Dream On

I've blogged before about my bizarre dreams, and last night I had yet another one that I thought might amuse the general public. I was back in Arlington Heights, IL, where I grew up, and while waiting for an elevator at one of the big condo high-rises, I ran into Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. We ended up in the same elevator and started talking, and Angelina and I really hit it off. They invited me to come to dinner with them, which I did, and while we were eating Angelina asks, "Hey, what's that song that starts..." and she says the first line of a worship song. (I've been wracking my brain all morning trying to remember what song it was, but haven't figured it out yet.) So I sing it and she's all, "Yeah, that's the one!" So she starts singing it and I start singing the harmony, and she says, "Hey, would you sing that at our wedding?" Of course I said yes. Then the scene changes and we're in the gated community where my parents live, and this is apparently where they live, too. (Why they were visiting Arlington Heights, I don't know.) We're hanging out at their house and they want to take Maddox to Disneyland. (I don't know where the girl was she adopted in real life; she was never in the dream. Angelina was pregnant, though.) So we take a limo to Disneyland and there's this big group of their friends there and they have me take their picture, which I do. Then the scene changes again and it's the day of their wedding. It's really casual; the guys aren't in tuxes or anything, and I can't remember what Angelina was wearing, but I don't think it was even a dress. She was putting it on and complaining about how nothing ever fits her right, so I tell her I'm learning how to sew (sort of true in real life) and that, once I figure out how to tailor clothes, I'd be happy to help her out, for which she's all grateful. Then we're at the wedding reception and I'm at the head table with them, just hanging out, and they ask me what I'm going to tell the press when they ask me for details. I tell them I'll talk about how down-to-earth they are (which they were; very normal--and I was so proud of myself in the dream for not getting all melty around Brad), and about how much they love and respect each other. Oh--and Angelina mentioned something about being in the new X-Men movie as "Medina." *shrug*

So that was my night last night: hanging out (and supposedly singing, although that part never happened) at the Brangelina wedding. Not a bad way to spend an evening.

Just a bunch of riff-raff

Well, it turns out 9:15 is just a little too late to get in line to be in the Ellen DeGeneres audience. We would have made it had we been there at, say, 6:30, possibly even 7:00 this morning. But despite the fact that I was up at 4:45, that wouldn't have been possible. But hey, we still ended up in the riff-raff room, and Ellen came through there and danced with us, and I got to give her a hi-five, so that was cool. And I got a t-shirt and 4 free (and completely random) CD's that had nothing to do with the show. Had we been in the audience we would have gotten a digital video recorder from Canon, Paul Simon's new CD, and a year's supply of Pantene. (Which is really weird, because I use Pantene, and as I was showering this morning at oh-dark-thirty I actually thought to myself, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if they gave us a year's supply of Pantene??")

I got to Anna's hotel at 7:45, and we went to some little cafe for a quick breakfast. Then we hightailed it to the NBC studios and actually found a great parking spot. When we got to the main entrance we saw a sign that said "Ellen DeGeneres Line Starts Here." And there was NO ONE there. We foolishly though we were the first ones in line, but the audience coordinator Anna had talked to on the phone said not to get there before 9, so to us it made sense. OS we gloated for a while, then some other folks showed up, and then the audience coordinator showed up and said, "Sorry folks, we've already filled the audience for today. I brought a huge group in around 9 this morning. (Turns out THREE HUNDRED PEOPLE had been there by 9 AM. Some had started lining up in the middle of the night!) Then he gave us a laminated number card and said to come back at 2:30 to get into the riff-raff room.

So off we went to Santa Monica to kill time, and then we came back at 1:30 just to be safe. Then, for the next THREE AND A HALF HOURS we stood around (STOOD, literally) watching Ellen reruns on the monitors and chatting with other riff-raff-bound folks. (And two lucky girls who knew someone on staff and got into the audience.) Once we got into the riff-raff room, though, it was pretty fun. We danced and Ellen came through, and they kept throwing t-shirts out and then passing out the stacks of CDs for whatever reason. Oh--the guests were Diane Keaton, Sherri Shepherd, and Paul Simon. We misunderstood earlier information (or it was miscommunicated--I actually am leaning towards that, given some of the other information issues we ran into) and thought Clinton and Bush, Sr. would be there too, but it turns out she'd been in New Orleans with them last week and interviewed them, and they just showed clips of that.

By 7 PM when we finally left we were flat-out exhausted, but it was definitely an adventure, and heaven knows I don't get to do a lot of adventuring today, so that was cool. I left her a card and a copy of Violette Between, so hopefully she'll get a chance to read it. Abby was a perfect angel for her Daddy today, so that made it a little easier to be away from her, although at one point I almost started crying because I missed her so much. She was asleep when I got home but woke up about 20 minutes later, and for once I was happy she'd woken up early because I wanted so much to go in and cuddle her.

Now it's 9:45 PM and I am beyond tired, but Anna and her friend Marlene stayed in LA to meet up with another friend of Anna's for dinner, and she hasn't called yet to say they're on their way down, so I'm trying to keep myself awake for them. Not sure it's gonna happen. Sorry girls, you may be on your own tonight. :)

The Ellen DeGeneres Show!

So tomorrow (Wednesday) I'm going to the taping of Ellen's 500th show--and it airs on Thursday! To find out when it airs in your city, click here. No clue where we'll be sitting--can't even say for sure we'll get in; I don't know how this kind of thing works, but I don't think it's guaranteed--but I'll be wearing a beige crinkled blouse with long sleeves and brown/beige pants. My hair is a lot longer than what you see in my profile photo; it's pretty much at my shoulders now. We're getting there at 9 AM to get in line, and it tapes at two. The guests: Bill Clinton and George Bush, Sr.! I'm bringing a copy of the book for Ellen--think I should bring one for Hillary and Barbara, too?

Violette Between Releases Today!

When I signed my Waterbrook contract back in 2002, today seemed soooo far away. But there's nothing like getting married and having a baby to make the time fly by!

I hope that you all enjoy it--it's not a sequel to "Worlds Collide," although I do have plans for one in the future. "Violette Between" asks the question: If you had the opportunity to relive your time with someone you've lost to death--a spouse, a child--would you do it, even if it meant giving up your future?

For those of you in book clubs, this book will definitely give you a lot of fodder for conversation. And my website, alisonstrobel.com, lists some ways your book club can do a Q & A with me after you've read one of my books.

If you read it and like it, please give me an Amazon review--and of course, suggest it to your friends. :)

Happy reading!

Gas or Groceries

Filled the van on Wednesday to the tune of 63 bucks for 18 gallons. Talk about painful; I've never spent that much to fill my tank. *sigh* I remember like it was yesterday the days when I budgeted $12.50 a week to fill my little Saturn. I even commuted back then.

So now the Morrow family is playing the game, "How long can we make this tank last?" I did my part yesterday by walking to the grocery store, thus killing two birds with one stone: my morning walk and our need for food. (Well, my need anyway; seeing as Dan eats, like, two times a day, his food lasts a heck of a lot longer than mine. I'm about to pop meal #4 in the oven and it's only 4 PM.) I figured it couldn't be any farther than the 3 miles I usually walk, and the hills would only make it better for me, right? Well, I didn't think about the fact that the hills coming back are a lot worse than going there--coming back you go uphill twice. By the time I got home I barely had the energy to put the groceries in the fridge before collapsing on the sofa. And then today my shins, ankles, and feet were crying, "Why do you hate us??"

Our self-imposed house arrest actually works well for me. We have a tendency to turn every need to leave the house into an excuse for a multi-hour excursion, which means I hardly ever get done all the stuff I need to do at home. But now I can see myself finally getting to the end of some projects that have been lingering on my to do list for months. My poor agent and publicist who have been patiently waiting for replies from me are no doubt sighing with relief, and whaddyaknow, we're actually caught up on laundry! It almost makes me glad gas is so freaking expensive.

Almost.

Because I need more ways to proctastinate.

Apparently The Place To Be is on MySpace.com, but until Monday I'd never even set a virtual foot on that site to see what all the buzz was about. My brother convinced me to sign up because he said it would be a good marketing tool for my book, so I now have yet another patch of internet real estate to my name. Thing is, I've never felt so stupid about a website. I have no idea what I'm doing there. I can't figure out how to get rid of those blasted ads all over the place (or if I eve can get rid of them--but it doesn't seem like everyone else's space has as many as mine does), can't figure out how to change my url and blog addresses, can't figure out how it is that so many strangers are finding me and asking to be my friend. (And of course, because I'm such a mercy-person, I can't bear to turn anyone down and risk hurting their feelings, so I've got all these weird people listed as my friends.) I have, however, reconnected with three old high school acquaintances.

SO now i'm trying to figure out how to maximize this thing for book promotion. My brother suggested making banners of my books, but again, I've no idea how to do it. He said you can usually just find someone who has something you like and ask them to show you how to do it, but I feel a little funny doing that. He has a slide show of photos on his, so I might just put the files of my books into a little slide show. I don't know. Maybe if I sit down and really put some time into it I'll figure out how to make everything look cool like everyone else's. I'm not used to having to work that hard at figuring this kind of stuff out; it's annoying.

Anyway, if any of you are MySpacers, come find me and say hi so I can ask you to be my friend and get some more normal people in there. :)