Yesterday at around 6PM, I got an email from Brittany Jones Cooper, an assistant to Katie Couric, who asked if I would be willing to live blog on the Katie Couric Show. I was, of course, happy to do it and intrigued. She sent me a list of guidelines about what I should wear.

Recommended: Solid Bright Attire & Dressy shoes. Katie LOVES bright colors and will be happy to see our audience dressed to impress in colorful tops/attire.  The camera picks up bright colors best, so please try to plan your outfit accordingly.

Honestly, I think that was the only obstacle to my being on the show. I don’t own any bright colored clothes. I looked in my closet and found two suit jackets that weren’t black.

This morning, I got up early, dressed and headed out to beat the Post-Sandy rush hour not knowing what to expect. The 3-Train at Grand Army Plaza was crowded but it was running and it got me to the Upper West Side quickly.

On my way to ABC on West 66th Street, I stopped at a Gap and bought a bright red sweater and a blue scarf. The irony that I was buying a new sweater in the context of Sandy was not lost on me. That’s how seriously I took Brittany’s guidelines. Once at ABC, Brittany escorted me into the Green Room. She was wearing gray.

Brittany explained that I would be sitting in the front row with my laptop on my lap and that I was invited to write whatever I wanted. There were absolutely no guidelines about what I could or couldn’t blog or tweet. Sky’s the limit. They did ask me to use the hashtag “Day of Giving,” which is what they’re calling today at ABC (and their parent company Disney).

I must say, I was struck by the fact that the day before a major election, I was going on national television show devoted to a terrible storm. There was no mention of the election at all.

I learned that Steve Buscemi and Jon Bon Jovi were going to be guests on that show, as well as a Staten Island family that tragically lost two loved ones during the storm and another family that was stranded in their house on Staten Island.

It was a relief to hear that I wasn’t going to be interviewed or introduced by Katie as in: “Let’s have a round of applause for the blogger from Brooklyn…”

At 10:30, I was brought to my seat in the first row of the studio audience. Indeed, many members of the audience were wearing brightly colored sweaters and blouses. Pink. Blue. Orange. Purple. The tasteful set consists of nice white couches, martini tables and small vases of flowers.

Katie, who is beautiful and graceful in person, came out and explained to the audience that it was going to be a somber show. She’s not nearly as perky in person as she used to be. Two years doing the CBS News definitely got that out of her system.  She comes across as very smart, genuine and down to earth. Everything she says is believable, even when she’s reading the teleprompter.

Standing on the stage wearing a fitted grey dress and very black spike heels, Katie prepared the audience for what they were going to see and hear. “This is a difficult show,” she said. And then the show began with a video clip about the devastation on Staten Island…

TO BE CONTINUED