The Ellen Show! - Day 1

Cirdan asked me a few months ago me where I wanted to go for my 30th birthday. I was thinking California would be good...since we were leaving the girls home I didn't want to go too far. I received an email from Days of our Lives about an event for fans at the Universal City Walk on November 7th. Since it was in November a few weeks before my birthday and I have watched Days since I was 15 I forwarded the email to Cirdan as a hint. I was expecting him to roll his eyes or laugh at me but he didn't say anything about it. A few weeks went passed and I thought that he had just laughed it off. Come to find out he had talked to my mom about watching the girls and was planning on taking me to California during November 7th!! He then told me his idea which gave me another idea. This past January when we went to Disneyland I had tried to get Ellen tickets but never received a call or email back. I went online and it looked like I could request tickets for a day that we would be in California! I requested the tickets for Thursday November 5th. I didn't hear anything for a couple weeks. I figured I wouldn't get a call back like the 1st time I tried. My phone rang and it came up with a 1-866 number. I didn't answer it but listened to the voicemail. It was someone from the Ellen show telling me that I had 2 guaranteed tickets. I remember that day...I was in Kaiya's room helping her clean. After listening to my message I screamed and started dancing around with the girls. We were all so excited!!!! They told me that I would be receiving a packet in the mail with my ticket and all the information within 2 weeks.

A couple weeks passed and I started to get worried. I hadn't received anything. I had a dream...or should I say nightmare about her show getting cancelled. That next day after my dream I got another call and voicemail. They said that the show on Thursday was cancelled but we could get guaranteed tickets for the Wednesday show. That show was starting at 3:30. Our flight was to arrive at LAX at 12:30 so we were cutting it close but had enough time to make it to the show. So far so good...so I thought.

Thursday before our trip I got yet another call from The Ellen Show letting me know that the show was being bumped up from 3:30 to 12:30. My heart dropped. I had been looking forward to this for a couple of months. I called Priceline to see how much it would cost to change our tickets to the flight at 6am. They said it would cost around $400!! I also called Alaska Airlines directly and talked to a very nice person who told me that I should try stand by. She said there are risks like you may not make it on, and our luggage might not make it on the same flight but the plane at that point was just over half full. After I had a little mini break down I decided that if it was meant to be then we would get on the plane. If not...then it just wasn't meant to happen and it wasn't the end of the world.

You may be reading this thinking...Ok...whats so good about the Ellen Show??? Its a show that I watch everyday and have for the last few years. I have always loved the energy and its one of the only shows where I can watch it alone and laugh out loud. It always puts me in a great mood!!

We got to the airport around 5 in the morning (thanks Dad)...checked in at Sky Cap and the lady was so nice she got us a ticket on the plane right away so we didn't have to go through the pain of standby and waiting around wondering. Once I got my ticket I was so relieved! This was going to be an awesome trip!!!

We arrived in California around 8:30, picked up our car and headed to the Warner Bros Studios. By the time we got there it was 11:00. We pulled into the garage to park and saw the waiting area. It was nothing like I expected! It was this area right when you drive into the garage. Tables were set up and there were some flat screen tv's on the wall. I always pictures something a little more....fancy??

There was a guy standing there who told us that we were a little early (check in was at noon) but we could stick around or we could go down the street and eat some food. We opted to go to a little Mexican restaurant down the street. Really yummy authentic food. The service was a bit slow, I think there was 1 waitress and 1 cook but it was worth it. We headed back to the waiting area. A lot more people had gathered and all I was concerned about was getting a good seat. They were playing the previous days show on the tv's so we just stood around and watched. All the sudden everyone started to line up...I hurried to get in the front of the line only to find out that it was security and they just put an invisible stamp on our hands. Kind of bizarre since they did nothing with the stamp after that. We went back and sat down and waited for about another hour or two until they said that we could start lining up for our numbers. It was 1st come 1st serve so I knew I needed to hurry and get in the front of the line. We ended up with numbers 50 & 51 which was really good! Once everyone got their numbers they had some of the workers walk around and pick people randomly to go outside to see if they "qualified" for the game that they were going to be playing.

The show started at 3:30. Around 2:45 they started taking us as a single file line across the street in groups of about 20. Once we got across the street we went through a security check and then down a long hallway to the Ellen Shop. We all stayed in line according to our numbers for another 30 minutes or so until they started taking us onto the set. They 1st took the VIP people...there seemed to be a lot so I wasn't sure if we would get good seats even though we were 50 & 51. They told us that the way they sit people is like a tetris game. The people seat you and they tell you to not get mad at them where they place you. When we walked in there were people seated in rows 1-5 but there were 2 end seats on row 2 over by Tony the DJ. The girl down below motioned for us and we walked down amazed that we were the lucky ones to receive those seats!! They told us lady's on the aisle so that's where I sat and Cirdan got stuck by 2 older gentleman that looked like they didn't belong.

There was a guy who got the crowed pumped up. He was a lot of fun and got the crowd dancing and having a blast. The energy was amazing. They had some dance competitions for anyone who wanted to come up front and dance or dance in the aisle. He also told each row to make up the same dance and whichever row thought of the best dance move would get a prize.

Tony came out soon after and we were sitting pretty close to his table. All the sudden the music started and Ellen came out. It was really strange to see what the difference was from how big the stage looks on TV as it does in real life. It is a lot smaller in real life. Ellen and Tony were so close to us on the TV they look like they are farther from the audience.

Amy Poehler and Fran Drescher were the guests. Amy was funny as usual. Cirdan and I were so happy that she was the guest because we are both big fans from when she was on SNL and now her Parks and Recreation show. Frans voice in real life is even more annoying.

The whole show was a big dance party. During the commercial breaks when Ellen would go over her next segments lines we would all stand up and dance. When it was all over Cirdan and I went out to the Ellen Store and bought some souvenirs for ourselves and the girls. We then took a tour bus over to the WB store where there were some more souvenirs...it was also the place where Ellen plays tricks on people at the Starbucks.

We were pretty tired since we had to get up that morning at 4:00 but still had some adrenalin. We were also starving so we drove to our hotel which was about a 30 minute drive, checked in to our hotel and then ate at the Cheesecake Factory which was walking distance from our hotel. By the middle of dinner I was surprised that I was still awake. My eyes just wanted to close. It was such a fun day - I was excited for what else the week would bring.