The VOICE.

Chloe, Sophie and I headed down to LA last Friday morning for The Voice auditions.  It has been sixteen years since we moved up to Utah from the Los Angeles area and traffic was even worse than I remember.  The girls had an audition time of 2:00 to 9:00 pm.  You would think that on a Saturday afternoon the freeways would have been clear ... not so much.  Then, because of the thousands of people who had the same audition time, I think it took us about an hour just to get from the off-ramp, around the corner, and into the parking garage.

When we finally got out of the car and made our way towards the lines of people, these two girlies were

Happy, happy, happy, happy ... happy!!!!

Side note:  It was right after I took this happy, happy jumping shot, that we were walking out of that parking garage. As we headed out into the sunlight, I reached into my purse to grab my sunglasses behind them and completely missed the fact that they had stepped up ONTO a curb, and I stepped INTO the curb.  BAM! (And that is a big, fat, giant BAM like they used to put up on the TV screen when Batman and Robin got in a fight with the villains and hit each other really, really HARD!)

The curb stopped my feet dead in their tracks, but the rest of my body continued in motion ... which went from a fast forward motion, to a fast downward one.  First my knees smacked the ground, and then my elbows hit, and then my neck kind of whip-lashed as my chest pounded down last.  OH.MY.GOSH.  Worst tumble I have ever taken.  (And when you are over 50? Trust me when I say, it hurts way worse when you fall.)

I can't believe I didn't take Chloe down with me.  She was walking right in front of me and I hit her on my way down, but somehow she managed to scoot enough ahead and missed the aftermath of that one!!!

I had quite the audience too:  the parking attendant, several cars pulling into the garage, and a whole slew of potential Voice contestants standing a few yards away.  One guy was right behind me and as he gasped, he asked if I was okay.  I wasn't, but what are you supposed to do?  

It was kind of funny.  I started to do that laugh/cry.  My girls were kind of laughing and consoling at the same time too.  Sophie looked at my legs and said, "Oh, mom!  Your pants!"  They were dirty and wet from the grass.  Part of me hit the grass and part of me hit the curb.  I'm surprised I didn't shatter an elbow ... the bruise is sure big enough though.  In fact, I have bruises all over my body that not even a coroner would be able to figure out how I managed a fall that materialized the bruising in the places it did.  

(Kay, I can end the side note now. But also let you know, that bruises take way longer to heal when you are old too.) 

Out into the waiting lines we went .....

Chloe had mentioned to one of her coworkers that she was going to audition for The Voice.  His name is Daniel, and he thought that sounded like fun, so Daniel flew down too.  (He is the guy in the sunglasses.)  The guy in the other pair of glasses is named Thomas.  Thomas and Chloe used to do musical theater together when they were in their early teens and have remained good friends since.  We love Thomas ... he is one of those really happy, positive people and it was fun to spend time in the line with him.  

The blond guy is Thomas' friend, Ben, and he is a sweetheart too.  The other girl is someone they had met in line so she joined the little group.  Standing in line with singers and theater folks is always a good time!!!!

When American Idol holds their (mass) auditions, they do it way different than The Voice did theirs.  When we went to American Idol auditions in Pasadena,  (I blogged about that here), we stayed in line over night.  Then in the morning, they let all 6 or 7 thousand of us into the Rose Bowl at the same time.  Then section by section, row by row, they let each and every stinking individual sing for the designated panel of judges.

Last Friday, we stood in line for about two hours or so.  Then when we got to the front doors of the LA Convention Center, they let about ten people in at a time.  From there you went up through security and down a hallway into one of the big conference halls.  They checked ID's, checked everyone's audition pass and then you waited in chairs for just a few minutes before someone walked you up some stairs to another holding room where you got your instructions.  From there, they took you ten at a time into an audition room with two judges where everyone sang their song.  You could sing one verse and then the chorus, the room clapped for you and then you sat down ... the next name was called.

Only the contestants were allowed up the escalator and through security.  Since Sophie is a minor, I got to go with her!  Sweet!  In fact, they told us that I was never to leave her side.  That if she went to the restroom, I needed to go with her.  That worked for me .... it was fun to get to go through all of the audition process with them.

I thought the girls did really well.  I thought several of the people in our group of ten did really well.  But after our group had all sung their songs, and the judges had been less than cordial to some of the contestants, (Oh no, you can't sing that song.  It is on our do not sing list.  Do you know a song in english?  You can't sing that one, it has to be a hit song from the last five to ten years.  Well ... okay, that song isn't totally offensive to me.  Sheesh, I felt bad for some of them.), one of the judges said, "There is definitely talent in this room, but the bar has been raised so high that we aren't going to be putting any of you through to the next round.  Thanks for coming though."

Sad, sad, sad .....

Maybe next time.

(And then we all went to one of my favorite spots as a teenager for some chili cheeseburgers, sweet potato fries, onion rings, cheese fries, onion burgers, endless pitchers of diet coke and a big, thick hot fudge sundae with salted almonds!!!!  We all felt better after that.)