After a great night at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, we ended our first week of the Stop Global Warming College Tour with an uncontrollable giggle fit ten minutes before going live on Real Time with Bill Maher. And, when we say uncontrollable, we're not kidding. We're talking tears, running mascara, and hyperventilating. To the great relief of the entire crew, who were sweating bullets, we got it together just as the red light went on. Incidentally, the four stages of a giggle fit are as follows: an innocent chuckle, snowballing into hilarity, spiraling into an all-out panic, and resulting in a "deer in headlight" fear that we weren't going to pull it together in time. On that note, we split up for the weekend. Suffice it to say, Laurie and I went through withdrawals. Thank God for blackberries.
During our time away from the tour, Laurie spent her one day off in a rare extreme Nor'easter that devastated the east coast with rain and flooding, while Sheryl spent her one day off in a snow storm in Nashville. Ahem...ahem. It took us all of three seconds to reconnect Monday morning at the University of Florida at Gainesville.... so much so, that we picked up exactly where we left off. Giggling, to the frustration of the very patient Today Show producer who had to keep saying "cut."
Today was one of those days when we were filled with hope that the message was clear that the issue of global warming was not a political one! This was hammered home when the Republican Governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, went out of his way to participate in our press conference, as well as to attend the event. This governor has talked more about global warming in his first 100 days in office, than the former governor did in his eight years in office. Florida finds itself in the middle of two volatile coal fights, the main one of concern being one of the largest coal plants proposed in the United States, the aforementioned being located right next to the Everglades. How insane is that? After playing for an enthusiastic audience of 2,500 Floridian students, it was more than evident that there is near unanimous opposition to new coal plants in the state of Florida. And, since the Governor was sitting front and center, he heard the crowd's message loud and clear.
Another great day on the Stop Global Warming College Tour...let the giggling continue.
Laurie and Sheryl