Thanks For the Memories, Conando.

For the past 7 months, our mornings have been filled with laughter. Sometimes hysterical laughter. Because for the past 7 months, Conan O’Brien has been a part of our morning routine.
Every morning, before they eat breakfast, my boys turn the television on to watch The Tonight Show from the night before. They love Conan. I’ve always been proud of the fact that they “get” his sense of humor. They watch it without fail. I learned the hard way just how deep my boys love of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien runs.
I accidentally deleted the his Very First Show from the DVR.
The anger! HOW COULD I HAVE? WHAT WAS I THINKING? I RUIN EVERYTHING!
When news first broke that Conan might be leaving the Tonight Show, my boys were in disbelief. “Why would they want to get rid of Conan? They wouldn’t really do that, would they Mom?”
And every day, when they’d come home from school, they would ask if I had read any updates.
When Conan made the decision that he would not do the show if it was moved to 12:05 (a decision I totally agree with, by the way.) we all knew it was over for Conan. But my boys? They held out hope. Especially The Middle Child. He didn’t want to believe that it would really happen. He couldn’t imagine a morning without Conan and Andy.
Through all of the Drama surrounding The Tonight Show, I discovered the I’m With CoCo group on Facebook. Of course I joined it, because we’re ALL TEAM CONAN up in this house. Shortly after I joined they announced there would be a rally in support of Conan at Universal on Monday.
I told my boys about it, asked if they wanted to go.
HECK YES, they did.
The morning of the event, it was raining. Not just raining, it was pouring.
The teenager had changed his mind He didn’t want to go after all. It wasn’t so much because of the rain as it was the lure of his warm bed and texting messages to Not His Girlfriend.
“There’s a chance Conan will show up, you know.” I said.
That was all I had to say.
At 10am, the entire family loaded into The Van and headed to Target to get umbrellas, then it was off to Universal Studios to show our support for our Wonderfully Hilarious and Nerdy Conan.
When we arrived, there were two groups of people standing in the pouring rain on Lankershim. They were holding signs as passing cars honked their horns in solidarity.
Before we could join the excited, loyal Conan fans, we had to find a restroom so I didn’t pee myself. NOT THAT ANYONE WOULD HAVE NOTICED. Can you say Torrential Downpour? We found a Carls Jr near by, I ran out, jumped over Parking Lot Rivers and peed as quickly as I could because MUST JOIN FELLOW LOVERS OF CONAN. NOW!
By the time we returned from my pee break, the size of the crowd had grown substantially.
I can’t express to you how awful the rain was. It was pouring. To make matters worse, the wind was blowing hard, threatening to destroy our newly purchased umbrellas. That didn’t stop us. We crossed the street [little voice]While chanting “Conan! Conan!”[/little voice] and joined the others.
It was kind of magical.
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I know some of you are thinking “Magical? REALLY?”
Or maybe you’re saying “THERE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS IN THE WORLD TO SUPPORT!”
Obviously, yes.
Obviously, there is heartache and REAL suffering in the world.
Standing in the rain to support a millionaire receiving millions of dollars in exchange for leaving a television show is a waste of time!
But here’s the thing. Distractions like these are good for the soul. By attending this rally, no one was saying “THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD!” In fact, we all recognized there were bigger, real problems in the world. The organizers of the event asked that we bring cash to donate to the Red Cross for Haiti relief.
So, while I understand why some are disgusted that people stood in the rain for A MILLIONAIRE, I don’t regret attending. It felt right to come together publicly and declare our love and support for someone who has entertained us, who has made us laugh, who gave to us THE MASTURBATING BEAR, Y’all.
The only thing that I regret is leaving too soon. (Bringing a 5 year old was a bad mistake. But she wanted to go! She loves her some “Coded” O’Brien!) After we left, there was an appearance by Conan himself and I heard it was pretty amazing. (I also heard he bought everyone pizza. He really is the best.)
We had to leave after only being there for an hour. I wasn’t ready to go, but you can only keep children in the pouring rain for so long before you start to feel like a bad parent. As we crossed the street and headed back to the car in the pouring rain, I held my fist up in the air and shouted “We love Conan!” one last time.
It was awesome.
By the time we got to the car, we were soaked from head to toe.
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Let me tell you, there is NOTHING fun about wet jeans. Nothing at all. But being a part of that event was worth it. It was one of the best memories I’ve ever made with my husband and children, something we will never forget and I actually feel proud to have been a part of.

I don’t feel sorry for Conan. I know he’ll be fine and that whatever he does next will be wildly successful, but come Monday morning, there will be a little less joy in this house and that is why I’m feeling so very Sad Face about this.
I hope you’re going to watch his show tonight. I imagine it’s going to be incredible.
#imwithcoco

19 thoughts on “Thanks For the Memories, Conando.

  1. Susan

    This is the kind of thing that makes you the best.mom.ever. And it cracks me up to read about someone who has to go buy an umbrella when it rains. We have plenty of it here! (Though you’re getting way too much of it and for that, I’m sorry and keeping you in my prayers). I’m way more sarcastic than this – I just thought this was freakin’ awesome!

  2. Erin (Snarke)

    I’m on team CoCo too. I hope that the Fox late night rumors are true and that we can have more CoCo and one of the networks that gave him his start (he used to write for the Simpsons but I bet you already knew that)!

  3. Jessica

    Team Coco all the way!
    We were going to head out to the rally downtown, but my son was sick. Too bad. I really wanted to shape his mess of hair into the trademark Conan hairdo.

  4. statia

    Seriously. Whose to say what’s right or wrong? Seriously. I mean, honestly, unless it was hurting people, who the fuck cares? You have a family memory. You went and showed support for something you all believe in. I just don’t get that mentality.
    I wasn’t really interested in the whole Conan/Leno thing. But that doesn’t mean that I should hate on people who went to show support for Conan, over, say, flying to Haiti and helping people out there. Or being a missionary, or for hating bananas.

  5. Lee

    Good for you!!! This is something that your boys will remember forever. One of my favorite childhood memories is driving around with my parents after the Phillies won the World Series in the 80’s. The let me sit between them in the front seat and honk the horn in celebration. I was up way too late and probably cranky the next day, but that’s not what I remember. I remember the great time had with my parents.

  6. Julie

    I don’t watch Conan or Leno. When I can stay up that late, I am a Letterman girl. But you in that last picture? Sex-Ay!! You look so good!

  7. Jessalee

    This is pure awesomeness!
    Also, how fantastical was his last show? I got all choked up when HE got all choked up. Such a class act, that dude!

  8. Roxanna

    You are FANTASTIC!! I love that you guys went! I think it’s wonderful to create the memory, give alittle love to Coco and generally be part of something that was really just a “feel good”.
    I couldn’t agree with you more about being part of something frivolous – we all need a little more frivolity in my opinion.
    I’m just bitter that I wasn’t there!
    And that last pic? Coco would totally give you the purr and kitty paws.

  9. Cristin

    You know, it was something you all did together and had FUN. And that is what matters.
    I wish I lived somewhere exciting!
    PS. You look great even sopping wet!

  10. coco

    I am so glad you went too Y. I do love a protest of any kind. And a protest supporting an entertainer? I am all about that. It obviously meant a lot to Conan, and your boys will always remember, for sure. You are a great fun mom. (And I could see your weight loss in the pictures.)

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