All I want is to rock your soul...

...or, Hey, remember that time I auditioned for American Idol?, Part One.

4PM, Sunday August 17, 2008
I meet Elizabeth at Port Authority. We head to Information to try and figure out how to get out to the Meadowlands. (Side note - in 2 years of living here, today is the first day I have cursed not having a car.) Crabby Information Lady sends us "next door" (Elizabeth: "I didn't know there was a next door") where we encounter Slightly Less Crabby Information Lady who sends us to Windows 1-10 where Window One Lady is helpful and not very crabby at all. To the bus!

We board and make it safely to New Jersey in no time flat. I'm excited. Elizabeth still can't figure out why she agreed to this.

5PM, Sunday August 17, 2008
Well. We're here. And I'm thinking the screaming throngs of people heading into the stadium wearing football jerseys MIGHT ACTUALLY BE GOING TO THE GAME. Where's the registration? Oh? All the way around the stadium and through the scary tunnel? No biggie!

(Scary tunnel.)

(Scary tunnel, and half the couple that followed us in.)

5:15PM, Sunday August 18, 2008
I hope I get it!

Ok. Made it. Through the big red doors marked "American Idol Registration."

And inside! To a crowd of...no one. Apparently, all the crazies arrived early this morning, got their bracelets, and left. The rest will turn up tomorrow. So no insanity to report just yet, but I do have high hopes in the days to come. But I have my seat ticket and my wristband and that's what's important. See?

Elizabeth is STILL not amused.


5:30PM, Sunday August 17, 2008
We begin the trek back around the stadium. Trouble is, we don't know where to go to get the bus, and no one else seems to know either. All I do know is that if we're not on the 6:14 bus, we'll be waiting until 7:14 and that doesn't sound like so much fun.

5:40PM, Sunday August 17, 2008
Still walking.

5:50PM, Sunday August 18th, 2008
Yup. Still walking.

6PM, Sunday August 18, 2008
We make it with 14 minutes to spare! It's mighty hot and we're thirsty.

6:20PM, Sunday August 18, 2008
No bus.

6:30PM, Sunday August 18, 2008
Still no bus

6:45PM, Sunday August 18, 2008
Still no bus. But we've made new friends! One was very quick to inform us he made it to Hollywood in Season 3. The other equally quickly piped in that she's a professional singer who splits her time between 3 bands and hosting a karaoke...thing. Elizabeth wastes no time in informing them she's not there to audition and just needed another excuse to laugh at me. And I...well. I make 'em laugh.

7PM, Sunday August 18, 2008
Bus arrives! And it's full! So we stand in the aisle and piss off all the people just wanting to return to the City after their relaxing weekend at the Shore and regale anyone in earshot with our tales. Our Season 3 Veteran talks us through his journey in the audition process and to Hollywood. Turns out, he was a young child of 16 and now wishes to return an older, wiser 21 year old. Sheesh. I feel ancient. But it's good to hear his take and be braced in what to expect. This entire process is going to be about luck and looks. Singing well won't hurt, either, but it's a clear and easy third.

And it's hilarious that I want this, more than I've wanted most other things in this world. Weirder still that I don't hear the nagging in my head that I usually hear leading into an audition. I guess I just understand that this whole thing is almost entirely out of my hands.

Call it grace, call it luck, call it good vibes, call it prayers, call it what you will...but whatever you got, could you please send some my way on Tuesday?