Best....Day.....Ever!!!!

Okay....I know I have a lot to catch up on....the rest of Katie's visit. My seeing Harry Connick Jr., John Williams, and Goo Goo Dolls....but I'm going to take today and write about the best day ever!

As soon as ticket to the Ellen Degeneres show became available, I knew that I wanted to request tickets for me birthday, Sept 22. Since that was only the second week of the season, I also knew it was going to be hard to get them…..they would be in pretty high demand. Well, I submitted my request and a day or two later, someone from the Ellen show called me and told me that they have standby tickets for me. She said that we would be put in the audience only if people with guaranteed tickets did not show up. Otherwise, we would be put behind the audience, in the riff raff room to watch the taping and get two guaranteed tickets for another day. I thought ‘as long as I’m doing something concerning seeing Ellen on my birthday, I consider that a score! So I accepted that offer rather than figuring out another show to go to.

My birthday celebrations actually began the Saturday before my birthday. I had planned to go to an outdoor screening of Ferris Bueller. It was also a food festival and thought it would be a lot of fun. Well, considering people would have to meet at my place around 4 or 4:30 and it would last until roughly 11:00, not that many people could commit to giving up that much of their Saturday. I totally understood that and adjusted my plans. I just had a very laid back shin dig at my place that evening. I was so happy that a good many people could come and just hang out, drink, and chat (and play a very stirring game called 7’s….but that’s a story for another day).

So, the night before my birthday, I actually went out to a karaoke bar with my friend Elvia. I know her from work and it turns out we have the same birthdays and she was actually turning 21. It was tons of fun. We did a shot at midnight and sang songs and had a great time.

The next day, I woke up nice and early to go to the Ellen show. Just to let you know….this was a huge deal for me. Before I left for the big move here, the question would always arise…’what will you do when you first get to LA?’ I would avoid the awkward ‘get headshots’ or ‘find an apartment’ or any of that boring stuff to respond with and I would always answer with ‘I’m going to the Ellen show.’ So, actually going on my birthday was kind of a big deal.

My friend Laura, from work….not Laura from PA, was meeting me to come with me to the show. I was excited to take her because I really did want to bring someone that genuinely really wanted to go to the Ellen show. So, she always says that she invited herself because she jumped on the opportunity to go. But, I keep telling her that I threw out the open invite because I wanted someone to jump on that chance. I wanted to take someone that was as excited as I was.

Our original plan was to leave my apt by 9:00. LA traffic being what it is had to get in the way of that. We left here around 10ish instead. We checked in at the Ellen show, got our numbers and were told to report back by 1:30. I only live about 15 minutes from the studio, so we just went back to my place.

I came back to my apt with a box of goodies from my Mama and Dad waiting at my door. There were lots of fun things….mostly decorations to hang up and some books that I had been wanting them to ship over. Lots of notes of things that had been done for my birthday (renew my magazine subscription….stuff like that). It was so nice to see. I was hoping that we would hang around enough to receive what my sister had shipped me. She told me that it might not be good to sit out for too long so I really did was to get it in person. About 10 minutes before we had to leave, a delivery van pulled up to my building. A man with a box came to my door and gave it to me and said ‘Happy Birthday.’ Lindsey and Chris had sent me ½ a dozen gourmet cupcakes! I was officially in heaven. I opened up the box and got a fork and just sampled away. So good!!!

So went back and waited to hear if we had gotten in or not. There are 250 seats in the Ellen show. They told us that they had about 30 people that didn’t show up (crazy people). We were numbers 281 and 282!!!!! We were so close.

So, they took us into the riff raff room and it was nice there so I was still excited. But they still had us lined up in the order of our numbers until everything was situated inside. THEN, they said that they next two could come in. We made it. We walked up the steps and voila…..we were on the set of the show!!! They had split us up, but that was fine with me. They sat me about as center as you could get in the studio. The only problem for me was that a camera was right in front of where the guests would sit. I was okay with that.

On the show that day was Ed Helmes, Kelly Osborne, and a branch of Cirque du Soleil. I was very excited. Not 15 minutes after we get to our seats, Ellen came out. I mean, we were up and dancing and getting pumped up the whole time we were waiting, but it went really fast. I was two rows behind where she dances through the center aisle and you can tell that she tries to really look at everyone she can and she totally looked right at me while she was dancing!  The show as underway and it was so much fun. We got Season Six of the Office on DVD (Happy Birthday To Me). AND, during one of the commercial breaks, they had a little dance contest and I totally won. So, I got a free Ellen shirt (which I’m wearing right now…te he he).
After the show, we went to the Ellen store. My dear friend Laura bought me a mug as a birthday present!  I bought myself a magnet, piggy bank, and a tote bag. I really wanted a zip up hoodie (they were so soft), but it was $40 and I just couldn’t justify that. But, I left with my wonderful purchases and as the happiest girl on the planet!

But wait….there’s more! The day does end there. It was the best day of the life….and it was also one of the longest days of my life….te he he. I got home and one of Drea’s friends was visiting. Drea wasn’t back from work yet so I chatted with Katie (yes, another Katie visiting) for a bit and we decided that we needed to catch the sunlight and walk up Hollywood Blvd and look at the stars and we’d meet Drea at Grauman’s when she was done with work. We saw many stars and were on our way to Grauman’s when a huge crowd appeared and we saw the lights. I was so excited that this Katie also got to see a red carpet premiere during her visit too. Not only that….this was the red carpet premiere for You Again. We saw all of the stars. Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, Kristen Bell, Dax Shephard, Patrick Duffy, and of course….the one and only….Betty Freaking White. I saw Betty White on my birthday. How cool is that right???

After the excitement on Hollywood, my wonderful roommate took me out and bought me dinner. We went home and sampled some more cupcakes and then I went to another friends house for what was going to be a Macgyver marathon, but really ended up being a group of friends sitting around playing a fun movie trivia game. It last until about 1:00 or 1:30. I was exhausted, but so happy by the time I slipped into bed that night. It really had be the best day ever!