I was in the Chicago Tribune!
(http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/wgnam-idol-auditions-062209,0,2235136.story)
As a last minute decision this past weekend, I went with my friend Stephen to Chicago to try outt for American Idol... because why not?It was so awesome, I made SO many new friends! I didn't make it through, but it was well worth the trip.
We got in around 11pm, had to get up at 3:30 to be in line around 5am just for registration Saturday morning. Doors opened around 8 and by 9 we were back outside with all of Chicago at our fingertips. Oh! And I met another Audrey Lauren who was also from Ohio! She lives up around the Akron/Canton area. I met her because I was saying something about my mom, and then I quoted her talking to me going "uuugghh.... AUDREY..." and she was like "WAIT, your name's Audrey? MY NAME'S AUDREY! Ok wait, what's your middle name?" and I said "Lauren..." and she was like, "GET OUT! I'm Audrey Lauren too!"
At first I thought she was messing with me, because it's so rare to find an Audrey under 50 and over 10, let alone an Audrey LAUREN, so I got proof; we took a picture of both of us holding up our birth certificates. You can't see what they say in the pic, but you get the gist.
Anyway, we're bff's now because I mean, how often do you stand in line with thousands upon thousands of people and end up standing right next to your name twin? It's fate. Then it was funny because she was talking to other people like, "Who else is an Audrey Lauren. You are? No WAY! Are you? UNCANNY!" So we made a bunch of other friends and we all call each other Audrey Lauren (only two of us were authentic, we didn't make the rest of them feel adopted, even though they were). Most of them lived in Chicago, and we met up with them later in the weekend. There was Cliff Audrey Lauren, Cathy Audrey Lauren, Barb Audrey Lauren, and Ariel Audrey Lauren In person we're all Audrey Lauren, I'm just going here by how they're all saved in my phone, to cut down on the confussion.
Man, now I know what it feels like to be named Ashley or Jennifer or something else a lot of people are named.
I saw the Sears Tower, we went up as far as we could (which was ONLY the 103rd floor, but whatever), met Audrey Lauren up there (the other one with a birth certificate stating Audrey Lauren, the other Audrey Laurens couldn't make it), took Stephens pic of an Obama cutout wearing my shades, ate at an amazing pizza place called Giordanos sang at our table, took the local Amtrack out and back from the city and sang for people who saw our green Am Idol wristbands, caught a festival in Oaklawn where we were staying, went to Wrigly Field on the Red Line train, made friends on the train, I bought a Cubs hat, we walked around and took pics outside, listened to the game for a while going on inside, Walked all over Chicago from the Chicago Theatre down Michigan Ave, did some shopping, saw the old haunted water tower from the great fire, got free butterfingers from people in the park doing promotions, stayed away from the free hugs people (because I don't like hugging people I don't know, especially if those people are modern day hippies holding signs that read free hugs. I don't know what your game is, hippies, but I actually don't know anyone who PAYS for hugs, so your standing there offering a service that anyone can get is basically about as much a waste of time as if you were standing there holding a "WALK BY ME FOR FREE, EYE CONTACT OPTIONAL" sign. At least then you'd have more takers), came across a giant statue that was a replica of the famous painting of the farmer and his wife, finally got to Millenium Park, walked around there, went to Navy Pier and saw Athenian dancers doing a show, then walked to the beach and fell onto the sand like travelers who had finally discovered land.
Audrey Lauren met us there with her friend Lindsey, and then we all walked to the Hard Rock Cafe and ran into a few other Idol hopefuls. Oh and gave a lot of money to various bums through spare change. OMG this is funny; on our way back to the car, we got double teamed by hobos! Hobos are BOLD too, man. The first one approached us real friendly and talking fast like a car salesman who's rent is due. I was wearing sandals, but Stephen had on white gym shoes and he started talking to him about his shoes, and the next thing we knew, he was on the ground and had Stephen's foot up on his knee, and pulled this bottle of white stuff out of nowhere and splattered it on Stephen's shoe. He was telling us all about this amazing stuff that'll clean any shoes and water and stuff will slide right off, while he rubbed it into the shoe with his bare hands. While he was doing his sales technique and cleaning Stephen's shoes, so we couldn't go anywhere, ANOTHER one walked up to us noticing that we both had boxes of leftovers from the Hard Rock. He goes, " 'scuse me, is that leftover food? I'm aaawefully hungry..." reminded me of my dog, Cricket, begging at the table. And like I do with Cricket, I gave him the food. I figured, well, I've got plenty of food at home in the fridge and this guy probably doesn't even have a fridge so he can have the rest of this giant burger, even though it was oh so delicious. He thanked me, and THEN he looked at Stephen, standing literally inches from me, and says the EXACT same thing right down to the inflection and emphasis on sylyables. Stephen looked at him, and you could tell he really didn't want to but he didn't want to say no... and finally he just goes, "This... this is my breakfast, so..." and the guy was like, "Allright, I understand..." and kinda walked on with a guilt trippy voice.
Then the guy shining the shoes was like Allright, that'll be $8 for the shoe shine and tips are appreciated. Then he started telling us about his kids and grandkids and all that... and I gave him a 10 because frankly, I was impressed at his finagling skills. He told us to tell our friends about him, and he called himself Dr. Love, so if you go to Chicago, please ask about him and let him know I sent you.
Anyway, the the next morning was the actual audition and we had to get up around 2:30ish and glam up to go wait in line and all that. We found out where Audrey Lauren was and stood in line with her, and we met some new friends who had guitars and amazing voices. We sang all morning and Eden, the guy with the guitar in the pic from the Tribune, knew how to play pretty much anything anybody called out. People from other parts of the line were shouting out requests, and others from our line were joining in. We all exchanged numbers and my ringtone for my Idol people now is one of the songs that we did that I recorded on my phone, which was Fall For You by Secondhand Serenade (if you don't know it, find it on youtube and listen to it, you'll fall in love with it too). Chas was the guy singing on my phone and omg, he sounds just like them. That was the crazy part about it, I made friends with 20+ people in line between day one and two, all with AMAZING voices, and as far as I'm aware, only one made it through to the actual auditions (but if anybody asks, that peson may or may not have made it, because they're not supposed to talk about it... assuming they made it through to anything worth talking about... which they could have or could have not... supposedly).
By the way, I should have probably started with this, but these were not the "audition" auditions, these were the auditions to qualify for the auditions, which are actually in August.
Afterwards, Stephen and I met up with the Audrey Laurens from day 1, all except for the other Audrey Lauren, she was pretty pissed not to make it through so she went back to her hotel. We found a place called the Billygoat Tavern or something to that effect, and we ate there. It was decent... but we passed a Taco Bell to get there, and I did find myself questioning that decision just a little when we first walked through the door. Ariel Audrey Lauren and I have a standing appointment to go somewhere way awesome and get ice cream, somewhere where we don't have to walk 1.4 miles according to Cathy Audrey Lauren's phone-gps.
As a last minute decision this past weekend, I went with my friend Stephen to Chicago to try outt for American Idol... because why not?It was so awesome, I made SO many new friends! I didn't make it through, but it was well worth the trip.
We got in around 11pm, had to get up at 3:30 to be in line around 5am just for registration Saturday morning. Doors opened around 8 and by 9 we were back outside with all of Chicago at our fingertips. Oh! And I met another Audrey Lauren who was also from Ohio! She lives up around the Akron/Canton area. I met her because I was saying something about my mom, and then I quoted her talking to me going "uuugghh.... AUDREY..." and she was like "WAIT, your name's Audrey? MY NAME'S AUDREY! Ok wait, what's your middle name?" and I said "Lauren..." and she was like, "GET OUT! I'm Audrey Lauren too!"
At first I thought she was messing with me, because it's so rare to find an Audrey under 50 and over 10, let alone an Audrey LAUREN, so I got proof; we took a picture of both of us holding up our birth certificates. You can't see what they say in the pic, but you get the gist.
Anyway, we're bff's now because I mean, how often do you stand in line with thousands upon thousands of people and end up standing right next to your name twin? It's fate. Then it was funny because she was talking to other people like, "Who else is an Audrey Lauren. You are? No WAY! Are you? UNCANNY!" So we made a bunch of other friends and we all call each other Audrey Lauren (only two of us were authentic, we didn't make the rest of them feel adopted, even though they were). Most of them lived in Chicago, and we met up with them later in the weekend. There was Cliff Audrey Lauren, Cathy Audrey Lauren, Barb Audrey Lauren, and Ariel Audrey Lauren In person we're all Audrey Lauren, I'm just going here by how they're all saved in my phone, to cut down on the confussion.
Man, now I know what it feels like to be named Ashley or Jennifer or something else a lot of people are named.
I saw the Sears Tower, we went up as far as we could (which was ONLY the 103rd floor, but whatever), met Audrey Lauren up there (the other one with a birth certificate stating Audrey Lauren, the other Audrey Laurens couldn't make it), took Stephens pic of an Obama cutout wearing my shades, ate at an amazing pizza place called Giordanos sang at our table, took the local Amtrack out and back from the city and sang for people who saw our green Am Idol wristbands, caught a festival in Oaklawn where we were staying, went to Wrigly Field on the Red Line train, made friends on the train, I bought a Cubs hat, we walked around and took pics outside, listened to the game for a while going on inside, Walked all over Chicago from the Chicago Theatre down Michigan Ave, did some shopping, saw the old haunted water tower from the great fire, got free butterfingers from people in the park doing promotions, stayed away from the free hugs people (because I don't like hugging people I don't know, especially if those people are modern day hippies holding signs that read free hugs. I don't know what your game is, hippies, but I actually don't know anyone who PAYS for hugs, so your standing there offering a service that anyone can get is basically about as much a waste of time as if you were standing there holding a "WALK BY ME FOR FREE, EYE CONTACT OPTIONAL" sign. At least then you'd have more takers), came across a giant statue that was a replica of the famous painting of the farmer and his wife, finally got to Millenium Park, walked around there, went to Navy Pier and saw Athenian dancers doing a show, then walked to the beach and fell onto the sand like travelers who had finally discovered land.
Audrey Lauren met us there with her friend Lindsey, and then we all walked to the Hard Rock Cafe and ran into a few other Idol hopefuls. Oh and gave a lot of money to various bums through spare change. OMG this is funny; on our way back to the car, we got double teamed by hobos! Hobos are BOLD too, man. The first one approached us real friendly and talking fast like a car salesman who's rent is due. I was wearing sandals, but Stephen had on white gym shoes and he started talking to him about his shoes, and the next thing we knew, he was on the ground and had Stephen's foot up on his knee, and pulled this bottle of white stuff out of nowhere and splattered it on Stephen's shoe. He was telling us all about this amazing stuff that'll clean any shoes and water and stuff will slide right off, while he rubbed it into the shoe with his bare hands. While he was doing his sales technique and cleaning Stephen's shoes, so we couldn't go anywhere, ANOTHER one walked up to us noticing that we both had boxes of leftovers from the Hard Rock. He goes, " 'scuse me, is that leftover food? I'm aaawefully hungry..." reminded me of my dog, Cricket, begging at the table. And like I do with Cricket, I gave him the food. I figured, well, I've got plenty of food at home in the fridge and this guy probably doesn't even have a fridge so he can have the rest of this giant burger, even though it was oh so delicious. He thanked me, and THEN he looked at Stephen, standing literally inches from me, and says the EXACT same thing right down to the inflection and emphasis on sylyables. Stephen looked at him, and you could tell he really didn't want to but he didn't want to say no... and finally he just goes, "This... this is my breakfast, so..." and the guy was like, "Allright, I understand..." and kinda walked on with a guilt trippy voice.
Then the guy shining the shoes was like Allright, that'll be $8 for the shoe shine and tips are appreciated. Then he started telling us about his kids and grandkids and all that... and I gave him a 10 because frankly, I was impressed at his finagling skills. He told us to tell our friends about him, and he called himself Dr. Love, so if you go to Chicago, please ask about him and let him know I sent you.
Anyway, the the next morning was the actual audition and we had to get up around 2:30ish and glam up to go wait in line and all that. We found out where Audrey Lauren was and stood in line with her, and we met some new friends who had guitars and amazing voices. We sang all morning and Eden, the guy with the guitar in the pic from the Tribune, knew how to play pretty much anything anybody called out. People from other parts of the line were shouting out requests, and others from our line were joining in. We all exchanged numbers and my ringtone for my Idol people now is one of the songs that we did that I recorded on my phone, which was Fall For You by Secondhand Serenade (if you don't know it, find it on youtube and listen to it, you'll fall in love with it too). Chas was the guy singing on my phone and omg, he sounds just like them. That was the crazy part about it, I made friends with 20+ people in line between day one and two, all with AMAZING voices, and as far as I'm aware, only one made it through to the actual auditions (but if anybody asks, that peson may or may not have made it, because they're not supposed to talk about it... assuming they made it through to anything worth talking about... which they could have or could have not... supposedly).
By the way, I should have probably started with this, but these were not the "audition" auditions, these were the auditions to qualify for the auditions, which are actually in August.
Afterwards, Stephen and I met up with the Audrey Laurens from day 1, all except for the other Audrey Lauren, she was pretty pissed not to make it through so she went back to her hotel. We found a place called the Billygoat Tavern or something to that effect, and we ate there. It was decent... but we passed a Taco Bell to get there, and I did find myself questioning that decision just a little when we first walked through the door. Ariel Audrey Lauren and I have a standing appointment to go somewhere way awesome and get ice cream, somewhere where we don't have to walk 1.4 miles according to Cathy Audrey Lauren's phone-gps.
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