper level seats so it was hard to see the guests but there are lots of tv screens for you to follow the show on.    We saw Chandra Wilson from Grey's Anatomy, Roma Downey from Touched by an Angel and the new movie coming out Friday "Son of God" .  In between give aways etc, the hour went fast.  When it was all over they asked if we'd like to stay and watch some Oscar filming for Friday's show......  So, while they changed the stage over to look like the Oscar stage, we took a few pictures of the set and relaxed....

 I was pleasantly surprised to get such a nice shot of myself and the girls......but I do wish the lighting was better in the studio to get a nicer one of us but I'll take what I can  :)

THEN....Ben came out!  Yes, we got to see Ben Affleck, listen to what he's been up to...a couple other guests, a makeover, and some Oscar party suggestions and clips from other Oscar shows...

We had a lot of fun!

We were STARVING at that point so we took a few more subway rides, a little bit of walking, and then down to The Iron Grill for lunch.
The food was great, lots of chatting among us girls and then another 13 block walk to the train to head home.   

I guess about 5PM I walked in the door and was EXHAUSTED!!!    

I was useless the rest of the night but we had fun and if asked, I'd do it again....but not too soon, because as I mentioned "I'm not a morning person!"


Peggy