New York State of Mind

There are a lot of perks to being a Marine wife; some of them include getting to do some pretty cool stuff!  Over the years I have had the privilege of accompanying my husband to: George W. Bush visiting MCAS Miramar (and Joe got to meet and take a picture with him); free tickets to NFL and MLB games because he is a part of the flag ceremonies; getting to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice on our base and meet them too; free tickets to concerts and also meeting-Gretchen Wilson, Van Zandt, Shinedown, and KISS.  However, a year ago I took this next opportunity upon myself and for once my husband had nothing to do with it-well kind of…

For those of you that don’t know, Joe and I won a trip to NYC last February and met Kris Jenner and were on the Rachael Ray show.  I am a fan of her show on Facebook and the produces posted a status asking about husbands obsessed with football. Well any of you that know my husband…know he is OBSESSED with the Longhorns and college football. I tell him all the time that he should be a football coach when he retires from the Marines.  I wrote the producers and told them about Joe’s obsession and compared him to Jimmy Fallon in “Fever Pitch.”  Somebody must have liked what I wrote because NY began calling me two hours later! The next thing I knew, I had camera crews in my house filming and interviewing us then 5 days after I first wrote in, I was flying to NYC-on Superbowl Sunday!!! Joe was a little upset that he missed the game and the airline did not play it on the plane. But I kept telling him,” Um hello, free trip to NYC!! “But like I told you…he LOVES his football.

We landed in Newark at 11:30 at night. Flying in we could see all this SNOW! It amazed me, being a Houston girl and all. We had a driver waiting for us that drove us into NYC.  Joe and I were amazed at all the lights and buildings, it was magical. We stayed at the New York Helmsley Hotel in the business district, a few blocks from Times Square and Grand Central Station.  We stayed up till 3 am that night because of all the excitement. We were like giddy teenagers on a field trip jumping on the bed! It was truly hilarious!

The next morning we were up bright and early, still running on pure adrenaline. I got a call from the producer saying they were going to pick up us at 9am for some extra filming; we were not doing the show until Wednesday. They decided to turn our story into a Valentine’s Day show and played on the fact that I don’t wear lingerie much (of course I don’t…I have 3 kids, sex is the last thing on my mind!) They took me to a little store called La Petite Coquette and took Joe somewhere else. The owner of the store shut it down so I could shop-CRAZY!!! I could pick out anything I wanted and the show was going to buy me one. This store is NOT like Victoria’s Secret!  The lingerie is good quality, imported from Europe, and is VERY expensive. Celebrities shop here-not a normal girl like me!  They were filming me pick out stuff and a lady walks into the store and says my name. I look up and it’s Kris Jenner!!!!!  I am looking at her thinking, “What are you doing here??” She starts talking to me and I am trying my hardest to not laugh my ass off! She helps me pick some things out and wants me to try them on. I have to say; Kris Jenner is the sweetest, most down to earth person considering who she is! Then Joe showed up, we showed him the lingerie Kris Jenner picked out for me and that was it. We were free to have the rest of the day and all day Tuesday to explore NYC! The producers even gave us per diem!

http://rachaelrayshow.com/show/segments/view/kris-jenners-lingerie-makeover/

Joe’s cousin, Carrie, lives in SOHO. She was such a blessing because if we did not have family there-we would have been SO LOST! Carrie took time for us Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday to show us around NYC. We went to Ground Zero (which I cried almost the whole time), Empire State Building (amazing), Central Park, and so much more. Joe and I “attempted” to ride the subway by ourselves-which was the scariest 2 min of my life! We walked over to Rockefeller Center  which was BEAUTIFUL! I idolized Katie Couric as a kid and dreamed of one day working for the Today show, so standing outside of it was almost a dream come true!  We also attempted to walk into Times Square at sunset but the Tuesday we had to site see was a very cold day with a wind chill of -3.  New Yorkers are used to this kind of cold but Texans, ARE NOT. As we were walking up, my lower lip went numb and my feet were throbbing. I was talking like I had just been to the dentist and drooling on myself!  I told Joe to get me back to the hotel ASAP or we were going to spend our last night in the ER! After a VERY HOT bath, I felt much better! We decided to spend our last night having dinner at The Grand Central Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station. As soon as we walked into that place we were in awe…literally my favorite place in NYC. It had such beautiful architecture and there was something romantic knowing how old this building was and that millions of people had passed through here! Unfortunately my camera did not take good pictures in there for some odd reason :-(

The next morning we reported to the Rachael Ray studios for filming. We had our own dressing room and I had someone do my makeup and hair! When it was time for us to go out on the stage I was a nervous wreck and felt like I was going to throw up! There were all these people in the audience staring at me! Then Rachael Ray walks up to me and says, “You’re the girl that does not like to wear lingerie! Girl if I had your body I stay in it ALL the TIME!” Of course that made me and the audience laugh and my nerves went away. When the cameras starting rolling I just ignored my nerves and played up the humor! At the end Rachael asked me, “Well Joe says he wants you to wear something sexier to bed, what does he wear?” I said,” He wears T-shirts with holes in them and old boxers!” Everybody laughed so hard! I don’t think Joe liked it too much and I apologized profusely for embarrassing him! It was my way of dealing with the nervous knots!

NYC is an amazing city! Obviously it was cool to be on TV and meet Kris Jenner and Rachael Ray, but I just LOVE that city. If I could land a kick ass job and move my family there, I would do it in a heartbeat.  I am in love with NYC and since last February, I have been in a New York state of mind.