After yet another pleasant night at Hotel Penn (we have finally become accustomed to the city that never sleeps and all the noise that goes along with that title) we woke early (not as early as we intended) and greeted the day Today Show style, which means super duper early and with a fake cheery disposition.
The fake cheer turned into real cheer when not ten minutes after we arrived the pom squad in front of us left, and we found ourselves mere feet from beloved morning show hosts Matt Lauer, Al Roker and Natalie Morales! We were expecting to be stuck behind an elderly women's choir from Wisconsin or a boy scout troop from Baltimore because we, once again, got off to a late start. But there we were with just a banner-draped aluminum rail separating us from the Today Show crew! Also within minutes of our arrival a camera man pointed at us and said, "I'm shooting this side after commercial", and thus our first appearance on the Today Show began! Mom kept yelling and woohooing while Matt was talking, so if you happened to have been watching and heard WOO HOO! during a very solemn story about murder or something, that was Mom.
Al Roker then came over and shook everyone's hand! He had on a very classy suit! I meant to congratulate him on running the New York Marathon, but I got a little star struck.
Then as magically as they had appeared, they were gone, as were most of the crowd. Little did hey know, though, the real fun was yet to begin...
We moved from the railing to the window to watch Hoda and Kathy Lee, and after making a lot of jokes about which crazy looking person in the 15 person-strong crowd deserved the daily makeover, the show started! We didn't even know who the guest was until we heard a shriek from a teenage girl with a 'Kiss Me, Rupert, It's My Birthday' sign. It was none other than Ronald Weasley from Harry Potter!!! Now, I wouldn't describe myself as a Harry Pot-head (a term I recently learned), but I love me some Harry Potter! We watched Rupert Grint's interview with nervous anticipation that, possibly, he would come out and greet us on the plaza. At the end of his interview he walked away, and it seemed all was lost until Kathy Lee stood and faced us and mouthed and gestured for us to move over closer to the door. Then more shrieks from the kids and a ginger-haired movie star appeared! He was such a good sport for putting up with us. He took pictures and gave out hugs to the youths, then turned to walk away at which point, me and the moms in the crowd yelled for him. He came over and took a picture with me, and I was really surprised how quickly I transformed from cool, calm and collected, to TOTAL GEEK NERD DORK girl (as evidenced by the picture). He was really buff by the way, and I found myself unable to stop touching his shoulder. It was bizarre and hilarious!
It was a really really fun and surprising morning (which seemed to be the theme of the trip), and Mom was excited too even though she didn't know who he was. At least she didn't honk at him like she did everyone else who got within two feet of us!
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