A Shattered Dream (a little dramatic, I know)

I hate parking in the city. I would rather spend $20 at a parking garage than humiliate myself trying to parallel park. It just never clicked for me. So as I was preparing for my debut at the WIP studio last Tuesday morning the only thing that gave me anxiety was getting there and finding parking. What if I get lost and am late and then disqualified? What if I think I can just pull into a spot on the street but really should have parallel parked and end up crying out of frustration (that's happened before). This last what if turned out to be a reality. What if I am in the wrong lane and can't get over fast enough and go over the Ben Franklin Bridge?

Yup.

Instead of staying in the right lane onto 6th St., I am stuck in the left lane on my way over the Ben Franklin Bridge to New Jersey. I was already a half hour early so I didn't freak out too much. I quickly plugged my current location and the studios address into the Maps app on my iPhone and made my way back over the bridge in about six minutes. Phew. The sad thing is that I've gone over the Ben Franklin Bridge before by mistake. You would think I'd learned my lesson the first time but apparently I didn't.

After that episode I found the nearest parking garage which was luckily right behind the WIP building. I made way way through security and up to the 9th floor where I met the intern Francesca and was taken back to the studio. This is awesome, I thought to myself. This is happening!

And yes I will be bringing you through almost step by step as to what happened. Sorry I'm not sorry.

When I walked in the two other guys were already there and I sat myself right next to who I assumed was Glen since he was sporting an all black workout attire flaunting his personal trainer profession. I will say that I was surprised how nice he was. When I heard him on the air I initially thought he was full of it. Turns out he is a nice guy. They do exist.

We chatted for a few minutes and Angelo came out during a commercial break to let us know what the deal was. He was going to bring us in and do the interviews and then we would go to another room for some Phillies trivia.

"Oh shit" I thought. I'm not good with sports history or who is the all time leader in Phillies whatever category. It's just not my thing. It's more of a "I wasn't born then so I don't really know" attitude. But I will admit that sports history is something I need to work on.

They brought me and Glen into the studio first to be interviewed. What I didn't know and I'm sure most listeners were unaware of as well, is that Rhea sits in a different room than Angelo and Al do. There is a window between the rooms and Rhea has multiple computer screens at her disposal for her sports updates and Twitter news. I would want to be in a different room than Angelo too if I were her.

The atmosphere there is incredible. Between the hosts, producers and interns the energy is very spirited at an early hour which made the whole experience enjoyable and really stress free. In these types of situations I would be getting uncontrollably nervous which typically includes a shaky voice, red face and shortness of breath. Lucky me, I felt right at home.

Glen was up first. Angelo was intrigued by his profession as a personal trainer and his attitude about women. Of course his comment about reindeers came up, but in a way, was perfect for this interview.

"Now Glen we know you're into butts.."

"Like a reindeer."

That was the recording from his first call that Friday. I couldn't help but burst out laughing and even more so at Glen's goofy laugh.

So his interview goes on about how he has "access" to a lot of women and quite frankly I won't bore you with his story so I turn you now to my shining moment.

"Mare is smokin hot!"

Thanks. No, really thanks Angelo. I'd like to win these tickets based on something other than my looks, please. In addition to why it's easier for a girl to find these dates and who I had in mind, there was no way Angelo wasn't going to bring up the breakup. So we dabbled on that topic for a while as I bullshitted my way in bad mouthing the ex in the most modest way I could.

"What did he do?"-Angelo

"He dumped me!"

I couldn't have said it any simpler. But I tried to stray away from the whole breakup because I felt it was unnecessary at this point and didn't want to look at my phone later to missed calls or angry text messages.

(Thinking about this experience now I wished I had blogged about this right after it happened because I feel I could have colored the day a little better but I am trying my best to picture this day and share it with whoever is reading my blog.)

I explained how I already had some dates lined up in my head and I really did, I just hadn't asked more than one person yet, which was okay in case I didn't win. Apparently this was an interesting topic for Angelo because he is convinced that women have an "on deck" lined up after a breakup. I spoke for myself and said I didn't have a realistic one, and just that Riley Cooper was on my pretend list. I never got to tell him that I wanted to start a Twitter campaign to get him to be a date for one of the games if I won.

The first thing Angelo says after we're off the air surprised me in the upmost way.

"Mare, you should think about doing the Steven Singer Bubble Bath, I'm serious you'd be great."

"WHAT?! No, I won't do that"

Yes, it's tacky and no I'm not into that, even if the prize is worth $10,000. Not my style. He didn't like my response and before I left that morning mentioned it to me another two or three times.

Hell. No.

Angelo clearly had his vote in for me and now the other dude was up next, Dave. How coincidental that he also went through a break up, a more serious one I'd say, at around the same time as I did.

"It wasn't you two that were dating was it?!"- Angelo

If that were my ex competing with me that studio would have been a lot more dramatic, I'll tell you that much. But, no Dave was not my type and I think I might have offended him when I told him he was too old after Angelo asked if I would date him.

Dave seemed a little full of shit himself, too. So what that he had more than 19 girls' phone numbers. He wasn't anything special, in my opinion.

After Dave's interview we were taken into another room where we were nailed with random Phillies trivia. It was a rapid fire kind of deal where they went one by one asking us different questions. Glen had to go ahead and guess within a two percent range of what Chase Utley's stealing percentage or whatever the question was. So what if Dave happened to be spot on on what the most dollar dogs sold in one night was (75,000 hot dogs- gross Philly). I went two for two on that round with Ruiz leading the team with doubles and the soft pretzel selling more than any other food item in the stadium, which I found hard to believe that a.) that answer came out of my mouth and b.) was still taken as a correct answer after someone guessed the other real answer, crab fries.

The round that killed all of us was naming the former first round picks on the Phillies' current roster. It took about 15 minutes before the judges decided to end it. We were awful. We did get a hint toward the end that they don't have to be star players. They weren't kidding.
After all the party and bullshit we were taken back into the studio and ready for the announcement. Right before we went back in I presented Glen with a little present.

A Webkinz reindeer. For those of you who haven't babysat or been around kids in the last three to five years these are the modern day Beanie Babies.

Before the announcement we were told we were all getting Phillies tickets for Sunday's game even if we didn't win. I'm thinking, "Oh, so now I have to sit next to these people if I don't win?".

Friggin Glen. I should have immediately taken back that Webkinz and returned it to my four and six year old neighbors but I refrained and smiled politely at the winner.

"Now Glen, why don't you ask Mare to go to one of  the games with ya. Mare tell him no."- Angelo smirked

"Hey pretty baby would you voice.

"I have plans."

So there you go, my short term dreams were crushed. I had big plans for those tickets. Riley Cooper was bound to respond to one of my tweets accepting the offer for a date and then we'd end up dating and I'd be at every Eagles game for the remainder of his career here in Philadelphia.

Yes, sadly those exact thoughts came to mind. But hey, a girl can dream.