She Almost Knows Somebody Famous

I don't remember what year it was when my parents decided that they would buy a second TV for our kitchen, but it was the year that my mornings began beginning with über-pepster Katie Couric. Because if there is one thing my mother loves more than the Today Show, it's Kaite Couric.

You know how as you get older, mothers call up their children to discuss the town gossip? Many of our conversations have included the phrase, "On the Today Show..."

In high school, mornings included:
a) getting out of bed 15 minutes before I needed to be in a car
b) putting on a uniform
c) Katie Couric's circa-7 am giggle.

The summer before my sophomore year of highschool my family spent an early morning "on the plaza" of Studio 1A. My father pre-set the VCR to record the Eldridge Family's debut on early morning television, which included my mother absent-mindedly staring into space at the temporary-people-fence for a good five seconds.

I remember Chris Rock was on the show that morning—possibly making fun of our then-president and who knows, maybe our future president or maybe not?Annie Curry signed my summer reading copy of Cry, the Beloved Country (I only know the title because I imbd-ed ((I verb-ed tehe.)) James Earl Jones. He was in the movie, which I never saw. But I remember that he was in the movie of a book I was suppose to read in high school, which I may or may not have read. Stellar Catholic education!).

My mother may not have been the best on air personality, but she was a darn good television fan. When Katie walked past, my mother called out to her, "I feel like I know you!" And the ever-gracious Katie responded, "You kind of do."

In one of the MANY Katie segments this morning—the hair through the years, the fashion through the years, the goodbyes, the goodlucks and the we'll miss you's—Katie talked about how people kind of do know her. And that made me wonder: What if she kind of remembers that one moment, the moment I remember my mother—starstruck.