Aurora's Blog

(To skip the pre-story chapter, and go straight to the day, start here.)

As I said in an earlier post, I taped this episode about 6 weeks before you all saw it.

I didn’t even have the ability to start drafting a blog about it about it until about 4 days after the show taped. For the first 3 days, I was too excited to even sit at my computer and write.

When I went back and read my drafts, I was so happy to read how I was feeling at that time (even though it’s only a slightly more intense version of what I’m feeling now), that I decided to leave a bunch of the excited paragraphs practically untouched.

Without further ado, here’s my Price is Right story.

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Did I just live the American Dream?!

Honestly, I have no idea what to say. I don’t care how much time passes from when the show was taped. I will never stop being giddy about this!

I don’t – I really don’t even know where to start!

Here’s a warning – we’re gonna be covering this for days. This might be the only story I ever tell for the rest of my life. (That part’s a lie.) But buckle up – even though you’ve seen the episode, I’m gonna describe it in tons of detail with every thought along the way. I want to remember every second of this day.

Even though I didn’t start drafting this entry until 4 days after the taping, I’m still shaking as I type certain parts. I still had to take breaks to breathe and to try not to cry, because I just lived the freaking American Dream!

I’ve thought about going to The Price is Right somewhat often since I’ve lived in L.A. “I live here. I should take advantage of this stuff!” But then I get the “I live here. I can go anytime” follow-up thought.

I even almost went when a friend was in town – and by almost, I mean went to the studio and got our name tags. But we never actually walked in the studio. I learned that the taping got out later than I thought (2:30pm for the 8:30am show). So I had to leave. (Wah wah.)

My boss had told me I could have the morning off for The Price is Right, but I had to be back in the afternoon for some important meeting. And Burbank was pretty super far from Hollywood. So alas, I left the lot.

I also had gotten tickets a number of other tapings and decided not to go. (Tickets are free, and they overbook. So nothing happens if you don’t go.) Sometimes I’d wake up and think, “Ugh. It’s so early. Forget it. Maybe next month.”

Finally, I decided to go – like in real-life go. My roommates had a friend in town. They were off doing other stuff, and she wanted to do all the California stuff. I wasn’t currently working, so I thought, “Why not? I’ve got time. This’ll be so fun. Let’s do it, baby!”

In the morning, I didn’t even think to myself, “I need to look presentable in case I get on television.”

I  figured I was finally going to this thing I said I’d go to a million times. It’s time to see what the experience was like. I groggily got up, put on mis-matched socks and got out the door.

Now, don’t take this to mean I didn’t want to be on the show! I, as (I’m guessing) most people did, grew up watching The Price is Right.

I always told my parents, “Someday, when I’m old enough to be a contestant, I’m gonna go to California and win a brand new car!” This was truly an absolute childhood dream come true.

How crazy is it that as a kid, I wanted so badly to be old enough to be on TPiR, and to have a way to get to California. Once both of those obstacles were out of the way (and I even lived here(!)), it took me over a year and a half to go. Oh, Aurora.

It wasn’t until it all started happening that I realized I was in my magical dream experience. (Still can’t get over it. I’m never going to get over it.)

And this is where we’ll pick up tomorrow.