10/19/2015

Early last week, into my email inbox dropped a notice that I had received two tickets to be in the studio audience of the Season 10 Blind Auditions for NBC’s “The Voice.”  It had happened once before in the throes of moving and post-divorce emotional apocalypse, and I simply could not manage all that was involved with logistics.  This time, however, I did not immediately delete the email.  In fact, in faith, I went ahead and accepted the ticket.  It was for two people, and there were a scant few of my friends/family whom I thought might be able to endure all the spontaneity and borderline craziness that doing something on such short notice typically entails.

Then I thought of all the variables, proposed it to one of them, but there were fated reasons that person was unable to go along.  So, it turns out that I just accepted one of the passes for myself, and I declined the second one.  I took 1.5 days of personal time from work (which i haven’t even had available to me in many years), and I began the harrowing process of non-revenue stand by flight from Dallas to Los Angeles.  My initial plan had been to fly with one stop to Burbank because it was just minutes from Universal City where the studio is located.  My awesome dad agreed to get me a hotel with points so there was no cost involved in that department (except for $28 / day to park in their stupid parking garage).  But he couldn’t book a hotel until I knew for certain that I would actually make it to LA because once “spent,” he would not be allowed to get his points back – and those are precious commodities.  So, God bless it all, I was able to get on the non-stop to LAX at 2:50 Thursday afternoon, and we had wheels down in sunny California by 3:50 p.m. PST!  Once the gate agent assured me I would not be pulled from the flight, I let my Dad know, and within minutes, he sent me confirmation for two nights at the Universal Sheraton – muy awesome, by the way — right on Universal Hollywood Drive.  It took me 4 minutes to get from my hotel to the Curious George parking garage where I had to report for check-in Friday morning.

I did not check my bag, so once we landed, I just had to make my way to the Budget shuttle bus to go to their off-site location and pick up my Ford Fiesta – I had a slightly larger car reserved through Priceline for pickup at Burbank, but when I switched to LAX, Priceline was not cooperating, and I had to book directly through Budget – and I was not willing to pay more than $25/day to rent a car.  So, “Ford Fiesta or similar” was the best I could do.  Once at Budget, I stood in the interminable line, and when I finally arrived at the counter, I gave my ID and credit card to the agent and said, languishing on the counter, “I’ll take whatever you have on special for a tired school counselor from Texas.”  He said, “You’re retired!?”  I said, “No, just tired.  Well actually, I’m tired and RE-tired!”  A few minutes later, he said, “Would a 2 door Mustang be okay?”  I thought, “Instead of a Ford Fiesta?  Yep, that’ll do.”  Anyway, once all transacted, he told me to walk out into the lot to my left and that he would meet me out there to show me my car.  He pointed to a spot where this tiny little white car was sitting and said, “Will that be okay?”  It was a brand-new Miata MX-5, white with red racing stripe.  WHAT?  He said, “It’s normally $99 a day, but we didn’t have any Ford Fiestas for you.  Oh, sad.  How very, very sad for me.  I keyed in my destination address to the GPS Map, and I began the trek.

I worked in LA often and long enough to know that my preference, almost always, was to take the side-street routes – perpetual motion is my friend, and there is rarely such a thing on a Los Angeles freeway at rush hour.

I made my way, first, to a little store where I purchased a terrible car charger to ensure that my phone would last long enough to get me to my hotel, and then I wove my way up La Brea, across Melrose Avenue, Santa Monica Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood Boulevard, and then weaving along Cahuenga Boulevard, over the pass and into Universal City.  I smiled a lot on that drive – reflected briefly on how I’d much rather drive through Los Angeles side streets than Dallas side streets – and happily checked myself into my hotel and commenced to getting ready to meet an old friend for dinner.  I was somehow able to make myself forget that it was two hours later in my mind.  Around 8:30 pm PST, my friend arrived, and we set out to find some dinner.  We decided on sushi, and we went to an amazing little spot nearby.  I love sushi and sashimi, and I felt 100% confident that I could try anything on the menu and walk away happy.  I asked him to order, and the feast began – so very delicious!  We made valiant efforts to catch up on the 14 intervening years since we’d last spoken or seen each other, and it was good.  We continued our chat in the hotel lobby, and at 12:30 am (2:30 am in my mind), I had to make myself go to sleep.  That visit was an extremely unexpected benefit of the trip – I had hoped to catch up, but I did not expect it to completely recharge me, reminding me of who I really am:  fiercely independent, adventuresome, strong, intelligent, a writer, and, most importantly, not a monster.  I had forgotten almost all of that about myself.

I schlepped myself into bed, preparing my “get ready space” for the next morning and setting every possible alarm for fear that I would oversleep and miss out on the very thing I had made the trip to do.  There was no free breakfast at the hotel, so I just got a cup of coffee before heading to the studio and hoped that the food trucks would, indeed, be available once I arrived.  They were, and I had the world’s best sweet potato fries for breakfast – and nothing else to eat until about 9-10 hours later.  After check-in, we were herded into an area under a big white tent to wait until we were herded onto shuttle buses and driven through the Universal Studios lot to our soundstage.  We arrived there around 10:30, and we were held there until after the taping concluded around 4:15 or so.  Once there, we occasionally had the opportunity to leave the studio to use the restroom, but once out, you could not return until the next taping break.  So, I never left.  There was no food and only water if you had taken it in with you.  It was a live studio audience concentration camp.  Everyone was so nice, and I reminded that show business is not really all that glamorous at all.  It’s demanding and time-crunched, and you never really have a moment alone, especially if you are the star.  Lots of busy-ness and people touching you all the time.

We heard 16 vocalists that day, and the judges did, too.  So exhausting – and the same high level of excitement must be maintained for each one.  For the judges and the studio audience.  Those poor judges had another taping after ours concluded.

After returning to my car for my phone, I maximized my parking pass and remained to find dinner on the Universal CityWalk.  Sensory overload, in a nutshell.  I decided on a bun-less cheeseburger at Johnny Rockets, but my waiter failed me, and after 45 minutes and no food, I got someone’s attention – the manager, fortunately – and he brought me my food and offered me that and anything else I wanted on the menu, his treat.  So, free dinner for me!  While in LA, I bought 2 cups of coffee and an order of sweet potato fries.

Back in D/FW now – first thing I did once leaving the airport was drive to Fuzzy’s for some tacos.  I listened to part of the Baylor game in-flight, then finished that up at my mom’s with her and my son.  Another one in the win column this weekend.

And the game wasn’t so bad, either.