It has been a week now since I was on the
Katie Couric show. I can't believe I even get to type that! I was on the Katie show!! A producer contacted me a couple days after the
Tutugate story broke and asked if I could come out to New York the following week to appear on the show. Initially I didn't think I could do it since I had an important meeting set up for that Tuesday with a customer, but the meeting didn't end up working out and fortunately I have a very gracious boss and he let me take Monday and Tuesday off with short notice to fly out to New York! Best part of the trip was that the show flew David out with me too!
Soon after I confirmed for the show I saw this video that Katie posted on twitter. I have to say this is the coolest video I have ever seen!!! Check it out for the fun surprise cameo! View the video
here.
Katie Tweet That Made My Day
I was already thinking about making Katie a tutu and after watching this video I decided to make her one as well as
Lynda Carter. I had asked the producer what Katie's favorite color was and she told me to make the tutu any color, something bright, and whatever color I chose Katie would like. Well, I couldn't just make her any color tutu! I started googling pictures of her to see if I could see a color trend in her clothes. Not that something like that would necessarily reveal her favorite color. My favorite colors are purple and green but I never wear those colors. After seeing a lot of red, blue, and black dresses I was still stumped. None of those colors seemed right. I then decided to look up Katie on
Wikipedia and that's where I found my inspiration. I read about how Katie lost her husband years ago to colon cancer, that she lost her sister a few years ago to pancreatic cancer, and that she lost her father most recently to Parkinson's disease. I looked up the awareness ribbons for each of these diseases and came up with the perfect tutu. Blue for colon cancer, purple for pancreatic cancer, and grey for Parkinson's ... and brain cancer (for me!). Lynda's tutu was a bit easier, I made her an all blue tutu like my Wonder Woman tutu, minus the sloppily glued on foam stars.
The "Katie" Tutu
David and I flew out Monday afternoon and got into New York pretty late. We went straight to bed and the next morning I was up early to go for my first run in Central Park.
Airplane Selfies - David's Digging It
I've been to New York about a dozen times but have somehow never ventured outside for a run. I met up with my friend
Peter (fellow former San Francisco Marathon Ambassador) that next morning and we did a nice 4 1/2 mile loop inside the park.
My First Central Park Run - LOVED It
The Katie Show sent a car to get us at 12:15pm for the 2:30pm taping (we had car service everywhere!) and a few minutes later we were at the ABC studios. We hung out in the green room for a bit with a handful of other people before I was brought up to hair and makeup.
Hanging Out In The Green Room
Cheese Platter In The Green Room - Ewe!
After hair and makeup we went back to the green room and I went over the segment with the producer. I was really worried about being asked questions I wasn't prepared to answer and sounding like an idiot on national TV. Fortunately the producer role-played 10 questions with me, gave me feedback on some of my answers (elaborate more about that point, include details about this point, feel free to show more emotion when you talk) and told me that Katie would probably ask me 8 of the 10 questions we went over. Whew! No surprises!
Almost Time For My Interview
Before I knew it my time to go on had come. We were watching the show from the green room and when my segment got closer they brought me upstairs to go backstage. David had the option to sit in the audience or stay backstage, so I asked him to stay backstage so I could see him immediately before and after I went on. After a few mic checks and several minutes of sweaty palms and my heart beating out of my chest, I received the queue to walk on stage. Don't trip! Don't trip! Don't trip! And .. OMG it's Katie Couric! We're shaking hands! We're hugging!! I just hugged Katie Couric!
Just Me & My Buddy Katie Chatting
The whole interview was surreal. Although I was extremely nervous the whole time I was on camera I felt that my interview went well, and that I was able to adequately answer all of the questions. The tutu that I had made Katie was placed behind my chair and we were supposed to pull it out at the end. As soon as we cut to the commercial break after the interview ended Katie said "Oh no! I forgot the tutu!"
Tutu Photos With Katie
During the break someone brought out the tutu I had made Lynda Carter which I put on and Katie put on the one that I had made her. I later saw that she (or most likely her social media manager) tweeted out the picture and she also replied to my tweet about meeting her that day.
Rockin' The Tutus With Katie
Overall the whole experience was amazing. Never in a million years would I have thought that I'd meet Katie Couric. Never in a million years would I have thought that the innocent request for a photo of
Tara and I would result in tutugate. It's been two weeks now since the media storm started and the whole experience has been one crazy ride. We've helped raise almost $7000 for Girls on the Run and the fundraising and sponsorships haven't yet ended. I'm pretty sure everyone now agrees ... #tutusrock.
You can view our whole interview
here.
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