Dr. Oz

Wednesday morning started off a little earlier than normal. I was dressed and ready and driving into Manhattan by about 6:50 am. I was meeting my aunt and cousin and some of their friends to be in the audience at a taping of the Dr. Oz show. I live about 50 miles from midtown and I needed to be at NBC studios by 8:30. I was closely listening to the traffic and trying to decide the best route for me to go.
 
 The radio traffic reporters made it very clear that traffic this morning was going to be terrible. Today was the day of the general assembly meeting for the United Nations and there were over 150 heads of state trying to make their way to the U.N. this morning. They specifically advised against traveling on the east side. The United Nations is located on the east side of Manhattan right on the East river between 42nd and 47th streets. I was trying to make it to 30 Rock -- or 30 W 49th street.
 
Knowing that I did not want to come south of the U.N. I chose a parking garage on 53rd street. Both my GPS and my iphone maps were telling me that the best route (even considering traffic) was still to take FDR drive and exit at 53rd street. I was suspicious. I was doubtful. I was listening to the traffic nightmare stories. I am happy to say that the iphone and GPS were right. I think the traffic reporters job was to scare everyone off the streets and they did. The roads were oddly empty. I made it in an hour and 11 minutes-- parked and walked into the rockefeller center at 8:15 am.
 
Once I found the check in for the Dr. Oz show I was greeted by a woman named Ali. She is the audience participation coordinator. She and I had been in touch several times over the past week in an attempt to get me to participate on the show. The show we were watching taped is called, "Dr. Oz, gone wild-- Dr. Oz attempts to answer 50 of your most embarrasing questions in one show". In fact we had to submit with our ticket request a list of questions we would be willing to ask. I had submitted 3 questions and then Ali called me.
 
She said, your questions were great, but we were wondering if you would ask, "Why do I pass gas when having an orgasm?" I burst out laughing and let her know that there was no way I was going to ask that question on national television!!!!! So she started peppering me with other question possibilities, "Would you ask about your inverted nipples??? what about showing dr. oz your smelly belly button?? would you let him treat your toe nail fungus? would you expose your husband's bad health problems??? Would you ask why your hair is thinning? and on and on . . . each time I replied honestly that not only did the problem not apply to me, but that I wouldn't ask it. She actually called back several more times over the days leading up to the taping with more questions. Each time the questions were crazy and I said no.
 
So here I am checking in and Ali is waiting for me. She says -- Ok I am desperate now, we had a last minute cancellation so would you be willing to ask, "I have just recently started a low carb diet and have noticed that my breath smells bad. Is the low carb diet to blame?" I finally consented to ask that -- after all the other choices this one seemed pretty tame -- but I want to let you all know -- I am not on a low carb diet and to the best of my knowledge (and I did ask Trent) I do not have bad breath. Once I agreed to participate I was taken to security, given a badge, and taken to the green room (which is not green). From there wardrobe came by and inspected my clothes -- they deemed them agreeable -- and they were pretty picky I might add -- they redressed several of the people in my group (which was 10 women and included my aunt and 2 of her friends). The funny thing is that the woman who was the "fashion police"-- well she wasn't exactly the most fashionable!!! Then we went to hair and make-up -- Now this is a luxury I could go for everyday. The blew out my hair, curled it, and did all my makeup. I thought they did a great job and I certainly enjoyed being primped.

I think we were on the 6th floor of the rockefeller center -- It is the same floor where Jimmy Fallon is taped. All in all -- it was quite a fun experience. Dr. Oz was charismatic and nice. He tried to engage the audience. He was the exact opposite of Rachael Ray. (you can read about her and seeing her show taped here) After the taping we went to lunch at Bobby Flay's Bar Americain. I thought it was yummy. Here are pictures of my food! Then it was finally time for the fun to end and I needed to drive back home. I headed back to the garage on 53rd street only to find the entire road closed to traffic and all the garage doors closed. There were barricades at every driveway at police tape strung end to end. Within about 20 minutes came the huge presidential motorcade. Supposedly he was going back to his hotel -- but since he was slated as staying at the waldorf astoria (which is on 49th street east of rockefeller center) that really doesn't make too much sense unless he just liked taking a very windy path to and from -- which doesn't seem all that responsible given the high level of security on the streets. They then opened up the road and my garage started getting customers cars out -- I was 3rd in line and just as they got my car the police started closing the street again -- not even 15 minutes later he was coming back???? I quickly got out of the garage in the nick of time and then had the whole drive home to think about how selfish to drive across town -- closing all the roads for just 15 minutes!!!