At the end of February 2009, I decided to go try out for Biggest Loser in Nashville. It was kind of a last minute thing with very little preparation. I asked my mom and dad to drive me down there and asked my in laws to watch the boys while I was gone. The doors were to open at 8am and I wanted to be sure that I was there at least two hours early so we were on our way at 4am that Saturday morning.
We knew when we left that they were predicting snow for that evening and later in the day but we figured SURELY we would be home by that time! We could not have been more wrong.
When we got to Nashville, it was really really cold and raining heavily. I had my big heavy winter coat and a big umbrella AND a folding chair. The auditions were being held at The Wild horse Saloon downtown and when we got there, around 630-7am, the line was about 300 people long and wound about 5 blocks around the buildings. Let's just say standing in line like that had to show some kind of endurance for those of us out there and they really should pick more people that try out in person if for no other reason than that fact.
It was freezing cold, even with gloves, a scarf and a big coat, so my parents went and parked somewhere for a little while until closer to time for the doors to open. They brought me back some breakfast and a drink and finally by 8am the line started moving. In all fairness, the line moved relatively quickly at first. We moved about 2 blocks and then stopped. It was still a little misty but I could finally put my umbrella and chair up and just wear my hood. That made life a little easier anyway. It was really quite fun sitting around talking to the other people and just learning about them and making fast friends. Mom would come and go from the line and stand in line for me when I had to go potty and just wanted to thaw out a bit.
Finally, around 4:30pm, I got in the door. We were herded in like cattle through the front door, up some steps and made to stand single file between ropes that wound around like rivers on a map through the bar area and around the waiting area and finally ended at a door to the back of the house. Everyone was standing there wondering what to expect when we finally got back to the audition room. You had to have a 4x6 picture of yourself and an application completed in order to get into the holding room. I had been standing in line for 10 hours before I finally got back into the room for my interview. I assumed it would be one on one but it was a group of about 25 or 30 people shoved around a long conference style table. The lady that spoke to us first told us to be loud; be heard! They were looking for people with great personalities so let yours shine through. I didn't have a hard time with that but, by golly, some of those people were down right annoyingly obnoxious. The guy comes in and we have to state our name, age, where we live and where we work. After everyone is through, he asks us questions about things like, how you handle conflict.....basically just questions to get everyone talking so they can see how we interact with each other. You had to SHOUT over each other to be heard or you would be overshadowed. Good grief, some of those people were just shouting and interrupting until finally the instructor had to ask them to give someone else a turn. It was so crazy! And then it was over! 10 hours of standing in line for about 15 minutes of time with these people!
I left there with a feeling of accomplishment for having stood in line all that time and for actually doing something instead of just talking about it but I knew nothing would ever come of it. There were just too many people there.
While I was back in the interview room, it had started snowing. When I finally got out around 5:30pm, I was starving. I hadn't eaten anything since that morning so we stopped in the outskirts of Nashville and grabbed a bite to eat at Blue Coast Burrito. We finally got back on the road around 730 or so. As we drove, the snow got heavier and heavier and the roads got worse and worse. Just outside of Jackson, TN we stopped and got gas, went to the restroom and grabbed a little snack. The snow there was about 6-9 inches and my mom and I were in heaven! In case you didn't know, we LOVE snow!
It was around 915 or so and we were about 20 miles outside of Memphis.....maybe 45 minutes from home and the traffic was moving at a creepy crawly pace. There was ice and snow piled up on the road, as well as off the road. We had to keep slowing down and stopping and starting and finally we got to the point where we were only moving maybe 10 feet every 15-20 minutes. Finally we were at a stand still for about an hour and we didn't know what was going on. The snow was coming down harder and harder and the roads were getting even worse than they already were. The opposing traffic had stopped too so we figured they must have shut down the interstate. Mom, Dad and I got out of the car and talked to the drivers of other cars, including the big rig drivers who informed us that they had indeed shut the interstate down. There was no getting off the interstate either cause we were a LONG way from the next exit and that was an incline and it was closed as well. SO, my mom and I did what every normal person would do in a situation like this. We made the best of it and built a snowman! Yes, at 10 at night! We took pictures and then got back in the car and hunkered down for the night. Thankfully we had just gotten gas and gone to the bathroom so we were all set. We had a small bag of chips and a few candies to snack on. We didn't want to drink much because the thought of wading through that knee deep snow was not something that sounded even the least bit interesting!
I had the entire back of the Explorer to myself and I covered up with my coat and my parents and I talked until we finally fell asleep (well, I did anyway) at about 2am~ish. Because we had filled up, dad was able to turn the car on and off all night and get it nice and warm in the car when it got cold. It actually was not near as horrible as it sounds. Now if I had brought my kids with me, that would have been horrible but thankfully my inlaws volunteered to keep Trey too just before I left. What great inlaws I have!
So, I woke up the next morning at around 9am to my dad saying that the traffic was moving. I was a little stiff but all in all I had rested fairly well! It was slow going for most of the rest of the trip. The first few exits we came to were closed because the off ramps were on an incline and impassable. We finally found a place to stop and go potty, stretch our legs and get a bite to eat. After all was said and done, there was 13 inches of snow and we finally got home on Sunday morning at 1130am.
A few days after we got home, I received a call from Action News 5 and they wanted to do a story on my wacky weekend. Ironically, a year ago today is when that story was on Channel 5 news one of the top news stories for the day! It was even one of the teasers that they did during the evening to peak interest and get people to watch.
That weekend is one that I will remember fondly for the rest of my life. Some people may have looked at that entire experience as a negative and very annoying experience but I did not. I am a person who looks at a situation and realizes that you make it what it is. You can be stranded on the side of the road in over a foot of snow and be angry and mad and still be stranded. OR you can do like I did and get out and enjoy it. Take pictures in the snow, build a snowman, update facebook every few minutes, and crack jokes with the family about the irony of the situation.
Thank you God for the experiences in my life that allow me to appreciate the little things! These turn out to be the defining moments that make you who you are today! Enjoy your life and realize that if you can't change it, make it fun!!
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