DOC Crew

As I told you a few weeks ago, Diabetes Global Handprint, One Touch’s diabetes awareness initiative that was inspired by Word in Your Hand at tudiabetes.com, was to be featured on The CBS Early Show on June 2nd. I knew I didn’t have anything going on that day, so I quickly made arrangements to go since they needed at least 50 audience members there to support the cause if The Early Show was going to mention it.

I left my house early in the afternoon on Monday to drive to the train station in Hamilton, NJ to catch a train to New York City, a routine with which I’ve become increasingly familiar since I’ve had occasion to go up there several times over the last few months. The train ride was uneventful, and I arrived at Penn Station shortly before 4PM. Katie, the organizer of the young women’s diabetes support group, was also planning to go to The Early Show to support the Global Handprint project, and had graciously agreed to let me crash on her sofa Monday night. She found me fiddling with my crackberry on 7th Ave., and because we had some time, we went to a diner down the street to get something to drink and chat.

Tina Makes a Damn Good Cake

She was feeling low so she got a strawberry smoothie that looked heavenly, and I was feeling a little chilly having skimped on layers in anticipation of a warmer day Tuesday, so I ordered raspberry-flavored hot tea. We talked about how the support group has evolved, the contacts she’s made, our respective families, how she likes living in New York, and various experiences we’ve had trying to further our shared causes – increased awareness and support for people with diabetes.

Brenda & Allison

After about 45 minutes, we settled the bill, gathered our stuff, and set out for the subway to meet up with her SO and go to their apartment in Queens. The evening plans involved several other diabetic women coming over, which was really cool. We ordered Thai food, and one of them, my friend, Tina, a former pastry chef, brought the most decadent chocolate torte for dessert. I had pork dumplings in peanut sauce for dinner so that wreaked some minor havoc on the otherwise decent numbers I’d had all afternoon, but luckily the torte was surprisingly low in carbs with nothing more than butter, eggs and dark chocolate in it. No sugar, no Splenda. I had to laugh because Tina scoffed at the very idea of using Splenda. You’d never know it was without sugar though because it was unreal. Seriously. Good. Cake.

The Scene at The CBS Early Show

The next morning, we were up and out the door shortly after 6:30AM. Katie had offered me a bowl of cereal, but I hadn’t really left myself enough time to eat, and Katie had gotten up a little later than she planned so she also went without breakfast. I had imagined we’d be on multiple buses and/or trains to get to the CBS studios, but as luck had it, there was a bus that stopped a few blocks from Katie’s place and dropped us off only a block from the studios, which were across the street from the Plaza Hotel and caddy-corner to Central Park.

Donkey & Three Blind Mice from Shrek

As we approached, we knew we were in the right spot because we could see big studio lights shining in the courtyard, and a group of people, many of whom were wearing blue t-shirts and hats. Once closer, I heard someone call my name, looked over, and saw Allison waving with Brenda at her side. We made our way through the crowd, exchanged greetings, and Katie was introduced. Then Katie and I went in search of t-shirts, hats and/or signs to hold. Soon enough, we met Helen from One Touch, who gave us each a t-shirt. With a choice of purple and blue, I like purple and chose that. She also gave us markers to write words on our hands. I really should have given more thought to what I wanted to write, but as we popped the caps off the markers, we heard that we had all of two minutes to get ourselves together. Katie went with “Support”, and I rather sloppily wrote “Creativity” since I think that’s an essential quality to managing diabetes.

Taunting Us with Frittatas

We rejoined Allison and Brenda, and spent most of the rest of the time being shuffled from one area to another, depending on where they needed a crowd, and mostly just talking to each other and to some other people. We were a little taken aback to see people in furry costumes, but someone said they were from the Broadway show, Shrek, which made sense. We ended up standing behind the area where they were going to a do a cooking segment, and since none of us had eaten, it was a little torturous watching them fuss with eggs and frittatas and deviled eggs, a personal favorite. The chef wasn’t so bad to look at either. Allison and I shared gripes about the people who were there promoting a movie, holding signs, wearing t-shirts, and trying to usurp camera time for a far less noble cause. Sometimes commercialism disgusts me.

Unfortunately, Allison had to get to work, so she ended up leaving right before the cooking segment when we finally got our chance to be on camera. Of course, I didn’t know if or how much we were actually on camera until later. Once the show ended, I checked twitter, and laughed that Cara said she had seen me and screamed.

People started to leave after that. I thanked Katie for her hospitality before she was on her way. Brenda and I went looking for a place to grab a bite just as it started to drizzle, and eventually found a Starbucks that wasn’t too crowded where we both got spinach-roasted pepper-egg wraps and fresh fruit cups. Afterwards, we made our way to the subway, during which time the sun appeared and it started to warm up quickly. We chatted, and then parted ways, her to Penn Station and me to SoHo to do some quick shopping.

Our Handprints

After shopping, I had time to grab a quick bite with Allison during her lunch hour before I needed to catch a train and beat the rush hour crowds. She suggested Cosi to which I’d never been. It was nothing fancy – sandwiches and salads – but I had the most fabulous roast beef sandwich I’ve had in ages, if not forever, and it’s now my goal to recreate it in some form. I don’t know about getting the same multi-grain flatbread/wrap, but it had a soy dressing with wasabi and sliced pickled ginger. We had a nice chat about the upcoming Roche Diabetes Media Summit, her boyfriend, Erik, summer plans, and the like before she had to get back to work and I needed to get myself back to Penn Station.

Once I was finally back home late yesterday afternoon, I was a little annoyed with myself for getting the purple t-shirt instead of the blue. The only size they had was XL which automatically meant I would be donating my shirt to Jason since I wear a medium. Besides the fact that it’s purple, he likes it, but I don’t think he’ll wear it outside the house which defeats the purpose of promoting the cause. In my defense though, it was 7:20AM when I made the choice about t-shirt color, and expecting me to think through such a big decison, especially on an empty tummy was a lot to ask. After giving him his souvenir t-shirt, we watched The CBS Early Show which I had TiVo’ed, and I saw myself, plus Katie and Brenda. You probably wouldn’t have noticed us unless you knew to look, and even then, we were in the background and it was pretty fast, but it was still cool to say, “Look, there I am!” – and all for a good cause.

In the event you had trouble with the link to donate to Dr. Ann Goebel-Fabbri’s research at Joslin, please revisit the post here, Race for Research.