well-fed friday: get your {audition} on.

You saw the soup, and now it’s time to read the story: Here’s what went down with my audition, lovelies!

The day after we got engaged, Daniel and I woke up (with a vicious migraine thanks to the copious amount of champagne and rosé that were had during our celebration of a lifetime … SO worth it) and headed downtown to my BFF Nikki’s apartment (the same one who’s having her bachelorette party in the DR, as mentioned in here … I hope you’re taking notes).

We went on a super-mission to Whole Foods and BBB to buy groceries and a thermos (plus a bowl to serve it in, etc.) and let me just tell you, I have a new-found respect for all of you NY-ers who actually have to do, like, real-life stuff in the city. It’s fun to visit but it’s not so fun to run errands. I lived in NYC once before for an internship but I didn’t cook at that point or do anything relatively human so errands for me meant boutique shopping in Soho. FreshDirect is a gold mine.

I made my soup and I brought it back to our hotel, which was conveniently located near the audition spot. I then had a microwave delivered to my room. On a room service cart. And it was freaking awesome.

The next day, I met up with my girl Alejandra - who auditioned right by my side, which was also awesome for a multitude of reasons – with my microwave-warmed soup in tow. We waited in a line and THANK GOD it was shaded and slightly overcast that day. Auditions were 10am to 4pm, and we got there at 9am. We waited and waited but it was no big deal because we had each other, and we even got to film a little interview once we were almost in the building.

Once we got inside, there were more lines (yes, just like Disney World when you think you’re in and … BOOM … you’re not even close) but eventually, we did hop into an elevator with about 20 other people and waited again to go into one of two long conference rooms. 12 of us went into each room, where there were tables set up in a big U-shape. We unloaded our belongings – some crazies brought coolers the size of my, chairs, portable toilets, you name it but I think I was joking about that last one – and then had exactly three minutes to plate. Easy-peasy for me and my soup.

Honestly, it was one of the easy-peasy-breeziest experiences of my life. There were 2 casting people in the room with us – one was a guy who was tasting each dish, and the other was this super-cool chick who was also the same person who had first called me, so we recognized each other and were chatting it up.

The questions I was asked were along the lines of: What types of dishes would you make on the show? What’s your personality like? Who do you cook for? Pretty basic, generic stuff. From overhearing what other people were being asked and from my own questions, I could tell that they were more interested in the personality side. I heard this a lot, “TV is all about personality, guys. Show it to us!”

When this part was over, they let everyone go except for a few of us, at which point they told us we were invited for call-backs. Weeeee!

I came back the next day and we did a 30-minute-ish taped interview. It was just me, sitting and chatting with the same super-cool chick, except this time there was a camera hanging with us. Again, easy-peasy … and also a lot about personality. I think the only question I was stumped on was, “What’s something about you that we’d be surprised to learn?” Um… The fact that I’m obsessed with penguins was not gonna cut it, I guess. And, of course, I thought of 4,539,743 things I could have said later … isn’t that always how it goes?

My new casting friend sent me home with one more task, which was to create a home video of me just being me. They had enough of me in the kitchen, and now they were looking to see me in my most natural, fun-loving state. I decided to have two of my bestest friends over for cocktails, which was perfect timing because we had lots to discuss … My engagement! The Bachelorette! Important items, as you can see.

The video was a success – my only quibble with it was that I said the word “like” … like, every other word. Oy. Clearly this is something I needed to see, so that I can now work on correcting it. Always seeing the good in things, right? For better or for worse, we basically forgot Daniel was there sitting in the corner with the camera, so at the very least, it was real.

And now, we wait … Whilst engagement-izing, wedding-planning, bachelorette party-hopping, and lots of other fun stuff.

No matter what happens from this point on, I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. I’m super-proud of getting as far as I did – heck, I’m proud of making the decision to get there in the first place! I was fearless, confident, and myself. I owned it.

And I know that with those things alone, I will go far.