Behind the scenes at The Today Show
As we walked down the New York sidewalk Sunday afternoon, I moaned to my aunt Lori about how stressful it had been finding my way from Kennedy airport to my hotel in midtown Manhattan the night before. It was an endless saga involving hidden elevators, express buses that took their damn time and AirTrains that did not fly through the air but disappointingly looped around the airport terminals endlessly. Eventually I decided the price of a taxi was worth eliminating the chance of getting lost in New Jersey after midnight with only a box of soy protein bars and lip gloss for sustenance.
"So, you appeared on national television this morning without any anxiety, but it was traveling from the airport to the hotel that stressed you out?" my aunt asked incredulously.
"Um, yeah," I replied. "I really hate traveling."
Bizarrely enough, it's true. I didn't feel stressed at all during my 3 minute and 43 second stint on The Today Show for the same reason I didn't feel stressed about running a half-marathon. I'd trained hard, I came prepared, and I knew I could do it. Raaarrr! Even before the book came out, I took every opportunity to do interviews so I could practice talking to people about my experiences. I've done so many now that you'd have to ask me a truly bizarre question to throw me.
The airports, though, still freak me out.
My hotel was about a block away from NBC studies in Rockefeller Center and I got there at 8:00pm. I was glad the taxi dropped me off because the hotel entrance is so discreet that I would never have seen it next to the Johnny Utah's, which according to Lori has a mechanical bull. (Don't ask her how she knows that.) The room was small, but very nice. They even folded the toilet paper in a triangle. Fancy!
My aunt met me and spent the night so she could be my official photographer the next day. I had to wake up at 6:00am to shower, blow dry my hair and wear my normal makeup as instructed. Of course, I never wear makeup, so I just put on some foundation and concealer and tried not to burn my scalp with the hair dryer. An official NBC page met me in the lobby at 7:30 to walk me to the show. And yes, with his red-hair and fresh-face he did look a lot like Kenneth, the NBC page from 30 Rock
We walked past the windows of The Today Show studio and then inside and downstairs to the makeup and hair room where Joel and Nameless-Hair-Guy made me pretty. This took at least 15 minutes because cute does not come easy.
As I was escorted across the hall to the green room, we passed a big LCD monitor that showed a live feed of host Jenna Wolf getting spritzed and primped two minutes before show time. Then I sat on a black couch underneath framed photos of all the hosts and examined their spread.
For some reason the basket of peaches and apples was exiled far away from the scrumptious mini-muffins and bagels. (See them over my shoulder?) In all fairness, there was also a plate of melon slices on the main table, so they weren't forcing baked goods down my throat. I did that myself. (Vacation calories don't count!) According to the listings, Susan Sarandon was scheduled to appear, but I don't think she did. Scared of being overshadowed, eh, Susan?
Next the producer came in and went over the segment with me. We'd done a pre-interview on the phone a week before where I chatted for 20 minutes about my experiences. I'd also scanned some new photos for the graphics department to show on the screen while I talked. She went over the script and the questions they were going to ask me, which was another reason I wasn't stressed. After she left I kept going through my answers in my head. I knew I wanted to get four points across:
1) Mention my blog
2) Mention my book
3) Mention my half-marathon
4) Wish my mom a happy mother's day
I figured if I accomplished those four things without falling off my stool, the interview would be a success.
Soon they were walking me over to the set where we snuck behind a big wooden wall and then quietly weaved through camera equipment. I sat down on one of two stools set on either side of a huge TV monitor that were directly opposite of the couch Lester and Jenna were hosting the show from. They were broadcasting live and if I dared to clear my throat or let out a big fart it would have been heard in millions of households across America. There was a live feed of a reporter covering tornado damage in Oklahoma right behind me and it felt like he was standing over my shoulder even though he was hundreds of miles away.
To the left and ahead of me, a lady stood at a podium and did a short report about...a pelican? I can't really remember. I just remember watching her and thinking that she was overacting and laying it on thick. Yet, I bet when you watched it on TV it came across as really energetic and animated. TV is weird like that.
Then they went to commercial and Lester walked over and introduced himself with a very firm, politician's handshake. He checked to make sure he was saying my name right and I told him I was going to try to say hi to my mom. A stage hand tried to steal my fat pants hanging off the back of my stool. No, not without my fat pants! He'd mistaken them for a sweater and put them back on the stool. I can't remember what else I talked to Lester about if anything because I was distracted by the cameras swinging 180 degrees around to focus on us. The producer had told me to just look at Lester. Otherwise I might get distracted by the teleprompter and the monitors and got a deer-in-the-headlights look when the interview started. So I just focused on Lester's face as they counted down from 10 and then OH MY GOD we were on national television.
Lester Holt was talking about one woman's struggle with weight and, holy crap, that one woman was me. I just kept looking at his pretty face, curious about what was being displayed on the monitor but too fearful to look anywhere else. He asked me most of the questions that had been in the script, but in a slightly different order. I dodged and weaved with it, dancing along with him leading. Then suddenly he asked me what I thought of weight loss surgery and, hey now, no one had told me we were going there! I rolled with it though and even worked in a happy mother's day at the end. He seemed genuinely amused that I couldn't say "half-assed" on TV and then the interview was over. It was good-bye Lester and I was walking off the set.
It all went amazingly well. For the past month I have been slightly worried about whether people who meet me at book events will think I'm still fat. I think I look fabulous, but I'm not the skinniest chick in the room either. I don't really care about what other people think of my body under normal circumstances, but I also don't want to be known as the fat girl who's promoting a weight-loss memoir. When I watched The Today Show two weeks ago and saw that my full body would be visible on a stool, I did a little freak out dance. Where was the carefully cropped head shot? I've always thought I look my fattest sitting down. When I was morbidly obese, I once saw my reflection in the window as I was sitting in my office chair and freaked out like a groundhog who'd just seen his morbidly obese shadow. Thankfully, when I reviewed the tape of my appearance, I looked great in my lavender shirt and the gray pants from Goodwill that my mom hemmed the afternoon before. I sat up straight, I got my four points across (or three and a half since I couldn't say "half-assed"), and I didn't fall off the stool. Mission accomplished.
I also have a newfound respect for TV people. It's amazing all the time and preparation that went into that short little segment. I'm awed by the amount of energy and pizzazz you need to host a show and the ability required to dodge and weave and go with the flow. My segment got moved from the 36 minute mark to the 42 minute mark and I'm sure they were rearranging other things. Right after we were done, I left the building and walked by Lester and Jenna doing a shot outside in the crowd. They were always running around and changing things up, but looking totally calm and collected as they were doing it, like it had all been planned for weeks.
Then I went out to brunch at Sarabeth's with family and friends and ordered the Fat and Fluffy French Toast. That's right. I promoted my weight loss book and then I ate a dish with the word "fat" in the title. And it was delicious. Mmmmm.
For the rest of the day, whenever I looked in a mirror I was shocked at my reflection. "I have a face!" I told my aunt Lori. I have never looked cuter in tourist photos than I do in my New York pics. When I got home and read my e-mail someone said they liked how I'd answered a certain question and I thought, "Did we talk about that?" I honestly couldn't remember. Yet, all together it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life.
Bookmark Entry | Permalink | Comments (26)Posted by PastaQueen on May 16, 2008 at 12:14 AM | Tags: book tour, half-assed, interview, lester holt, today show, tv
Bluegrass Festival of Books - This Saturday
If you live in the Lexington, Kentucky area, you can catch me at the Bluegrass Festival of Books this Saturday, May 17th. I'll have a table at Joseph-Book Booksellers where I'll be signing books all day, starting at 10:30am. At 2:00pm I'll be doing a reading and Q&A at the Sky Lobby in the Hilton Suites right next door. I'm bringing the fat pants, you bring yourself. You can find more information at the official site as well as a PDF of the table assignments, the better to stalk me with.
Bookmark Entry | Permalink | Comments (7)Posted by PastaQueen on May 15, 2008 at 10:04 PM | Tags: bluegrass-festival-of-books, lexington, readings, signings
Lipton Tea bicycle giveaway
When my older brother was in elementary school, he came home one day and asked my mom for a dollar to buy a raffle ticket. This was the 80's, so a dollar could buy you at least two gallons of gas back then. It was big money.
"Why do you need it?" she asked.
"I'm going to win a bike!" he told her.
The school was raffling off prizes as part of a fundraiser and my brother had his eye on the shiny, yellow, 10-speed bicycle. My mom gave him a dollar and prepared for the fallout when the young boy had a sudden lesson in probability outside of math class.
The next week he walked home with a shiny, yellow, 10-speed bicycle. Screw you, probability!
When Lipton Tea contacted me asking if I'd like to give away a bike on my web site as part of a promotion for their new Lipton's White Teas, I thought of my brother and decided, "Yes, I would!" I try not to do too many corporate promotions around here since I consider this to be a personal blog and I don't want to turn into a corporate shill or get a reputation as a sell-out (especially since they're not paying me). But like I've said before, I do enjoy playing the part of Robin Hood and taking items from public relations people and redistributing them to my readers. Plus, the PR company, Ogilvy, put together a blogger code of ethics which they referred to in their contact e-mail which I think is an excellent idea. Every PR company should do this.
So here's the deal. Lipton is hosting a "Free Your Y" contest at www.areyouyoungenough.com and if I'd actually gotten my act together before the deadline of May 11 you could have entered a video for prizes over there. Oops, sorry! I've been busy. You can still go over there to vote on the winners starting May 17.
However, Lipton is still giving away a Lipton branded Fuji Crosstown 2.0 bike to "help underpin the concept of embracing our youthful spirits" as the press release says. Read more about the bike here .
To enter the contest, comment on this post (using an email I can contact you at) with the story of how you learned to ride a bike. Or if you haven't learned how to ride a bike, the story of why you have not. I love reading your stories. I will leave the comments open until 11:59pm on Saturday, May 17th. Then I'll randomly draw a winner. Only US residents are eligible. My apologies to the international peeps!
Lipton also sent me some White Tea samples, and I have to say, they were pretty good. I drink a lot of the Crystal Lite peach tea drink, and these tasted pretty similar just in lots of different flavors like raspberry and peach papaya. My dad tried the island mango and peach flavor hot tea and said it was good. No, they didn't pay me to say any of that. (I don't think they paid my dad either, unless he's got some secret deal on the side.) If I like a product, I don't mind saying nice things about it. If the tea had sucked, I probably wouldn't have mentioned it at all. The "To Go" packets are rather handy because you can dump them in a 16.9 fl oz water bottle, shake and drink. They're zero-calorie too. I'm trying to cut back on caffeine though, so I probably won't be sucking down too much of the stuff.
Disclaimer from Lipton Legal: The Pepsi/Lipton Partnership will provide a check for $75.00 to be used for professional assembly of all Lipton Fuji bicycles awarded. Neither Pepsi Co. nor Unilever is liable for any injuries, damages or accidents that may result from the receipt, assembly or use of this bicycle.
Posted by PastaQueen on May 14, 2008 at 7:58 AM | Tags: bicycle, bike, giveaway, lipton, tea
My theme song
(Psst..I know you guys probably want to hear about The Today Show and what Lester Holt smells like. I will write about it soon, but I have a job and a sleep schedule to attend to, so please enjoy this pre-written entry for now.)
Ten years ago I was lying in bed at summer camp when a floormate walked into the room. This wasn't unusual because my roommate and I kept the door open and somehow a spontaneous bubble of popularity had formed over our room, a bubble I would never have been able to create if I tried.
"Do you have any CDs?" she asked.
"Yeah, over there," I replied. "Why?"
"I need to find my theme song." Her group had been assigned a task to pick a song that represented who they were. This was 1997 and MP3s hadn't even been invented yet, so she was limited to the handful of CDs and cassettes (I'm so old) her peers had brought with them. I don't know what song she ultimately picked, but the idea of a personal theme song has stuck with me over the years.
If you'd asked me 5 or 6 years ago what my theme song was, I'd have said "In Hiding
You'll find me
forever in hiding
and only time will tell
what it's done to me
I've tried to show
god only knows to grow
but music hides me so well
and reveals me
Oh well
You can find me in hiding
I spent a lot of my life in hiding, hiding behind my hair, hiding behind my fat. I've always been introverted (and I still am), and it's still hard for me to strike up conversations with strangers, but I don't feel like I'm in hiding anymore. The blog has helped a lot with that.
These days I'd say my theme song is "Come A Long Way" by Michelle Shocked from the album Arkansas Traveler
I've come a long way
I've come a long way
I've gone 500 miles today
I've come a long way
I've come a long way
And never even left L.A.
The song is about someone who steals back her motorcycle from a repo man and goes driving around LA all day. Eventually she trashes it and says:
Now you tow it to the repo man's front door,
And you give him these keys, I don't need them no more
Granted, I've never even been to L.A., so I've never driven around it or left it or trashed a motorcycle there. But I think the song is really about self discovery and how you can travel very far without ever leaving yourself. I'm also plenty sure I've gone more than 500 miles in the past several years.
So that's my theme song. What's yours?
Bookmark Entry | Permalink | Comments (34)Posted by PastaQueen on May 13, 2008 at 7:45 AM | Tags: happy rhodes, michelle shocked, music, theme song
Today's entry about yesterday's Today
Thanks to the NBC tech monkeys, you can watch my appearance on The Today Show here. If you are a new reader, thanks for stopping by! You may like to read some of my best entries here and check out my product recommendations here if you're looking for tools to start your weight loss journey.
Thank you to everyone who has left comments and sent me emails about my appearance! However, those of you who have complimented my hair and make up should redirect your accolades to Joel and Hair-Guy-Who's-Name-I-Didn't-Catch who made me look more fabulous than I shall ever look again.
I shall write more about my New York adventure soon, and, oh yeah, get back to blogging about health and fitness too. Just as soon as I take a long, long, nap.
Bookmark Entry | Permalink | Comments (59)Posted by PastaQueen on May 12, 2008 at 2:50 PM | Tags: book, interview, media, today show
The best wedding reception I never had a.k.a. my book release party
After running 13.1 miles in a half-marathon, I bet most people hobble home and collapse on the couch or a bathtub full of ice. I decided to hobble home and then hobble back downtown to PAR-TAY! It was somewhat difficult marching up the spiral staircase to the dining room at The Milano Inn where I was holding my book release party, but I made it to the top without tripping or without anyone looking up my skirt...I think.
I've never thrown a party before in my life. Even my childhood birthday parties were hosted by my mom, who bought the cake and ice cream and whisked my hair out of the candle flames before my head was set on fire. Since she'd proven herself so well in the past, I put her in charge of organizing this brouhaha. Thanks, Mom! There are a lot of questions that go into planning a party, like, where do we hold it? Do we serve food? How many people are going to come? Why am I so stressed out planning an event that is supposed to be fun? Little did I need to worry though, because I had a fantastic time, which is why combined with finishing a half-marathon earlier that day, I considered it to be one of the best days of my life.
My cousins Allison and Adrienne and my Aunt Elaine helped me and my mom set up the room. As people started to trickle in, I greeted them and started signing books. One of the cool things about having a book published is that you get to write in other people's books and it's not considered vandalism.
To keep the guests entertained as people kept arriving, we introduced the "Lick the Produce" quiz. I printed out images of all the fruits and vegetables I've tried in the Lick the Produce series over the past year and made people fill out surveys guessing what they were. Nicole helped us out by doing a lovely Vanna White impression.
It wasn't done just for fun though, it was done for free pasta! Since I'm the PastaQueen, I decided I needed to bestow my bounty upon the winner. Ari over at FiberGourmet donated a lovely gift basket that we gave away to Nancy, who got the most correct answers with 11 out of 28. (It was a hard quiz!) Here's a picture of me and my mom (the PastaQueen Mother?) with the basket.
As you'll notice, I am holding a Spaghetti Scepter, lovingly handcrafted by my Aunt Donna from a pasta server, ribbon, sparkly jewels, and lots of hot glue. She surprised me by spending the night making them as party favors. Thanks, Donna!
Next up I read the "Trail Mix" chapter in my book in honor of Indianapolis since it takes place on our local nature trail. I tried not to talk to fast and to project my voice. I hadn't read the chapter for a couple months, so as I was reading I was also scanning slightly ahead so I wouldn't trip over the words. My heart stopped a little when I saw that the word "bastard" was coming up and glanced at my mom's church friends in the corner of the room. Oh, well! If they were okay with a book titled Half-Assed hopefully they weren't offended by my potty mouth.
After that I did a Q&A. At the end my mom just happened to ask what I would be doing this weekend and I made my big Today Show announcement. After that we ate and I got to talk to my friends and meet several of my readers. It's so awesome to meet people in person and finally put faces to IP addresses. It's odd, but I would probably recognize a lot of you more by your email addresses than your actual names. I was a little worried that I might be crashing somebody's diet by serving spaghetti and meatballs and fettucini alfredo and lasagna, but Lord knows I needed the carbs after all the running around I'd done that day.
Amy and Nicole took a picture with my cover signs, pretending they were standing in my fat pants too. I stole a couple of their pics for this post and Allison sent me the rest. Thanks for the photos, guys!
And then people started to trickle out and the party was over. My Aunt Elaine and cousin Allison posed me for several pictures, making it truly like the wedding reception I never had. Instead of stuffing cake into some guys face, I held up my Spaghetti Scepter next to my book sign. For several hours I was transported to a parallel dream world where I had no problems, everyone was happy for me, and there was lots of pasta. The happiness just glowed outwards and I had a great time, even though my feet were battered from running and started to hurt in my heels.
Then I went home and slept for nine bazillion years.
Thank you to everyone who attended! I hope you had a good time too. Special thanks to my mom, Donna, Elaine, Adrienne and Allison for all their work and planning. Thanks to my publisher for the signs and their other support. And kudos to our server Barb who cracked me up and truly earned her tips by walking up and down the stairs from the kitchen to our dining room.
Maybe we can do this again some time.
Posted by PastaQueen on May 9, 2008 at 11:23 AM | Tags: book, book release party, fiber gourmet, lick the produce section, pasta
TiVo alert a.k.a. why I'm flying to New York this weekend
I answered my cell phone and the woman on the other line said, "Oh my God, you're in the TiVo."
"I know!" I exclaimed to my Aunt E. "Isn't it crazy?" If you've got your TiVo remote handy, you can use it to search for The Today Show and set it to record the Sunday morning Mother's Day show on May 11th. (ETA: Local air times vary. Check your listings.) I'll be promoting my book and wearing an outfit that hopefully makes me look very slim. I'm set to appear on the same episode as Susan Sarandon. Do you think she'll sing Rocky Horror songs with me in the green room?
My appearance has been planned for over a week, but I've been afraid to mention it for fear that it might not actually happen. God knows I could still get bumped if terrorists blow up the Brooklyn Bridge that day. And there's still a paranoid part of me that wonders if I'll get to the studio and they'll decide I'm too fat to go on TV. TV anchors are such teeny, tiny people in real life that I'm sure I'm going to look huge in comparison. However, now that travel arrangements have been made and I've sent them lots of photos, I feel like this might actually be happening. That, and my name is now appearing in common household electronics, as if my spirit is haunting the blender.
I don't know yet who will be interviewing me, though it will probably be Jenna Wolf or Lester Holt. I wanted to thank everybody who's been involved in making this happen and scheduling my plans. (They know who they are.) I feel very lucky to get an opportunity for national exposure like this and I'll try to do you all proud. At the very least I'll try not to trip over the camera wires.
If you were at my book release party this weekend, I broke the news to you first. Speaking of which, I will try to write a post about the party this week (as soon as I give up sleep and sort through the photos).
The funniest thing though is that when I pulled up the listing on my mom's TiVo, there was a bit of an optical illusion due to the font selection and how close the letters were together. So instead of looking like "Jennette Fulda" it looks like someone named "Jennette Fukla" is scheduled to appear. I don't know who this Fukla chick is, but she better not steal my thunder.
Thanks in advance for all your good wishes!
Posted by PastaQueen on May 7, 2008 at 9:38 AM | Tags: book, susan sarandon, today show, tv
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