my snow day experience aka MY NATIONAL TV DEBUT!!!!

in case you've been living under a rock the past couple of days and haven't heard about the blizzard that IS chicago, please do your research prior to reading this blog entry... because this entry is devoted, in its entirety, to the SNOW DAY WE GOT ON WEDNESDAY. okay, granted, it wasnt a "snow day" in the traditional sense, as we were still working, but most people were working from home since it was a MESS out there on wednesday. i just went to the office because i live pretty close to the office and try to minimize the amount of time i work at home because, quite frankly, i dont like working at home.

anyway, wednesday looked like it was going to be a pretty mundane day, as there were essentially two people in the office (that i knew at least, and that was including me). of course, i should have KNOWN that wouldnt be the case since the other person in the office was only like one of my favorite people EVER.

if you remotely know me, you know i like to... dream big, if you will. my goals in life are to be the next oprah and copyright my smile. sigh. anyway, if you know me, you also know that i absolutely LOVE the camera... i totally eat it up. from my debut on romper room as a two-year-old, to my appearance in the audience on TRL, to getting my picture up on the Times Square digital screen, to getting interviewed for the Lakers fan cam in LA... well, let's just say, it takes a fair amount of shamelessness to have gotten some of these gigs.

anyway, our office is strategically located in one of the BEST areas of chicago (if i do say so, myself). among other things, we're right next to the NBC building. and thank GOD for that. i dont know if weather channel people would otherwise typically be taping right in front our BUILDING if we weren't right by the NBC building. who knows...and quite frankly, who cares?! i was DETERMINED to get on that camera, if it KILLED me. i mean, think about it. there were so FEW people traipsing about (i mean, when the city of chicago basically tells you to stay inside unless you absolutely HAVE to go outside, most people listen... clearly not me, but whatever) and there were QUITE a few news cameras... the odds were TOTALLY in my favorlkdsjflksdj!

i had my strategy all mapped out. and by strategy, i mean... well, just going up to the newscaster to get me an interview, thank you very much. scientific method and all that. thank goodness, my friend missy is such a good sport. haha. she totally waited out in the blizzardy winds while i stalked this weather channel man. i literally just walked up to him (well, what? he had a microphone!) and was like "so... are you guys interviewing people for tv?". he looked slightly blindsided (i guess people accosting him to get on tv doesnt happen very often...? whoops) but recuperated quite nicely and was like "why? you want to be on the show?" well, you dont have to ask me TWICE. duh. hahaha.

anyway, to make a long story short (believe me, this actually isnt the point of this whole story, ironically), it took a couple of tries to FINALLY get on camera (the mic stopped working, etc) but FINALLY, that third time was certainly a charm! in the midst of all these tries, i noticed a few people stopping on the street to ask him for a picture. which made me start to wonder just WHO i had actually accosted. anyway, do you guys know Jim Cantore? i hadnt heard of him, but i guess he's a pretty popular personality (hence, all the people stopping him on the street and all that). and there i was, trying to make small talk (to primarily distract myself from the cold) with questions like "so... how long have you been doing this... what show are you on... etc, etc". ugh. i really need to work on doing my research before deciding to accost reporters. duly noted... for next time.

ANYWAY, so finally, there i was, being interviewed for the weather channel by the one and only Jim Cantore. it was the BEST FIVE MINUTES EVER!!!! i knew the interview was going to be pretty quick, so i made sure to dump all my charm into every sentence i spoke. and you better believe i was flashing those pearly whites every two seconds. i even commended the city of chicago multiple times on how well they were doing cleaning up the streets and stuff (well, hey, it never hurts to get the city of chicago on your side and i was SERIOUS! i think this city is phenomenally efficient at cleaning up the city! i was shocked, personally). big ups, chicago, big UPS.

anyway, i was FREEZING after my interview so i jetsetted back into the office, while Jim (we're totes on a first name basis now) continued his reporting, so i didnt even say thank you for putting up with me and all that. im the most selfish person ever, i know. hahaha. but whatever. i get back to the office, share my little moment of glory with missy, and get back to work. well, a few minutes later, i was just taking a little break and doing a standard facebook perusal (you know, the usual) when i was SHOCKED to see that i had FIVE new friend requests (that isnt normal for me, considering i had JUST checked facebook like two hours ago... how much could change in two hours, really?). but wtf!! at first, i was like, "oh god, do i have a virus on my facebook account?" but then i proceeded to take the liberty of sending each of my five new friends a message asking how they found me on facebook. and omg, a few minutes later, the responses started filtering in and... you guessed it! they had ALL seen me on TV!!! nearly fainting doesnt even beGIN to describe my reaction. i mean, i guess i could have been more weirded out about the fact that i was on tv for like two seconds and that was all it took for them to find me on facebook but whatever. i like to look at the positive side of things... and MAN, these people were SO COMPLIMENTARY about my TV debut (um. can i just share... one guy said that i should be on the NEWSLkjflaksjd! (a DREAM OF MINE!)... another one called me OPRAH JUNIOR!Lkjfalksdj!... one guy was an old acquaintance from ohio state who randomly saw me while eating at a restaurant in texas!!)... well, it took literally NO time at ALL for me to get right on confirming them as my friends like right then and there.

sigh. so much for internet security. haha. and so much for humility. as i was sending messages back to them, you KNOW i was including a link to my blog for all the world to read! hahahah.

man, the day couldnt get any better. seriously! i was FLOATING on cloud nine by that point. anyway, so missy and i leave the office around 5 PM and she goes one way while i go to my bus stop. and who do i see, but good ol' Jim, my favorite weather channel news reporter that i simply couldnt get away from stalking earlier. hahaha. so while i was waiting for my bus to come, he was still taping. but then, he finished taping, so i FINALLY went up to him to give him a (very delayed, but better late than never!) thank you for letting me be interviewed. anyway, he was like the nicest person ever to me and told me i had such great energy or whatever in front of the camera today (well, that's all you really have to tell me for me to go off to cloud nine again. hahaha). anyway, long story short, we ended up grabbing a couple of drinks after his broadcast because it was his last day in chicago and, well, i should really just become a chicago ambassador or something. i love advertising this city and welcoming people to it.. Ambassador Christie. has such a nice ring to it, really. anyway...

it was all so very delightful and merry and Jim gave me some really great tips for getting on TV (well. okay, maybe it was more professionally phrased in terms of getting into broadcasting, but whatever. haha) and, well, it was all just such a grand self-confidence boost in terms of my future as the next Oprah. hahaha. anyway, ironically, that's STILL not the end of this tale. so we're walking towards michigan avenue, and the roads are like DESERTED and i needed my cab! anyway, so he sees one like across the street and he like hops, leaps, jumps over all these ginormous snow mounds (that's what happens when cleaning the roads/sidewalks involves shovelling the snow aside..) to grab me my cab. which was all very nice and all, except.. well, i CANT scale snowbanks like that! wtf. but he made it look so easy. so i was like, well, if he can do it, so can i, gosh darn it.

yeah, falser words were never spoken. i already have sensitive knees to begin with (they have been known to pop in and out of their sockets at free will) and last night was no exception. so yeah, in my grand attempt to scale one of those snowbanks, i totally felt that knee pop out of the socket and man, it was like a blinding sorta pain. but i barely knew this guy, so of course i just pasted my smile on as i got in my cab (politeness is my middle name, and all that. haha). it was only when i got home that i realized how much worse was the pain in my knee than has been the case before. maybe im just not as resilient as i had been in the past. or something like that. all i know is that i certainly had to take a darn day off work today to go scurrying about from urgent care clinic to urgent care clinic (MAN! the number of people that get sick/hurt in the course of one DAY is ridiculous!) to get my darn knee looked into.

anyway, thank GOD i was able to pretty quickly see a doctor at my second clinic and THANK GOD FOR MY PAIN MEDS! i am NOT a fan of taking medicine, but i have never been so grateful for medication in my life.

so. in conclusion. what a snow day. what a snow day indeed. i mean, what else is there left to say, really?