Life and Motherhood: My weekend with Oprah

well, sort of.... okay, that may be a stretch... but I did come away from the weekend with THIS!!!

Let me backtrack,

This past Sunday, my friend Laurie and I took a road trip to St. Louis to attend a live taping of Oprah's life class. It aired live, Monday at 8 EST.

Okay, let me backtrack just a little more,

I grew up watching Oprah almost every single day. I loved her show and have such fond memories watching it with my mother and girlfriends through the years. I especially love when she interviews everyday people who have perhaps been through something extraordinary. Somehow Oprah always manages to get to the root of the lesson and highlights the shared experience for all. So it was a big deal to have the opportunity to attend a show taping.

Back to this past weekend....

It was hard to leave my boys but once I was on the road it honestly felt good to have a break from mommy duty. It was just me, Laurie, the open road and this guy came too:

Laurie's bulldog Taz

Our hotel room was incredible! I felt so pampered for the 48 hours we were there. I got to sleep in, got a massage and sat in the 'quiet room' at the spa for a good while. The quiet room was like a little slice of heaven.... picture me wearing a heavy white robe, reclined in a lounge chair, sipping cucumber infused water, reading a magazine, looking out over the river and sitting in complete quiet. Ummm, that NEVER happens in my real life. In real life, it's coffee, chaos, and "mommy, mommy, Mommy!"

The taping of the Oprah show was really fun to be a part of.....

Laurie and I wearing our bright colors and waiting for the show to start.

but truthfully the real excitement came after the show. (I'm still grinning just sitting here writing about it!)

So after the show, Laurie and I got back to the hotel around 9:30 p.m. and headed down to the hotel bar to discuss the show and some of our take aways (oh yeah, we're big dorks like that!). Somewhere between, "So what did you think when Oprah said ______" and "Was Iyanla too hard on ______ guest?" Oprah herself walked into the bar.

OPRAH WALKED INTO THE BAR PEOPLE!

I mean seriously.... we about flipped our lids! Whether you are a fan of hers or not (and clearly WE ARE), seeing Oprah (and Sheri Salata!) casually stroll into the mostly empty hotel bar where you are sipping wine is quite something! She and her staff enjoyed drinks and food and even mingled a little, wanting to know what people thought of the show. It was exciting. Still, we hadn't actually said anything to Oprah, or had a chance to have a picture taken with her. We really hoped for a chance encounter but of course didn't want to bother her.

And then, just when we'd almost given up hope, in the most serendipitous occurrence ever, she walked right past us in the lobby. No one else was around. We were not missing our moment!

"Oprah, would you take a picture with us?" To which she responded, "Let's do it ladies!!"

And we did! By the way, doesn't she look fabulous? She's more petite in person than you might expect.

In person Oprah came off as gracious, humble, generous and genuinely interested in people's thoughts about the show. If possible, watching how she acted at the bar and then briefly meeting her made me like her even more.

And okay... after we'd said our "Goodbyes" and she walked off, I may or may not have called out after her, It was a... "Trip of a lifetime Oprah!"

OMG, I was instantly mortified and felt like such a dork. "Laurie, did I really just say that???"

But you know what?

It kind of was....

Let's do this every year Oprah, how about that?!?

For now though,