Erica Irlbeck, Ed.D.: I Heart GMA

I'm back! Only 10 months since my last post, but I like to keep my social media presence active (yes, that was sarcasm). I probably wouldn't say this is active, since my post today is about a trip I took a month ago. I'm going to use the "I just had a baby" excuse once again (I figure I have about four more months of it being legit).

We love to travel, and New York City has always been on my list of places to see in the USA.

The very first item on my NYC bucket list was to make a sign with a giant Double T and stand outside the Good Morning America like the nerds we are. We did one better. We stood INSIDE the studio like the awesome people we are. Other than having Jett, this was the hi-light of my year....maybe even of my 30s. We watch GMA every morning, so I feel like we know George and Robin, and if he would just get to know me, Sam Champion and I would be BFFs.

Our old news director from KLBKAMC made some calls and got us the hookup to go inside, so here's our opportunity to say thanks again to Russ Poteet!

We arrived at the Times Square studios around 6:30 a.m., and looked around, stared into the studio windows, then we went inside. It was very difficult for me to not squeal, but I played it cool. I'm a professional after all. First person we see inside--Brian Ross, ABC's chief investigative correspondent. Again, had to contain the squealing. Scott and I were seriously scared of getting kicked out of the studio. We just knew that if we sneezed or stood in the wrong spot even once, that they would have kicked us out. So we stood in our designated area and watched with delight as the show went on the air. In addition to Brian, Elizabeth Vargas and Bianna Golodryga were in the studio. Oh how I wanted to meet them, but we were scared to death to leave our designated spots, so we just stood there, and gave them all goofy smiles when they walked by. I felt like such a dork.

Lots of people standing around at GMA.

Something that we did notice was the number of people that were standing around. So we struck up a conversation with one of the stand-arounders and found out that ABC is union; I'm sure all three networks are. So what that meant, is that if you are a camera operator, you operate a camera and only a camera, and you don't have to be afraid of someone stealing your job because no one else can touch said camera. Our new friend was a lighting director, so she had to be there during GMA's duration on the off chance a light bulb went out or a light needed adjusting. By union rules, only she could touch the lights. This was such a foreign concept to me. Back at good ole KLBKAMC, I saw sports and weather guys crawling up on the desks to adjust the lights in the studio.

We met George! I'm sure he remembers us.

Our new friend asked us why we weren't taking pictures with the anchors, and we told her we didn't want to do anything that would get us kicked out. She kind of laughed at us and told us that if we wanted pictures, we needed to be bold and ask, so our first act of bravery came with George Stephanopoulos. He was a tiny little fellow. I felt like a giant next to him.

The show went on. Chris Powell from Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition was in the studio. We, of course, chickened out and didn't ask him to take a picture with us. Our new friend scolded us for chickening out.

Don't mess with me, Sam Champion. I'll post
pictures of you looking like a weirdo onto
my blog. You should have taken a picture
with us.

So I got brave and asked my BFF hopeful, Sam Champion, for a picture. He said no. My heart shattered. I guess he technically didn't say no. He said, "I would love to, but I really have to go." Really Sam? You've re-tweeted me. I thought we were friends. In his defense, he had changed out of his suit and had on a really tight t-shirt, holey jeans, and flip flops, so I don't think he wanted his reputation marred by being caught on Facebook in his street clothes. I like him less now. For revenge, I'm going to post a picture of him looking like a goof, along with his box of beauty products (see below). Now all seven readers of this blog will see how silly he looks in this picture.

Joe Walsh from the Eagles was in the studio and played to promote his new album. People that were young in the 70s thought that I was the coolest person in the world for seeing him. We also chickened out on that photo op.

Joe Walsh from the Eagles!

After the show was over, they cleared out the studio, but we hid behind some cameras to see what was going on. Bristol Palin came in for an on set interview. We were hoping somebody really famous was going to walk it, but nope. Just Bristol. She seemed like a nice girl. We didn't chicken out of a photo with her...we just didn't want one.

Robin interviews Bristol Palin.

Then the moment that would make or break our trip. I mustered up the courage to ask Robin Roberts for a picture. SHE SAID YES! Then I told her I loved her. Oh. Dear. I'm such a....well....I can't think of the fitting word here. This may just be our Christmas card. Photoshop Jett in to a corner, and we're set!

We met Robin Roberts!! Anything else that happened on this trip was just extra. Thank you Robin for making
our trip and our year!

So we have our pictures with George and Robin, so pretty much anything could have happened during the rest of the trip and it would have still been the best trip ever. And other stuff did happen. That's the subject of my next post. Hopefully I'll have it up tomorrow instead of seven months from now. But I just had a baby......