In the late 90's, my sister, Sharon, asks me to meet her in San Francisco to be a part of Oprah Winfrey's "Live Your Best Life Tour" for the weekend.
Scream.
I took the Friday off work & flew out that afternoon. It was a whirlwind dream. A guy I could've sworn (& still do) sat next to me & kept telling me he WASN'T David Ducovny (X-Files), but I insisted that he was. He ended up falling asleep on my shoulder. (Umm.. 'scuse me, David?) SanFran is over the top beautiful and over the top expensive. I wasn't ready for the wind or the cool (aka, cold) temps. I didn't pack right.
We stayed @ a beautiful hotel & Sat. morning headed down early to Knob Hill to be w/Opie. Okay... the hills of SanFran - you would have to have feet like a mountain goat. Don't bother doing your hair either, otherwise you WILL look one deranged woman. For all the primping & prancing my sister & I did before we left the hotel, by the time we got inside the building, we looked like we had been beaten. Severely.
The line to get inside was wrapped completely around the building with 2500+ women (& a few men). The wind was crazy, the air was freezing, we had that mountain goat thing going on, yet we all wanted to see Oprah. The rule was 'no cameras. ever.' Well, I wasn't getting that close w/no pictures, so we tried to snap undercover. Just when we were trying to stuff our cameras in our purses, a guard comes up and says, LADIES! I died a little & was ready to plead the 5th. But she says, "would you like to greet Oprah as she gets out of her limo?"
Die.
So we scream & she takes us behind a velvet rope where "Oprah would be approaching.' (Sheesh). Six (yes 6) limos pulled up in a row, and there she was with one of the biggest body guards I've ever known a human to be. I laughed cause he kinda looked like one of my brothers.
Oprah 'freakin' Winfrey. Right here - this ([ ]) close, in live and living color. Smiling, shaking hands, hugging (if she chose to). I immediately zoomed in on her fab hair and yeah... it's all that. A very 'excited' guy gave her 12-long stemmed roses; she accepted them & rubbed his cheek. I think he collapsed. Suddenly he just went down. Lol. She had on A LOT of makeup outside, but inside on stage - she was elegantly beautiful.
We were very close like 4th/5th row. Oprah was right there ([ ])!!So, starting @ 9:00 a.m., we:
- meditated (of course, I had to peek @ Oprah & see if she was doing it. She was)
- ate breakfast (we ate & socialized - not w/Oprah. We met back up after we ate)
- listened to her very funny, sad, painful, amazing life stories (she's very funny & very down to earth)
- watched her kick off her stilettos & get her pair of "fuzzies" from off stage
- listened to her heartaches & struggles with food
- watched her give away a brand new SUV (the person that won was from Portland, OR)
- watched her give special prizes for those who had traveled the farthest (I thought I was good coming from the midwest, but a mother/daughter team from India took the cake. And the prize
- listened to audiences' questions/comments & Oprah's answers while a mic was passed around
- broke for lunch (on Oprah, but not with Oprah. Lol)
- accepted her awesome duffle bags full of goodies
- on breaks, laughed, hugged & loved perfect strangers because we were a sisterhood
I took (stole?) the terra cotta pot of roses from our lunch table & dried them when I got home. A good memory, huh? That was back when they didn't make you take your clothes off to fly. By the time I flew back home that Sunday, I felt so high, there were no words. The weather was clear across the whole country, I was miles high in the air, trusting God, I loved my sister even more (if possible) for giving me such a precious gift, and I was ready to live my best life.
While flying home, I filled about 15 pages of the cool journal that was in our gift/duffle bags. I was so charged up from the whole experience. It was a lovely gift in my life that certainly was
eventful to say the least :-)
Pictures: Internet
Sunday Scribblings word prompt: Eventful
