Adventures in AI & ATL (Part One)

The ever so popular show, American Idol, premieres this week for it's 9th season. You may remember that I auditioned last summer for the show in Atlanta and didn't make it. I knew that I wanted to be sure and document the entire experience for myself and also for all my friends and family to read about my experience there. At first, I was anxious to write about it, eager to make note of every single memory. Then, after writing about day of the experience, I was over it. So, I decided that, in honor of the Season 9 premiere, I'd finish my little memoir on my AI adventures and share them with you all! I'll start today with part 1 of 4. Oh and by the way, they're supposed to air the Atlanta auditions this week, so be sure to look for me and my big hair!

Monday, June 15^th 2009

Brooke and I left Asheville around 4:30 for Hotlanta! We encountered one heck of a downpour along the way, but thankfully, it didn’t last too long. We stopped at Five Guys for dinner (a first for both of us) and found it to be a good time! If you ever go, you should share the fries…way too many for one person!

Brooke’s spontaneous nature, plus a little excitement, rubbed off on me during our drive through downtown ATL. I very quickly decided that we should take the exit for the GA Dome to see if people were lined up for auditions yet. We only saw a few people sitting on the side walk (camping out was not permitted…even though people were totally sleeping on the sidewalk the next morning). It was good to be able to scope out the whole place and see what we were really getting ourselves into that next morning. Thankfully, we made it out of downtown without getting lost or having to do too many U-Turns!

We finally arrived at our friend Heather’s house around 9:30 that night. She so graciously opened her home to our crazy schedule for the week. Her cozy home and great hospitality were perfect for the crazy hours we were going to be keeping.

I would like to say that even though we had to get up at 4am, we went to bed early and got some good sleep…but that would be lying. We finally went to bed around midnight, but being the idiot that I am, I drank too much Diet Coke right before bed. I NEVER drink caffeine after about 6 or 7pm, so drinking it at 10:30 at night was not a smart move on my part. I was WIRED all night long. I tossed and turned and tossed and turned and tossed and turned some more. At first I thought that I couldn’t sleep because I was nervous, but then after really thinking about it, I realized that I wasn’t nervous. I mean, really, we were just going to register…why would I be nervous about standing in line and getting a paper bracelet put on my arm? At any rate, I was frustrated most of the night and, of course, was able to go to sleep about 10 minutes before my alarm went off. Awesome. Thankfully, Brooke got about 4 hours of sleep, so at least one of us would be somewhat rested enough to get us into downtown again!

Part 2 coming tomorrow!!