Ellen Rundown

Well, it wasn't as bad as I had feared; there were no mascara tracks...no closeups of me snorting water out of my nose...nothing like what I was imagining! It was actually a lot of fun and I'm glad I did it.

Here are some of my favorite shots from the show:



I'm coming, I'm coming!


The awkward hug.


Laughin' it up with Ellen.


You can totally see my baby bump in this picture. I was trying to hide it, because they probably wouldn't have let me play had they known.


Trying desperately not to drown. (I'm not good underwater.)


Sweet! A new TV!


And my favorite picture of the night. This was during Max and Brandi's dance, which, apparently neither Emily nor I were too impressed with because we're both pulling a stink face.


One of the perks of being a contestant that I have yet to mention is that they asked me to return the next day for a special taping. I was given a book to read and I was to come back prepared with questions to ask during an audience Q&A. Taylor Swift was the guest for the first hour of taping. She gave a mini-concert of her new album, Speak Now, (score!) and gave us a copy of it to take home (double score!) followed by a little chat with Ellen. That part of the show was really fun. I was already a Taylor Swift fan, I think she is a cutie and genuinely talented. Since Ellen and Taylor are both Covergirls we were also given a $100 gift card to CVS pharmacy (we can definitely use that!) This show airs on Monday.

After the Taylor Swift segment Ellen changed her clothes and Portia came out to discuss her new book, Unbearable Lightness. It chronicles her struggle with anorexia. I read most of it, and while there were certain things I did not like about the book I was moved by how brutally honest she was. It could not have been easy to relate some of those stories. Very sad. I was called out of the audience to ask my question (which I had to go over with a producer about 5 times, I suppose they wanted to make sure I wasn't going to ask/say anything annoying...which hopefully I didn't...) and that was about it. I'm not sure if they will edit this next part out, but at one point a few people stomp, literally stomp, out of the studio causing a lot of noise and distracting everyone including Ellen and Portia who were in the middle of discussing the book. I thought that was SO rude. We all have our own views, but everyone deserves kindness and respect, and that was very disrespectful. Boo on those people.

This show airs on Thursday. And that concludes my Ellen experience! So even though I went to only two tapings I'll be on three different shows. I just don't want all of you who watch Ellen every day to think my new ambition in life is to be a regular on her show! (Although, I admit I would do just about anything to get on her 12 days of Christmas...)

It was an exciting/fun/exhausting experience and I'm glad I don't have to have that energetic/on camera/smiley persona every day like Ellen does. I don't know how she does it!

Ellen, thanks for all the loot!