A Day

Julianna time at Disneyland


Oh what a day it turned out to be yesterday. Julianna had her very first audition for a commercial, a My Little Pony commercial! This audition was in LA, and I do mean LA...the heart of it. It was an easy 2 hour drive, and we find the place (barely, and only because I turned down a street where the address should have been and saw lots of SUV's with moms in their Ed Hardy attire). After signing in, and mommy taking a quick inventory of the competition, they call her name and she lines up with a group of four other girls waiting to go into the audition room (without me). At this point I notice how small she looks compared to the other girls, and I also notice that the line they are required to read is all about Littlest Pet Shop and not My Little Pony. I chalk it up to the agent being confused, because let's face it if you don't have kids, all toys pretty much sound the same. Then the woman in charge of calling the kids and ushering them into the studio, who I will call earpiece lady because I was pretty convinced she was talking to herself for 20 mins until I noticed the earpiece, comes over and asks me how old Julianna is. I tell her and she does this little intake of air deal that makes me cringe. "Oh no", she says, "today is for 8-10 year olds. Yesterday was the 5 year old audition." I am flabbergasted, speechless, pissed. She urges me to call our agent, but also explains that it would be "impossible" to allow her to read today because it is for the wrong part. I talk to our agent, turns out it was an email timing thing, can't really blame her, but seriously?? Earpiece lady talks to me again, and says..."man I am so disappointed that she wasn't here yesterday, I mean just look at her, she is gorgeous." Well, that is not helping earpiece lady!! She goes back into the room, at which point I notice she is still carrying around Julianna's headshot. I am hoping that means something, but after 10 minutes, I figure we might as well leave. But then earpiece lady appears.....she is smiling....at me. She says, "I went in there and I told John that this little girl is beautiful and if she could read for yesterday's Little Pony part. He says, really? That is great because I think yesterday's choices were pretty slim....send her in." So she auditioned, and it was a separate tape with just her on it, since they can't mix ages, so maybe that makes her odds better? I thanked earpiece and asked how it went and she said Julianna did "great." Of course, I can only wonder. She is a shy thing who has a hard time in Jazz class if people are watching her.
We left then, and I decided that for her effort (and it is a lot of effort for her to be outgoing) we would swing by Disneyland for a few rides. After sitting on the 10 freeway for an hour and me almost losing my mind (man I hate LA), we finally arrive at Disney. Where I let her decide what rides and she doesn't stop talking the whole time. Anybody that knows Julianna, knows that she is a quiet soul. Getting her to talk to even mommy and daddy is tough. This was different. This was wonderful. This was precious. She talked about school, and friends. She talked about Disneyland and remembering different trips there with friends and family. We went on Haunted Mansion, where she held my held in line and told me she loved me 20 times, and Star tours, then shared a burger and fries. On our way out, she picked something under $5, and got something for Victoria too because she didn't want her to be sad that we went. As we walked to the tram, hand in hand she told me that she loved to hold my hand, and that she had the best day with me. I would have to agree completely!