Wandering Aimlessly

I suppose I did take this picture, since I pushed the button that said "take photo" in the booth. Today, Sandra, Gen, and I went to the Ellen Show. We weren't allowed cameras, but even if we had been, I forgot my memory card in my computer (I'd planned on taking a picture of the Ellen sign on the side of the NBC building before or after the taping).

The entire day turned out to be a big disappointment. Despite waiting over two hours in line this morning, we did not end up in the audience. They were filming two shows, the later of which is to be the Valentine's Day show, so apparently tons of people came in hopes of getting into that one.

We ended up in the Riff Raff Room, which didn't sound so bad. We came back for another two-plus hours of waiting in the afternoon before being ushered in. The Riff Raff Room was exactly like watching Ellen on your TV at home. EXACTLY. They only had the cameras on during the actual TV filming, so while you could hear what was going on during breaks, you couldn't see anything. Ellen did come into the Riff Raff Room to dance with us briefly, which was cool of her. We got one of the audience gifts (a Gwen Stefani doll), but not the rest (her newest CD and TICKETS TO HER L.A. SHOW). We felt shafted enough already; it was a bigger bummer to not even get the gifts. It's understandable, though, it is.

What's not as understandable is the fact we didn't get to see anything more on the monitors than what will air on TV. The fun of going to a taping is to see what happens in between segments! And they practically shoved us out at the end when things were still happening--they actually WERE showing what was going on onstage at that point, which was Gwen and her baby son playing in the mini tourbus Ellen gave them.

So it was just... disappointing. We spent many, many hours just WAITING, and for what? It wouldn't have taken much on their part to make the experience so much better. All I really would ask is to have been able to see the stage the whole time. We do have tickets to the taping on March 13th, but not guaranteed seats. We know now to get in line WAY the heck early if we want to get into the audience. But anyway. That was our day.