American Idol

Tuesday night found myself and April taking a little road trip up to LA to be on American Idol. Her friend Loriann knew someone and got us and 8 other into the pit to rub shoulders with Randy, Paula, Simon, Ryan, and the contestants (okay, not so much rub shoulders, but April did get to hug Paula!).

What an experience. There was so much going on, so I am going to do what I do best and make you a highlights list:

1. Crepes. Mmmm....while we waited for the rest of the group to show up, April and I had lunch at this sweet Farmers Market right behind the studio, where they had an abundance of ethnic food to choose from. We went French.

2. The fact that AI is a Fox show and is filmed at CBS studios is funny to me.

3. How to clap: raise hands above heads. It doesn't look good on camera if you don't. Seriously, they told us how to clap, how to sway, when to cheer, when to boo, and strategically placed us in the pit. Hilarious! (We were also given strict instructions on what to wear...no flip flops, no jeans unless they are nice, dark colors; for girls, dresses are recommended...and, while they didn't actually say it, our experience proved that it is to your advantage if you are a minority...)

4. Ryan Seacrest looked plastic, Simon looked better in person than he does on TV, Paula is a short little woman (and April caught her looking at notes between commercial breaks...hehe), Randy really does say "dawg" too much, but it sounds forced.

5. My event planning mind was going crazy! It was really cool to see the behind the scenes of a large production like this. The way the stage managers handled everything, having an MC during commercial breaks to entertain the crowd...it is a well-oiled machine.

6. Thai food afterwards. Oh, sooooo yummy. If you get the chance at all, check out Natalee Thai when you are in LA.

7. Crazy antics. Our group laughed a LOT all night.

Well, that's it for that re-cap. Until next time: Ebner, out.