an all day affair

Alright, so I kinda like to watch So You Think You Can Dance - it's been a summer show staple for me since my junior year of high school and since then I've turned my family (and, of course, David) onto it too.  It's definitely one of those guilty pleasure kind of tv shows, but it's stinkin' fun to watch and I'm not gunna lie, I enjoy it. 

Earlier this summer I figured, since we live so close to LA now, why not put our name in to see if we could get tickets to a live taping of the show?  We waited, but nothing came back...until a week ago when they sent us ticket vouchers for the finale!  It turned out to be an all day event (first taping at 7:30 AM & second taping at 3:30 PM), so David couldn't come with me, but my mom was kind enough to volunteer to take his place and spend all day on the sidewalk outside CBS studios with me (regardless of the fact that neither of us are teenagers).

We decided that instead of leaving the house before the crack on dawn on Tuesday morning, it would be ridiculously more convenient to rent a room close by and walk over to the studio.  Little did we know that we would end up being able to look right out our window and watch the line form for the morning taping.  That was awesome, our hotel, however, was...less than awesome.  In their defense, they did gave us a complementary breakfast, let us park in their lot for free (all day), and they've got a great location - so I'm not complaining.  By the end of the day, their peeling paint and permanent marker ended up being rather endearing :

We ended up making friends in line for the morning show and decided to put forth a team effort for the long haul of waiting for 3:30 taping.  We spent most of the afternoon perusing shops along Beverly Boulevard and eating lunch at THIS really yummy restaurant before hopping back in line for a couple of hours.  Not a bad way to spend a day if you ask me.

It was a long, long, LONG wait for the evening show, but we made it, and we ended up having a really good time.  We watched wonderful dancing, had third row seats, and were showered with confetti at the end of it all - what more could you ask for?

Now the real question: was it worth getting up early & waiting in line all day?  Mmmm...for me this is probably a one-time thing.  It was fun, I'm glad we did it, and I'm fine watching it next time from the comfort of my couch.

P.S. The outfit I wore that day was SO colorful, ya know, for me - no neutrals??  This is craziness. Our tickets specifically told us to dress hip and upscale - I guess my closet translated that into vibrant hues.  But those blue pants were easy to spot on camera!