The Ambitious Odometer: June 2026

Much like for the concert on Friday, but also not much like that (LOL!), the girls and I had a bird's eye view of the set up on the plaza (and more importantly, if anyone was getting in line)!

This hotel room was literally perfect, and it turns out that L and I do approve of the beds that we didn't get to sleep in last time (well, I did get a bit of a nap last time, but L got nothing)!

We started to see some people lining up, and I went on down to get in line with the girls joining me shortly. We ended up being about 10th in line, and it was a light crowd...

Sooo, we were asked to do a shout out yet again. The shout outs air at 8:00am each day, and a producer usually identifies you in the crowd, has a quick conversation with you, and then tells you what to say before pre-filming the segment to then air at 8:00am. I was fully prepared to tell them we'd just had a shout out on Friday (that was way more impressive as there were a bajillion people there for the concert), but the crowd was so light, they went ahead and recorded shout outs from everyone!

It was fun! We had a Girls Trip sign that M had made, and I had a special Pub Day sign representing my book club (that M also made).

Jenna Bush Hager launched a new publishing imprint called Thousand Voices Media last fall, and my book club generally receives ARCs (advance readers copies) of each of those books. So, today was the Pub Day (Publication Day) for the latest book from Thousand Voices Media - LITTLE WONDER by Sophie Chen Keller. I had the ARC with me to return and was planning to give it to Jenna's people to give to Sophie later today (the Thousand Voices authors always appear on TODAY with Jenna & Sheinelle on Pub Day). Again (some back story here), the head of my book club is in touch with Jenna's people fairly regularly as she has a role with the Read with Jenna Facebook community and is the contact for the ARCs we receive. Long story, short, Jenna is familiar with our book club and that we read the ARCs, tab them, notate them, love on them, etc., and in the end, return them to the authors as a gift. Jenna was in Charleston with her first Thousand Voices Media author, Ariel Sullivan, when we returned CONFORM back in November...

Sooo, back to today... While they don't know me, they are familiar with the group I'm a part of and know what we do... This is when things went wild (in a book lover's world)!

Jenna noticed my sign, LOVED that I had the ARC, and was flipping through it with her assistant filming, which was caught on TV...

We got pics with Jenna...

and gave the ARC to her assistant to give to the author during the show later that morning...

Then, things got wild (again, in a book lover's world)!

Like less than two minutes later, Jenna's assistant comes back over with the ARC and asks me what we're doing later this morning, if we have any plans. I'm like...no, we don't have a single plan. We're totally free...LOL... Long story, short...I know I keep saying that, and this is turning into a pretty long story, but I digress... The assistant tells me to keep the ARC and meet her back on the plaza at 10:15. She texts me her number and says to let her know when we're back. So, okay... At this point, I figure she's going to arrange for me to see the author as she's leaving after filming her segment for the show. Fabulous! So, we grab some breakfast, go back to the room to rest a bit (I'd already asked for a later check out ~ perfect!) and freshen up, and then we make our way back down to the plaza shortly after 10:00am.

It's a little nutty trying to convince the guy at the door that we're supposed to be meeting Jenna's assistant here, but I was able to show him the text. We get down to security, and the guy in charge there is not buying this. He's like, "What? You have a book? You just want me to give her the book?" I'm like, "No, I think I'm supposed to come with the book", but I wasn't really sure, honestly, because I thought I'd be meeting up with her outside on the plaza, not inside and going through security...LOL!

I also realize I'm LOLing a lot on here, but I can't make this stuff up. It is my life... LOL!

So, the assistant finally meets up with us at the security area and takes us in. I still don't know where we're going, but end up in what I can only guess is like the green room area. The author is there, and I'm able to return the ARC to her in person!

But, the fun doesn't end there... The assistant has us follow her and gives us a little tour of the news area telling us we can take pictures of whatever...

and we end up ON THE SET!

Like, Jenna and Sheinelle are interviewing Rashida Jones and her writing partner, Will McCormack about an upcoming movie, and the assistant is telling us we can take whatever photos we want, so I'm like...don't mind if I do...LOL (there it is again)!

Next, they moved on to another segment...

before cutting to a teaser that Sophie was coming up next!

We got to watch the entire segment from inside the studio...

and then got to get a pic with both Sophie and Jenna!

Like, are you kidding me??? What a dream!

Once the whole experience was over, L looked at me and said, "Mom, never have I been so happy about how much you love to read!" HA!

What a day we'd had, and it wasn't even lunchtime yet!

Afterwards, we headed back to our hotel, checked out, had them hold our bags, and set off on our next adventure...

Unlike Live with Kelly & Mark (and apparently TODAY with Jenna & Sheinelle), The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon has a VERY strict NO PHOTOS policy, so we took a few in the lounge before...

and one more in line...

We all three absolutely LOVED seeing the show live! Grabbed a (very blurry) little clip of Jimmy running out high fiving everyone at the very end to prove we were there (about five rows up from the floor to Jimmy's left). You can kind of, sort of see L in orange if you know where to look...

She said he had the softest hands ever and wants to know what moisturizer he uses...LOL! We had a ball!

But, the day wasn't over just yet... I had heard that Reese's Book Club was holding the first of a series of live book events this summer called STORYfest at Hudson Yards, so we booked it over that way for the cherry on top of a perfect sundae of a day!