Doctor's Appointment

My television debut
Well, not really. I've been on TV before but not in this capacity so we willskip over that. Stephanie took us to the green room (which was really white)where there were about 6 other girls - 5 of whom were friends and clearly hadbeen drinking. Okay, maybe they weren't drinking but they were so damn chipper.It was 8 am for god sake's... pipe down! I plopped on the couch and tried to goa little unnoticed. I know I'm weird but dang I was tired. I had planned ongetting it together before we went on so no worries.

Then the whirlwind started. Literally every 5 seconds someone came in togive us instructions. Say your lines, be excited, and speak louder.

I have lines!!

OMG, did Ido the right thing here? I was a negative Nancy for all of about 5 minutes whensomeone came in the room and said time for hair and makeup! What? No one saidwe were getting hair and makeup! Okay, maybe someone did mention it on thephone but I didn't believe her. They took half of us to hair and makeup (therewere only 5 chairs) while the others stayed back in the green (white) room. Inhair and makeup I chatted it up with some of the drunkards. They were actuallypretty nice women. They were all sister friends like one was the sister-in-lawof another and then one was a friends of another. Some of them had been to theview as an audience member and two of them went to Oprah as audience members.  When it was my turn in the makeup chair themakeup artist looked at me and said “you don’t wear make up?” See we weresupposed to do our own make up and they were going to touch it up and enhanceit for TV. Well, I didn’t have time to do that this morning and I really don’twear makeup unless it’s really a special occasion. Yes, Dr. Oz should have beenspecial enough to attempt my make up but in the grand scheme of things I didn’twant to look ridiculous on TV. I just left it to the pros. At first I wasgetting a little nervous because she was pulling stuff out of her bag and itwas going in the direction of unsanitary. BUT then she reached for thedisposables. You know the stuff that you use to play in the make up at Sephora-yea those- little mascara brushes and such. He didn’t do much but I lookedpretty awesome. I was disappointed that she didn’t use any foundation but Iguess there was no time for that (remember we are still in this whirlwind) andI am not posting a picture of how I looked because I have a ridiculous triplechin in the pictures I took of myself.

hanging out in the green room that's actually white. And nope, that's not all MY stuff!

The hair stylist- this poor girl. She acted as if she really didn’t have any experience with doing Black people’s hair. *sigh* my hair wasn’t in dire need of styling but I wanted it to have a little more oomph. I went and got it done specifically because I was going to do this show. So she flat ironed it. Without heat protector. *sigh* I kept asking people if I looked okay and they all said yes. Although if I didn’t what was I going to do? Make her do it over? Give her a lesson? The first thing she asked me was my hair real. I guess I shouldn’t complain- they didn’t have to do that much.

So after hair and make up we got a few more practice rounds in the greenroom while the others went in. Daisy and I were split so I was very worriedabout her. If the hair stylist was stumped with my hair- I know she killed overwith her hair because she has a cute, natural, afro. In actuality they justleft it alone. Her makeup was cute though.

The the wardrobe girl walked in. She checked out all of our outfits to makesure we were TV presentable. She asked if we wanted to changed and we were allokay with what we came with so that was that. There were a few girls who weredoing segments that involved before and afters so they went with her to dotheir ‘afters’. Think they shot the before some point earlier that morning.

After we were all done with wardrobe it was time to rehearse. We lined up inorder in which we were going and headed out to the studio. It is a lot smallthan it looks on TV- at least to me. Standing right there in front of us whilewe waited was Dr. Oz! I really didn’t just expect him to be just standing therechillin’. He shook all of our hands and thanked us all for agreeing to do this.I remember he was doing the world’s quickest run through of his lines andalthough he was just practicing he sounded like we were taping. His inflection,diction, everything- I was amazed. At first he was reading from a book but thenhe put it down and stated he wanted to use the teleprompter. And without asingle stumble he did his part. He didn’t like how short one of the girl’slines were so he told everyone change it and they did. We did it from start tofinish twice. Then we were off – back to the green room until it was time totape. I asked one of our many ‘check on them’s’ and she said it’s not live butit’s called ‘live to tape’. I just had to make sure in case I needed everyone Iknow to run home and set their DVR’s.

 Back in the green white room the producers came in and handed us little blue bags. They gave us little gifts for coming :) How nice!

Then it was time to tape. We had a special section reserved in the audience.When we walked into the studio, the normal audience was already there gettinghyped up by the hype man. We took our seats and listened to the guy. I forgotwhat his name was too but apparently he was corny. I mean he made ya chuckle ifthis is the first time you’re hearing him but one of the girls in my segmentwas at a taping the prior week (she got asked back which is how she ended uphere a week later) and she recited his skit almost word for word. It was alittle annoying at first because she has no intentions of paying attentionbecause she already heard it. But it was my first time and I wanted to hear hisjokes- no matter how corny! She was so busy the entire time. First she couldfind her phone then she had a crap load of stuff with her that all had to bestuff under our seats because they don’t want it to show on camera. The phonething was worrying me because they said if a cell phone vibrates the mics wouldpick it up and make it sound funny. She eventually got it together and westarted. The first segment was about plus size super model secrets. They didhave to retape their introduction. There was a notable difference- the firsttime the models came out they each came down the runway, posed and then went toher seat while the next model came down the runway. In the retaped version theycame out kind of back to back. Then we taped the last segment- ‘in case youmissed it’. The models were a part of that so we did the beginning and then endback to back. The rest of the show went by so fast. I guess an hour isn’t anhour when it’s live.

During one of the ‘commercial breaks’ we went and got mic’ed. That was alittle different too. First I had to stuff this little black wire down my shirtthen hook the pack onto the back of my pants. Awkward! Especially cause it kindof weighed your pants down a little.

Then we were on. There were 10 of us and we each had a line to say. 2 of usgot to do what they refer to as ‘crossover’ meaning go stand next to him. I wasa huge ball of nerves. Like really, really nervous. I didn’t want to mess upand I didn’t want to look or sound crazy. So number one went and messed upright away. It was actually pretty funny. Doctor Oz chuckled and called us allinto a huddle. He was very sweet. He reassured us that we don’t need to benervous and that we should take our time and have fun. He hi-fived us all andwent tried again. This time we all went through it- perfectly! It went by superfast and we were done. Just like that- I became a superstar! Doctor Oz cameover and thanked us all again. I asked him for a hug and he obliged!! It wentlike this

D.O.: Thank you for coming you were great
Me: Thank you for having me!!
        ::shake hands::
Me: Wait, Doc can I have a hug?
D.O: Of course you can!
       ::hugs::

I nearly died. He was just so nice. I tend to get a little star struck withreally nice celebrities. Then it was over. We had to get demic’ed and then gohome. The girls who bought themselves here went back in to leave with thestudio audience and the girls who had a car service went back to the green roomto collect our belongings. When we got back into the green room (that wasreally white) I got another text stating our car was on location. Then everythinghappened in reverse. Stephanie met us in the green room, took us down theelevator and back to John. I asked Stephanie was their day over and she saidnope- they had another taping to do. John escorted us out to our car where thedriver was patiently waiting.

We must have giggled the entire way home. At least I did. Daisy and I kept taking pictures of our new 'made up' selves. I know the driver thought we were nuts. He asked us if we wanted to stop anywhere for food. I declined (probably much to Daisy's dismay) because we (my husband, son, and I) were leaving town that evening so I really had to get going as I had some work to do back at my office before we left.

You can't really tell but I promise it's me!

Needless to say- I can't believe I did it! Well, we will let the final television airing be the judge as to if I really 'did it' or not, lol! We still don't have an air date yet - but I'll keep you guys posted!