The Red Carpet

Last week I got an interesting phone call. It was one of our pastors from Hollywood UMC, asking if we had plans for Sunday. I chuckled and said, yep - spending the day with you at church. Worship, decorating the church for Christmas and then the Thanksgiving potluck. (We were in charge of 100 rolls.) But then he asked if we might be interested in a little adventure. Someone had bid on tickets to a Red Carpet experience at the American Music Awards (AMAs) that he was raffling off for a charity bike ride and that person (a really awesome person who we get to thank this weekend!) wanted the tickets to go to someone who might enjoy them, who could use a little cheering up. He thought of us he said because we'd had a rough year. I was speechless. Sometimes people amaze me in the best way. Really.

And because I'm constantly trying to find more ways to say YES! and because it sounded kinda cool even though before last week I wasn't really even aware the AMAs were coming up, we accepted the tickets. We coordinated with Reverend Dave and the nice Dick Clark Productions employee and before we knew it we were headed downtown. Free parking was just one perk! 

The AMAs take place at the Nokia Theater which is right next door to the Staples Center, which is just a few miles from our house. We had to be there at 1pm Sunday so we spent the morning getting all gussied up and off we went. High heels, body tape on the dresses, full makeup and hair and cocktail dresses (all requirements were were given, well, not the body tape!). There we found out that we knew a few others who'd be hanging on the Red Carpet with us -- friends from church. Side note: Was excited that it was going to be about 72 degrees and sunny Sunday afternoon. Forgot that sunny = sunburn. Yep, a nice little souvenir! But worth it! 

Once we got our credentials, which we had to wear to get onto the Red Carpet but had to take off once we were there, we headed out to the main stage. It was a hike but the fun part? Walking through a tunnel of about 15 LAPD officers. We all commented that we might need to walk that part again! 

Once we were on the Red Carpet we were literally on the stage. On yahoo.com apparently we could be seen dancing and clapping along to the performances. My parents kept reporting that they could see us (well enough for mom to spot that I was favoring my right foot - the one with the torn ligament!). We saw all of the performers up close and personal including Fifth Harmony, Jesse McCartney, Jabbawockeez, and Aloe Blacc. They were all really really good even though I hadn't heard of any of them before this week! (Though I had heard the Aloe Blacc single on the radio, I'm not totally uncool.)

Our only instructions were to enjoy the shows, clap when the performers were presented, and enjoy ourselves. We did just that. For about four hours we drank Coca Cola products (we were in the Coca Cola lounge after all), chatted with people all around us, snack on really fancy little appetizers, and enjoy the view. While the Red Carpet event and show started at 2pm PST, none of the stars showed up until about 4:20pm PST or even later. And the show started at 5pm PST which meant the Red Carpet was very busy for a little while. We saw lots of stars, some we even recognized! There was lots of "Who's that?" and "Is that...?" as well. 

Occasionally we were surprised to see so and so then we'd remember, oh, their show is on ABC or they have a movie coming out. It was interesting to see who actually walked the Red Carpet and who didn't (Taylor Swift, left, did, so did Lady Gaga but people like Justin Timberlake did not). And also, how quickly they walked down it. Some stopped for interviews but a lot of them just breezed right on by to the theater entrance.

As the show began and the Red Carpet cleared, we watched as they started taking down the stages and rolling up the carpet. We asked a very nice security guard if we could go down and snap some pictures and he let us through the velvet ropes. Then we headed back out the way we came, the long way, even longer in those heels by that point.

 

 Here we are on the actual Red Carpet. It was quite an adventure to be sure. I even networked a little (Women in Film unite!) and we got asked questions about the Red Carpet as we left and walked by people without credentials which was pretty cool. Some in our group headed inside to the actual awards show but we chose to head out instead. Angela had been nursing a head cold (still is!) and I seriously am not sure how I walked to the car with my shoes on (but I did!). I certainly could not have stood for three more hours in them. 

So. Quite the adventure! I'm not sure when I'll ever get to be on a Red Carpet again and it's not something I'd want to do every day but it was an amazingly fun experience. And to come home and see ourselves was pretty cool too. Check us out on the ABC preshow in the upper right hand corner!

We left the show, grabbed some takeout for dinner, and headed home where we peeled off the Spanx, washed off the mascara, and curled up on the couch to watch the rest of the show. I was excited Macklemore's album won (love love love "The Heist"!) and was totally unimpressed by some of the other performances (JT, really? I want pop-y dance moves next time) and glad to see some throwbacks (Nelly never fails to make me sing along!). All in all? Another Hollywood adventure for the books for sure!