The One with Ellen

On December 1st 2010 I got to be on Day 1 of Ellen's 12 Days of Giveaways. It was awesome. Once in a lifetime opportunity.

Or was it?

I've tried and tried and applied and applied again to be on Ellen, but to no avail. Then Erica said she got some tickets and asked if I wanted to come along with her and Jenny and Alli. Heck yes! Off we went!

It was already packed when we got there. 

Luckily, even though we only had stand-by tickets, we were all able to get guaranteed tickets.

While we were waiting (cuz there's lots of that!) the employee girl standing in the green shirt/purple scarf was walking around and stopping at people here and there saying, "Hey guys! Once I say, 'If I've talked to you come meet me in the back!' then come and meet me in the back!" Sweet! First step to possibly being included in the fun and games and winning ridiculous prizes accomplished!

So once she made the announcement we hustled back to meet her. There were about 20 people. She quickly went through the group and told us either to go sit back down or to go to the "bungalow". When she asked our group of four who was the biggest Ellen fan we said, "We all are! That's why we're here!" She admitted us all. Score! We made the second cut! Along with only 3 other girls.
Once inside the secret cubicle she took down our names, info, asked us some questions, went through a spiel about how if we got called to be on stage we'd need to be uber enthusiastic, made sure we weren't pregnant or had any disabilities that would prevent us from playing any games, etc, and had us practice being called and running down to hug Ellen. It was intense, fun, and crazy, all rolled into one.
Then we were led over to the filming studio. Unlike last time when cameras were taboo, they invited us to take pictures and share them with the hashtag #ImAtEllen.


Front row seats!


Right before the show started we had to turn our phones off.

The bad news is there were no games so all that interviewing and feeling special was for not. The good news is we saw Ellen and she was like a foot from my face at one point. The special guest was Eric Stonestreet - aka Cam from Modern Family, which I seem to be talking about a lot lately (cuz it's the funniest show on earth), so it was awesome!
Moral of the story - watch Ellen tomorrow (Thursday the 7th)!!
***
Edited to add - PICTURES FROM THE SHOW ON TV!!
I set my alarm for 4pm to watch Ellen to see if I could see myself. I had a camera in hand and snapped away any time I caught a glimpse! Lo and behold:

NBD (FYI that means no big deal :) - but I saw myself on TV at the same time as a picture of Justin Bieber. Swoon.

 I spy Jenny and Erica and me! PS - why aren't the people right behind me standing up?

So. Much. Fun.