L.A. Story

I must preface this post by saying no matter if I lose my elite status soon, I will forever be grateful to the staff of United Airlines for getting me to Chicago safely late last night in the worst snow storm I’ve seen in a long time. Thank you. Now on to the good stuff.
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Maybe it was the woman on my outbound flight who screamed into her cell phone, “I HAVE to get out of the Midwest they are all farmers here, even in the big cities” that gave me the jitters. Or maybe it was the fact that I rented the ugliest, cheapest car possible in the LA “what kind of car do you drive” culture. Bottom line – I wasn’t going to be able to pass off being even remotely cool during my brief visit to LA this week. Even if I did wash my hair and buy a new suit from BCBG.  You may be able to take the girl out of the Midwest, but you can’t take the Midwest out of the girl.

 

But armed in my Saturn Aura (not a bad ride, actually) fresh off a four-plus hour flight from Chicago, I was ready to make it big time at my first blog event. After screaming at every living human being at Budget car rental for giving me a non working Buick (I still have a “little” left of when I lived in NYC) I hit the road on LA’s mighty freeways en route to the Warner Brothers studio to the set of the CBS show, “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” where I was to meet the cast and hang out with other bloggers to help publicize their upcoming shows (it starts up again in March).

Totally clueless about driving in LA and thinking the freeways were remotely like Chicago’s (it could take you an hour to drive 5 miles), I gave myself 2 hours to get from the airport to Burbank (according to MapQuest, 22 miles) where the studios were. Thirty minutes later, secure in the parking lot with my guest pass at-the-ready, I wondered how the hell I was going to waste an hour-and-a-half in a city I barely know (it got so bad that I considered camping out at Taco Bell, or as my hubby calls it, “Croucho Crotcho Smell.”).

So I did what any young, vital woman with an hour-and-a-half to kill in LA, ahem, Burbank, does. I sat in my rental car, BlackBerrying and reading People magazine (ok, what is UP with the astronaut lady?) You could say I was sh**ing in my pants nervous a little anxious. I’m so new to this blogging thing. What if no one liked me? What if I messed up? What if I fell walking in my really cute but really uncomfortable shoes (Charles David, Zappos, if you care)?

Online, I may exude self-confidence, but deep down I’m just a little ol’ nerdy mom from Chicago who just screwed herself out of a month’s two months of shopping to fly across the country to meet some really popular mommies (and daddy). “A boondoggle,” my husband called it. But whatever the case, there I was, at a television studio, my reputation and persona soon to be exposed, wondering why I was even invited to such an event.

The time arrived to finally leave my car. Wobbly, I meandered to the set where I was met by the ever-energetic Beth Feldman, publicist at CBS, who coordinated the gathering. I was starting to relax. Okay, she is normal, I’m normal, we’re all good. Then I met Yvonne of Joy Unexpected (we were nervous together), Jim Tim of LA Daddy (so so sorry!), The Manic Mommies, Mindy of The Mommy Blog and the uber-popular (and super cool!) Liz, a.k.a. Mom-101/ Cool Mom Picks. I thought I’d died and gone to blogger heaven. After a bit of exchanging of business cards (My friend Tamara made me my own “blog” cards, blards? see I AM a dork), it was time to “record” an intro to our personalized “Christine” set visit video (I’ll get it sometime next month along with photos of the set visit to post on my blog – that’s old school media for you).

For those of you who don’t know me that well, I don’t do a few things – clingy babies, my own laundry, and video cameras. I’d much rather be behind the scenes than talking to a lens. So when someone asked me to say something into a huge television camera, I freaked.  Please, don’t tell me how stupid I sound if when I post it online. Thankfully, Dawn and Amy from Mommy Track’d assured me I was doing just fine. I really needed that boost of confidence from total strangers because we were then corralled to a Q&A session with the cast about the show, the characters, mommyhood, etc. The cast was sitting in a “press conference” type row behind a table and us bloggers were fashioned in a semi-circle facing them.  I made the unfortunate decision of sitting on the near end of the semi-circle. That meant that I had to ask the first question.  Dumb beginner’s luck. I’m so not cut out for this.

My question: “Where does Christine shop and how does she find time to accessorize?” (no, I’m not joking, but it was way better than singing “Like A Virgin” in front of the whole University of Michigan football team, true story). Julia Louis-Dreyfus, star of the show, looked at me like I was wearing black socks with my navy suit and pointed to the woman in charge of wardrobe. Wow that was quick. Next question. My 15 minutes 5 seconds of fame were over.

Ok, I must divert. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is HOT. I can’t believe how cute she is in person. So tiny, perfect skin and she was wearing the most fabulous gold and black heels (cameras were banned in the studio, so I can’t document them for you).

Ok, back to the Q&A. The questions ranged from the “mommy wars” to a random discussion about Curves (we all decided we were too young to go there) to safe sex (go Liz!) I especially liked the candor with which Alex Kapp Horner (a.k.a. meanie mom Lindsay) answered questions. She even admitted she missed her daughter’s “going back to school night” because she was taping an episode about “going back to school night” (whoops!).  And while Wanda Sykes didn’t say much, you can just tell how funny she is by looking at her.

Next, we watched a “pre-taping” of the show, where the cast basically rehearses its script. During this, I was able to glean some good blog insights from the Lizzes and catch up on a few work emails (I took a vacation day so I didn’t feel THAT bad that I had totally ignored work up until this point).

Then it was off to coffee klatch with the bloggers and some of the show executives. I was starving and freezing from the cold set. After wolfing down tea and a chocolate chip twist (sorry I practically ate it all, Liz) I mingled a bit. To my surprise, everyone from the show involved in the event was so genuine and nice. And they were like legitimately excited we were there. I started to finally feel comfortable in my blogger/ L.A. surroundings. Except that I was then summoned to record the “closing” of my “Christine” visit video. I’ll sum it up like this: even the sound guy told me I needed to rerecord my piece. I suck.

After more exchanging of blards and nanny talk with Alex (I think I can call her by her first name, we hugged and everything), it was time to go.  Just as I was starting to really feel like I fit in (even if my feet were throbbing). So we drove back to the parking lot, hugged goodbye and hoped we’d see each other at BlogHer this summer. I limped walked to my trusty Saturn and took off, Hollywood in my rearview mirror.  Ahhh, I love L.A.  Except for the hotel I stayed at. But who’s complaining. Thanks for a great time, everyone. Hope to see you all again real soon. Maybe next time on my turf.

Tags: Los Angeles, celebrity moms, mommy bloggers, Chicago 

p.s. I forgot to give a shout out to the ladies from Soccer Mom Vote- we chatted towards the end of things, but I’m glad I met ya!