Extreme Makeover Home Edition: Raleigh

My co-worker, Chris, has been telling me about the construction of this house in downtown Raleigh for the TV Show, Extreme Makeover Home Edition. He went down on Friday, met Melanie's boyfriend, and Ty even used Chris's phone to call his wife at work. Sadly, she COULDN'T COME TO THE PHONE!

I was driving from my corporate offices in Eastern NC & called Ceeece to see if he had gotten lunch yet. That phone call motivated me to go down and see "the big reveal" (when the family comes home) being filmed.

C! told me that it was supposed to happen between 10:30am and 1:00pm. It was 1:10pm so I thought I'd probably missed it but at least I could drive by and run down so I could at least tell Chris I'd dropped by at some point. When I turned down Poplar St. where the house was located, I could see the police baracades and officers directing onlookers down the road to the film sight.

There was NO PARKING so I kept driving further into the neighborhood. As soon as I got out of my car, I heard screaming so I thought things may be happening right then.

Instead of walking all the way back to the police baracade, I realized that I could see the crowds of people through the trees and houses. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, so I just did the logical thing and ran down this hill and back up another to get to the street. SHOOT! POLICE BARICADE ALL THE WAY DOWN THE ROAD. HOW AM I GOING TO GET DOWN THERE?

I could see into the backyards of the remodeled house and it's neighbors so I cut sideways and came out beside some trailers, a food catering tent, and a path that led me straight to the sidewalk where there were some police officers, firemen, a lady with a badge that said "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" and a guy in a suit. The crowd was across the street behind metal polic baricades.

That was obviously where I was SUPPOSED to go but Ty had just arrived and the crowd was going NUTS. (I HATE CROWDS. Looking at them is one thing but I don't like being shoved, jostled, pushed, pulled or breathed on by people I have never met. We better have one a National Championship or at least beat Duke for me to be having a good time plastered to thousands of people. That is why I'm not a fan of cruises. One consistent crowd of people, hearded into a big floating island. NO THANK YOU!)

I decided," I'm dressed up for work so there is a chance that I could look like I belong here and I have a meeting in Durham at 3:00pm. I'll just see how long I can stand here. If someone tells me to go to the crowd side of the street, I'll just walk back to my car. I don't even watch the show so there is no way I'm going to join the mob."

A policeman walked over to me but I immediately flipped open my cellphone and started talking. Then, I called Melanie & Ceeece. By the time I was through with my phone calls, the policeman had lost interest in me since Ty was running down the street high fiving the crowd. I called Melanie again, when Ty was in front of me. She said, "Can you take a picture?" Unfortunately, I lost my camera last month. HOWEVER, look what I found on-line. Melanie, this picture is for you!! There is Ty with the people... Now, look closely on the other side of the street, it looks like the port-a-johns are balanced on his head and there I am in my brown dress and tan trench coat right behind his head. LOOK CLOSER: My arm is raised to my ear, I'm on my cellphone AND IT IS MELANIE!!!! The catering tent is right behind me. Talk about primo viewing. I was still two blocks from the actual house. I saw a guy walk by with a VIP pass and thought, "Eeeek! DON'T MAKE EYE CONTACT. Maybe he won't notice you aren't supposed to be here..."

Then, the crowd started going crazy again. The stretch limo bringing the family began coming down the street but suddenly stopped. A policeman then came over to the suit guy, the lady with the badge and I and said, "Excuse me, folks. You need to come with me." DARN! So much for running back to the car. I blindly followed authority but instead of herding us like cattle across the street, he took us another half block down closer towards the house where he tucked us away where we had an great view of the house but were no longer close to the road. "This is AWESOME!!"

The only problem were some big, burly guys in Extreme Home Makeover shirts partially blocking my view. After the policeman moved us, the limo came down the street and parked behind the bus. When the family got out, one of the big, burly guys turned to me and said, "Why don't you come up here with us so you can see." Wow, these people are just so friendly and hospitable! The other guys second his idea so I walk up and stand in the middle of them all. Again, thank you photographers! You can barely see me standing by the limo but I move to the red arrow! The main guy turns to me and says, "If you've seen one unveil you've seen them all." Another says, "But they are all so moving!" And a whole conversation starts on that topic. Ahhhhh, they are WITH the show. I am up closer than any other pedestrian. This is GREAT! I LOVE PEOPLE! See how wonderful they can be? I do feel a little guilty. Look at all of those hardcore fans over there...

The crew continues to be fabulous. They are taking bets that Ty will point in the wrong direction when he says, "Move that Bus!" and I can hear all the show directions coming out of their walk-i-talkies.

One of the guys turns to me and says, "So, where are you from?" Uh oh. "I'm from here. I live in Durham," I reply.



His look changes to one of even more curiosity and then he says, "How is it that you ended up with VIP STATUS?" WHAT?!?!?!?! VIP STATUS!! OH MY WORD! I HAD NO IDEA...I JUST THOUGHT THESE PEOPLE WERE REALLY FRIENDLY! WHAT DO I SAY???? "Oh, I just ran down that hill and happened upon the only spot that wasn't blocked off" is probably not a good option!!!

I ran all the way back to my car.

Just kidding. I said the first thing that popped into my head.

"I work for (insert my customer's name). Actually, I sell to them. They are really my customer."

I thought it was kind of odd that he didn't question me further but when I talked to Chris he told me that our customer's truck had been sitting out there all day on Tuesday. Our product was the main dish for all the volunteers! WHO KNEW? Definitely, not I. We really do feed the world!