My day at the Next Food Network Star casting call

What a day.

First off, I slept.....poorly last night (I had another word in there, but thought better of it). Couldn't get to sleep and was pretty beat when I dragged myself out of bed. Once I got going, though, things got better.

So, up at 5:00am, picked up my main supporter (and future groupie) Kristine at 6:30, and we got on the road. The casting call was at an Embassy Suites in Paradise Valley (sort of North Phoenixish), so it took us a good two hours to get there. We arrived in the general vicinity at about 8:30, got breakfast at a nearby McDonalds (you know, like any good foodie would do), and then went to the hotel.

When we got there (around 9:00ish), the waiting area had a good number of folks already hanging out. I got signed in (#27) and we grabbed a table. They were supposed to start at 10:00, but called the first two people back at 9:15. I was kinda happy about that - the earlier they start, the earlier we could get back to Tucson. Something that struck me as a little weird: some people hadn't filled out their applications yet. They picked up blank ones and were filling them out right there. Now, these were pretty in-depth 11-page apps that took a lot of thought and reflection for me to get done....

There were two producers there who called people back one at a time. Of course, we didn't know at the time that they were the producers, or what happened to the people who just disappeared. Kristine had enough forethought to bring a cribbage board, so we got in a game while we waited. I won. I tweeted off and on. I sent text messages back and forth with my daughters, who were incredibly supportive.

Other hopefuls really started showing up in force around 10:00. Shortly thereafter, there were about 100 names on the list.

At about 10:45 or so, I got my call. Producer Amy (who was extremely nice, by the way) took me back and explained what was going to happen. Basically, she asked me a few questions and taped the whole thing. Everyone got the same set of questions, and had about the same amount with the producers. That amount of time was just a little over two minutes. I could tell you what they asked me, but I'm not going to do that. I don't want to give any unfair advantage to people who might be going to the calls in other cities! That, and it went by so fast that I don't really remember what happened...

From here, they are going to review everyone's tapes and look through the applications. They'll do callbacks for their top choices, and people who get those should hear within the next 24 hours.

I've got my fingers crossed. I felt like I did fairly well, but won't know until I either hear back from them or tomorrow evening comes and I haven't heard anything.

Even is nothing comes out of this, I'm happy that we went. It was way outside of my comfort zone, and I like to challenge myself with stuff like that from time to time. Oh, we took some pictures to put up with this posting, but Kristine still has my camera. I'll get some up when I get that back from her.

We were out the door at around 11:00, and went to meet Kristine's brother Jeff (who lives in Scottsdale) for lunch. That, however, is going to be its own post. This one has gone on long enough.

If you were at the Phoenix call, or if you're going to one of the others, drop me a note and let me know how it went for you. For everyone else, keep your fingers crossed for me!