And the book tour continues . . . this time to the fun and fascinating city of Seattle. On Tuesday, March 21, I will be appearing on New Day Northwest, which is on the NBC affiliate, KING5 weekdays at 11am. It will be my second time with a studio audience, and my first time with a book giveaway! I'm pretty psyched! Seattle is one of my favorite cities to visit, and we've made it an annual trek for the last four years. I love the waterside market, the beautiful scenery, the outdoorsy-forward thinking-tech vibe, and although I'm not a big shopper, my favorite clothes store is there . . . sandylew. So I'm ALWAYS happy to make this trip, and now even more so because of my new friends at KING5.

The DONAHUE show used to air on KING, and one of my favorite Donahue stories happened in Seattle. We were doing a week's worth of remote shows there and Phil, another producer, Marlaine, and I were meeting in the lobby to go catch a Seattle Mariners game. I had my six-month-old daughter Taryn in my arms, and my nanny, while waiting for the single elevator. I was going to hand Taryn off once we got to the lobby. The elevator opened and a very large man stuck his hand out to block our entrance on the elevator. Having waited ten minutes for the antique elevator to arrive, I didn't care who was hiding behind the bodyguard, and when I tried stepping on, the giant pushed me off, and the doors closed.

After impatiently waiting another ten minutes, we finally got to the lobby. I found Phil and the producer and spit out the story of the imperious bodyguard. Phil, ever the champion of underdogs, was infuriated that A) this bodyguard shoved a woman with a baby in her arms, and B) some unknown celebrity was so "important" that he/she couldn't share an elevator. When we spotted the bodyguard out by a van, Phil sprinted out before we could stop him. I ran out after him, mentally picturing the headlines of Phil getting into a fistfight with some big shot. When I got to the van, he was valiantly upbraiding the giant who had accosted me. Then he stuck his head in the van, yelling to the unknown rider in the back, "And who's the big star in the back? Who is such a big deal that you can't share an elevator?" He continued his sarcastic rant, straining to see the offender, when I noticed Billy Idol climbing out the side door. He came over to Phil, put his hand on his arm and started to apologize, but my boss was not exactly a punk rock music aficionado. As he kept up his diatribe, shaking off Idol's hand, and peering into the now empty back seat, I knew he had no idea who the bleached blonde, skinny, leather-clad rocker was standing next to him!

I grabbed Phil's arm, pulled him into our waiting get-away car, and mumbled something to the stunned rock star. And then Marlaine and I sank back into our seats, and laughed until we cried. As we tried to catch our breath laughing at how the singer had stood there shocked that he wasn't recognized, my hero Phil just looked at us saying, "Billy who?" Aah Seattle . . . lots of good memories! And more to come!