Well, I just went on my little free trip and I must say that it is nice to come back to reality. I think I was letting my ego get carried away from being treated like a celeb for three days. Yep, that was pretty much how I felt.

I was a little skeptical about this whole deal to begin with obviously. I knew that Ford had set up this “Escape from Boredom” getaway for twenty bloggers. They were going to whisk us away to LA to do participate in a variety of events like seeing a taping of On the Lot. But other than that I knew very little. I didn’t know anything about the other bloggers, I didn’t know what the other activities were and I didn’t even know where the hell I supposed to go from the airport. This is not normally how I travel!

So I am on the plane to LA and the first embarrassing thing happens to me. Yeah I know, I have been only traveling for about two hours at this point! So Ford was generous enough to a flight with a layover in Denver in a middle seat (Ugh). Not the best way to travel economy if you have to go across country. Luckily I was next to two business travelers, which if you have to sit next to anyone on a plane they are the ones to sit with! The in flight movie was Premonition with Sandra Bullock. She is a depressing housewife whose husband dies and finds that the next day she wakes up he is alive, then dead, then alive - I know it is stupid. But her husband does die (more than once) and Sandra has some pretty emotional moments. I’m a nervous flier I guess, and a little anxious about my trip, so I guess the drama effected me and I start freaking crying at the movie. Huge tears welled up and I sort of forgot where I was and they started falling down my face. So I am trying to rub my face like I have allergies or something to cover up the fact that I am crying. Crying on a plane next to two grown men at a a movie one reviewer said only could have been worse had it been 120 minutes long. God I am such a sucker.

I get off the plane and head to baggage claim and I am nervous as hell because I am trying to figure out what to do if I am escorted to a broke-ass unmarked by a shady character that looks like he is going to kidnap me. There was a guy there with my name on a sign who looked ok enough. My ride pulls up and it’s a huge black navigator with tinted windows and 20″ rims, shiny and new. My 270 lb bodygaurd/driver (ok, he’s not my bodyguard but I pretended) loaded my bags. This was the LA lifestyle I was about to be treated to for the next two days. And I was freaking high as a kite.

From there I got taken straight to the CBS studios where we were set to see the taping of “On the Lot”. I was told I was the last blogger to arrive and they had called the driver about a hundred times during the ride because I was cutting it really close to show time. I got shuffled into the greenroom and then to the studio where all the bloggers are sitting wide-eyed and ready. After very quick introductions with the few people around me the crew starts coming around to check us. They checked for distracting logos on T-shirts, bulky sweatshirts that may catch attention, anything that could make us look less than perfect I guess. Then a rep walks up with Mark Burnett. He is a cheery guy with the cutest little accent. I realize I am sitting about two feet from one of the most successful guys in television right now and they ask us if we have any questions. I swear in this situation your mind goes blank. Normally you would have a million things to say but when you actually have the opportunity you cant think. But I remembered that I had seen this article I thought he was in. Something strange came out of me! It was a person with balls who just raised her skinny little arm and chimed up, “I will feel like an idiot if I am wrong, but weren’t you named one of the 25 or so biggest mavericks of today by Details magazine. How did that feel?” I swear he was a little embarrassed and he humbly replied in length but can be summed up in one quote, “You have to learn to live with a pat on the back or a kick in the balls.” You have to love a guy like this.

I had only seen the show “On the Lot” once and I wasn’t particularly drawn to it. I liked the short films but and the celeb judges but otherwise it was a little dry. I felt equally that way watching it in person, but now that it has come down to five guys who are actually pretty good filmmakers the shorts were actually really good. They were pretty funny. Penny Marshall, Carrie Fisher and Gary Stone were the judges this episode with a cameo by Jerry O’Connell (who was seated in the audience and looks just as good in person as he does on TV).

After the show the rep comes over and asks if we want to meet the judges and brings us over to the set. Gary Ross was pretty nice and said something cheesy like follow your dreams or something. I had to imdb the guy to know what he had done so I felt a little like a fake. Carrie Fisher was really short and cute and asked us more questions than we asked her. I wanted to hang with her the whole night and I got the feeling that if we asked she just may have considered it. Penny Marshall was … interesting. She didn’t really seem to have time to talk and the little she did say was incomprehensible. But she directed a League of Their Own so I wont say anymore. Except that she wore converse sneakers covered in blue sequins. OK, that is it.

From there we went out to the bungalows where the contestants were staying and they joined us for cocktail hour. I am tired and hungry by now so I could have been a little more social but I did get a chance to talk to a couple of the contestants. Like Jason, the one that dresses in real bright colors, and his wife. He is doing well on the show and he is pretty cool to talk to. His wife was a southern sweetheart too. DivineReality and I sat and talked to her for at least an hour. She looked absolutely exhausted though. While her hubby reaches for the chance of a lifetime she raises their kid alone in Kentucky while working her job as a nurse and takes care of the business Jason owns while he is away. The winner of On the Lot is Jason’s Wife in my opinion.

The whole group now gets taken to The Social for dinner. This place was freaking cool! The place is the restored Hollywood Athletic Club. It was swanky as hell. A bunch of people that worked on the show including the cast (minus wives) showed up to have dinner with us, followed by drinks. At this point I really was starting to get to know the bloggers. I sat next to TheAdventureBlog and he showed me pics on his iphone from his recent trip to Africa. The guy was super interesting!

From there we traveled to the hotel. Most people had checked in the afternoon and seen it but this was my first sighting. The Roosevelt Hotel is the most amazing hotel I have ever been to. I am going to use the word swanky again here to describe it. After I checked in and brought my bags to my room I met everyone else poolside at the Tropicana Bar. Yep, ladies and gentlemen I was officially let into the party by a beefy security guard who drew back a velvet rope for me and checked me of of THE list. I was living the life! But not for too long because it was 2:30 am my time when I was chatting with BitterTonic and called it.

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