Another Oprah Adventure

For those of you who don't know, I have so far had a series of "Oprah Adventures." The adventures have consisted of figuring out how to use the story topic section of http://www.oprah.com/ to appear as a guest on the show. No call-in number needed. No waiting years to snag tickets. No standing in line in front of Harpo Studios hoping for a last-minute cancellation. If you live in Chicago, you too can take advantage of the icon entitled "last minute Chicago-area guests."

The first time I made it onto the show as a guest was for a program entitled something like, "Why I Like the Backstreet Boys and Why I Support Howie In His Choice to Go Through Drug Rehab." In case you're wondering what sort of affiliation I could possibly have with the Backsteet Boys, let me tell you that Joe and I were married in the very same church as Brian Litrell--one of the actual "boys." Plus, my friend, who shall remain nameless (Larisa) and I "chaperoned" a teenaged girl from our church to the concert. Who cares if we made our way to the front of the stage and sang along? That was back in 2001! Anyhow, that's how I came to be a guest on Oprah, sitting in the front row with Judy from Moody, hoping they didn't ask about any lingering crushes we might have had on any of the grown-men-in-rehab posturing as boys.

My second Oprah adventure resulted from me once again filling out the online form for potential guests on Oprah.com, this one a search for Chicago-area guests currently participating in the "Debt Diet." That one was easy, with a producer contacting me the same day to find out if Joe and I could come on the show together. No interviewing needed, we simply came as seat-fillers and went home with a copy of a money management book.

I'm hoping the third time is a charm as we prepare to embark on yet another Oprah Adventure. You see, we really need just one more bedroom in our condo/loft. Whenever we have guests, they must either sleep on the floor, on our couch, or in our bed while we sleep on the floor or on the couch. That's no fun for anyone. We've looked into buying a house, but alas, the market going into winter is bad for selling and we are cashless at the moment. So, why not add a bit of extra space to our current situation? This is where Oprah comes in.

In the interest of adding more space to our space, I took a peek at the Oprah website once again, hoping for some help in building such a room. Well, what do you know? Nate had been searching for someone willing to let him do a room makeover! I sent an e-mail, describing why my spouse and I are deserving candidates, and low and behold, the next day I received a response from a producer. She requested photos of our place, which I sent along later that week. Another week came and went, and I received a phone call from the producer asking for a five-minute video of our home, hosted by the two of us and explaining why we need the room makeover. Well, I am happy to report that our friend, Scott, came over this morning to shoot and format our footage and it is now on it's way to the Oprah Winfrey Show! Please give a little prayer shout-out that Nate and and the producers will choose our place for the makeover. Tres fun!