My Single Mom Life

As I posted Tuesday morning, I was watching the Today show, saw Joanne sitting on the couch with these 2 guys, and my heart began to race because it was titled "Long lost siblings reunite", and I was sitting here talking to myself, I just kept saying over and over watching the story of Gary and Randy finding out they were brothers, "That's Joanne sitting with them, she's my sister, why is she there? She looks like them too, what the hell is happening right now?!"
I kept watching, they got to her story, "Yup, she's their sister, oh man, this is going to turn out, this is going to be my family".
Meredith asked right at the very end of the segment, about another sibling, a sister, and Joanne said it, she said "Yes, there's another sister, she was born Claire Marie, she would be 39 or 40", and I started screaming "That's me! That's me!"
My sons came running from the other room, asked me what was going on, I told them, I pointed to the tv, they were still showing clips as they went to commercials, I told my sons, "That's Joanne, Gary and Randy, they are all brothers and sister, they said my name, Claire Marie, they are looking for me!"

Both Mark and Sebastian told me to hurry up and call NBC, I searched all over the Today show site and MSNBC site, for phone numbers, Mark searched on his computer in the other room, I found a bunch of numbers and started dialing.
None of those phones were being answered, so I called 411, they gave me 2 numbers, so I called the 1st one, the person who answered said I had to call back at 9:30am when the office opens, so I called the next number and when the girl answered, I yelled "Don't fucking hang up! Do not tell me to call back at 9:30! I am the missing sister, Claire Marie, from the last segment! Please!!! Patch me through to somebody, anybody who can get them a message before they leave the studio, I saw, I'm here, give them my name and number please!" I begged into the phone.
I was asked to calm down and hold, so I held, nervously pacing the house, I just wanted them to give Joanne my name and number, to let her know I saw, that I am ok, to call me, that's all I wanted

Katie, a totally awesome super amazing girl at NBC, came on the line, she asked me what my last name was at birth, I told her "My full name was Claire Marie Ogden, I know Joanne, we went to school together, tell her if she hasn't left, tell her the name Kathleen Gilligan, she will know who I am, tell her please, she knows me, she knows me."
I was asked to hold again so I did, even more nervous now, starting to shake and cry, she really IS my sister, I have brothers, I have brothers.
Katie came back on, she said that as soon as she told Joanne my name, Joanne started to cry and said she always knew, then Katie asked me if she could call me right back, she promised to call right back, I said ok, hung up and started to cry.

When Lexi, another super totally awesome girl at NBC called me back, she asked me if I could get to New York today, I said no, I just don't have the money, maybe if I had a month's notice I could, but not today.
Lexi said that NBC would take care of everything, transportation to the airport, hotel, everything, could I go, bring my family, I said well yeah, if NBC can actually do that, yeah.
She said they could, and she'd call me right back, in like 10 minutes, so I said ok, started crying again, and called my parents to tell them the news.
They were so happy for me, when I told them it was Joanne, they said they always knew that too.
As I was talking to them, a call beeped in, I told them I had to go, switched over, it was Lexi again, she said that she was going to get my sister and brothers to stay another night, fly me out and do a follow up in the morning, and then it was a completely chaotic whirlwind from there on for the rest of the day, call after call, making the travel plans, Mark wasn't going to go, he doesn't fly well, he wanted to stay and take care of the cats, and he didn't want to go meet his new aunt and uncles, have an hour with them, and then not see them again for awhile, it's just so hard to come up with the money to fly to Maine where they all live, where all my family and GreatGram still live.
I respected that, but Sebastian wanted to go, he'd always wanted to see New York since he was little anyway, so tickets were set up for us, a car was coming at 3:30, hotel, everything was being setup and it would be emailed to me.
By this time it was noon, I hadn't packed yet, taken a shower, nothing, and then I learned the local NBC news team would be here to do a promo piece on me, the before the live segment stuff, and they'd be here at 2pm.
That's the 2nd time that news guy has been to my house, and he always does extreme close ups.
So John, thanks for not listening to me when I told you to NOT do the extreme close up stuff.
My face was red and puffy from crying all morning, my hair was still wet from just getting out of the shower, I looked like hell and now the entire country was going to see it. ha ha
Just as the local news crew was finishing packing up their van, the limo pulled in.
Yes, limousine service from Sarasota to the Tampa airport. Crazy!
I had packed everything right before my shower so we were ok to go, I threw my flip flops on, and we left.

The morning really was just a crazy and hectic time, NBC needed pics of me little, and they needed either my original birth certificate or adoption records, my Mom in Maine had those, so NBC asked if my Mom could fax it.
Um, no.
So my best friend Shell in Maine, who had now heard about it on the local radio, called me and was all "Did I hear that right?! Your brothers and sister?!", I said yes, and I asked her to go to Mom and Dad's house, get the adoption records and fax them to NBC.
She said yes and she did.
The whole ride and flight was just utter disbelief.
Sebastian and I just kept repeating it, "We're going to New York city, we're going to meet family, this is crazy!"
The plane ride was ok on me, we flew JetBlue, which I highly recommend, and it wasn't too bad on me pain wise.
I did warn the airport screeners that I beep, titanium implants, handed them my medical card that explains it, and amazingly I didn't beep.
JetBlue has extra leg room so even when you recline the seat-back, there's still a lot of room for whoever is sitting behind you, so at least I was able to recline the whole flight.
We got in around 10pm, NBC had gotten us a wicked nice (Holy biggest hotel room I have ever seen in my life!) room at the Doubletree Suites right in Time Square, and had also given us room service money so we could eat.
That was awesome because neither of us had eaten anything the entire day, it was crazy chaos all day until we left for the airport, so Sebastian and I ordered some room service and while we waited for the food, we investigated the room.
It was actually a suite, it has a living room, couch, a couple of chairs, a desk, the bedroom has 2 HUGE double beds with a gazillion pillows, and walking out the front door, you are right smack in Times Square.
I have never actually seen a mini-bar in a hotel room, only in movies, and I've never stayed at hotels that have them, so I just had to open it, and I just had to touch something in it.
Well, even touching something in the mini-bar means you just bought it, they are motion activated, so I ended up with a $2.50 Toblerone. LMAO!
Then our food arrived, and it was amazing!
Seeing as we were only going to be there 1 night and NBC had given us $200 for room service, Sebastian decided to live like a king and ordered the rack of lamb with mashed potatoes, and steamed asparagus, and I just ordered a chicken club.
I really couldn't decide from the 12 page in-room dining service menu, so I just ordered something simple, and we had a couple of $8 Cokes. (Diet for me)
After we ate, we were still nervously wide awake, so we went out to see Times Square.
We walked up and down a few blocks, took a bunch of pics which I will post later, and then we went back to the hotel and tried to get some sleep around 1am.
5:30am the alarm went off, I showered and dressed, then Sebastian, and then we went down to meet the car to take us to the NBC studios at 6:30am.

Part 2 coming up next.