Deal? No Deal.

Who can resist the chance to win a million dollars?

Not Us!!!

Yeah, we went to the open casting call for Deal or No Deal, and yeah, it was CRAZY!

We showed up an hour before the line was closed - some people had been there overnight - and walked about a mile to get to the end of the line. We were carrying lawn chairs.

Now the lawn chairs seemed like a brilliant idea - and they would have been, if we'd been staying in one place for very long. But the line was moving, so if we sat we'd just have to stand up out of the chair every minute or so and move three feet. Hauling ourselves up and out proved to be more tiring than just standing, so in the end we just used the chairs to carry our purses and water bottles. Every time the line moved we dragged our chairs (that's a great noise, by the way) along the sidewalk and then just stood by them.

The people in actual wheelchairs had it made.

Anyway, we did that for the mile that the line snaked around the block and then we gave up and tossed the chairs on a grassy area. It was worth the risk of having them stolen - we just didn't want to carry them any more.

After ditching the chairs, we entered this area:

The far right is where the serpentine lines started. Those are the bathrooms in the upper right corner.

The lines continued on to this area. See the door going into the building...once you got inside, it was going to be another three hour wait.

We passed a sign that marked the 12 hour waiting time. There were people selling water bottles and pizzas. Red Robin burgers had a stand alongside a hot dog place. I think there was some entertainment up near the entrance to the building. People watching was good for us. We were surprised at how many people had their small kids with them - toddlers and babies in strollers.

Susan brought her cute daughter, Becca, along for the wait. I believe there was a promise of a trip to Claires. Becca was a trooper and the only one smart enough to wear a hat! My head is sunburned and sore - soon to be followed by itchy and flaky

Rumor circulating through the crowd was that the 11 page application that we'd spent all night filling out wasn't even being looked at. Instead, we'd have 20 seconds to tell about ourselves. We practiced.

We played name that tune. We played Movie Actor Movie.

We made it 5-turn lines into the big crowd, a total of three hours. But then our feet started hurting. And our backs. We were getting sunburned! We still had like 8 hours to go. Then some yahoo started smoking - and we were already packed, like so much cattle - and that just did us in.

"Why don't we just go to lunch?" someone suggested. Might have been me.

So we left. Badumpbump. End of story.

Cafe Rio never tasted so good.