Day 3

As Jason and I get off the elevator, we see Danielle and she directs us to a row of chairs where we can wait.

I am just on cloud nine but somewhat concerned about what I am wearing. When we saw Danielle earlier I had asked her if I should change my outfit. I was wearing a black, casual dress and knew a bright color would look better on TV. She said I looked great and not to change. Oh well, black is supposed to be slimming, right?

As the crew was setting up, we hung out with Danielle in the hallway and I was hanging on her every word. We talked about some really great inventions that she had seen and about New York City - my favorite city in the world!

Then it was time to get the mic on. Danielle clipped it to the back of my dress and had me to a voice check. Testing, one two three, testing. But as I was finding out, Danielle has a very good sense of humor and told me to do the voice check in a mans voice to confuse the crew on the other side of the door. Being silly helped ease my nerves a bit and we were all cracking up!

I was to stand at the door, count to 5 out loud, open the door and walk in saying, "Welcome to Chicago! I'm Tracy Sanders and I invented The Everything Marinator"!

Once I did that, they stopped filming and I set up The Everything Marinator on a small table with a couple of marinades next to it. Then it was time to start rolling again. Don't be nervous, don't be nervous...

I got through the majority of my pitch but just STOPPED when I had said all I could remember to say. Stopped, just like that. And stood there. I guess I did not even complete my last sentence because Danielle asked me to "finish what I was saying". I got through my pitch in one minute thirty nine seconds.

Of course afterward I remembered ALL the other points I wanted to make like: Because of the design of The Everything Marinator, it uses less marinade! Stop wasting your money marinating your food in plastic bags that take 20 years to disintegrate in landfills! My daughter actually named The Everything Marinator! Stuff like that.

After my "stopped short" pitch, Danielle asked me a few questions off of my application. "So, you were a flight attendant and now you're afraid to fly"?! Tell us about that".
"You used to work on the Ricki Lake Show? What did you do there"?

I took it as a good sign that they asked me some personal questions. Now what I actually said is a complete mystery to me!

A touch of sadness washed over me when Danielle removed the mic from my dress. The casting call was officially over. But that was feeling was quickly replaced by relief. And excitement.

Up the elevator Jason and I went to enjoy the rest of our vacation and tucked inside my handbag was my new prized possession. My "green card".