Oprah’s Moscow Mule and Musings

It’s not often that I write about things other than food.  Sure, I’ll occasionally write about my travels but usually from the lens of food, but that’s usually about it.  With the ending of the Oprah Winfrey Show I felt the need to blog about it so of course I found a way to incorporate food (or in this case, dranks).

I’ve been “blogging” for years now.  Before anyone called them blogs I had “online journals”.  We’re going back to like 1998/1999.  I would mostly write about the important things in life: dance class, being obsessed with dance class, Justin Timberlake, working at GapKids (9155!), school, Justin Timberlake, food, the Today Show and a certain musical that I was mildly obsessed with at the time.  I was pretty hilarious in my old journals and to be honest haven’t changed all that much.

An excerpt from 17 year-old me:

i’m sooooo hungry. it’s already 10:21am and i haven’t eaten anything. i’m getting ready to have me some perogies. i love perogies and sour cream. yumm. so fattening i’m sure, but Tonya does not concern herself with fat and calories. honestly, i just eat whatever i want whenever i want. i eat two dinners every night + tons of snacks. i’ve eaten mcdonald’s every single day of the winter break so far i think. i know it’s very gross of me. but i’m a happy camper so what can i say.

I no longer eat two dinners and I don’t eat McDonald’s every day anymore but I still love perogies and I still don’t really understand what people speak of when they say “fat” and “calories”.

Having moved on to food blogging I’ve lost an outlet for my random thoughts although if you follow my personal Twitter or Facebook accounts you’d get your fair share of randomness.

I’m not quite sure when I became enamoured with Oprah.  My daytime TV of choice was usually Rosie or Maury.  I have memories of watching Oprah and thinking that she cried entirely too much and was kind of “extra”.  I think I probably really got into Oprah when I went off to NYU.  I studied journalism and spent two years interning at NBC.  One of the great things about working in television is that you pretty much always have a TV at your desk and you’re expected to have it on.  Trust me, when I left TV and moved to marketing it was quite a culture shock to no longer ambiently watch TV throughout the day.  I remember specifically while interning at Today that at 4PM TVs would switch over to Oprah.  It was great.

I think from that point on my love for Oprah really began to flourish.  Once I got a PVR/DVR I would record her show each day and watch it after work.  Sure, I enjoyed the celebrity interviews (when I still cared about celebrities) but I equally enjoyed the tearjerker stories of people facing all sorts of challenges, makeovers – you name it, I enjoyed it (except the molestation shows, those I generally do not enjoy).

At some point I decided that my dream job was to work at the Oprah Show (this was around the time of The Secret).  A bit of a lofty goal but I figured I was a resourceful person and could at least try to make it happen.  So one day I sat down and figured out who the executive and supervising producers of the show were.   I then figured out the email format for people at Harpo.  And I sent 4 random emails to very important people.

As anyone who has ever looked for a job knows, you send out a ton of emails into the abyss and never hear anything again.  I kind of expected to never hear back from anyone at Harpo but at least I tried.  So imagine my shock when about a week later I get a call from HR at Harpo to do a phone interview!  As it turns out that didn’t have anything at the time but we left it as “stay in touch”.

A few months later during a particularly not so fun spell in life, I decided to take a break and head to Chicago to stay with my sis.  On some good advice I emailed my contact at Harpo to let him know I was going to be in town and he invited me for a legit interview because they were hiring! Talk about timing.  It was pretty magical rolling up to Harpo Studios with an actual appointment.  That day I interviewed with about 4 people and it seemed to go well.  I even bought a celebratory denim skirt at Old Navy afterwards.  The next day I got a phone call asking me to come in and meet with an EVP.  I had a great interview (in the same building as the studio!) and then went on to wait.

When I got back to NYC I got the call that I had an offer.  Yes, little old me had landed my dream job. And I accepted and I was planning my new life in Chicago with Oprah… it was going to be grand (see you in Hawaii, Oprah!).  Then a few days later things fell through because I’m all foreign and stuff which then led to the next chapter in my life… the return to Toronto.

This wouldn’t be the last time that I came thisclose to Oprah.  My friend Marie and I made a pact that if either one of us were to get tickets to the show we’d take the other.  We’d been trying for tickets for years and nothing.  Until 2009 when Marie got tickets for  a show in October!  Incidentally this was also the same year that I decided to attend the Toronto International Film Festival and of course Precious was premiering in a gala on my birthday.  Oprah was in attendance (of course) and it was pretty magical being in her presence.

Going to the show itself was pretty overwhelming.  It’s pretty impossible not to just start smiling as soon as you step into the studio.  I’ve been in many a TV studio but there’s something about walking into Oprah’s “home” that’s almost too much.  And don’t even get me started on when Oprah actually enters the studio. PANDEMONIUM! The applause, the cheers… even coming out of me was pretty shocking.  I’m not sure I blinked for about 10 minutes, I kind of wanted to just take in Oprah in all her glory.  For that taping we were in the 4th row so Oprah was super close to us.  The show was an interview with Mike Tyson which ended up being very interesting.

Last year when Oprah announced that this would be her final season I figured I’d try for tickets again.  Not thinking much about it I went to the site and saw that it was the last day of that cycle to enter to get tickets.  I entered (this was on Wednesday night).  I woke up the next morning to an email from the Oprah Winfrey Show with the opening line “Great news! Your reservation request has been selected…”.  I honestly couldn’t believe it! I was going to Oprah again.  This time around I brought Marie (of course), and my mom and sister.  I also did a lot more planning since I had a better understanding of the drill.  I made sure that we covered a range of jewel tones in our clothing, that we had a variety of hairstyles (white girl hair, relaxed, locs and weave), and that we practiced looking thrilled.  My strategy worked because I ended up IN THE FRONT ROW.  You could’ve knocked me over with a feather.  The show was kind of random (about some miracle worker) but was still pretty enjoyable.

In honour of Oprah’s last show I decided to watch it while sipping on Moscow Mules (Oprah’s current fave drink) and eating camembert and crackers (a Tonya fave).  A Moscow Mule is a fabulous little cocktail containing vodka, lime juice, ginger beer and mint.  Trust me when I say they go down real easy.  I don’t have ice trays so I didn’t include ice.

I won’t go on and on and wax poetic about Oprah and her final (amazing) show but here are some things that will always stick with me…

– The Neti Pot – I get seasonal allergies and the neti pot has honestly changed my life.  It feels so good and relieves my allergies.

– The Secret – I was really into Oprah’s interviews with Rhonda Byrnes about her book/video about  “The Secret” aka The Law of Attraction.  Whatever you want to call it I think it’s hard not to acknowledge the fact that your thoughts really do set you on a particular course.

– The Oprah Story – However you feel about Oprah you cannot doubt the fact that her story is such an inspiration. Her parents apparently had sex once under a tree and she was conceived.  Molested as a child. Pregnant at 14.  Baby died. Was somehow still a star student and managed to get jobs in the TV industry despite being a thickish, dark skinned black girl in the racial divided south.  Somehow she managed to make the right moves and is now not only a billionaire but also is able to influence and inspire people all over the world.

– The Moscow Mule – delicious. Trust me.

I’m not all mourny about the end of the show.  Frankly, Oprah will be “aight” and we, her audience, have years of wisdom to draw on for years to come.