The Night All My Dreams Came True; or, Forget Diamonds - Spanx Are a Girl's Best Friend

When my roommate Tiff called me last Friday night, I was standing in line at Walmart. When she asked, "Do you want to go to the AMA's with me on Sunday?" I literally screamed, "OH MY GOSH THIS IS THE MOST EXCITING THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ME!" The details started to come out, and that's when I first started to pee myself. We'd be flying to LA on Sunday morning, getting all whored up and sexy-like, walking the red carpet, going to the show, then going to a fancy dinner afterwards and flying back Monday morning, all on someone else's dime. Cause Tiff just has the hookups like that.

That's also the moment when I started to panic because I had absolutely nothing to wear, on top of the fact that I am not classy or cultured enough to walk a freaking red carpet and pull it off without tripping, sweating, swearing, embarrassing Tiff, or all of the above. But when in my life would I ever get this chance again?

48 hours and one big shopping trip later, I was following Tiff off the plane at LAX to a big fancy black car with a big fancy driver. We only had a short time at the hotel before we were supposed to make our red carpet debut, and I knew it would take a decent amount of time to wrangle myself into my Spanx, so the primping (read: whoring-up) began immediately. Please to enjoy a photo journey featuring my shameless begging for pictures with celebrities, about a million gratuitous shots of my ginormous bazoombas, and the moment when my wildest dream came true.

We REALLY WERE on the red carpet.

And we REALLY WERE at the AMA's.

I love how absolutely NO ONE with a camera behind me is the least bit interested in me. Seriously, look closely. Not ONE person is looking at me.

Again, not a SINGLE person looking at us! How is the kid in skinny jeans getting interviewed and we don't even get a look?

I'm sure you're looking at this picture, thinking to yourself, "Who IS that guy? He looks familiar but I can't tell who it is..."

Yes, you are correct, it's The Situation. I know, I know. I ran all up on him and was like shouting in his face, MIKE CAN I GET A PICTURE WITH YOU! which you will find was a recurring theme throughout the red carpet walk. When I texted Johanna that I'd met THE ACTUAL SITUATION, the first thing she wanted to know was what he smelled like. Pure animal magentism. And Cover Girl makeup, because I'm pretty sure he was wearing more foundation than me. Notice the lines shaved in the side of his head. Of all the times I needed to have a "You're a Douche" card...But who am I to talk? I accosted him and forced him to take a picture with me - I freely admit that I have no shame. I would also like to point out that I haven't been to a tanning bed in a looooooooooooong time, and I'm still the same color as him. Win.

I got thisclose to Heidi Klum. She was so glamorous and tall when she breezed by me, all elegant and gorgeous and I just screamed HEIDI! at her. I know.

Then I got thisclose to Usher. That cascading blonde hair on the left is Tiff, trying to get thisclose to Usher but...

... his bodyguard literally manhandled her out of the way. There's me on the left, doing the dinosaur roar / excited laugh and probably screaming USHER! USHER! Also, Usher is a lot smaller in real life than I thought he would be.

I don't know who these guys are, but everyone else was taking their picture, so I started to panic and think that maybe it was someone super famous and I was too busy sweating to realize who it was, so I took their picture too. If you recognize either of these people, please let me know.

With our host, Jeff.

And now, a break from the photos so that I can relay the story of The Most Amazing Moment of My Life or At Least Top Five. When I was thirteen, I was IN LOVE with Gavin Rossdale. You might remember him as the lead singer or Bush, or as Gwen Stefani's husband, or more recently, as the guy who sang the song for the trailer of that really horrible awful movie "Nights in Rodanthe", which, if you couldn't tell, I totally hated that movie. But I still totally had love for Gavin.

I never got to see Bush in concert, I just loved him with all of my heart and soul and being from a very far distance. My sister can attest to this. I. Loved. Him. I cannot emphasize this enough. "Sixteen Stone" was the first CD that my sister and I bought. Did I mention that I loved him?

So we're standing on the red carpet and the fire marshal starts ushering us to keep moving. Then, I spotted him. I was sweating and shaking and then I started screaming THAT'S GAVIN ROSSDALE THAT'S GAVIN ROSSDALE OH MY GOSH IT'S GAVIN ROSSDALE! And the fire marshal kept pushing us along, and ushers were literally shoving us to move.

I was desperate and panicky that I'd come all this way just to SEE Gavin from a distance, just like I'd loved him all these years. And there was no way that I had loved him for like twenty years and spotted him on the red carpet and was just going to get pushed away.

I turned to the marshal with tears in my eyes and begged, "Sir, you don't understand! That. Man. Down there? He was my first rock star love. His was the first cd I EVER bought. I HAVE to meet him! Please! PLEASE!!!!"

I'm not sure if it was understanding or pity, or if the fire marshal just thought I was so pathetic that it was easier to let me have my way then it would be to deal with the repurcussions. Because if he'd said no, I probably would've dropped to my knees and begged and cried. But he let me go back to wait for Gavin to finish his interview so that I could verbally and physically molest him.

As had been par for the course with every other celbrity I saw, I pretty much rushed Gavin as if I was a linebacker trying to sack him, and then I verbally vomited all over him. Do you ever have those moments when you hear yourself talking, and in your head you're thinking SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP JUST STOP TALKING! but for some reason you just keep talking? That was me.

"GAVIN OH MY GOSH CAN I PLEASE TAKE A PICTURE WITH YOU!?!?!?? YOURS WAS THE FIRST CD I EVER BOUGHT IN MY ENTIRE LIFE AND I LOVE YOU SO MUCH SERIOUSLY THIS IS THE GREATEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE!" I think I might have been crying when he actually put his arm around me. This photo is the definition of pure elation.

And that's the story of the greatest moment of my life.

Inside, waiting for the show to start.

This is how Tiff and I looked after Justin Bieber won for like the millionth time.

The show was awesome, the performances were SO fun to watch, I was on cloud nine and I didn't think things could possibly get any more amazing. And then? NKOTBSB took the stage. That's New Kids on the Block / Backstreet Boys, for those of you who are not twelve year old tweens. And this is the moment when I myself transformed back into a twelve year old tween, screaming and absolutely freaking out. And I continued to scream and freak out for the entire performance. You might remember that I have major love for the New Kids as well. Some loves just never die.

We went to a fancy sushi restaurant after the show, where we spotted A Black Eyed Pea. Just one of them. (Will. I . Am). Notice how I have a fork in front of me? That's because we were only about ten seconds into the first course when Jeff noticed that I can't use chop sticks, but I was trying to fake it anyway because I didn't want to appear un-classy. I was more or less stabbing the sushi with the chop sticks, and Jeff was probably embarrassed so he asked the waiter to bring me a fork. Fail.

You're probably looking at the picture and thinking, "If you didn't want to appear un-classy, perhaps you should have re-thought the whole holding-the-giant-lobster-claw-for-the-picture thing." And you'd be right, because after taking this shot, Jeff was like, "Um, how about one withOUT the claw?" Fail.

By the end of the night, my feet hurt so bad that I was leaning on whatever structure I could find for support. This is the lobby of our hotel, where every person walking around looked like they could potentially be famous.
One last parting shot to document that once upon a time, I was pretty dang hot. And I didn't spend twenty minutes sweating and forcing myself into Spanx for nothing. A million thanks to Tiff for letting me be part of something that was so awesome.