Living my Ellen dream... sort of

I am a big fan of Ellen DeGeneres. Huge. I love The Ellen DeGeneres Show. If anyone can can keep my attention for a solid hour, it's Ellen. Well... and maybe Sarah Jessica Parker in pretty much any role she plays (SATC re-runs, anyone??). She has really great hair. And style. But that's not the point.

The point is that I've been dreaming about being on The Ellen Show for years, the last of which I've had to spend watching Ellen give away prizes and packages in every possible city and town except for mine. One way Ellen connects with her fans and gives away cool prizes is by events called Twitter Challenges. For those of you who are not on Twitter and therefore don't follow the Ellen Show(because I know that if you are on Twitter you of course are already following her), I will explain how Ellen's Twitter Challenges work. 

(I just got side-tracked from writing for the past 30 minutes... I was watching video clips of the Ellen Show. Seriously. But now I'm back.)

Every so often Ellen tweets to her followers in a specific geographical area. She hints that later that day an event will be going on and encourages you to get there at a certain time for a surprise giveaway. Then, when it gets closer to the mentioned time, she'll add a requirement (i.e. costumes, props) that is needed to qualify for the surprise.

So for the past couple of years I have been reading these tweets, wishing that I had a jet in my backyard so I could fly over to the mentioned location and join in the fun festivities. I was really wishing that she would just choose to bring such an event to my location, but that never happened.

Until Monday night, that is.

Right when I was getting ready for bed, I decided to read my twitter timeline one more time to see what was going on. And then I saw it. The "@TheEllenShow" tweet that shook my twitterverse:
"I hope y'all are following me in Nashville, 'cuz tomorrow we're doing something crazy!"

It took me a second to put two and two together. "TheEllenShow", "Nashville". "TheEllenShow", "Nashville". ...Wait a second... I live in Nashville. I LIVE IN NASHVILLE!

You can only imagine my excitement! Actually, unless you've been following Ellen for the past 6 years, you probably can't.

On Tuesday I found myself checking twitter every minute for the updates on the twitter challenge. Finally, Ellen tweeted that you had to be at the Bridgestone Arena Plaza by 5 PM with things that began with a "C" an "M" and an "A". She was giving away tickets to the CMAs!

I planned my whole day around the event (not that I have a job to plan around anyways), but as the time drew near, I was filled with anxiety! The few friends I had in Nashville had real jobs and I would have to go by myself! Suddenly, I wasn't sure if I could do it. I don't know why, but I just didn't think I could do it alone!

And then I remembered a little thing from my past. A little thing known as 181 Days. I was taken back to a time when I had done many things alone: I went mud sledding, I went to the movies, I took a self-defense class, I camped all night in my back yard! Heck, I went on a blind date! If I could do those things by myself, I could certainly do this by myself!

After my personal pep talk (I knew that blog was good for something!), I grabbed some Coffee, a Magazine, and an Apple and headed to the Bridgestone Arena.

When I arrived, There was already a decent-sized crowd surrounding the plaza, with Ellen's Swaggin' Wagon set up in the middle. Looking around at the crowd, I realized my mistake. My CMA objects weren't creative at all! What was I thinking? My coffee, magazine, and apple were up against air mattresses, life-size cardboard cut-outs, costumes, live animals.... the works!

As Ellen personnel walked around and wrote down who was there and with what, I shrank to the side and called my sister. I was way out of my league. I was tempted to leave 20 minutes later, but heard talk of a surprise, and decided it couldn't hurt to stay. Anyways, it would be much more fun to watch Ellen live on the big TV screen, filming her show for tomorrow, then to actually watch it tomorrow from home. So I pushed my way into the crowd until got a good view of the action, and waited. And waited. It seemed like they were keeping us in suspense for forever before the finally got things rolling.

A half hour later, my wise decision to stay paid off when LADY ANTEBELLUM walked off of Ellen's Swaggin' Wagon! LADY ANTEBELLUM! A roar rose from the crowd and I was blinded from all the camera flashes that went off. I was literally feet away from Lady Antebellum! CRAZY!
Here's a picture of them passing me... yes I know it's awful quality. But I'd like to see you take a clear picture with your iPhone while jumping up and down and screaming like a crazed fan.

The rest of the night.... well, it was a quick blur. I didn't get to meet them and I definitely didn't win CMA tickets. (If I had, I wouldn't be writing this right now, I'd be on my first date with Jake Owen, country crooner and keeper of my heart!) Here's the clip of the night's event on The Ellen Show. And, no, you can't see me in the crowd... figures.

The night wasn't a complete waste, that's for sure. After all, I did get to see Ellen broadcasting live from her studio, AND I got a picture with JEANNIE! For those of you who aren't familiar with The Ellen Show, Jeannie is like Ellen's sidekick. She is the one Ellen sends all over the country to do cool things for her and for the show. She has the sweetest job and the sweetest personality and the sweetest face and the sweetest picture partner: ME.

 Moving to Nashville just might have been the best decision I've made. I'm one tweet closer to Ellen.

Rain, rain, go away! Come again... when I have a job.

This morning when I woke up, I was greeted by my first rainy Tennessee day. Ironically, it looked just like a rainy day in Pennsylvania... crappy.
I'm sure at one point when I was younger I longed for rainy days, when my sisters and I would play house in our basement or go outside and have bucket, hose, and water-gun fights amidst the puddles. Unfortunately, I left my dolls and water-guns in Pennsylvania... along with my sisters.
I'm at a point in my life where rainy days equal wet pant hemlines, frizzy hair, and mad dashes from my car to coverage. Needless to say, I don't like rainy days.

Staring outside, my eyes saw falling rain, but my mind saw a falling future. It was as if every drop was foreshadowing a bad day to come...

And so I started getting ready for the day. I had an interview with a potential employer at 2:00 in the afternoon, and I was more nervous about finding the right office than the actual interview! This company's property is so extensive, it's like it's own little town. And I had to find one little office in one little building in this "town" in Nashville. And did I mention that I just moved here?

I made sure to leave earlier than the drive time required (duh) and was armed with my map directions on my iphone as well as emailed directions from the interviewer. How hard could it be, right?

I was no longer asking myself that question at 2:00, when instead of sitting in an HR Dept. lobby like I should've been, I was sitting in my car facing a Bass Pro shop. I'll give you a hint: I was not being interviewed for a job at the Bass Pro Shop.
I was frantically driving around the massive property like a mad woman, trying to find appropriate signs and road marks, while repeatedly (and unsuccessfully) getting the interviewer on the phone. Looking through a rain-covered windshield didn't help my mood, and all I seemed to hear was my car's windshield wipers sliding out a sad song of failure that seemed to be the hit single on the soundtrack of my future.

But I would not give up! And so, I am proud to say I finally found the HR Dept! However, I am not proud to say that I found it 20 minutes later than I should have. If it hadn't been a rainy day, I wouldn't have had to wear my extra-high heeled shoes in an effort to keep my pants' hemline dry, and I would've been able to sprint the long distance from my car to the building, cutting that 20 minutes down to 16. But, seeing as how it was a rainy day, there I was, showing up for my interview 20 minutes late. I wouldn't have been surprised if they hadn't even let me in the building!

They did, of course, and the interviewer, to my surprise, did not even care about my tardiness. In fact, his opening line when coming into the lobby was, "Sarah? Sorry, I saw you called but my last call went longer than expected. I figured you probably got turned around, but I'm glad you were able to find it!"

I had to laugh. Or cry. I had just spent the last 20 minutes in a panic, reversing all the hard work my wrinkle cream had done in the last 2 weeks and spewing out words I shouldn't have, just to be greeted with a "Glad you were able to find it!" And to top off the fiasco, my mind was so distracted when I finally made it to the receptionist that I walked right past the table filled with glass jars of complimentary candy!

Like I said, rainy days in Tennessee look just like rainy days in Pennsylvania... crappy.

Welcome to Nashville

I'm not sure when I first knew I wanted to live in Nashville, TN. It was probably about a year and a half ago when I realized that it would be easier to creep on my favorite country superstars from a crouched position in their backyard trees than from a seated position in front of my computer screen in Pennsylvania.

So here I am, a year and a half later, sitting in the coolest Starbucks I've ever seen, watching a woman in the corner who I could swear is Shania Twain. I keep telling myself that of course it's not her. First of all, this particular Starbucks is about 15 minutes outside of Nashville (why would she be here?), and secondly, I would never be so lucky as to see someone famous my first week here. I just don't have good luck with this type of thing.

And speaking of not having good luck...

Earlier today I ventured into Nashville for the first time. I will admit that I was more than a little excited to see "The Music City". My goal for this trip was just to get to a Starbucks that I could sit down at to do some job searching. Now, I'm not a city girl and so I'm not accustomed to having to pay a small fortune to park in a garage just to get to the coffee shop on the corner. It's for this reason that I passed the few that I saw on my way to the Starbucks in hopes of finding an available meter spot on the street. My hopes met reality as a car pulled out of a spot just around the corner! I was so delighted and snagged the spot. I got some change out of my wallet and proceeded to the meter where I was appalled to read that a quarter only gave you 10 minutes! Realizing that this was the best I would find (the garage was $3 for the first half hour!), I reluctantly dropped in 4 quarters and some dimes. I was only up to 48 minutes, so I got out 2 more quarters and dropped them in, but to my horror, the meter had a 1 hour limit, wasting my last quarter! The reality of the situation hit me: I just spent almost $2 to sit at a Starbucks for an hour. Now this, this is the kind of luck I have. Welcome to Nashville.