Countdown to some Big O's

Quick...what are two of the most exciting words that start with "O"?  Wait, wait...leave your x-rated mind out of it, and try again. How about "Oprah" and "Oscars"?!?!  How about putting the two of them together?!!?  How about "OMG I won tickets to go see Oprah's After-Oscars show taping in Hollywood, California this weekend!!!!!!!"  Yes, it's true!!!! This was nearly three weeks ago now and it's only because I had so freakin' much on the go the weekend that I won that I haven't yet written about it here, but now that it's only two more sleeps till we leave, it felt like time to blog about it.  I'm so unbelievably excited about it especially now as I'm writing about it, I might have to get up out of my seat a couple of times to shake out the excitement jitters, but bear with me.  Here's my story: My best friend Kellie and I have been talking about going to see Oprah's show before she shuts it down next year.  In asking around to some friends who have managed to go, we learned that once a month on some random day, it's posted on Oprah's website that "today's the day" or "tomorrow's the day" when they are giving away tickets for the following month's show.  From what we understand, people usually spend HOURS on the phone trying to get through, and then IF they get through they are given tickets to whichever show they have available that next month.  So one day a couple of weeks ago - February 11th, to be exact - Kellie had gone for coffee with her friend Sue and the two of them were talking about the Oprah show.  That discussion prompted Kellie and I to talk about it once she got back home, so we thought while we were on the subject, we might as well go online and check to see if anything was happening. Happening indeed...as it so happened, that day was within the 24-hour window they had open to register online for your chance to be selected for this special After-Oscars show.  Normally Oprah is taped in Chicago of course, but for this one where she usually interviews Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor & Actress, and the Oscar hosts, she takes the show to Hollywood.  The very next morning after the Oscars are awarded at the Kodak Theatre, Oprah's production crew moves into the Kodak and tapes her show in the very place where the Oscars were handed out the night before. So in the first place, we completely lucked out to have logged on that particular day.  Kellie was standing over my shoulder as I created my user profile on the site (needed before I could enter the contest), and then she had to scoot out to pick up her kids from school.  As I finished my profile and prepared to make my entry, I centred myself, closed my eyes and "summoned the Universe" as I've come to start thinking of it, having an internal conversation that went something profound like: "Let's DO this!!"  Oh how magical it would be to win this amazing, incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience.  Feeling the buzz, I clicked "Enter Now", and released the outcome to the ethers.... Two days later on Saturday morning February 13th, I woke up to an email from "Oprah Show Reservations" that said "Great news! Your reservation request has been selected for the Oprah's After Oscar(R)Party Taping 3/8/10 in LA show taping...." OH.....MY....GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWD!!!!!!  You should have seen my Happy Dance that moment as I out-loud repeated "Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!!!!!"  What a glorious exciting and ridonkulously outrageous giddy display that followed!  Words can't even describe the rush of delight that coursed through me that morning....what a crazy awesome unbelievable thing it was. Immediately I messaged Kellie who was in St. Catharines for the weekend, and after FINALLY getting hold of her almost an hour later (oh the torture trying to contain that news for so long!), I again buzzed with delirious joy as I shared the news with her.  THEN, to ice the cake, she went online while we were on the phone and found an amazing package hotel-and-flight deal that has us flying into LAX on March 5th (her birthday), then March 6th is my birthday, Oscars on March 7th, Oprah is on March 8th, and we fly back home March 9th...and our hotel is a mere 500 METRES AWAY FROM THE KODAK THEATRE. CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE IT?!?!?!   We are still dumbfounded at the delicious crazy lucky amazing serendipity of it all.  It seems so surreal.  And it is SO dang fun to have this much excitement going on.  Oh the buzz feels good.... "Hopped on a plane to LAX...with a dream and my cardigan...."  Oh Miley, don't you KNOW it!  Though we will not be wearing cardigans for this grand adventure, I assure you of that. This is by far the best double-O I could imagine....