SLICE 7/31- OPRAH AND ME

Our original seats, Section 324

8 a.m. My friend, Kathy, and I huffed and puffed our way up the stairs to Section 324, Row 13 of the Pepsi Center.

Oprah! No matter that we were half a block from the stage and would probably spend most of the day watching the jumbotron. We were going to see Oprah! We had bought tickets more than a month ago and finally, the big day had arrived.

We hadn't been sitting in our seats in Row 324 for more than five minutes when an usher approached.

"Would you like to move closer to the stage?" she asked. "Oprah has just released some tickets and they are much closer to the stage."

"How much would it cost?" I asked. The seats we currently had, even as high as they were, had already cost more than $200 apiece.

"Nothing," she said. "The seats are empty. You can just take these tickets and move down there."

Kathy and I just looked at each other. We had the opportunity to move from seats that were about ten rows from the top of the theater to seats that were about ten rows from the stage? A day doesn't start out much better than that!

And only got better!

Oprah walking the audience through a vision setting exercise.

Julianne Hough leading an exercise session.

Grammy award winning rapper Common performing spoken word poetry.

Gospel singer Tamela Mann.

Oprah interviewing Gayle King, her best friend for more than 40 years.

The day ended with Oprah sharing her own life story.

My heart is full.