Tyra Show Update

So, a long awaited Tyra update.  A lot of people have been asking what it was like? Two words—nerve racking. Not simple walking on stage and seeing the audience, not just waiting for hours in a green room—the entire experience.

Tuesday before the Wednesday Taping

Tuesday, the day before our trip to NY City, I waited for my book to arrive. I needed the book for the appearance on the show and I was promised it was on its way and at my post office the day before. The only problem—when the mail came the book did not. I was bookless and freaking out. I had promised the Tyra Show a book and I didn’t have it. After hours of tense conversations with my publisher and my local post office I found out that the publisher inexplicably shipped the book to the wrong address—a non-existent one at that. So, the day I was expecting my book was actually the day it was returning back to the printer. I was told there was a chance the book could be shipped overnight, priority to the show’s studio, but it was a long shot.

After running chess club at my daughter’s school and taking the kids to twenty different activities I came home to find out that option 2, overnighting the book, wasn’t a possibility either. One more option was to print a copy of the cover via Kinkos and have it slipped over a similar sized book. I ran that option by the Tyra Show and they said, thankfully, that if I send them a jpeg of the cover they could run with that instead. Score! This was around 9:00pm Tuesday evening and we were about to leave around 6:30am the next morning for New York. I was super relieved—that is until the next morning.

ednesday: The day of the Taping

Running late, as we always do, we realized that we had no cash for the toll and parking at the train station and raided our daughters’ piggy banks for dollars, gold dollar coins from the tooth fairy and quarters. We were sick with guilt but heavy with pocket change, not to mention a bit frayed just getting out the door. The traffic was light into Baltimore. Havre de Grace is around 45 miles from Baltimore as the crow flies and we got to Penn Station, Baltimore in fifty-five minutes. Getting to the train station wasn’t the problem though; it was getting the train to come to the station.

That morning there was a train fire that stopped or slowed all trains traveling north—meaning our train. When we got to the station we were greeted by throngs of commuters exiting the station saying things like, “Good luck,” or “There’s a train fire, nothing’s leaving the station right now.” A sinking feeling hit us as we saw the big board read ‘delayed’ to nearly every destination that morning. We approached the counter expecting the worst, “Is our 9:10 train affected by the delays?”

“Right now, almost everything is,” the teller replied, “the 8:00 train isn’t due to arrive until after 9:00.”

“Can our tickets be transferred to one of the earlier trains that hasn’t arrived?” We asked.

“That hasn’t been made to be an option yet sir, but my guess is that it will.”

“Thank you,” we said with a smile. My stomach was in knots and I could tell Jodi wasn’t liking the situation either. It was only 8:15am, so we had plenty of time to catch a train to NY. We decided to make the best of it and got a snack and waited for news from the fine folks of Amtrak. At 9:00am we got news that the 8:00 train was going to be arriving in fifteen minutes and they were honoring our tickets for that train as well. We we’re only going to be five minutes late getting to Penn Station New York!

Jodi slept a good bit of the train ride up. We sat apart for most of the ride and the train was packed. There were passengers traveling from D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia—you name it, to get to the first game of the 2009 World Series. Phillies and Yankees caps donned the heads of riders in every other row. The train was at capacity as far as I could tell. It wasn’t until we reached Trenton that Jodi and I were able maneuver our seating so that we could actually sit next to each other. We spent the remaining thirty odd minutes of the trip nervously prepping for the show.

At New York

Penn Station, New York was intimidating and confusing. We had difficulty finding our contact from the show and once we did we had to wait under an awning outside for several minutes in the pouring rain while the poor guy grabbed us a cab. The streets were a mad house and somewhat overwhelming. There were people were selling umbrellas, families ducking into shops just to get out of the rain and there were literally more people within plain sight than live in our small home town. It was 1:25 in the afternoon and there were people everywhere.  We finally arrived at the show around 1:40 and due to a contract I signed I really can’t reveal what goes on behind the scenes, but what I can say is that the show’s producers and staff were awesome. They were extremely friendly and professional in what I consider some of the most hectic work conditions imaginable.

We waited for hours—yes hours, for our shot. At around 5:00 we hit the stage, but right before we went out, Jodi was asked to leave her glasses behind. The thought she would look better that way, and sure I can definitely see that, but the only thing they didn’t know was that Jodi is pretty darn close to blind without her glasses (not really, but kinda) and I basically had to walk her to her stool and help her get on it. It reminded of that one Seinfeld where Jerry was forced to wear glasses from the lost and found so that Lloyd Braun wouldn’t think he was crazy. We met Tyra and she was absolutely as pleasant and kind as could be. The rest of the on air stuff you will have to see for yourselves when the show airs—which will be soon, but I can say that we were only on the show for what seemed like a minute—maybe two. Regardless, it was an amazing adventure and Jodi even got fake eyelashes to boot!

The Ride Back

We were so drained from our day and I was too tired and sitting way too awkwardly to sleep on the train. Jodi, however, did quite well. It took us a couple days to recover from the stress, excitement, anticipation and nerves, but it was a day together we wouldn’t trade for anything because we did it together. I love my Jodi and that was just one really cool thing to do together with your best friend. Anyways, our daughters got some really cool Halloween cookies out of the trip that we picked up at a bakery at Penn Station, New York. They still don’t believe us that we were on TV and neither do most of our friends, but we know the truth.

Stay tuned for the update on the air time of the show!