Even though I was starting to get sick again I had what was easily a highlight of my entire life last Saturday. I had heard a rumor from an employee at Macy's that Martha Stewart herself was coming to our downtown Macy's store to light our tree. After reading up on the Macy's website I saw nothing and blew it off. But a nagging feeling kept coming back that I should double check and yes, after reading around the web, it was confirmed she was coming as well as signing ornaments for lucky folks.
I set a plan into action with Sarah at work. Not only were we going there but we were meeting her no matter how congested I was.
So we arrived at Macy's that morning to a line stretching around the first floor of hopeful women (and a few men) to see if they too could purchase an ornament to have Martha sign. We were sweating it...the line was huge...women were panicking and asking the Macy's employees to just give a hint on if we were going to make it...we finally heard that they were not letting 300 people in to meet her but that Martha was signing 300 ornaments. I knew a bunch of these ladies would be purchasing several of these special oranaments! AHHH! The lady behind us started to freak us out with things like, "If I don't make it in I'm still going to run up to her no matter what! Maybe I'll make it on TV!" Sarah and I stood there helpless in line between soccer moms and psychos just hoping we'd be lucky enough to get to grab an ornament and get our wristbands.
We were so lucky. We got ornaments, we smiled, we giggled and we shuffled up to the 9th floor to check out the random workshops.
Upon arriving, we were greeted with fresh bags containing a free Living magazine, a small box of Frango's, another Martha ornament, a special Macy's shopping bag, free water and snacks. Fantastic! There were different areas on gift wrapping, gift ideas, cookies, etc. We hurried up to a table to decorate cookies. (see the first few photos where we're just happy to be there and basking in glow of Martha-ness) And then there was a commotion...it all went so fast...I don't know if someone announced her or what but like a shot I had grabbed my camera and was off to another part of the room to take photos of Martha Stewart herself welcoming us all there and saying hello. I snapped some photos - my camera was acting up - and then I started to head back to the table when I realized she was walking my way. I parked myself by a post and there we went...right in front of me (see that close-up...I didn't zoom! She was that close!) She asked Sarah how her decorating was going and Sarah said "good" or something...I can't even remember...I was trying to get a photo of Martha talking to Sarah but I was way too close to get them in the same photo (see the photo after Martha Stewart had passed Sarah and Sarah is clearly still reeling from it!) I then sat back down to see Martha talk about cookies, take some photos, then walk back by us to tell us to have fun. And then I realized my face was beet red, I was sweating, my heart was racing and I was giggling like mad. (See the photos of us totally freaking out after seeing Martha up-close).
I then realized that I acted exactly like my mom's description of when she saw the Pope. I remember she said she just instantly grabbed her camera and went running down some chairs or something to get photos. Sarah and I laughed even harder after that revelation.
So after the big tree lighting we finally got to meet Martha one-on-one. I was overwelmed and unable to think of anything interesting to say (and didn't want to mess it up like previous run-ins with celebs) so I mostly smiled, had the ornament signed and left. I didn't seem to realize my hair was all inside my coat (that's why I look like I got my hair chopped off or something) but she didn't seem to mind. She even personalized my ornament "To Kim - Martha Stewart". Sarah just got a signature. :)
On a sad note, Martha was in Chicago during a pretty tough time. Her mother had a stroke just the Thursday before she came and this past Friday she passed away. She was just on the show the other week too looking great.
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