Our Evening with Jon Stewart!!

I just realized I never shared our evening with Jon Stewart! Chaz and I met Jon Stewart this summer when Chaz had to go back into the hospital to have the abscess on his back removed. We were super excited to see him come in that day. I had made Chaz and our nursing staff some chili in my crock pot that day. Jon came in smelled in and you could tell he wanted some. So I offered and he enjoyed a bowl of chili with us during his short visit with us. Later he tried to steal one of favorite nurse's bowl of chili too. It was so funny. He tried to get that chili and she almost clobbered him. She hadn't had anything to eat all day. It was hilarious.

While he was with us he told us we had to visit NYC and be his guests at the show. So time passes and I contacted the show back in August. Turns out the person who answered the email knew exactly who I was. My birthday is Nov 14th and I decided this is what I wanted to do for my birthday. Chaz totally agreed and we were able to get tickets for that day. We are big Jon Stewart fans. I love him and Colbert. They pick on everyone, just like us!! And they like to laugh about life, just like Chaz and I do!

So fast forward I get an email telling me that Chaz and I need to be at the VIP entrance at 4:30. Demetria agreed to come and be our babysitter so we dropped her and the girls off at Toys R Us in Times Square. Then we made arrangements with the driver for after the show.

We're thinking it's just for the taping. Nope turns out we're there an hour and a half early. So we were totally stunned to watch Jon Stewart greet us shortly after our arrival. We thought we'll go in tape the show and go home, nope we got to have a ton of fun with The Daily Show crew. He came out looked at Chaz and then me and said, "Awesome it is you guys when he saw us." Then he looks at Chaz and says, "Dude you look awesome." He then asked us how everything was going and we talked for a little. Then he said they had us come early so we could watch rehearsal and go on a tour of the studio.

When we walked into the studio with Jon he said, "Hey everyone, this is Chaz and Jess and they're here for rehearsal." The producers greeted us and had us sit with them. They explained all sorts of stuff to us and gave us scripts to follow along. They then told us that we'll see it one way. Then they'll go back and see what works and what doesn't and then there's a chance we'll see a completely different show while we're taping.

After rehearsal we had our very own aide as a tour guide and we go to go all over the place. We would have seen more, but Chaz got really excited and asked tons of questions to the people in the Tivo room. This room is where they are watching all sorts of news and events looking for things to use for the show. Then Chaz was like a kid in the candy store in the graphics room. Chaz loves computers and this part of the studio had a bunch of computers. Our aide took me further and I let Chaz enjoy his computer lessons with his new friends.

Before we knew it, it was time for the taping. We had front row seats for the taping. We could have thrown a rock and hit Jon's desk from where we were sitting. We got to meet Jon's audience supervisor and became quick friends with her and the interns. We had a lots of giggles with them.

We had even more giggles with his audience warm up guy. He was hilarious. He was so nice and asked Chaz about his injuries. Then he had the audience give Chaz a round of applause. Time totally flies when you're having fun because before we knew it, it was show time. Jon came out and answered a few questions from the audience. Then he sat down behind his desk and the laughs kept coming. During one of the breaks the producers came over and made sure we knew we were not to leave after the show. They and Jon had plans to hang out with us after the show. (Super cool).

We finished the show and were taken back out to the lounge area we started in. I was given a bag with all sorts of TDS goodies in it and the book that the guest from that night had written. Nobel Peace Prize Winner Leyman Gbowee was the guest that night. Jon and his producers and some of The Daily Show staffers came out to hang out with us. Chaz has made leaps and bounds since Jon saw him this summer. Chaz wanted to show Jon how far and Chaz got up and walked across the room. The look on Jon's face was awesome. He was so proud of Chaz. My favorite picture is the one of them standing next to each other. You can see the pride in Jon's face. He looked at me and said, "Holy crap that's awesome."

We all hung out and talked about the show, our girls, our journey, computer games and all sorts of stuff. We made arrangements for Demetria and the girls to meet us there after the show. Jon insisted on sending us all to one of his favorite places for dinner. He also wanted to come out and meet our girls, Demetria and our driver Tom. I'd give anything if I could have gotten a picture of Demetria's face when Chaz and I walked out with Jon Stewart. Of course our girls were like "Hi Mr Jon." But Demetria's face was awesome, she was shocked. Bahaha!!!

We thanked him and his assistant for having us and for our awesome day. Then Jon's assistant gave me the address for where they were sending us to dinner. That was just beyond super sweet. While we were eating my friend from college was able to stop by and say hi. It was one great birthday!!!!!! I hope you enjoy some of my pictures from that day!