Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Biggest Loser continued...

If you're just now joining the story please see the first part of the Biggest Loser adventure....

So I barely remember Angie returning to the room before I was sound asleep. Poor Angie now had to contend with the girls next door trying their best to whisper and not giggle and with me snoring away in the bed next to her. I don't know if she slept that night but the three hours I got to sleep were rock solid. I just remember waking up to a once again disheveled Angie frantically digging through her bag in the dark. If you know me at all I am not a morning person so in the only voice I could manage to squeeze out I told her she could turn on the light. Angie threw her bag onto the bed and with eyes as big as watermelons and her hair wrapped in a towel she told me she had forgotten her make-up. A blog cannot do justice to the panic and emotion that was in her voice as she tells me she needs to borrow mine. Again, if you know me at all you know I DON'T WEAR MAKE UP so what little make-up I brought is not the make-up Angie is use to leaving the house with. I stumbled out of bed with crusty eyes to find my make-up for her, thinking to myself "this is not good...I need her to calm down!" I turned around in time to see her find her make-up bag and I don't know if I vocalized to her that I needed her to calm down but I certainly thought it again as I walked into the bathroom and closed the door. If you know Angie and I this is a total role reversal we are having at the time...I'm the feeler, she's the thinker...I get wound up, she's cool, calm and collected. Part of me just wants to enjoy that she is beside herself but all I can do is try to not get into a panic myself. We successfully get dressed and get our bags packed and leave the hotel on time. IRONY of the day...we spin through the drive thru at McDonalds for breakfast on our way to the casting call for the Biggest Loser, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

AND THE REAL ADVENTURES BEGIN...
We try to pull into a pay to park lot and a non-American parking attendant looks less than thrilled to see us and asked if we are here for "that TV show"...after looking at each other and clearly being offended that he assumed we were here for the "fatty show" he told us that we needed to go park somewhere else. Now I am starting to get a little panicked because we wanted to be in the line at 7:00am and every overweight person we see walking toward the Riverwalk Mall is one more person who is going to be ahead of us in line. Have I mentioned I'm a little competitive? We finally get parked and head towards the mall with our bags, our chairs and a cooler...time to tailgate. The doors for the casting call didn't open until 10:00am and we didn't know how long we would be waiting so we came prepared. Despite our parking set back we managed to still be in line early enough to be within the barricades and be one of the first 225 in line. Yay us! I wish I had gotten a picture of the ladies who were first in line who had slept outside all night. They looked like you know what and had to have frozen their big butts off. Getting up at 4:00am and being there by 7:00am was plenty for Angie and I. So now that we are here and not going anywhere for a while we might as well make friends, right?

If you read my previous post you know that I said every coonass in Louisiana came out for this casting call and I wasn't lying. There were five women in front of us from Thibodeaux, Louisiana who looked like they rolled out of bed to come. None of them had an application and didn't even know there was an application for the show that they needed to bring with them. All of them were chain smoking in the line...Lord help us all. They certainly kept us entertained. I was highly amused by all the people giving each other advise on weight loss as though they had been successful, building alliances as though they were already on the show...just hilarious. Angie and I just sat in our chairs and took it all in, what else could you do? At one point I offered my chair to a lady who was having back spasms. At first she declined and when I insisted she made sure she wasn't going to break my chair because of her size. At that point I just felt sorry for her and realized that I wasn't as bad off as I thought. After about 30 minutes she stood up to give me my chair back and I noticed that there was a butt sweat crease down the middle of my canvas chair and I had the hardest time keeping my composure. The best part was that it was rather chilly that morning so there was no reason for there to be sweat in my chair. Again, Angie and I just laughed and took it all in. If you know Angie at all you know she was incredibly grossed out by the butt sweat incident and I thought it was hilarious! Needless to say I waited a few moments to let the chair air out before I sat down because I didn't want a sweat line on my khakis.

Time for some pics... here is Angie looking all sassy that morning in line and our chair friend.




Not long after the chair incident our new friend said she was going to find a bathroom and asked if either of us needed to go. I walked with her to a hotel just past the mall to go the bathroom and had yet another fun encounter when someone asked us where the line was for the Biggest Loser. The friend I was with got offended and looked at me and said "do we look like we are here for the Biggest Loser" and I just chuckled and said "yay girl we do!" The walk to the bathroom wasn't that far from where the line was but my new friend wanted to try to find a shortcut back to the line and I begin to have those prideful thoughts of "has she seen the show? If she can't walk this far to the bathroom she can't make it on the show." I've also failed to mention that this friend is there with her sweet supportive and skinny boyfriend (how does this happen?). We got back to the line and Angie decided she was going to go to the bathroom now that we were back. Enter one of the highlights of my day...our friend says to Angie, "can I sit in your chair while you're gone?" I had just come back from the bathroom and I still almost wet myself!

Fast forward...
So around 9:30am members of the NBC crew started mingling in the crowd and handing out a one page front and back application. This application was just a mini version of questions that had been asked on the lengthy applications so it was easy to fill out for those of us who had come prepared. However, the ladies in front of us from Thibodeaux were quite humorous. For example one of the questions simply said..food is..and we heard them read the question and one of them just yelled...GOOD! Among other things on the application were questions about your height and weight, obviously because this is a weight loss show. One of the ladies said she had no idea how much she weighed because she hadn't been on a scale in years. Another chimed in and said she had been on a scale but her weight didn't register. Angie looked at me and said "praise Him...I may not like what my scale says but at least it still registers!" Amen!! Now curiosity was killing this fat cat to know what these ladies had put down on their application for their weight. So that you get the full scope of this story let me first show you a picture of one of our friends from Thibodeaux....



This is the friend who said she didn't know how much she weighed because she hadn't been on a scale in years. At some point in the line she was leaned over the rail with her application in hand and I saw that she put on her form that she was 5'2 inches and weighed 250lbs. My jaw just dropped and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I honestly was heartbroken for her because she probably thinks that she weighs 250lbs. Here is where I have to be brutally honest...I weigh 289lbs and this lady was twice my size. If she was cast on the show she would be crushed to get on those scales and find out how much she truly weighed. Angie and I were blown away and I was a little offended, to be honest.

10:00am rolls around and the casting directors make their appearance...and now I am a little nervous. Our chair friend begins to survey the crowd to see who she thinks is "camera worthy" and begins to talk to Angie and I as though we have all three made it on the show and said she thought we would all three be great roommates. Our seemingly normal, yet sweaty friend just moved into the weird category. The line began to move as they started taking groups of 15 people in for group interviews. Every time the line moved my stomach got a little more unsettled but I got a little more determined that this was our destiny...to answer Jillian's question..YES, Angie and I have what it takes to be the next Biggest Losers!!

We're finally to the front of the line with only one pair in front of us...our "250lb" friend from Thibodeaux and her partner. The next time the little cutie from NBC appears it is game on. Angie and I interviewed each other all the way to New Orleans the night before so we were ready for whatever question they threw at us. We knew the way the interviews were done was that we would be in a group of 15 and that the questions would be asked to the whole group and that you just had to jump in and answer. We knew we didn't want to come across as abrasive or talk too much but we definitely wanted to make sure that we got to answer a question. So the NBC cutie appeared and our time had arrived. Our Thibodeaux friend had a meltdown at the door and started crying uncontrollably and saying she didn't know if she could do it. I just looked at Angie and chuckled to myself as I thought.."are you serious? It's an interview lady...we aren't loading the bus right now to go to the ranch!" Angie and I both made eye contact and then stepped to the sides of her and looked at the NBC cutie as if to say non-verbally "we're ready if she's not!" She finally pulled herself together and the journey through the mall to where the interviews were being conducted began. Who knew that the 15 that started this journey would not end the journey at the other end of the mall. Slowly our Thibodeaux friend that was at the front of the line was now at the end of the line....then sitting on a bench asking the NBC cutie to stop for a moment. She couldn't breathe and couldn't go any further and then there was the awkward conversation where the NBC guy told her that we had to keep going. We left our Thibodeaux friend behind...this was war but she wasn't a teammate so leaving a man behind was the only option. Brutal, huh? Again I thought to myself...has she seen the show? Two episodes ago they had to pull an 18 wheeler and she can't walk through the mall with a piece of paper in her hand! Wowzers. And on we walked down the mall and up to the second floor.

So as we stood in the holding area waiting for our turn to go into the interview area my stomach grew more unsettled the longer we stood there. Which casting director would we get? Did I wear my Auburn necklace for nothing? Will we stand out? Rumble...oh no, and I looked at Angie and told her that I really had to go to the bathroom. Angie just looked at me with all the seriousness in the world and told me that if I crapped my pants she was going in as a single and she would pretend she didn't know me. GEE THANKS!

Again...this blog is getting long and I don't want it to get lost so I am going to save it and start another entry. Stay tuned....

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

do you have what it takes to be the next BIGGEST LOSER?

Oh I have been needing to write this blog for over a week now and time has just not permitted. It has been an insanely busy week since my Biggest Loser adventure. What Biggest Loser adventure you ask? Well I am an avid watcher and fan of the NBC show the Biggest Loser and have been for many years. Who couldn't love Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels who make the obese people of America hate the day they were born and curse every fattening food they ever put in their mouth? I've always admired the contestants who would get up on national television in spandex and sports bras and weigh in for all the world to see and as I watch with admiration I am usually eating some "not good for you" dinner or a big bowl of ice cream. Oh the shame! The last few episodes right as they have gone into commercial break Jillian, in all her skinniness, has come across the screen and said "DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE THE NEXT BIGGEST LOSER?"...and I wish I could say that I took the first step to answering that question, but I didn't. I have always wanted to go on the show but have
never even gone to the website to download the application. However, one day my friend and co-worker Angie called me to her office and said she had something for me and before I knew it she pulled an application out of her desk drawer and told me to fill it out that we were applying for the show.

AND SO THE ADVENTURE BEGINS...
I never knew an application process could be so brutal or life changing. As I set out to answer the 10 page application so began the soul searching as to why I have been overweight my entire life and discovering that I'm an emotional eater, who knew? Quite an empowering thing to discover for a feeler personality who is ALWAYS emotional...better get that under control or I'll be 800lbs in no time. Probably the hardest question I had to answer was about what my closest friends would say my weakest character traits are. JUST A NOTE...if you ever have one of those questions...make up the answer instead of asking them unless you're ready to have your world rocked! For three weeks I processed how to learn and grow and be better from knowing what my weaknesses were and how they were affecting my job, my relationships, my health, etc.

After finishing the application, finally, it was time to make our video to send in to the casting directors...or so we thought. Angie went to the website to see what needed to be included in the video and discovered that NEW ORLEANS had been added as an open casting call city. Say it ain't say! So on March 20th we headed to the Big Easy along with every fat coonass in Louisiana (pardon my language...but they were!).

Our adventure started on Friday afternoon when we headed out of Pineville, LA going south for what we hoped and prayed would be a life changing weekend. Needless to say we were both on edge. Before we ever got on the expressway Angie had dropped her cell phone, the cap to her drink and goodness knows what else between the crack in my seats...she was a little disheveled. We both finally calmed down and survived the three hour drive there. Our night was spent deciding what to wear because we needed to stand out in the crowd. We had done our homework and knew that one of the casting directors was an Auburn fan so I wore khakis, a white and orange shirt and denim jacket and sported my bling Auburn necklace...I am not ashamed to do whatever it takes to stand out...Auburn fans unite. After picking out our clothes we attempted to go to bed only to disover that there was a youth group staying on our hall that obviously wasn't getting up at 4:00am like we were. After trying for a while to ignore them and go to sleep, I saw the frustrated Angie arise from her bed and just said as I was laying there, "and she's up!" Angie walked next door to asked the girls to be quiet and told them we had to get up at 4am and that we could hear every word they said. The best part was that when she knocked on the door you could hear everyone of them gasp and someone said, "it's the po po"...too funny!




This post has gotten really long and this truly is a great story so I will continue the rest of the adventure tomorrow! Stay tuned....

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

weekend project

I got the itch this weekend to work in the yard....which I didn't budget for this month. I picked up a few plants to satisfy my desire for now. My big project turned out to be redoing my Adirondack chairs that I bought four years ago. Truth be told they probably have seen their better days but I just want to get one more summer out of them. I had to add some nails to them to secure them and then sand them down because they were looking very weathered. I decided to paint them white for this summer...which I wrestled with because I liked the wood look but I was ready for different. And hey I wont lie...I had two cans of white spray paint which helped make my decision a little easier. I was quite proud of how they turned out and look forward to enjoying the warm weather in my refinished chairs.

Here are the before and after pictures:



The Birthday Dog

March 2nd was Matti's 3rd birthday....my baby girl isn't a baby anymore! Now of course she doesn't think that. In fact the morning of her birthday she crawled up in my lap while I was reading my Bible and drinking coffee and put her head on my shoulder just to snuggle and get my attention. I just can't believe she's been in my life for three years. I honestly have a hard time remembering life without her. I definitely treat her like my child so I know many of you were probably shocked to not get a birthday party invitation in the mail...but she did get birthday presents, fear not. She isn't much of a toy dog anymore so she got a peanut butter flavored bone and a new ball to play fetch with in the backyard. Shame on me though....the ball is too big for her mouth so when she runs to get it she can't pick it up! Oops! She also got a special birthday meal. Usually she only gets dry food but for her birthday I picked up some can food and she LOVED IT. Of course I took pictures of the birthday girl so enjoy.




Monday, March 1, 2010

Let it Snow!

So February 12, 2010 was a day for the history books...the only day in history where there was recorded snow on the ground in all 50 states from the peaks of mountains/volcanoes of Hawaii to the panhandle of Florida. On Thursday afternoon the announcement was made that classes for Friday were cancelled at Louisiana College and I just chuckled to myself as I went home and settled in for a Criminal Minds marathon extravaganza. We already had Monday and Tuesday off for Mardi Gras so this was going to be quite an amazing vacation now that Friday was a free day as well. I was scheduled to speak at a Girl's Purity Conference in Jennings, LA that weekend so I had not stocked up on groceries for the weekend. I honestly thought there was no way we were actually going to get snow...AND THEN IT BEGAN. I got out my new camera because I am always looking for something to take pictures of and began trying to be artsy with the snow falling. Nothing impressive so I closed the door and settled back into the couch. Less than an 30 minutes later the yard was covered completely and my neighbors were out playing and then the picture taking adventure really began. Before I knew it I had taken hundreds of pictures of LC's campus blanketed in snow that night and the following morning. Here are just a few of my favorites. Luckily it didn't stay for long or I would have been one hungry camper stuck in apartment 403 with no groceries but man was it beautiful!









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