VIP Tickets to John Mayer on Today (Subtitle: The Perks of Being a Former Intern)

Last week, my supervisor sent me an instant message because she was working from home.  It went a little something like this.

N: Courtney, can you...*something something something work related*
N: By the way, did you know that John Mayer is playing on the Today Show next Friday?
Courtney: *immediately turns on away message and gets on the Today Show website, ignoring relevant work message*

You see, having been a do-it-all intern at the Today Show in the fall, I worked many a concert, and I know that there are both indoor and outdoor concerts.  Indoor concerts can't have an audience because the studio is really small and really busy.  However, outdoor concerts are outside and therefore need an audience.  So, long story short, I signed up for fan passes, emailed my former boss and two former producers, and generally had a conniption until I got so many responses that I ended up with no less than eight passes to the John Mayer concert.

Did I ever tell you that I'm an overachiever?  Well, I am.

I drove down to New York last Thursday night, went to bed at 11, and exuberantly woke up at 3:15am to get to the city.  Joe, being a JMayer fan, but not being as crazy as me, was not as excited to wake up pre-dawn.  We drove to Rockefeller Plaza and got in the (longer than expected) VIP line.  I was very surprised that I was not the only VIP.

Just kidding.  But I'm a little bit serious.

Apparently JM's management had given out a ton of VIP passes the day before, which I didn't know about, so we only got there at 5am.  We're soooo lazy.

After getting loaded into the main pen and unsuccessfully trying to sneak into the usual VIP pen, it was time for the sound check.  I missed Steve Jordan and Melanie and Julie, but the man himself was there... John Mayer.

Side note: Did you know that last November, I worked on JMayer's segment when he was doing an in studio concert?  I filled out all the contracts and helped out on set... and I spent an hour getting up the nerve to talk to John.  It didn't help that NBC4 New York had shown clips of his sound check without his permission.  That wasn't so good.

But anyways, we totally have a connection.  He'll know about it one day.

I'm not a fangirl.  I just like to feel important.

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This is what Johnny boy looked like when he emerged at 6:30, an hour and a half after I arrived.  You can tell that he was performing outside and not inside because he sprung for the collared shirt.  Or maybe that's what he was wearing the night before.  One can never tell.

There were a lot of crazies around us, including Middle-Aged Super Fan.  Let's call her... Marge. Marge seems like an appropriate name.  Marge was so excited to see JMayer that anytime anyone said anything at a higher-than-average decibel or shifted their weight in any way, she was all up on the situation.  Take, for example, the following scenario:

Courtney: "Joseph, this girl next to me is being a bee-otch.  Woooooooow."

Marge: "What??  WHAT??  DO YOU SEE ANYTHING???"  *Flails widly*

See the head with the sunglasses in the picture above?  Meet Marge.

Lots of people brought signs.  Marge was sure to yell "SIGN DOWN!!!!!" anytime someone raised one.  It was so courteous of her.

At a certain point between the sound check and the live performance, we got a little impatient.  It led to us becoming, shall we say... loopy??

Joe started eating his VIP Pass.  I had to remind him that that wasn't socially acceptable.

"What?  This is a VIP Pass?  Then why are we so far back in the crowd??"

I don't know, man... I was asking the same thing.

We got some Today Show sunglasses.  What goes best with Today Show sunglasses??

...a duckface, that's what.

But we took a second to act normal before going back to our usual lunacy.

And then John reemerged, dressed in his Sunday best.  And by Sunday best, I mean the part of Sunday when you put on your plaid pants that don't touch the ground and go golfing.
PS: At this point, there was a crew member in the way of our perfect camera angle.  Marge was sure to yell at him to get out of the way for us.  Such a sweet lady.

When you've got a million screaming fans around you, you gotta make sure your earpiece is in place.  Or else it's off-key city.

You also gotta make really funny faces to really get the sound out.  That is what John Mayer taught me.

By the way, did you know Al Roker can fly?  He can.

"Please, ooh and ahh over me as I make sweet love to this microphone."
Don't worry, I did.  Joe got a little jealous.

GET IT, John Mayer.  GET IT GURRRLLLL!!!  I mean...  GUYYYYYY!!

After all that performing, fix that hair, man.  Check yo'self before you wreck yo'self.

Aw, man.  That's a nice face, JMayer.  Singing on the Today Show is hard work.

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All in all, it was a little difficult for me to accept that I didn't work at the Today Show anymore.  And even more scary... it really made me want to work there again.

Has anybody seen my sanity??  I would like it back, please.

Thanks, John Mayer, for coming back to Today just for me, of course.  And thanks, Today Show, especially Courtney, Julie, Katie, and Nassdja, for gettin' me back there!!

Love and no I am not a fangirl (most of the time),
Courtney

If you haven't seen Inception yet...

...go see it.  Then try to wrap your head around it.  Then decide that you can't.  Then wake up the next morning and remember everything that was in the movie as you hit the snooze button.  Then freak out.  Then analyze the movie while you're in the shower.  Then talk about it with all of your coworkers all day.  Then have your boss ask you why none of your work is done.  Then tell them about Inception.  Then watch them understand completely.  And give you a promotion.  Just kidding about that last part.

But seriously, Inception is such a complex web of a mind-fuck that it's totally worth the $12 movie ticket and two and a half hours you spend watching it.  By the end of the movie, you'll totally believe that the concept of extraction and inception actually exists in real life.  And then you'll be super disappointed when you remember that it was just a movie... or was it???

And if you don't go for the super sick plotline, go for this guy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know Leo is all Titanic-froze-in-the-ocean hot and stuff, but I'm talking about THIS guy:

This is Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  And I love him.  I've loved him since (500) Days of Summer.

Just look at his super-dorky/awkward adorableness.  Sure, his hair is all slicked back and a little weird in Inception, but the dork still comes through.  Dork-suave.  It exists.  And it manifests itself in Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  I just wish his name wasn't Arthur in the movie.  This isn't Knights of the Round Table, people.

Hey, JG-L.  I love you.  My name isn't a season, but will you marry me anyways?

That's what I thought.

Love and brain scramble,
Courtney

Early Morning Torture and a WTF-worthy Ad

This week I instituted the newest phase of detox, which I have named the "no excuses plan."  No excuses.  None.  I have my Google calendar all set up and to-do items scheduled in so that I will know beforehand whether I will be able to get to the gym or not and plan accordingly.  This comes as a result from my fourth of July weekend two-day lazy depression in which I got mad at myself for not exercising for five days and then ate a brownie to console myself.  Repeat cycle.

So what did this mean for me this morning?  This meant that I had to drag my lazy butt out of bed at 4:45am because I am bound to the time that my father decides is time to get to work (that would be a 7:30am arrival, FYI), and it was dark and the moon was still out but I drove to good-ol' torture center Gold's Gym, entered the doors at 5:01 and worked out right then and there. 

Is it weird that I like the way the gym smells, like rubber and all that?  It's not?  Good, thanks.

And you know, getting out of bed this morning was even more difficult because I went to see Eclipse last night and while it wasn't a late showing, I'm having a hard time accepting that I can't blame seeing these movies on my friends anymore because I honestly enjoyed this one.  I'm sorry; I've betrayed my own good sense.  But when they started showing Jacob - I mean Taylor Lautner, because of course I wouldn't refer to a fictional character by name - and his super ripped like twelve-pack abs in movie #2, I knew that I was in trouble.  Because this wonderful obscene spectacle of ab just continued in the movie last night, I put the nail in my coffin and now I have to go spend like $24 seeing both Breaking Dawn movies that are going to come out because I love Jacob TAYLOR and I apologize and now I will stop.

But really, it was very difficult.

Okay, now I'm really done.  So, anyways, when I realized that I would have to go to the gym today at such a godforsaken early time, I thought about this article that I read a couple of weeks ago about eating vs. not eating before a workout.  In the past, I've always grabbed a granola bar or something before doing a morning run because I don't want to pass out, or worse, look like a huge fool while I'm running.  But the article, which is in the Huffington Post, says that studies have shown that skipping breakfast before a workout can help you burn more fat.  Burn more fat??  Who would ever want to do that??  However, some experts say that while fasting before working out may burn more fat, you still won't have the energy you need to complete your workout at a high intensity.  That's what I had always been concerned about, which is why I elected to eat pre-run.  Maybe this other idea was worth a shot, though.

I tried the whole fasting-before-running thing this morning, and it actually wasn't too bad.  The workout was definitely harder, but hey, I don't want my body to get too used to my workouts!  I completed my goal of 30+ minutes of cardio and some strength training, so I'd say that skipping the granola bar was worth it - once in awhile.  We'll see if two pre-work workouts are pushing it on Friday; this whole getting up at 4:45 thing is really no bueno for me.

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But ON ANOTHER NOTE, when I was looking at the Huffington Post no breakfast article, I saw a photo ad that made me stop and say, what the f***?!?  Listen, I know that American Apparel is all cutting-edge and hipster and stuff, but just look at the model in this ad.  It's just weird.

What is that??  WHAT IS THAT???  It looks like this girl is growing an appendage from her abdomen.  I'm sorry, but last time I checked, your ribs were supposed to be INSIDE YOUR BODY.  Like, NOT PROTRUDING FROM YOUR STOMACH.  She seems to be having a grand old time wearing this lace bodysuit thing, but it looks like American Apparel cracked her in half to take this picture.  This is where the term "broken doll" came from.

Moral of the story: If your protruding ribs are bigger than your boobs, you're allowed to wear this outfit.  You should also probably eat before your 5am workouts because YOU DON'T NEED TO LOSE ANY MORE BODY FAT!

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Love and Jacob's abs, I AM NOT A TWILIGHT FAN
Courtney