We made a quick run into Times Square Tuesday night -- Leah was suitably impressed! I had promised Keith I would look for the barbecue place where we ate on our trip -- sure enough, there was Virgil's Real Barbecue on W. 44th, just as yummy as it was 9 years ago!
We only got there about 15 minutes before their midnight closing, but ate up and then literally ran the 10 blocks back to Penn Station to catch a 12:42 train back to the hotel. We made it with seconds to spare!Well.....WWTBAM had called while we were en route Tuesday, reminding us of our tickets for the next day and suggesting arriving "about 1/2 hour early (for our 10:15 AM taping) to be sure we got in." We got up bright and early Wednesday morning, dressed in our dark-and-solid outfits, made ourselves beautiful, peppered each other w/ trivia questions during the train ride & a quick subway ride to ABC. And we arrived outside the studio at 9:50 AM. OK, 25 minutes early, but close..... Only to be told that they had just already gotten their 200 audience member, but we were numbers 1 through 4 of the standby tickets!!!! We asked what about auditioning. Nope -- no chance to take the test unless we wanted to try to get into the afternoon test! !@#$%^&*! They told us to come back at 11:30.
We came back -- early this time -- and had no trouble getting in. I won't do any spoilers, but this was the first day of taping the "Tournament of Ten," so taping took a little longer than usual. I will say I didn't run into any ATA's that I had not a clue on this time (unlike Rexalite's Sesame Street Q last month.) I can tell you pretty much anything you want about any episode of Spongebob (Johnny's favorite) or Rugrats (Leah's and Karen's show) but the only one of my kids who really watched Sesame Street was Megan, and that was 30-some years ago! Back to WWTBAM -- if you've never been in to a taping, being in the audience is hard work!!! You have to applaud (loudly!), yell and cheer (also loudly!) and generally be a part of the energy of the show. And it is tiring -- especially when they have to do multiple takes! Plus, we were told we wouldn't have a chance for a restroom break until after the taping -- and we were supposed to watch them tape 3 shows! Yikes! Fortunately, at the end of the first show, they had the audience shuffle around a bit to different seats (I guess so it looks like they taped on different days, same as Meredith and carryover contestants changing outfits.) So Leah and Ro got a break -- and got to see Meredith! She was coming out of her dressing room as they were leaving the ladies room, and she waved and said hi to them
Meredith was great -- she looks younger (and slimmer) in person than she does on TV. And she was wearing a pair of Christian Louboutin Red-Soled Shoes! Cool! She was very poised and professional despite needing several takes for some of the T of T promos. Well, because the tapings took so long, they decided to only do 2 shows this session. They announced the names of the folks who passed the test earlier (!@#$%^& of course we weren't among them since we were 5 minutes too late!) But Rosemary had been talking to a couple of the APs who remembered her from August, so we checked on whether we could indeed take the afternoon test. Turns out the only way to do that would be to sit through the 2nd taping session -- the afternoon test is given after the shows are taped. If we left the building to go get some lunch, etc.... we would not be allowed back in after the shows to take the test. All 4 of us pretty much looked at each other, looked at the AP who was helping us, and said "Thanks, but No Thanks!" As much as we want to be millionaires, there was no way in hell we could stay for another 2 (or possibly 3!) shows, applaud and cheer (loudly and energetically!), and then take a test and audition -- all with no food and limited restroom access. No.Way.In.Hell. So, we will give it another shot, another day -- and probably try to attend an afternoon taping next time 
(To Be Continued)
