I took today off of work so that I could be at the first episode filming of The Biggest Loser Season 10, in Boston. I was planning to go to this, no matter what, but I'm so glad my mom came with me so I didn't have to go alone. The entire day was amazing, and I'm so glad I went!

Ok, let's start yesterday, with my faceplant on the Aquarium plaza, landing on my left knee. Usually my right knee is the temperamental one, so this gave me an issue with both. Overnight, the bruise turned into quite a lump, but I thought it would be ok.

I was up at 5am, and my mom managed to get up and we left Lynn around 6:15am. We drove down to Chelsea, intending to drive by the park and then go to the lot (10-15 min walk away). There were spaces there, though, with a 4hr max, so we just parked there. My mom really couldn't walk the distance from the lot. An ambulance ended up blocking me in, so I couldn't move and didn't get a ticket :)

We got in line, and not long after, they gave out numbered wristbands. Mom & I were numbers 80 & 81. Not bad! The first 300 got a BL tshirt, so I was thrilled that I made it within that. Next they came through with the release (of course I signed!). My mom signed hers, too, even though she'd come without planning to participate. I met some great people in line, and had a wonderful time. Eventually they brought around these questionnaires for anyone interested in being on the show. I completed it, it couldn't hurt, right? They had those of us with signed releases stand in a separate line for a while to turn them in. We were supposed to talk with the casters as we turned them in, but I was at the end of the line, so by the time they got to me, they were just collecting them and barely talking to the people. It's all good -- I hadn't gone to try and get cast on the show.

While we were waiting in line, Mark and Jay showed up. They're from Season 5, they were brothers and Mark was the one every knew as the guy that kept crying every episode... they're from the New Bedford/Dartmouth area of Mass. If you watch BL, this was the season that Ali won, and Bernie won the at home prize, but both Mark & Jay made it close to the end. They were both so nice, walked up and down the line talking to people, taking pictures, etc. We later found out that it was because Ali Sweeney couldn't be here for the taping, so Mark was filling the role of "host".

After quite a bit of waiting, they were finally ready to get started. There was plenty of water and fruit and snack bars available -- they were great about providing it. The director was awesome, and I learned a LOT about how reality tv works. It's basically a lot of "react" and then "ok, now you've never seen this before, it's never happened, react again". It is real, but since they need it from different angles, there's a lot of repeating. It was great how he explained everything, though. Everyone there was wicked nice.

They eventually brought out Jillian, who was supposed to "warm us up". Oh good god, the warm up came close to killing me. My mom chickened out (and rightly so) and I attempted to do the workout. If you've done her videos, it's similar to what she does - jumping jacks, jump rope, squats, lunges, pushups, mountain climbers, etc. It was the volume that was hard. I can barely do a regular pushup, and she didn't want the modified ones. She really came down on those that were modifying them, so I forced myself to TRY regular ones, and accept that I wasn't going to do as many. I was good with the squats, since I do them anyway, but the jumping squats got me. Then there were the lunges with your hands behind your head... she said to do 100 and everyone thought she was kidding. She eventually added more and more that we probably did closer to 150. I did my best. She had us hold the last one, and she actually sat on the front leg of a girl near me, the poor thing. I could tell from the way I watched her move around the crowd that she was only giving a hard time to the people who she knew could take it, and who would be able to do what she dished at them. It was still awesome just to have done it at all, with her there.

My arms were exhausted at the end, my leg muscles a bit sore, but I was ok if I could only catch my breath. My lungs did me in with all of the jumping, etc. But we had a pretty long break from working out after that while they revealed the 3 potential new contestants. It was great to see how they film it and how it works (yes, the scale is real!). The 3 we saw were Alfredo, Brendan, and Elizabeth. Brendan was from Boston, not sure about the other two. They did their weight and told their stories. After announcing their first challenge, we had another break for set up.

The challenge, which I knew about going in, was 500 step-ups and we were all participating while the contestants did it. The first two contestants to finish would make it onto the ranch. My mom decided to do it with us! I'm so proud of her :) I set up our steps, and they had risers for it. Each contestant was doing it with one set of risers, and I decided to try it. My left knee, after Jillian's workout, had swollen a ton more and I had to stop and ice it and take advil. I figured I'd try it with the one riser and then if I couldn't finish it, I'd drop the riser and go to the single level.

They were tracking the contestants steps electronically. We had to keep stepping until all of the contestants finished, whether we were at 500 or not, so he told us if we wanted to know how many we did, we had to count ourselves. I was determined to do the 500! We started, and I was doing pretty good keeping pace with the contestants. I stopped for water ever 100. After 225, I dropped the riser and made it flat because my knee was feeling strain. Now that it's over, I think I could've done it with the riser, but maybe not? Who knows? Since I dropped the step a small amount, my pace quickened and I actually got to 500 about 30 stepups ahead of the leading contestant. I kept going, and I think all-in-all, I did about 550 step-ups.

The thing that was the most awesome was that my mom did it! She didn't do 500, but she kept going at her pace when we started, and she didn't give up. She did the whole thing! I'm sooooooo proud of her for trying and for doing it!!! She hasn't done anything exercise-like that in years and years. She was sore after, and she'll be sore tomorrow, but I think what's more important is that she's proud of herself.

I don't know how much I'm allowed to reveal about the contestants (I probably should've read more of that release that I signed LOL) but it did end with some drama and medical attention being needed. Because of that, Jillian was beyond upset and started to leave, then she got angry and really stormed off. I think she was upset that they hadn't listened to her and gotten the medical attention there when she'd said it should've been, and she was so emotional about it that she had to get out of there. No one ended up being able to meet her or get autographs/pictures. It's disappointing, but I understand completely. (oh, and the medical stuff ended ok, so no worries!)

My mom took most of the pictures, since I participated so much. I think she got some of Jillian.

I don't know if I'll definitely be ON tv, but there's a pretty good chance of it. I really had a wonderful time getting to be a part of what has become my 2nd favorite tv show of all time (nothing will ever top Buffy, but this one is now #2). Definitely watch in September and see if I'm on. I'm the one in the black shirt ;) (ok, we're all in black shirts because that's what they gave out ;) LOL)

I did get a bit of a sunburn today, despite it being cooler. The sun was out, it just didn't get HOT. Since my shirt was so big, they sleeves hung down to the middle part of my lower arm, so I only burned my head, a bit of my face, the back of my neck, and a small section of my arms. My mom's not burnt, but apparently it's because I'm "snow white" LOL

I took my mom out for lunch after the taping was over. We first drove through Chelsea a bit (ended up finding the street that my great grandparents had first lived on when they came to America from Newfoundland in the 20s), then I took her to the Mount Vernon. We were both good and got healthy lunches, and I think she's FINALLY going to commit to this. What has her scared is that my niece stood up on her own yesterday (she's about 8 months now) and is about ready to just GO and my mom knows that once she starts moving, Erika won't let my mom watch her on her own unless she can go after her. And I know my mom is heartbroken about not dancing at Jaci's wedding. But none of us can do it for her. I'll help and support and give her all the information I can, but unless she decides to do it and follow through on her own, there's nothing else I can do.

Ok, I've rambled long enough!!! I need to get going and head up to Sean & Liz's. I hope I can stay awake tonight ;) lol

My mom found this and I just love it!

So, go celebrate Square Root Day!! It won't happen again until 4/4/16...

(the article is here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090303/ap_on_fe_st/odd_square_root_day)

I found this on Wil Wheaton's blog, and I know he got it from somewhere else and I'm too lazy to go copy/paste that info, too. So, for credit info, go to his site and then you'll know :)

Anyway, this highly amused me this morning:

My phone is broken :( There's no way to reach me reliably except through email when I'm @ work (and since I don't get to check my other emails/LJ/etc often right now with my meeting schedule, it's best to try me @ my work email).

I'm not sure what happened to it, but I don't have time to try to get it fixed tonight. Not sure what I'm going to do... :(

You are a Social Liberal (86% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (20% permissive) You are best described as a: Socialist Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid.com: Free Online Dating Also : The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

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When you see this, post another Buffy quote in your LJ. Let's see how long this can go on.

"You were my sire, man. You were my...Yoda!"

(I have many favorites, but this one is in my head lol)

If there are one or more people on your friends list who make your world a better place just because they exist, and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the Internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

Eman was on Living Lohan and there's a clip of it here on youtube... It's extremely short, but it's nice to just see him again, since he's spending all of his time behind the scenes producing:

Eman on Living Lohan

(it's literally only like 15 seconds long)

1. Think of the first word that comes to mind when you think of me.

2. Go to Google Images and search for that word.

3. Reply to this post with one of the pictures on the first page of results (don't tell me the word).

4. Put this in your own journal so that I can do the same.