So, I think my blog is cursed or something because I made this big deal about going to see the Ellen Show and then we decided to go to Hawaii, which meant I called my friend and told her I couldn't go to Ellen because we were going to Hawaii. And I had to explain on my blog, because I know my millions of readers were hoping to catch a glipse of me. Only then we didn't go to Hawaii. Let's just say things sort of got complicated with my thesis, and I decided that I'd rather stay at home even if it meant we lost some money (but don't worry we got a really good deal on everything or else we never would have planned the trip in the first place) and make sure I finished this term than go to Hawaii and risk paying an extra semester of tuition. Everything's all cleared up now with my thesis, so hopefully within a month I'll be done.

Since we didn't go to Hawaii, we decided to pretend like we're tourists in Los Angeles. I guess we do that every Saturday, but this time we went all out. We went to the San Diego Zoo on Saturday and it was fabulous! Then on Tuesday we decided to try and go to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Now, before hand, I tried to do a little internet research on the ins and outs of going to see The Tonight Show, but I couldn't find anything out there except how to get tickets. So I'm going to let all y'all in on what I learned.

On the internet, the official website and others recommend that you mail in a request for tickets at least six weeks in advance. They also tell you that you can go to the box office in Burbank the day of the show and see if they have any tickets. So, knowing that the box office opens at eight, Dan and I got there at seven to get in line. According to scuttlebutt in the line, each day they have a hundred tickets to give out at the box office. If the guest for the show that day is big, like Tom Hanks or Oprah, you'll probably want to get in line as early as the 24 hours ahead of time. Lucky for us Lindsay Lohan and the Black-Eyed Peas were the guests that night, so the line wasn't very long. At seven in the morning, we were probably number seven in line. Now there's sort of a trick though because each person can get up to two tickets and the ticket guy usually just gives each person two tickets. Some people intentionally take more tickets than they need to keep the line for the show shorter. Once you have your tickets, you can walk over to the front doors for the show and immediately get in line if you want. If you mail in for the tickets though, they tell you to be there by 3:30 p.m. and many people show up right at 3:30 p.m. and still get in. It all just depends on who is going to be on the show. Since it didn't look like things were going to be too crowded, we decided to come back at one o'clock to get in line. We were numbers 28 and 29 in line, so we could have arrived even later and had no problems getting in line. And a girl next to us in line said that she went to see the show with Tom Cruise last year and arrived at 3:15 to stand in line and still got in the door. And he was one of those where people got in line the day before. She did say she was the last one in the building though. Also, usually people in line have extra tickets, so if you really want to get in, sometimes you can just ask people in line, but the trick is to go up to people. If you just yell out for tickets, you might not get much of a response.

Anyway, some other interesting things about the show. They taping takes only an hour because they don't redo anything. Also the studio is fairly cold, as in fifty degrees. There really isn't an official place to park except on the street, but there are lots of side streets, usually. Also Jay often comes out before the show to give a little explanation, and then he asks if anyone has any questions. At this point you can ask to have a picture taken with him, but you have to be fast at raising your hand and stick out, either because you're young and beautiful or you're from Australia. They have a fancy Polaroid camera (no cameras are allowed in the studio).

I was pretty excited to go, but then it all seemed pretty anticlimatic. Some of the content was pretty offensive, and I'm not really a fan of Lindsay Lohan. I like Jay (we're on a first name basis), because he really plays to the crowd, but the people on his show take it all so seriously. I know, it's all about money. I think the thing that really turned me off though was before the show, they invite people to come up and dance for a t-shirt, but you have to be picked. These fifty- or sixty-something guys do the picking and they really liked young, attractively dressed girls. It felt creepy, like my sister's description of Victoria Secret just before Valentine's Day: "All these old guys walking around feeling the panties."

So I was sort of bummed that we went to The Tonight Show instead of Ellen, but as it turns out, I got to go see Ellen too. When my friend went to see Ellen they invited the guests that day to return for the Ellen in the Park episode, so she invited me to come along. I'll save that story for another day, but Ellen was way cooler than The Tonight Show, simply because they're more interested in entertaing the audience. I know I won't be on TV, but our episode will be airing on Monday, May 15, if you're curious.