Boobapalooza New York City (August 8-10, 2001)

New York was a BLAST! This trip consisted of three events wrapped up into one.

The Ananda Lewis Show
3 Meetings with 3 of New York's Top Surgeons
Boobapalooza New Yawk!

We had the chance to meet many, many wonderful people, enjoy great food (at all hours), see great sites and get blisters on our feet.

First off, the assistant producer the Ananda Lewis Show (brought to you by KingWorld; now merged with CBS) called regarding the Yes They're Fake! website, plastic surgery, beauty, and society's pressure on women regarding such. I was delighted to help out! We started by asking for volunteers for interviews and possibly paid trips to NY for their guests. We spoke with a lot of people and it turned out to be Jackie who was chosen to represent her "age group" and the desire to look her best at all times. Funny thing is Jackie and I are great friends and talk every day - but had never met! We were delighted that were both given the opportunity to finally meet in person!

The production company was really late getting our travel info and knowing what I know from the media I wasn't going to make plans to just get canceled. SO! we found everything out the night before we were to leave. Then we packed and made plans, etc. Of course we got NO SLEEP the night before we left. Our flight was out of Oakland at 6:30 am Wednesday with a 1 hour layover in Chicago arriving at La Guardia at 4:40 pm - we usually fly on redeyes and sleep on the plane. But, since we had to leave 1 & 1/2 hours before our flight took off, we thought we'd stay up all night. The production company paid for our flights (both marc and I, and Jackie, in her own room of course) and our stay in a hotel plus per diem - aka spending money). It was supposed to be 2 nights paid but turned out to be one night paid, SO - we had to cough up money for the second night. I was NOT leaving the day after the taping, I mean I got there less than 24 hours ago and flying to New York is not like driving through the Holland tunnel at rush hour, we have to fly for many HOURS with layovers to get to NYC.

Planning Boobapalooza New Yawk!
Twelve hours to plan! I think our phone bill is going to be unreal! We called everyone we knew, emailed friends, surgeons, companies - we wanted to have a get together PLUS meet up with some surgeons while we there so let's see how much we can do in 2 days! With 2-3 hours in the Studio (yeah, I've heard that one before!) The original get together list consisted of 16 people plus we were scheduled to see 3 surgeons whilst in Manhattan. I didn't even have time to announce the get together and I have friends who are upset with me because they could have gone but didn't know - I am a horrible friend *I'M SORRY!!*

The people I did get to in touch with or who read the Boobapalooza Banner were to meet us at Hooters in Manhattan at 8 PM on Thursday night after the studio taping. Then we were supposed to go to the Village to grab some cocktails and dance a little somethin'-somethin'! But the hubbies were tired and had to work the next day. *sigh* Next Time!!

Arriving In New York
Could it be ANY hotter??? New York is having a heat wave - what are the odds?? It started the day before we got there. Our driver was okay, but he was foreign and I couldn't understand a word he said. But he got us to the Hotel in only a few minutes. Now the Hotel is another story...

Hotel From Hell
Welcome to the Holiday Inn on W. 56th St. I advise you not to stay there unless you just need a place to sleep and it is definitely not during a heat wave. It is a dump and our carpet was wet all in the bathroom area because of a leaky sink, not to mention the air conditioner was barely working, the water took forever to heat up the service was crappy, the internet connection was bad and you got kicked offline a lot. It was dirty and the only friendly people were the doormen. BUT! It was free. Certainly wasn't the Avalon but like I said, it was free. Repeat after me, free is good.

Wait!! What's this?? A bunch of Pink, Purple and White balloons come billowing out of the door - It's a special delivery to ME!!! From Sunny!! THANK YOU SUNNY!!! Sunny brought in a bouquet of balloons to welcome me to NYC - but we missed her by like 30 minutes. She went on vacation after all, *waaaaaahhhh* no Sunny for the get together. :(

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I look like a dork! BIG cheesy grin. Thank You Sunny!

Night At Caffe Cielo's
Time to get ready - we should go out! On to Jackie's room - she "can't go out" she said. She "has an eye infection and needs to wait for her prescription to be delivered". Well, that prescription NEVER came and well, she missed a good time. :(

We took a cab down to Cielo's, an awesome Italian restaurant at 881 Eighth Avenue, between 51st and 52nd Streets, owned by these two Italian guys (isn't it ironic?) of whom a friend of ours met in Europe many, many years ago. If you ever want gourmet Italian food, in a relaxed yet classy atmosphere where the owners come out to speak with their patrons Cielo's is the place.

We had some major laughs, were introduced to all sorts of people; lots of media people and this great guy named Ron who is just a riot! We exchanged cards, Wait! Ron! You didn't give us a card! Where's our card?! We did receive a great email and phone call from him and we hope to hook back up in Manhattan next time we're in or vice versa wherever we are.

Off To Bother Jackie
Well we sloshed back to the hotel and went back to Jackie's hotel room. She was still hanging out watching TV and we talked for an extremely long time about everything under the sun (yes of course, including gossip!!). This was a PRIME opportunity - think we'd pass that up? puh-lease!

I don't remember if we took pics or not, LOL!! Guess we'll see when I get the photos back. I need a digital camera. Anyone care to donate one? Anyway, I have NO clue what time we left but when we did I was reeeally ready for bed. It had been a long day. We bid everyone farewell and headed back to our room, and Jackie was finally at peace.

Wake Up! It's Off To Meet Dr. Bernard Shuster!
We woke up at 8:00 AM (it would be like 5 AM Cali time) to go to a 10 AM appt. to see Dr. Bernard Shuster. Dr. Shuster is an incredible 3rd generation plastic surgeon. Heck! even his uncle is a plastic surgeon. We viewed his EXTREMELY impressive office which is located in a medical building that resides inside of a formerly single family mansion. The wood work in the ceiling was magnificent and a grand, circular staircase climbs several stories up in the center of it all. The marble staircase walls are complemented by draped roped handles opposite a brilliant wooden banister. The rooms were based with matching glowing wooden or polished marble floors. The Great Room, had many intricately designed antique chairs and the walls lined with Renoir and Monet prints. Truly a site to see, now let's see if this surgeon matched his grand surroundings...

We met with Dr. Shuster and he was indeed friendly and very handsome. He brought us into a meeting room with a long table next to a fireplace. We spoke about our websites and viewed hundreds of before and after photos of the various procedures he performs. We were very impressed! His noses were fantastic (not to mention he had a perfect nose, which he admitted to having rhinoplasty and advised he spoke at length about his experience with his patients. This form of surgeon candidness is a rarity in this field and I appreciated this more than you can know. When a surgeon has had a procedure that he or she performs it can be quite something to know that the attending surgeon has been through exactly what you are about to go through! Additionally, his breast augmentation patients' results were fantastic as were his liposuction and abdominoplasty, face lift, and other patient photos. He even had pages upon pages of photos of incision sites in various stages of healing. It was good to see these as well. The scars healed fantastically.

We met with his office manager who was young, beautiful and very intelligent - she was very helpful and polite and not the usual type of office manager which is often dealt with in plastic surgery practices. We toured the the accredited surgical facilities which was VERY sterile - it hurt my eyes it was so shiny and there was only that smell of Betadine and cleanliness!

We gave them some tee shirts to pass out to their staff and exchanged handshakes and went away very confident in referring Dr. Shuster to our visitors!

The Taping of the Ananda Lewis Show
Okay, we walked to the studio - no biggie, it's just one New York block away - but in heels?? Our belongings were searched and our bodies run over with a metal detector. I never had this happen with ABC - good grief! You'd think harm would be inflicted upon John Stossel (no offense) before Ananda Lewis! I guess they mean business.

The Green Room
We were going to be sent to the "Green Room" - expecting a room where we could all cavort together, lounge on comfortable couches, eat, drink and be merry. Well, we were lead to a pale green, windowless room with a waxed cardboard bucket filled with ice, 2 bottled waters and three Pepsis, 3 chairs, a make shift coat rack, a studio monitor and a brightly lit dressing table. Luxury!

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STILL preening. Give it a rest, girls!!	I don't EVEN know why I am looking like that at Jackie. We are friends, honest!! Check it out, my boob is the size of Jackie's head!! did I just say that outloud??

Jackie and I, and Marc's thumb's shadow. J & I are different as night and day, but SO much the same - confused yet?

We stayed in there for hours until make up. Went to make up and got powdered and what not. Back to the room, ah the food is here. One sandwich, 1 veggie wrap and 3 petite fours to share between the three of us. Jackie and I shared a mushroom and an asparagus spear. It was good though! LOL!

On to the taping - or so we think. We were lead to yet another enclosure with a studio monitor and PEOPLE!! Real live People! We got "miked" )(as in mic, microphone) and back to the holding pen we went until we were called. I had my microphone fixed by two different people. The second person fixed it right - you can see how it is sticking up all obvious here. *tsk tsk*

The first story was about a girl who was a victim of a head-on collision. She had 2 million dollars in surgery - over a 100 surgeries over a few years to get back to "normal". She had her frontal lobe removed and could not see out of one eye, smell, taste, or sense much. But she was beautiful again. She was an actress beforehand and wound up not getting work because of her ordeal - not even horror movies she said. They brought out a lady (Cathy) for a reunion) who had helped her all those years but that she hadn't seen in 3 years. It was a very tearful occasion. Very tragic story - of course we were gonna look like a bunch of vain idiots after that. but I was very touched by her story and she was VERY nice :)

We went on and met with Ananda - who is an absolute DOLL!! She is the nicest, most down to earth person. She is beautiful as well! We sat down and chatted while she did some breathing exercises into a balloon and sipped warm water because she was losing her voice. We were supposed to introduce ourselves and then go back and fourth about beauty, make up, what we do for a living, etc.

BUT! We only had time to talk for about 10 minutes. UGH! So we talked about my surgeries and someone thought I said it cost $50,000 for it all. YEAH RIGHT!!! Fifty Grand, can you imagine?? Anyway, they wondered how I could afford it - I told them from my accident settlement and I don't like jewelry, we don't vacation much, plus I quit smoking, I don't go out, barely ever drink, etc., etc. The settlement and quitting smoking was certainly more than enough to pay for surgery.

Then it was time for the unveiling of the real faces!! Now the entire audience was taken back for make up as well and I truly believe THAT is what took so long for the show to begin. Well we were all instructed to look under our chairs for some make up remover towelettes and remove our "faces"! And then it was the eyebrows - OH WOE IS ME!!! No eyebrows in front of millions of people. ACKKKKK!!!! Jackie did NOT look thrilled at all - her eyes looked good but she was not thrilled about taking her make up off in public much less on TV. There were two other girls up there and they were so young and beautiful. One was like 18 the other like 20.

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Neither one of us had any make up on!! Ananda smiled for the first photo but the camera had problems so we got her when she wasn't smiling, WITH one of Beverly's wigs on - so she does NOT look like this! Heck, I don't look like this, LOL!

on to page 2!