Saturday morning was Mallory and Saul’s wedding. Mallory was beautiful, Saul was sick, the ceremony was short. Saul really did have a 24 hour bug, so he was feeling pretty yucky all day. I felt bad for him, but he looked like he was having a good time. Then around 2pm they headed out for South Padre. That is when my nerves started to kick in for my own trip. We all got home and I packed up until my friend called and said she was ready to go. We left Houston around 7pm, and arrived at our hotel in Dallas around 11:30pm. If you ever stay at the Holiday Inn Express off the Northwest Freeway, it is actually a very nice hotel. The continental breakfast was awesome, and they had a pool, and a weight room. It was very nice.
We crashed into our beds, with our alarm clocks set for 4:30am. The next day we were not auditioning; just registering. That means we would get our wrist bands and our seat assignments. We woke up and both felt equally exhausted as we got into the car to drive to the Texas Stadium for who knows how long. When we got there, it was pretty empty looking, and that was encouraging. We walked towards the registration tables, and as soon as we got up to it there was a spot open, so we didn’t wait at all. We got our wrist bands, and our seat assignments and that was it! Feeling elated with the ease, we drove back to the hotel just in time for the breakfast to open up. It was bacon and eggs, with various other yummy things. After we ate we went back to our room and slept for about 3 hours. It was awesome. After our morning nap we realized we have a whole day still with nothing to do. We discovered a Gallaria was in the area, so we mapquested it and made our way there. We both wanted to shop for an outfit for our auditions, so it seemed the only right way to spend our day…shopping! We ate a nice little lunch at La Cocina and then made our rounds on the 3 different levels. 3 hours later, with outfits plus in tow, we made our way back to the hotel. We ordered Chili’s to go for dinner and watched a movie to kill the time. When it came time to turn the lights off and get some beauty sleep, both of us tossed and turned for several ours before falling asleep. The alarm caught us at 3:30am, this time and we slowly rose and began to get ready. One hour later as we pulled into the stadium for the 2nd day in a row, we realized we should have gotten there earlier. There were probably 3,000 people there before us. Undeterred, we got in the line standing outside the stadium right up against the railing. That was at about 4:45am. Around 5:30 they told us we were not allowed to bring in any water or food or anything. So, we proceeded to eat our snacks and drink our water right then, because they were making it seem like it needed to be taken care of asap. Not long after we arrived the cameras started sweeping the crowds. We got right up in front of the crowd so when the camera passed us we were right there in front smiling and waving. At 7:30am, the line started making it’s way into the stadium, but there was a bag-checking station you had to go through, first. So, it wasn’t until 9:15 that my friend and I crossed that station. We stood outside for 4 1/2 hours; 3 of those hours with no food or water. We were asked to go straight to our seats, also, so we didn’t stop to buy any water or food. When we got to our seats they were informing the crowds how things were going to go down. We sang a crowd song, and shouted out some phrases and thrived off of the pulsating excitement. It wasn’t until about 10:30 that we bought water, which was $3 per bottle. Totally ridiculous, but what can you do? It was pay a lot, or pass out. By the way, Texas Stadium is only partially covered and our seats were in the lovely bright sunshine. There was no form of air conditioning, either, so it was pretty awful. After sitting there for about 2 hours, we ventured with the rest of the masses into the shaded hallways. We ate some nachos and Dr. Pepper around 12pm to give us sustenance. We kept looking out at the stands checking the progress of the auditions, but it was very slow going. We were the 9th section of 11 sections and each section was taking about an hour to go through, so you do the math. As the day progressed we started seeing quite a few people going by riding on the “medic-cart” because they were close to heat exhaustion. Around 3pm the powers that be finally decided they should probably start giving water away so they don’t look so bad, but you only got the free water when your section made their way down onto the field. Around 2pm the sun had moved off of our seats, so we got back to them and watched some episodes of Friends on my friend’s IPOD. Around 3:30 we split a hot dog as a final attempt to nourish ourselves without paying a fortune. And it wasn’t until 5:30pm that our section was called down to the field to audition. The pace was pretty steady from that point on. We lined up in groups of 4 and made our way to a line in front of a table with 2 producers/judges. We got assigned to a table with 2 women who looked like they were pretty ready to go home. I claim my rejection to be completely tied to their crankiness. They should have kissed my feet for not telling them off for making me sit in the hot day for 14 hours, but I wouldn’t have done that anyway.
I was pretty peeved that I got rejected, but I feel like I took it pretty gracefully. To be honest, I’m glad that I made the attempt, and I’m glad that I didn’t go any further. I was never sold on the idea of being on the show, but wanted to give it a try. Chalk it up to experience!
