As much as I hoped to hear those words spoken while on my trip to Los Angeles, I never did.  I did, however, have a wonderful time in a great city. 

Thanks to my fabulous co-workers at Spunlogic, I had the honor of being named Spunlogic’s Employee of the Year for 2006.  Along with that honor came an all-expense paid trip for two anywhere in the US.  I opted to go to Los Angeles, as its always been a dream of mine to be on The Price Is Right.  With Bob Barker’s retirement quickly approaching - the timing was perfect.  I invited my mother to join me for a little mother-daughter bonding.  I figured after all the family vacations we’ve taken it’d be nice to return the favor.  

Although I didn’t see as many celebrities as I would have liked, my trip was complete after spending the afternoon with Bob Barker at a taping of The Price Is Right.  The short version of the story is that we didn’t make it into the Tuesday taping that we had tickets for.  Instead, we spent Tuesday night in line, sitting on plastic chairs along Fairfax Avenue (in 40 degree weather with 15 mph wind) with the hopes of somehow obtaining tickets for the Wednesday taping.  We were in line at 9:30 pm until 5:55 am before we received tickets from a very kind group in front of us.  They had group members that decided against coming to the taping, and just so happened to have two spare tickets that they handed over to us.  It was one of the happiest moments of my life – only because I knew my mother would have killed me if she spent the night on the street (without sleep) for no reason!

I was number 101 in line, which means there were one hundred other crazy people in front of me – all excited about seeing Bob Barker.  After eight more hours of waiting, we made it into the 2:30 pm taping.  Having had no sleep the night before, I’m still amazed at the enthusiasm many people in the audience exerted.  When Bob stated his famous line from Happy Gilmore during one of the commercial breaks, the audience went berserk.  Looking back now, I still feel that it was worth a night of insanity to mark off one of the items on my “to-do-before-I-expire” list.  If only I could have been on stage!  One of the guys I met while in line actually did.  In the video (see link or click image of Bob Barker above) you’ll see Keith get called down to the stage, make a bid, and make it to the stage.  If you look closely to the left of the video as he’s running up to meet Bob, you’ll see two people standing up: one in orange (me!) and one in black (my mother).  It’s the closest I’ll ever get to Bob, but I’m okay with that!

We stayed at the InterContinental – Century City, which I must recommend if you’re ever in Los Angeles.  It was close to everything and the staff members were extremely friendly.  While staying there we passed former American Idol contestant Chris Sligh in the lobby.

While in Los Angeles, we also went to Staples Center to see the Lakers play the Golden State Warriors (the Lakers won).  To the surprise of the arena, Boyz II Men sang the national anthem.  I thought these guys were finished years ago, but apparently they’re attempting a comeback.  They also performed during half-time, singing some of their new songs, as well as some of their old songs “Motownphilly” and “End of the Road.” 

Along with the video above, I’ve uploaded all of my photographs from the trip into an album on Facebook, feel free to take a peek. 

Thanks again to the Spunlogic crew for granting me with an amazing honor and the chance to take such a great trip!

Posted in Inside Spunlogic