One Crazy Night

Dear Viewers,

We had expected to see lots of celebrities in the room but only saw Gary Busey, Mimi Rogers and Rob Lowe (search) and his wife, Sheryl Berkoff. I love Sheryl. My make up artist wanted her picture with Rob Lowe in the midst of absolute crowd chaos and I asked Sheryl to help me get the photo. She made it happen and she sure did not have to do so. I did not know her and she was willing to go out of her way -- and it really was not easy because crowds were pushing.  While many are Rob Lowe fans, I am a huge fan of his wife.

As you might imagine, since liquor was served in the room, some 'misbehaved.’ Some guy came up to me and insisted he is related to me. He said his grandmother was my grandmother's sister. Unfortunately, he had all the facts wrong. I tried to be polite but it was a bit hard under the circumstances. There are always a few in a crowd who have that drink too many... unfortunately, he 'found' me in the crowd.

I ran into many former colleagues from CNN. I saw Tucker Carlson (search) about to be interviewed by a local network and I stepped in and asked him for his home phone number. If you follow the cable wars, you will know there was a battle between Tucker and Fox. He gave out our switchboard number on CNN's air and FOX, in retaliation, put his phone number up on the Web site. Of course he got flooded with calls -- just as FOX had when he gave out the FOX number. Tucker got very mad about FOX retaliating but laughed about it last night with me. I think he has 'buried the hatchet' over the feud.

I am headed back to D.C. today. If I slur my words on the air tonight, it is sleep deprivation...not alcohol.

Greta

While sleep deprivation is a recurring theme for me, I confess that I would not have missed the chance to do two live shows from Governor-elect Schwarzennegger's headquarters Tuesday night -- actually, because of the time, I should say 'Wednesday morning.'

Our second show was at 1 a.m. ET. Many people say 'timing' is everything in life and well, our show had great 'timing.' Our first show was the lead up to the polls closing and during our second, the governor-elect came out and 'accepted' the vote.

The room was, to be blunt, crazy. We did our show in space allocated to us -- three feet. I am not joking. Some news organizations had even less space allocated. We stood on risers and if you turned your body to look at the stage where the governor-elect was to speak -- and did -- you necessarily bumped into someone from another news organization. Adding to my situation, I had to stand on a box because of my height -- yes, I am short.

The noise level from the governor-elect's supporters was so loud that I had my audio earpiece in my right ear so I could hear my guests, but had to put cotton in my left so that I could hear the show and thus do my job. The alternative was to put a headset on but that is cumbersome and not easy to work with.

As you might imagine, security was tight. I was told if I left the room between shows, I could not get in. I also heard -- but not sure it is true -- that one group of people from another news organization did leave and could not get back in. I did not "need" to get locked out between shows... somehow the thought of 'calling in' the show from my cell phone out in the street was not high on my list.

Greta

Watch On the Record with Greta Van Susteren weeknights at 10 p.m. ET