On Riverside Drive

New York, National Television, Barbara Walters, and the Chicks?

One of those things just doesn't belong…or does it? I might have signed something that said I'm not allowed to tell you this story. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

We made our first appearance on The View last week, the ABC morning talk show hosted by Barbara Walters and girls. It was a Special Edition show, in which they focused the whole hour on Financial Independence. Suze Orman, author of Women and Money, was the guest co-host, and yes, it's hard to believe that we were on the same show with a financial whiz, but it's true.

Let me quickly recap how and why we got there.

A few days earlier, a producer at The View called and asked me a few questions about the book on how I started an investment club ten years ago. She wanted to know why I started it, how we picked the stocks we invested in and how our portfolio was doing. Then she asked if I was busy on Wednesday, and could we appear on their show for a segment? It took me all of three seconds to blurt out, "I will, if I can meet Barbara Walters."

"Um, sure," she answered.

The next few days were a blur. You see, our investment Club, Chicks Laying Nest Eggs has been a little lazy over the past few years, and like the stock market, we weren't all that stimulated. Now we were going on national television to talk about it? We had to quickly get our act together and polish up. We hadn't been interviewed about the book in three years, we hadn't updated our website in two years, and I hadn't had my hair colored in forever. You can understand the panic when the call came.

Amazingly, after pulling a couple of all-nighters, the website looked good, my knowledge was polished, and as for the hair, well, it would never be ready for Barbara.

By the time I got to the airport to head to New York, I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was sleep. Right, sleep in the city that never does. Thank goodness for adrenaline.

I landed in NY, and, much to my excitement, next to the baggage claim was a driver holding a sign that read in big bold letters, "Karin Housley, The View."

I had arrived.

Charles then drove me through the Lincoln Tunnel, (visions of Diana raced through my head) into downtown Manhattan and dropped me off at The Lucerne, a fancy pants hotel near Broadway on 79th. It was beautiful, right down to the French Provincial headboards, light fixtures, bedding and my favorite, the flat screen TV. I forgot to tell you, the flight, the hotel and the driver were all complimentary of The View.

As soon as I got there, I met a few of the other Chicks, Susie, Julie and Megan, and we ate at the sidewalk café. I decided that if just for a day, I was going to pretend to be Sarah Jessica Parker with my 'Chicks in the City' friends. We ordered appletinis in the spirit of it all.

The next morning our driver picked us up at the hotel at 9:00 AM, drove us a few blocks to ABC Studios for the show to go live at 11:00 AM.

We were escorted into our dressing room, where, much to our surprise, a hair and makeup artist were waiting! Had I known, I would have slept a little longer. We chatted for a bit with Jane Seymour who was waiting for her segment (taped for later in the week), and we met the woman who founded Spanx®, the women's underwear company. We were all just hanging out together back in the dressing room.

Still, no sign of Barbara.

Before you could say, "I'm so nervous I'm about to throw up," in walked Suze Orman into our dressing room. Suze's like a preacher on a mission. She's loud. She's in your face, and quite frankly, she freaked us out. The first words out of her mouth were, "What's your net worth? What kind of wills and trusts do you have in place? What kind of insurance policies do you have? Do you girls know this stuff?"

"Um, no Suze," I answered, "We're here because we're an investment club, we invest $50 a month in stocks."
We were scared . If she was going to be interviewing us, she had better stick to the script and not try to intimidate us.
We anxiously awaited our call to the live set. When it finally came, I sat down next to Suze and whispered, "Be nice to us."
The green light came on, and Suze and Elizabeth Hasselbeck couldn't have been nicer. We nailed our segment, got as much information out the public as we could, and pinched ourselves that we were actually on The View. But, still no handshake with Barbara. A woman has goals!

As we were packing up our things from the dressing room, and getting ready to leave, there was a knock at the door. Barbara Walters herself! She thanked us for coming on the show, told us that she really enjoyed the segment, and asked us to comeback when the next book was out. "One opportunity at a time," I thought. "Barbara," I asked, "Can we get a picture with you?"

The beautiful and petite woman graciously obliged, made us the happiest Chicks alive, and she has no idea that we'll be taking her up on her offer. One time on The View is never enough.

Stay tuned.

Karin Housley is a realtor in the St. Croix Valley, a Wednesday Valley Life columnist and hosts a weekly radio show every Saturday morning at 9:00 on AM 1220 KLBB - or listen live via the web at klbbradio.com. You can email her at karin@karinhousley.com or visit her website at www.karinhousley.com.