A moment of a lifetime

So cutting straight to the chase, Lindsay and I are not idols this year unless we take a trip out to another city. 

At 4:30 we got on the audition queue on the arena floor with our groups of four.  Lindsay and I decided to be in different groups so we wouldn’t psych each other out.  When I got up there a girl went first and sang for about 10 seconds before getting cut-off then it was my turn.  I sang almost the full snip-it of what I “prepared” of michelle branch’s song- all you wanted.  I was very pleased with how much they let me sing and actually got nervous if I had to go too much more into the song as of course I don’t know the lyrics. (I know there are some of you who know this all too well about me).

Anyways, no one from my group was selected to move forward to the next round of prescreening.  Surprisingly, the rejection was very soft for everyone and almost uplifting.  Very different from how critical they are all portrayed on the show.  While I was waiting for lindsays group to finish I did have the pleasures of hanging out with a productions assistant.  He was telling me about the ‘interesting’ people that got through and how the judges are all different and skews who gets through. 

After our wristbands were cut-off and we were headed out there was a camera man that interviewed us on our experience on the day. So moral of this story is that we can still be on tv and you should all watch the first couple of episodes.

Overall, this experience was phenomenal.  

Update- 4:30 auditioning!

It is official… 11 hours and we haven’t auditioned yet.  Right now lindsay and I are doing vocal exercises and practicing!  Will let you know when we finish…. we are thinking around 6pm we will sing!

Nevermind going to audition!

Want to know how idol really works??

Our morning:
So we got to be part of the audience/watch the filming of the introduction scene for idol.  Basically, the reason they want people to come so early is so they can make a huge crowd to film and use as puppets.  Yes they made us fist pump this morning, sing bon jovi, and say “jersey is a shore thing”.

Ryan seacrest is here along with some former contestant constatine. 

Actual auditions:
There are 3 pre-screening rounds before you ever see the judges.  The first round you walk up to one of 13 tables in the middle of the arena with 3 other people.  They point to you and you can sing until they make you stop which can be anywhere from 5-45 seconds. Then they pull the group of 4 and either give you the yellow piece of paper or cut-off your wristband. 

From what we can see and hear from our seats there are really amazing people and most are not getting through.  Probably about 1 of every 50 people.  We did watch a girl in a superwoman costume, who did a backflip, get a yellow slip.  She will be one of those crazy people they show.

Lindsay and I:
We are chilling in the back upper seats right now with about 24 sections in front of us.  So… our thought is to go sleep in the car for a bit, ha!

We made it inside!

After sitting, standing, and walking in line for just under 2 hours we made it inside.  While waiting outside we listened to several people play guitar and sing, had camera crews film interviews (ahem prompt them on what to say), and were a part of many cheering video captures so who knows if we will randomly be on tv.

Inside I would say about 2/3 of the arena is filled… nothing has started yet, but here are some pics!

Our new goal…

Who cares about being idol!  We are going to try to just get on film :)

The adventure of jaclyn and lindsay

I haven’t done anything spontaneous and ridiculous in a while.  So what do I decide to do?  Lindsay and I left Sunday morning and headed up to NJ to get wristbands for american idol.  After a 4 hour drive it took us merely 2 minutes to get them.  We decided to spend the day in NYC before heading back to DC.

Not even 24 hours later we were back on the road to NJ.  Upon or arrival at 130 we were very excited to get some sleep at my parents house.  What do you know, NONE of the keys on my key chain open up the house.  We venture into the garage and contemplate sleeping in the make shift den my brother has created.  After deciding that wasn’t a good option we contacted my cousin to see if we could get into his parents place.  Luckily he was awake and let us come over.

Well… that all sounds dandy right?  However, when we check the last update on the website it says to get here before 5 am!  As we figure out our game plan we realize that we can only take a power nap.  All said and done we were at my aunts house for only 2 hours before heading to the Izod center. When we got to the Izod center they were charging $15 to park.  Of course we didn’t have cash on us so we had to go on a search for an ATM.  Our morning went pleasantly I would say.

Currently, we are sitting outside around thousands of people.  Some interesting folks, but for the most part surprisingly normal people.  Will keep y’all updated!

Rants of the week

I am thinking that each week I should create a list of things that are so out there or bother me. You should all know that I am a constant judger so this could be an amusing section…

1) People who don’t know how to dress for work- It is NOT appropriate to wear anything that resembles beach wear. No joke a girl came to work in a terry cloth beach cover-up that was strapless. I wish I was her manager…

2) Construction workers who decide to take a 2+ hour lunch break with some beers. I believe they get paid by the hour and I would like to go swimming at some point this summer.

3) Neighbors who choose to report you to management as being loud for “hearing the door slam”. Newsflash- our doors are right next to each other it is going to happen and the avg. times that door opens a day is about 6. Deal with it or just grow some balls to confront us ourselves instead of sending an anonymous management letter.

4) Parking- it stinks around here. I feel like my friends have spent a significant amount of time in their life attempting to park near my place or have even been towed.

5) Men who wear scarves out to bars as an accessory. Really it is completely unneccessary unless you are trying to be chuck bass or look like a tool… but definitely not socially acceptable in a hot bar during warm summerish nights.

6) Waiters at bars who don’t do their job. Honestly I am perfectly happy getting up from the table and ordering my own drinks; however, this is apparently not allowed. If I have to sit and pay for service then I should get it! Don’t make the table suffer and have to wait 15 minutes with empty glasses in front of them. The point of being at a bar is to always have a drink! (right?)

7) The weather! It is impeding my life right now. I had to cancel my BBQ, play bocce in wet muddy grass, have frizzy hair… where did the warm summer weather go??

8) The team we played against in Bocce, who decided to throw on an extra round since we were winning causing us to tie even though we were clearly past the time we were supposed to play.

9) The pantry that I helped at this weekend- I understand that we are trying to salvage as much food as possibly but it is really unsanitary to be giving food to people whose boxes are covered in mouse feces and urine. (Not that they will ever know since I wiped off the boxes with a clorox wipe). Also packing up food that has “spoiled” stickers on it. I believe that getting people, who might not have health insurance or a place to go to for health care, sick is counterintuitive and causes more problems in the end.

10) I feel like I can’t stop at 9 and that I have to hit 10… My work computer- Not only is it the slowest thing on earth and takes about 20 minutes to start up in the morning, but it doesn’t have the applications I need to do my job effectively. I really wish that I can claim it as stolen and really reenact the scene from office space and destroy the computer in a field.

Things they should have taught you in drivers ed

So have you ever been in a situation while driving or in reference to your car and you think… how was I supposed to know that??? Well here are two scenarios that happened to me this week that I only wish I was taught what to do.

Scenario 1:

The other night, while I was in the car with a friend, a sudden rush of the scent of gasoline completely filled senses. I looked up from changing the radio station thinking that her car was about to explode only to realize that it wasn’t her car that was the problem…

The car in front of us had gasoline spritzing out of the bottom of the car leaving a trail down the major interstate. We immediately changed lanes to avoid this trail (what if someone threw a cigarette butt in it!) but from there what do you really do?

A) Do nothing and let the others suffer
B) Call 911
C) Call the local police
D) Call the #77 which you are supposed to use to report disabled vehicles

We chose option D. Doing nothing seemed fairly immoral considering we could be knowingly allowing innocent people be in danger; however, B was thrown out because it didn’t seem like an immediate emergency. So we chose D… who knows if they did anything about it but it took it off our conscience.

Scenario 2:

A friend’s car was towed from right outside my building!

Note to self:

1) Females should never ever go to these sketchy lots by themselves, especially not at 11 pm at night.

2) Check your car before leaving the lot. They may have scratched it while towing and you can’t contest it once you leave.

What car situations have you gotten yourself into that you wish you knew how to solve???

Change in weather comes a change in activities…

DC hit 90 degrees this weekend!

One activity that I participated in this weekend (that I highly recommend) is renting a boat and heading out on the Potomac.  You don’t have to get all fancy and rent a motor boat- just simply head to one of the small docks (there is one in Georgetown) and rent a kayak, row boat, canoe, etc.  Whatever fits your mood!

You won’t regret spending the day in the sun and getting a chance to feel like you are not really in the city (although you may have to paddle a little further upstream to experience this).  If you are not into the outdoor activeness you can turn this into a fun day drinking activity as well.  Just pack up a cooler and throw it into the front of the boat with you.  Paddle upstream a bit then sit back, relax, and throw back a few as you float back down stream to where you started.

Another activity that I have decided to revolve my life around this summer is using my patio (aka basking in the sun by day and throwing parties by night).  Sunday started out with just looking for a lounge chair and turned into purchasing a full patio set.  This simple activity turned into a full day production of attempting to get it out of the store, (BTW- patio sets are not meant to be pushed in a shopping cart),  fit it into my 4-door sedan (this required the help of a man passing by) and then getting it into my actual apartment and onto the patio. Oh and I forgot to mention the whole fiasco of building it too.

It was completely worth it considering I now have my own little oasis.  What is going to be your oasis this summer?

Starting up

Have you ever thought that your job could change what you do in your personal life on the internet? Well I am now tasked with developing the social media sites for my company. Very exciting… however, I have very limited knowledge on actual blogging.

This site is going to be where I test the waters, tell funny stories, and decide which blog site (yes I am testing several) would be the best for me to use in the professional world.

Please feel free to post comments, elaborate on the stories I share (no names please), and make this interesting!