Sometimes you get invited to something that you have only a fleeting interest in doing. Most of the time, you say, 'yes,' just for the story, and the story turns out to be boring. You've felt like you wasted a night, and regret every single moment. Well, I was offered one of these situations Sunday night.
My brother-in-law, Eddie, texted me to invited me to go with him to a rare live Piers Morgan Tonight. I was intriguied, but not sold. His next message assured I would go: Jesse Ventura is his guest. You mean, WHITE LIGHTNING!
I was hooked.
For those of you that are unaware, Jesse "The Body" Ventura is a former professional wrestler and Governor of Minnesota, and the widely known voice of conspiracy theorists. He has written seven books, including DemoCRIPS and ReBLOOODlicans, which he was on the show to promote. He's pretty much Eddie's favorite person in the world (sorry Mel, Ava and Ashley), and I was curious to see what he was like on live TV. Fortunately, unlike the situation above, the show and our trek to the studio was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life.
Here's the recap:
Our adventure starts at 3:20 on a beautiful Monday afternoon, and we have an hour to get to Trenton for a 4:26 p.m. NJ Transit train to New York, but we were also running into the start of rush hour traffic. After going a bit out of our way, we arrived at the Trenton Transit Center just in time...to hear our train leave. Luckily, there was a local train leaving a few minutes later, but it would get us there a little later than Eddie was hoping.
Once we arrived at Penn Station, the craziness began. For those of you that have rode the New York Subway system before, feel free to laugh at this next part. We rush across the train station to try and catch the 2 train before it leaves at 6:08 p.m. when we get there...you guessed it, we watched it leave. This was not good, because neither of us had rode the NYC subway before and Eddie was a nervous wreck as it was. He figures out that C train leaves in four minutes and he wants to catch that (pauses for laughter). Eventually, we hop on an express to Times Square, get off and look for a local to get to 59th St. This is where we meet our first character of this story.
We'll call him, "Vinny" (not his real name), an MTA work, who is a complete stereotype -- loads of product in his hair, tough guy accent. Eddie approaches "Vinny" and asked if the 1 train will take us to 59th St. "Vinny", who was too busy to help us because he flirting with a woman waiting for the train, says, 'Whuddya think, pal.' The woman he's talking to, who obviously wanted an excuse to stop talking to him, is more helpful and we continue our trek to the Time Warner Center.
We exit the subway at 59th and Columbus Circle. Unfortunately, this is the only time we see New York during our entire trip. After finding the right entrance, we take a few escalators up to waiting area for Piers Morgan Tonight. We are one of the first few people in line. Oh, did I forget to mention that it's currently 6:35 p.m., and the show doesn't start until 9 p.m. Yeah, so that happened.
Since it appeared as if I had plenty of time to eat, I ventured down to the Whole Foods in the basement of the building. Yes, there's a supermarket in the basement. While waiting in line (or on line since I'm in NYC) to pay, I receive a semi-frantic phone call from Eddie. They are taking people to the back. I reluctantly return my delicious looking chicken and fresh mozzarella sandwich, and hurry back upstairs, and find that they're only taking small groups at a time. At this point, the ship has sailed in regards to getting food, so I wait in line with Eddie.
We eventually get checked-in, signed our waivers, picked up our raffle tickets (yep, there was a raffle), and enter the CNN studios. They guides us to the studio in groups of seven. Eddie kept saying it felt like we were going to an interrogation room, and the static gray walls didn't help. We were seated two at a time, and strategically placed in the studio by height and gender. This was my view of the stage:
Pretty good, eh? Well, Eddie was worried about how much air time we'd get because we weren't behind either Ventura or Morgan. Little did he know, we were in the perfect spot. Exhibit A:
At about 8:45 p.m. we got the pre-show instructions, which included shutting off our cell phone. Thus, the reason for the lack of photos during the show. The show itself was pretty interesting. Whether or not you agree with Ventura, the interview is definitely worth the watch. And you'll get to see plenty of shots of my beautiful face. Go to Piers Morgan's Blog, or watch it On Demand.
After the show, we exited on 8th Ave. and to our surprise, Ventura was standing outside surrounded by fans and his friend, Richard Belzer. Of course, you know what happened next...
I'm pretty sure this is now Eddie's cell phone wallpaper. Anyway, we began our trip home, which went a little smoother than our arrival. Well, this time we did have help from fellow audience members, who were headed in the same direction. We stopped for food (FINALLY!), and boarded our final train of the night. And Eddie's last nervous moment, which passed when the employee on the train reassured him that we were indeed on the right train.
What started out as last minute idea, turned into one of the most fun and educational nights I've had in a while. I learned a little about the NYC subway system and Eddie met one of his heroes. All in all, our trip to Gotham was a success.
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