Pbmom's Blog

I woke up initially at 4:00 a.m. on Wednesday (my body was on Houston time still) but did go back to sleep until 7:15 when I decided to get up and go for a walk to a local Walgreens for supplies (about a half-mile away) to make my sign for James for the American Idol finale. There were not many people out in the morning yet. The temperature was cool and the sky was cloudless. I enjoyed my stroll through downtown LA.

Walkway between the hotel that led to Nokia

View from my hotel before my walk

Upon arriving back at the hotel, my friend had already showered. Not to delay breakfast any longer, I decided to just go to breakfast as I was and would shower after we got back.

We went to look for any restaurants open for breakfast other than Starbucks and were surprised at the work that had progressed already on laying out the red carpet for that night’s show at Nokia.

Nokia Theater the morning of Idol finale

Red carpet being laid outside of The Nokia Theater

The Farm of Beverly Hills was open. Roberto was our server. I ordered a bowl of fruit and a side order of turkey sausage. Glicel had eggs and the usual accompaniments. I did not want to eat too much as we were going to be meeting my brother-in-law, Peter, for lunch at noon. Just a few bites of my food satisfied the hunger quickly.

Menu at The Farm of Beverly Hills

Glicel being a good sport with all the pictures.

We walked back to the hotel, noting even more progress on the event.

Walkway back to the hotel.

Progress on the red carpet

After returning to the hotel, I took a shower. Since Glicel is the creative one, I put her to work on the sign. She did a terrific job.

Glicel getting to work on the sign.

The final product; in retrospect, black was a bad choice.

The second part of the sign.

Having gotten 2 hours of sleep, my butt was dragging and I remember at some point we went down to the lobby’s gift shop and I got some caffeine pills and made a new friend.

Leaving the signs to dry, we walked over to Rock’N Fish to meet my brother-in-law. A fellow Fox VIP person, Phillip Fritts, asked me to take a picture outside the Nokia with a link to his website.

Click on this to go to Phillip's website

I saw the doors to the Nokia were open, and I peeked in there. The attendant said I was not allowed in. Since we were not allowed to bring cameras in later, I asked if I could just run in (with her watching me), take a picture of inside, and then come back out. She told me I could take a picture from the door. Nice compromise.

Inside the Nokia Theater. Ironically, our seats were going to be in LOGE

As we continued to make our way to the restaurant, we saw people taking pictures in front of an American Idol sign and we decided to do the same.

This IS American Idol.

We finally arrived at Rock’N Fish. Peter was already waiting at a lovely outside table and had ordered calamari as an appetizer. He looked great. Since this was an adventure, I decided to try the calamari. It was not what I was expecting (a good thing), but I would likely not order it on my own in the future. I wanted to make sure I had room for the crab cake! We chatted about family and work. As our meal progressed, so did the crowds.

My brother-in-law, Peter.

We took a stroll over to The Staples Center, across the street from Nokia, and got to see a different perspective of the red carpet area being laid out.

Across from Nokia, where the stars would arrive.

We also took some pictures in front of Staples. Peter showed me where we would be going to pick up our tickets for tonight’s show about an hour later, and it looked pretty easy to access. We turned around and walked back towards the hotel, noting a Grammy museum on the way that I wished we had had the time to go visit.

Magic Johnson at Staples Center

One of hundreds of Grammys on the sidewalk.

At the hotel, we went to the business center where I posted on Facebook and Twitter. It was then I found out who was in the lobby the previous night (the ones I just missed). Her daughter was making a sign for the show as well. Then, it was time to freshen up our makeup and put on our outfits. We needed to be at the tent at 3:00 to meet with people from the Fox VIP program, to pick up our tickets and take some pictures. Our instructions said to leave cameras and cell phones at the hotel (if we took them to Nokia, we would have to check them in and getting those after the show would take awhile). I had dinner plans with a friend after the show, so I needed to have quicker access to my cell phone.

When we exited the backside of the hotel, there were signs that said Fox and press with an arrow pointing to the right, which was logically the right way to go. I was surprised how tight everything had gotten in the short time we were gone. When we got to the corner where we would have turned left, it was blocked off completely and we were told to go through the garage. The arrows for Fox and press pointed to an area where there was an American Idol sign, but they had no idea what I was talking about or the names I gave them who worked for Fox. They suggested I walk back past the hotel to the area where the tents were (the area where I had my picture taken before Rock’N Fish). I did not think this was correct, but it was always possible the location was changed. As we are walking back, I passed a previous American Idol contestant walking briskly in the opposite direction, but my mind went blank on his name (24 hours later I remembered it was Kevin Covais). You could hear in the background the sounds of screams and applause as stars made their way onto the red carpet.

Right at the Nokia, but prior to the tent, we got stopped and were informed that we could not get in without a ticket. I told them the story, showed them my Fox VIP badge with my name on it, and that I needed to get to THAT tent to GET my tickets. They were kind enough to let me pass.

Once at that tent, the man did not know what I was talking about. Another man came over and told us where we needed to go (where my brother-in-law Peter showed us earlier). I explained that it was basically cut off to us and asked him to please tell us how to get there as I was from out of town and was not familiar with the area. He told us to cut through in front of Nokia and that would get us on the street and to hang a right. As we approached that area, we were stopped again. Jorge said he had never seen my badge. I told him that was because I was the only one at the entire event that had one and explained what the program was, that I won a contest, needed to get my tickets, and that man over at the tent told us to cut through here to get to that street beyond the theater to get to the Fox tent to get the tickets. If this did not work, I was going to have to go back to the hotel, up to my room and call the contact person to let them know of my difficulties. A few minutes of pleading eventually persuaded him, and I promised him he could watch us as we stayed on the outside, going nowhere near the theater.

Finally seeing the unobstructed path to the tent, I felt relief, but also a sense of embarrassment at being so late. I should have planned for potential obstacles.

After meeting Scott, Jessica came over to say hello. After talking to these people for a long time, it was great to finally meet them in person. We would be sitting with them and I let out a little yelp of happiness that made them chuckle. They were my rock stars at this event. It would give me time to talk with them more and get to know them. Scott refused to come take pictures at first with us, but had a change of heart, which made my heart very happy. I don’t have these pictures yet, but hopefully will post them when I get them. It was now about 3:45 p.m. and we entered the Nokia Theater for the big event that started at 5 p.m.

Next up–The American Idol finale show (yes, it deserves its own entry).