YESTERDAY WAS THE BIG DAY… ELLEN DAY!!! We had a TOTAL blast. The day started off with breakfast @ Arthur’s in La Habra. It was an interesting little place to say the least – the food was good (Gan’s potatoes were undoubtedly the BEST part); but the menu was HYSTERICAL {eg: good coffee: $2.19; great coffee: $2.19} and the decorations were just something else…there was an embroidered chicken and a pig and a duck framed on the wall behind us – CUTE!! hahaha! It was a TRIP! After breakfast we immediately headed towards WB Studios in Burbank. As we got off the interstate and the studios appeared before us, I caught the excitement. We pulled into the parking garage and said, “we’re here to see Ellen” and the guy ENTHUSIASTICALLY responded, “well you’re in the RIGHT place!” at which point I just about FLIPPED out and SCREAMED! I was jumping out of my skin! I couldn’t believe we were actually AT the ELLEN SHOW!!! Fun fun fun!!! We parked the car and started our Ellen photoshoot – you have to leave the cameras in the car so we had to get as many good pics as we could before heading down to the line.
Once we were satisfied (although we were scheming photos we would NEED to take later) we headed down to check in. I got in the “stand-by ticket line” and the girls went through security. Approximately 10 minutes after we arrived, the Ellen Show Crew started check in. We were tickets 312, 313, and 314! 
(We were smart kids and didn’t get in line until almost 1:00pm KNOWING that we were going to end up in the Tom Hanks Riff Raff Room regardless of our arrival – the ladies that arrived at 9:00am {whom we lovingly referred to as 9:00 throughout the entire experience} were tickets 286, 287, 288, and 289. THEY DIDN’T GET IN EITHER! Thank you Lord for giving me the wisdom to STILL BE IN BED @ 9:00 and then grab a yummy breakfast with friends before starting my time in line!!! After we were checked in, we waited in the merchandise line where Gan, Kenz, and I all got matching Ellen t-shirts to commemorate our experience (Gan, I checked the receipt and Kenz was right – they were $20. DANG! I thought we got a total STEAL with those shirts!) and get good pics in later! Then we watched the Ellen show that aired on Thursday since we were going to be in the taping when it actually aired and Ellen is SO thoughtful and considerate that she didn’t want any of us to miss the show! During the viewing, several of us were asked to step outside, then we were asked if we watched American Idol. Unfortunately, we all answered “NO” and were promptly dismissed to return to our seats in line. On the show several of the audience members asked Ellen questions about her experiences judging idol – we should have lied – we might have made it in the studio after all. BUST! The time in line seemed to pass really quickly – we didn’t even have time to play the Grey’s Anatomy Game (and ANIHILATE Kenz) or eat our snacks before we had to run them back to the car because we were LINING up to go into the studio!! 
We were in the VERY LAST group to cross the street and head into the studio building. Once inside, we had to go through security (I set off the metal detector, PAR USUAL) and then we were seated in a long hallway while they took all the guaranteed ticket holders into the studio and counted the number of available seats they had for stand-by ticket holders. A few were let into the studio and then approximately 16 were labeled “fillers” who had the possibility of being in the studio audience but probably not for the entire show. We were WAY off and didn’t even come close – but 9:00 were like 4 from the front and totally got denied. We told them to join us in officially saying that Ellen gave us the shaft! Ha! We were then taken into the Riff Raff Room where the music and dancing officially began. I put on a good show and won myself an Ellen shift that says “proud to be riff raff” in 2XL…a little big…I hope Ellen wasn’t trying to make a statement about the “average size” of her audience! Megan got scheizaaahed by the girl because I won a t-shirt so even though she danced her little heart out for a good 20 minutes her t-shirt hopes were CRUELLY dashed. We did learn during the dance-fest that when we are actually in the studio audience, we should dance very calmly because we got ridiculously hot and even turned red – which will NOT be cute when we’re on camera! The show started right around 3:25 and was really fun to watch even from the riff raff room which consisted of numerous couches and LOTS of televisions and BIG SCREEN PROJECTORS! SO fun!! Taye Diggs is as beautiful as he appears on television (although I only saw him on a television in the riff raff room – so I guess that makes sense!) and Chelsea Handler is HYSTERICAL even though I’m sure her material is completely off-color and wildly inappropriate. The BIG EXCITEMENT of the show came when Ellen gave everyone in the audience iPod nanos and $25 gift cards to iTUNES. ELLEN SCHEIZAAAHED us! We did NOT get the giveaways – BUT we did get the most “awesome” cds ever! The crew was very nice. They said, “You aren’t going to get the giveaways but we’ll find something for you!” ha! AND THEY FOUND TREASURES I TELL YOU!! haha! Gan, Kenz, and I all got different cds and mine was BY FAR THE WORST. I got Daniel Merriweather something or other – don’t waste your time… Gan got Jamie Cullum…and Kenz got Vedera. THEY ROCK!
(I’m listening to them as I write!) Again Gan and I felt rather SHEIZZZAAAAHED by Ellen and her “people”. Unfortunate. During one of the commercial breaks, Ellen stuck her head into the Riff Raff Room and waved to all of us…she is a CHARACTER in person AND on television. She is goofy and hysterical and really quite pretty (and much smaller than I expected). WE WERE ABSOLUTELY THRILLED TO MEET HER IN PERSON!!!! At the very end of the show Kellan Lutz spontaneously APPEARED on stage behind Ellen’s television and surprised the audience with the TWILIGHT: New Moon DVD…which again we got scheizaaahed and did not get. The show ended shortly after Lutz’s big reveal with a genuine thank you from Ellen for our participation and “fandom”. We were then escorted OUT of the riff raff room before the studio audience was released to pick up their “giveaway” (which in case you forgot, we were scheizaahed and did not get ANY of) and across the street back to the parking structure back to our cars back to the world where being on tv is FAR from normal but still a TON of fun. Oh ps…While we were in the riff raff room we were also asked to select a date to get “re-booked” for guaranteed tickets. SO WE’RE GOING BACK MAY 17th friends!! And we SERIOUSLY CAN’T WAIT!!! WE LOVE ELLEN!!
The rest of the afternoon consisted of Starbucks, traffic, listening to the terrible (and ONE AWESOME) cds that Ellen gave us, snacks, listening to Megan talk on the phone, watching megan wave to the creepy guy in the truck next to us, PIT STOPPING at the CITADEL for some quick outlet shopping, being utterly disgusted by the OLD and seriously questionable “haystack” that kenz bought at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory took one bite out of and then SPIT OUT PROMPTLY (I confirmed that it was gross…and spit it out as well), more traffic, dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, and FINALLY arriving home just after 9pm. It was a FULL day of adventuring – but adventuring IS our favorite thing to do!!
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