Once upon I time, I took a job at Fox 26 KNPN in St. Joseph, MO. It just so happens that we carry Ellen in our lineup. So I mentioned an upcoming trip to Los Angeles to our Sales Manager, Chris Schmitter (aka that crazy Northwest Fan from the Chamber Meetings aka the sweetest woman in the world). I asked her "is there any chance I could get Ellen tickets?" She replied "I don't know, but I will ask around." Fast forward about 5 weeks and an email arrives - I have two VIP tickets to the Ellen show on the very day I land in Los Angeles.
Two things to mention here: 1. Never ever be afraid to ask a question. The worse thing that can happen is you get a "no." 2. I have never prayed for good weather as hard as I did when I realized the small window of time I had to get from LAX to the Warner Brothers Lot, Gate 3.
I had two tickets to all my events in Los Angeles, so I invited my husband. He had no interest in attending any events requiring "fancy clothes", so he stayed home and I took my first born, Jessica. It was the fairest thing to do. We go in order of age, just like Christmas.
We land. We take a cab to our hotel. We freshen up. We take another cab to Warner Brothers and make a ROOKIE mistake. We don't give the driver the exact address of Ellen, so he drops us off at the main entrance of Warner Brothers, which is a far cry from Ellen. So we walked for quite a while and found Gate 3. We checked in and then went looking for lunch.
Honestly - we ate - we didn't just drink wine. Honest. I promise!
Back to Gate Three to for Ellen. We were SO excited!! We had VIP tickets!!
Now you may be wondering - what does that mean exactly? It means you have tickets into the audience - for certain. No chance you will be stuck in the Riff Raff room. It also means you sit in this cute little roped off area of the parking garage. Yes - you wait in line in a parking garage. Its quite lovely, though. There are vending machines and shade. And a little Ellen kiosk.
Jessica works for a Charitable Group called #GoShoutLove. They are all about loving and lifting up families with babies born in medical crisis. Her goal was to connect Ellen with #GoShoutLove, so she wrapped a beautiful package full of #GoShoutLove Swag for Ellen.
Isn't it just adorable?!?! (Meaning the gift. But I know we can all agree, I do make adorable daughters too!) We made lots of noise and acted like crazy fun girls and made great new friends:
Amy, Mindy, Kristal & her cutie husband, Ryan
Ryan again - and let me just tell you. He does the Carlton like nobodys business.
He took this selfie with my phone when I wasn't looking. So this was a sweet surprise!
Now you may be wondering - "why isn't Jessica in these pictures?" Well that is because the producers fell in love with her and whisked her away - straight out of the VIP section!!! She gave her gift to a producer who promised her it would make its way directly to Ellen!! #GoShoutLove
Can you Shout Love!!!!!!
Jessica was gone FOREVER!! I was so happy the new friends we met in the VIP section took me in as one of their own. I could hardly contain my excitement. She finally came back as we were being led into the Riff Raff Room. And then guess what happened?! Those new friends we met - gave #GoShoutLove a $50 donation!!! We all hugged it out and cried!! #GoShoutLove!!
Let me remind you - all this happened before we even got into the studio!!
Once inside, we were amazed at how cozy the studio was - they split up our new "family" but we kept giving each other thumbs up throughout the show and had the time of our lives - so much dancing and laughing - it was amazing! The guests for the show were Mariah Carey, Dax Shepard & Sharon Von Etten
And then this happened:
Be sure and watch the video to see what happened!! And then our facebook pages BLEW UP with screenshots of our reactions:
And THEN - there was yet another surprise!!! We were asked to tape one more segment - with Jennifer Lopez!!!! Now, this segment will air tomorrow so I can't share any pictures with you - but I will tell you this. Jennifer Lopez is the most beautiful human being I have ever met in person. She is stunning. And so nice!!
After the taping, the announcer asked for Jessica Santo to wait in the studio to speak with a producer. They invited us back to tape again the next day because they thought Jessica would be super fun for an on air game - but we couldn't do it because we had the Critics Choice Awards the next day. Darn the luck! But they have Jessica's number and all the information about #GoShoutLove.
It would mean the world to us if you could contact Ellen via your favorite social media and post this picture:
Use the #GoShoutLove Hashtag and tell Ellen to pick #GoShoutLove Babies for her next big giveaway! Oh, and be sure and tag Jessica and I!!!
Honestly, I am still recovering from the Ellen experience. It will be a memory I will treasure for the rest of my life.
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I will blog about the rest of my trip to Los Angeles later this week - I just thought the Ellen experience deserved its own post. It w as INCREDIBLE!!!
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