Some of you may not know the story.  We have been trying to get tickets for over a year now to be in the audience at the Oprah Winfrey Show.  We both watch the show.  I have called and called the reservation hotline to try to get seats everytime it has been open.  I never got anything other than a busy signal.  Occasionally on  Oprah’s website, they have last minute reservations and special show reservations.  They often fill the audience with a certain type of people – ie: people that are fans of a singer or actor or people that have read a certain book, seen a certain movie or had something specific happen to them.  So, a few weeks ago they had one that was titled “Couples in Love..”  It asked you to share your love story and how you met and tell a little about yourselves and then they MIGHT contact you with reservations.  I did so, and told them how madly in love I am with Jennifer.  However, I did not think much of it because I had been on there maybe 10-15 times before filling out the same type of thing for other upcoming shows or last minute reservations.  So, I did not think anything would happen.  Then on Monday, Feb 4th in the afternoon, my cell phone rang.  It was Julie in the Audience Department from the Oprah Winfrey Show!  They had read our story and wanted us to come and join them in the audience the following Tuesday afternoon.

At this point Jen did not know anything about it, so I decided it would be a great and memorable Valentine’s Day Surprise! So I sprung into action.  I researched and booked a hotel room in downtown Chicago for Monday night, got off work, booked her a 50 minute massage at the hotel’s sports club, ordered her a cookie bouquet and told her that she would have to be off class on Monday and Tuesday of the next week for a surprise trip.

The next week was really hard to keep the secret from her.  REALLY hard.

We had a blast while we were there.  Here are some pics and things we did….

The cookie bouquet was waiting in the hotel room for her (by design by me of course)  This was the first time that she knew why we were in Chicago.  The middle cookie said “Oprah Winfrey Show”  She was very shocked and happy.

The hotel room was way beyond our expectations….

We got there, settled in and then went exploring Chicago.  We had to bundle up nice and warm first of course.

We were only 2 blocks from the “Magnificent Mile” aka N. Michigan Avenue.  This road is full of stores and restaurants.

Here is the Sears Tower….

Here is the Apple Store that we went in (this is the Apple Store that Oprah and Bono went into on the “Red” show where they went shopping for Red Products…

Jen bought a clear apply on skin for her iPod.  I just played with gadgets.  We also went into the Gap store that Oprah and Bono went in, but I did not get any pics.

After exploring we went to dinner at Gino’s East of Chicago.  Famous for their Deep Dish pizza and known for the graphitti on everything there…

We felt right at home here.  Notice the graphitti to the left of Jen – “OH-IO Go Bucks”

We then walked around a little as the snow fell and enjoyed the trees on N. Michigan Ave lit with white Christmas lights.  Very romantic.  We ducked in a Starbucks to get some coffee then made our way back to the hotel room.

The next morning we got up, took Jen down for her massage and got ready to go see Oprah.

Here is the outside of the building.  (You will notice the portable wall they put up in the winter so audience members don’t have to wait in the cold)…

Then into the building we went.  They took our coats at the coat check.  Put us through metal detectors, took any objects that could be used as weapons and sent us up to a crowded waiting room.  We were there waiting for about an hour.  Then they began to call first names of parties (not sure why they were special) then numbers.  Out of 325 people we were numbers 239 and 240.  So by the time we were allowed to walk into the studio and find a seat there were only about 3 choices of 2 seats together.  That part was sort of disappointing, but I was shocked at how small the studio is.  It looks much larger on TV.  We were only maybe 40 feet from Oprah the whole time.

Here is one of the times we showed up on the show that aired yesterday….

See if you can spot us.  Jen is right at the top of the stairs in this picture (she had on a red shirt and light tan pants) you can see her legs really well – they look almost white.  I am to her left with a red shirt and light pink tie.  You can see my tie really well – it stands out.

The show was fun.  It was more fun for me to see how they produce the show.  I found myself not listening to the stories though and watching the crew, the lights and how the stage manager ran things.  That is all stuff I love.  They surprised a guy who was a big Patti Labelle fan with her being there and singing with him.  They also gave a loving grandmother a new car – VW New Beetle.

After the show it was snowing really hard and we took each others pictures in front of the famous Harpo Studios sign…

Most amazing Valentine’s Day ever – for both of us.

This past Friday night we took the boys (Ben and Dylan only) to the Bengals vs Colts game at Paul Brown Stadium. It was a great time.

It was the first time being at any NFL game for both them and both Jen and I.  It was AWESOME!  The boys had a great time as did we.  Their tickets were courtesy of their ”Grampy” for their birthdays.

While we actually won the game (for the first time this preseason year) but the game itself was quite boring for the most part.  The ENTIRE first half was completely scoreless and none of the big name players stepped foot onto the field on either team.  The last preseason game though is about hammering down the roster, and giving guys a chance to “tryout” for the team – I get it.  Does not make for great football though!

Being there live in person is such a completely different experience than watching it on TV.  In some ways, I think I actually prefer watching on TV.  While being there with 65,000 people is cool, being at home is almost just as fun, and FAR cheaper.  Replays are hard to see at Paul Brown unless you are sitting in a particularly good spot.  We actually got a better view of the screen by turning around backwards from the field and watching the jumbotron behind us.  (Not much different from home)  I also prefer the commentary on TV to the announcing live, well usually – at least when they are not killing the game by talking about Michael Vick or something.

Being a newly introduced football fan, everything is still fresh and new and exciting for me.  I went the first 30 years of my life without watching football on a regular basis.  WHAT WAS I THINKING! 

We are hopeful for this year with the Bengals.  We got rid of the #2 QB, Doug Johnson, who stunk like a homeless man in a landfill on Friday night.  We signed Ryan Fitzpatrick on as a QB, not sure yet who is taking the #2 position though – him or Jeff Rowe.  Chad looks good this year as always (he was his regular old goofy self when we saw him up close at training camp last month in Georgetown).  TJ needs to wake up a little more though.  In the few plays that he has played in so far in this preseason – he practically let the ball hit him in the back of the head.

Superbowl is still on the wishlist this year just like last year.

GO BENGALS – WHO DEY?