It's Tree Skirt Day with Meredith Vieira!

Good morning, dear friends.  Hope that you are enjoying a wonderful holiday and that all of your shopping is done.  Here is the second part of Dude and my brush with fame. If you missed Part 1, you can find it here.

We were early for our train and had plenty of time to grab a cup of joe before our big day in the city.  Neither one of us slept very well.  We had gotten an email from the producer the evening before telling us to bring all of our extra scapes to the show.  Meredith and some of her producers were going to don the scapes for the segment.  The email also mentioned that Meredith was going to ask us a few questions on camera.

YIKES!!!

IS IT TOO LATE TO BACK OUT?

Dude wore the black one that unfortunately looked great one her.

I wore the skirt from Restoration Hardware.  It was very heavy and warm.  It reminded me of a grizzly bear.  It's not easy being a trend setter. 

Grand Central was fairly calm.

We decided to walk to 30 Rock in order to take in the big city at Christmastime on this beautiful crisp morning.

Dude schlepping the scapes.

I think that may be Savannah and that conceited guy from MTV.  Too much hair to be Matt. 

We met Dude's very handsome son in front of the tree at Rockefeller Center.  I haven't seen him since he was about 6 years old.  He grew about 8 feet since then. 

Before we were famous....

Matt met us at the door when we arrived.

When we arrived, we paged the producer, as instructed.
No lines for us!!

VIP's!!

The producer told us that he would take us to hair and make up.

WHAAAAAAAAATT?!?!  Now we're talking....

This, we could get used to.  The actress, Juliette Lewis, was in the next chair.  Dude, of course, told me to take a pic of her.  She didn't seem to be open to photos or conversation so I didn't take any.  I think she was a little intimidated by our star quality and youth.

Move over, Juliette.  It's Big Mama's turn.

I'm asking the makeup artist if she thinks I look good for 78 years old.  She thought about it for what seemed like a very long time and told me "not bad."

Dude getting "miked" for Meredith's grilling questions.  Can you tell that she's getting nervous?

This is me thinking... it's still not too late to blow this pop stand...

When we sat down in the studio, we noticed the scapes were on the chairs in place.

Cute little producers donning our scapes.

The guests that day were Bobby Flay, Robin Roberts, jealous Juliette Lewis, and some YouTube chick who could have passed for a Kardashian.  She talked about facial contouring with makeup.  They also taped a segment with Sherry whats-her-name from The View for a future show.

Our 15 minutes of fame was short of about 14 and a half minutes.  We both answered our questions without a hitch. After our segment, a photographer took a pic of us with Meredith and all the producers in their scapes.  I don't have the photo yet, but I will post it as soon as I do. 

We had to wear our scapes through the next hour and a half of taping.  Dude's scape was lighter in weight.   
Imagine making your television debut - Sherry what's-her-name staring you down - and you are being smothered by a 10 lb. thermal grizzly bear-esqe scape. And then it hit me.  Our next trend!!  Tell me what you think of this... Lose Weight With Your Scape....  I was so hot I could actually feel the lbs. falling off of me.  Where was the makeup artist when I needed one?

Meredith's staff is very young and extremely warm and professional.  You can tell that they truly love and appreciate their jobs. This lovely lady was the producer who was in charge of the scape segment. 

Meredith oozes warmth and charm.  After the show, we went backstage to pick up the scapes. Meredith was running around with a head full of rollers.  She ran up to us and gave us big hugs and told us that we did a great job. 

No question about it - we had a fabulous day and we were bitten by the show biz bug.  As we were leaving the studio, we passed this sign.  We looked at each other and gave each other a sly smile.  We were thinking the same thing... our next challenge...

Forget the shopping, wrapping, and baking and turn on the Meredith Vieira Show on Tuesday, December 23rd so you can witness television history!  

That is, if we don't end up on the cutting room floor!