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@THISHOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA
Today's Weather; What's Worth Buying Tomorrow; Celebrating National Adoption Awareness Month
Aired November 27, 2014 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: At this hour, the Thanksgiving holiday storm that has made travel quite an ordeal for many people in the mid- east and Midwest seem to be moving out. Hopefully, that means airlines are getting caught up and folk are getting to be where they need to go. Thousands of flights were canceled or delayed stranding a lot of travelers at airports. For the more than 40 million people who took to the roadways, this is what they were met up in preparation for the turkey day travel. Some had to deal with the wintry mix of snow and slush. Add to that poor visibility and it was a mess out there. Today, the big question is, what about today.
Our team is on it. We have Chad Myers for the latest on how this storm is and how traffic looks this hour.
I want to start with Rosa Flores who is about an hour west of Boston.
It looks cool there but at least there's no snow coming down.
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, just in time for your show. We all of a sudden started getting flurries and the sun started peeking out. Imagine that. Here is the situation for people in the northeast. There are 10s of thousands of people still without power. Most of those in New Hampshire, here in Massachusetts, that number is about 29,000. Most of them are west of us, to the west part of the state because that's the area that saw the most snow. Here we got about 4 inches.
Take a look. It's pretty compact with the sun. It almost looks like there's diamonds in the snow. Let's take a look at the roads. These are the west bound lanes of I 90 headed to New York. Smooth sailing today. We know that was not the case yesterday. Police said the speed limit was dropped from 65 to 45 because of the treacherous road conditions. About 100 spin outs on the road and also dozens of car accidents also on these highways.
So the conditions have drastically changed. You can see right now, it's smooth sailing. People are not having trouble on the roads. So if you are the ultimate procrastinator, you have great road conditions right now. If you just woke up this morning and said this is Thanksgiving, I should go visit mom, you're going to do great.
PEREIRA: What a different scene from yesterday when it was really a mess. If I was a terrible person, I see that jacket as a hood I'd get to you drop and give me a snow angel but I won't because I care about you on this Thanksgiving.
I will move on to Chad Myers who has been watching the system.
Is it really on the outs now. The bigger question, as Rosa was saying, some people are trying to make the last minute plans to get on the road. How about the people trying to make the last minute flights today?
I can't hear him.
Apparently, we're playing a little game of mime there. We can't hear Chad, which is really a shame. I wanted to get a sense of what the airlines are saying.
I understand the airlines and airports aren't facing the delays today because the system has moved on. The best advice is to call the airline. Check online. Do one of those travel alerts you can have on your phone.
Let's go back really quickly to Rosa Flores.
I know the situation again, Rosa is Sunday. All of those travelers are then going to get back on the road and head back from grandma's house. Sounds like the weather will be a little bit more cooperative.
FLORES: You know, that's what we're expecting. The weather should be more cooperative from what we're hearing from state police, the tips and recommendations are still the same. You want to take plenty of time to get home. Make sure that you leave early. Make sure that you are traveling with your family. Have your cell phone with you is the other thing that they are telling us and also the other thing is make sure that your gas tank is at least half full.
That's why we've been seeing quite frankly a lot of people today stopping at this truck stop. We've seen lines of people getting gas here, Michaela, because, again, everybody heeding the warning. Making sure that their gas tank is full that they are their cell phone with them. One last thing, make sure that their family knows where you are and where you're going just in case of an emergency.
PEREIRA: That's actually really good advice. I can hear you've been talking to my mother. She likes to know when I'm on the road and when I've gotten back.
Chad Myers is back.
How is it looking out there? Is the weather moving on?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Now it's too good. I can actually hear myself. I will actually take this out for now and talk to you and put it back in when you can talk back to me.
Anyway, cool across the northeast but people are flying today. If you're a guy or a person with a buddy passport from Delta, you get to fly today. A lot of those seats are filled up with people who might have spent the night at the airport. Expect a couple of delays today. The snow up in Nova Scotia or extreme northern Maine. Otherwise we're over this. Decent weather for Friday into Saturday as well. The big story is what happens for your trip home on Sunday.
We talk about yesterday being a rallies really busy day. Sunday is busy. 28 in Chicago. 11 in Minneapolis. 38 in Chicago for today. It's cool but not completely frigid. We do get some rain. Some rain into southern California for I would say probably Sunday into Monday is when we really begin to see a significant rain event for even the bay area. I know it sounds like a lot but they'll take it.
PEREIRA: I was just about to say, Los Angeles, I see you and your 80 degrees today. I see that.
Chad Myers, we appreciate it.
Rosa Flores, thank you both for joining me on this Thanksgiving edition @THISHOUR. You take care. Have a happy Thanksgiving, you two.
Ahead @THISHOUR, are you going to get ahead of the crowds to get the good deals on Black Friday? We will see if we can get the skinny on what's worth buying tomorrow and what's worth waiting down the road. We will talk to Brett Larson, coming up.
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PEREIRA: So after you've had your fill of turkey and maybe before the football game are you going to hit the stores or will you be like me and avoid the plague. A new CNN/ORC poll shows most Americans would rather wait than shop. 12 percent plan to shop today while 22 percent plan to head out tomorrow. What should you be looking for and should you wait.
Brett Larson is here.
Because you're a shopaholic.
(CROSSTALK)
You're the expert. There's this thought, should I go today, should I go tomorrow?
BRETT LARSON, CNN TECHNOLOGY ANALYST: The thing you'll see today is a lot of deep discounts. Blue Ray players, it's not a new Blue Ray player. Is it really worth the time you have with your family and give up and wait in line with people pushing and shoving just to save $20.
PEREIRA: The new version is coming out in January.
LARSON: It's coming out in January.
PEREIRA: Tomorrow there could be good deals.
LARSON: Yes. IPads that you can get at Target and Best Buy are offering either gift cards with purchases or $100 off which is fantastic. I'm seeing a lot of cheap TVs.
(CROSSTALK)
LARSON: Think about it. This show looks amazing by the way on a 64 inch flat screen TV in high definition. TVs will be super cheap. The TVs you're going to get tomorrow are the good discounted TVs. It's the one. We need a new one in the living room. I don't care if it has four HTMI ports, you're going to save a lot of money.
PEREIRA: There's the whole Cyber Monday thing where you can sit at home with the click of a mouse and not have to do anything accept scan through a list.
LARSON: You could be in your pajamas.
PEREIRA: Look what happened when he did this.
LARSON: See. I have a Band-Aid on my finger from all of the scrolling.
PEREIRA: They expect Cyber Monday to be the strongest.
LARSON: Yeah. This year, especially, the reports show that almost 50 percent of us will be shopping on line this year versus last year. Many of us for the first time. I've got to say that it's scary if you haven't done it before. It is so much more convenient. If you're worried, what if it doesn't fit, the return process pretty great.
PEREIRA: It's pretty great.
LARSON: Yeah.
PEREIRA: Here is the thing. We all panic because we see our shopping lists get bigger for the holidays, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. There are things you'll see deeper discounts on as the holidays progress.
LARSON: Right, as we get closer to the end of the year, things will get cheaper. If you wait toward the end of 2015, things will get really cheap. Retailers got to clear out everything.
(CROSSTALK)
LARSON: We should move Christmas to the fifth of January. That would make it a lot easier for us who like to save money.
PEREIRA: New cell phones and gadgets and things like that.
LARSON: Exactly.
PEREIRA: One last thing you were telling me about. He found this really cool thing. This holiday app. It's time for Turkey.
LARSON: Time for Turkeys, you plug in how much your turkey weighs and it tells you how long to cook it and builds a play list for exactly that length. So if you've got to cook that bird for 4.5 minutes, you've got to cook the bird for 4.5 minutes.
PEREIRA: Music in my house makes me happier.
LARSON: Yeah. When the music ends, bird is done. Bird is the word.
(LAUGHTER)
PEREIRA: Brett Larson, I love you. Good to have you here. We will see you tomorrow. You will tell us about some cyber deals.
LARSON: Yeah.
PEREIRA: With today being Thanksgiving and November being National Adoption Awareness Month, a reminder that blood isn't the only tie that binds. Ahead, you will meet two extraordinary women. And there's a connection to me. You will find out after the break.
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PEREIRA: On this Thanksgiving Day, we certainly all have a lot to be thankful, right? Me, included. My family is kind of special. I was adopted. All of the children in my family, all five of us, are adopted. There's me and my older sister, Darlene. Although I was always loved and cherished by my parents, I found myself wondering if the birth mother ever thought about me.
I started out on a journey where I not only found out who my birth mother was, but I found a sister as well. Last week -- there she is, look at that, isn't she cute? -- I had a chance to talk to my mother, Ainslie, and sister, Marnie, about that experience. We thought we would like to share that conversation we had with you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARNIE, MICHAELA'S BIRTH SISTER: She passed away in 1999 and we -- you first started your search and we found each other and found out that we had each other in 2000, so unfortunately she had passed away at that time.
PEREIRA: I know she's watching down on both of us now.
MARNIE: She sure is.
PEREIRA: Mom, it's interesting, that journey wasn't the necessarily the easiest thing to do. It was hard when I had to broach the subject of wanting to search for my birth family, but we made it through and I'm proud to say that you and I and dad, we did it together?
AINSLIE, MICHAELA'S ADOPTIVE MOTHER: Well that's true. That's the way we've always done everything. Together.
PEREIRA: It's so true. Together. Exactly. And the fact that we're doing national television together, I can't say that, it will freak both of you out.
I want to talk about the reaction people have had. One of my favorite stories when we moved to a new community, we went to a brand new church and one of those people that are sometimes nosier than their own good saw the seven of us file in and looked and said to you, oh, that's sort of -- in a judgy way, that's interesting. Tell me how that works. Mom, tell the people how you responded.
AINSLIE: Well, I know it embarrassed you, sweetie, and I'm sorry, but I looked at them and said, they all have different fathers!
(LAUGHTER)
PEREIRA: Marnie, you can imagine how mortifying that would have been when I was 15.
(LAUGHTER)
I look back on and grin at my mom she would say something like that. I think it helped us all that you guys have had such a great dose of humor. Marnie for you, this adoption thing is pretty new.
MARNIE: It is. And clearly we don't look like twins, so sometimes --
(CROSSTALK)
PEREIRA: Come on.
MARNIE: Sometimes explaining we're sisters is, you know, it's -- it seems like it's a big pill for some people to swallow and other people don't flinch and roll with it which is awesome.
PEREIRA: Yeah. I agree.
It's so interesting, mom, we talk a lot in our family about our broad definition of family. I really credit you and dad with that.
AINSLIE: Well, yes. That is what family is. It's to the just DNA. Many people who share common DNA don't share family. And we can get together from many different spots and melt together and become family and include the DNA family also, which is special.
PEREIRA: It is special. And now you a blonde daughter, too, in Marnie.
(LAUGHTER)
AINSLIE: Yes. And a redhead in California and --.
PEREIRA: Yes. Exactly. The family grows and grows. It's really interesting, the whole tip -- for the folks at home, when CNN.com asked me to write this piece to tell the broader picture of our family's story of adoption, I suggested that we not just do my story, but incorporate the point of view of mom, as an adoptive mom, and of Marnie, a girl that found out she had a big sister as an adult. She found this out as an adult.
It was so beautiful to do this together with the both of you. I'm curious what each of you came away with. Marnie, what did you find you learned or discovered about yourself in
the process of writing this?
MARNIE: I think I took for granted that I had just dealt with my mom's death and that everything just happened, so this allowed me to really sit back and take a moment and reflect on everything that's gone on in the past 15 years and in doing so, kind of made me feel a little better about some things. So it was rewarding, it was difficult at times, but I think it turned out amazing and I'm happy we did it together.
PEREIRA: I see this picture of our mom, Dale, who passed away before I could meet her, you had the pleasure of growing up with this tremendous woman and you're always telling me how much I look like her. I don't always see it but that prom picture I see it.
Mom, this has been a trip for you too because you and I have a wonderful bond and I'm so grateful to you that you have opened your heart to this process. I'm curious what you have learned or gleaned from this experience of kind of living it out loud?
AINSLIE: Well, back in the day, adoption was only seen as a second choice for infer tile people and we were sort of trailblazers in that time.
PEREIRA: You were.
AINSLIE: Because that was not our journey, but to choose children who were falling through the cracks, children who -- every time they sat down to play with their little toys, somebody walked in, took a boy and stuck him in some other family. Six, seven times, teaching children to not to trust and to decide as adults that they are going to be in control of their life, that no one is going to do this to them again.
It was such a privilege to watch the different girls. Now there are seven and more.
PEREIRA: And more.
AINSLIE: And their biological sisters.
PEREIRA: Exactly.
AINSLIE: Sisters and brothers, also call me. I got a note to Mama Ainslie from Saskatchewan. She was one of my special ones.
PEREIRA: Yep. That's right.
AINSLIE: It's such a privilege, more than a responsibility.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PEREIRA: A privilege indeed.
Thank you to all of you who have reached out to tell me your adoption stories. Please keep them coming. And as a side note looking to start or expand a family consider adopting. We're not half bad after all.
All right. One last note to pass on to you. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been released from hospital following emergency open heart surgery. We, of course, wish her well and a speedy recovery.
And we, and our team @THISHOUR, our crew in Atlanta or there in Atlanta and here in New York, we want to wish you and yours a very happy and safe Thanksgiving. Stay warm, stay happy.
And "LEGAL VIEW," with Pamela Brown today, will start after a quick break.
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