I haven't blogged in a while! And I've been putting off writing about this for a little over a month now...I have a procrastination problem! So, I figured this would be a good opportunity to post again! Better late than never, right?! So, here it goes... WARNING: this is going to be VERY long and detailed, b/c I don't wanna forget a thing! I'm just gonna start from the very beginning. So, it was a Thursday afternoon at work, I was washing dishes, and my boss asks me if I entered KissFM's contest to win a trip for 2 to the Grammy's that next weekend. I hadn't, b/c it was this weird thing where you go to a website, and "scratch" with your mouse just to see if you even QUALIFY to win. They had the same type of thing last summer to win front row One Direction tickets, and b/c I'm so devoted I literally probably scratched a few hundred times before I even QUALIFIED. So, I wasn't about to try again...figured it was a waste of my time. But, my boss tried, qualified on just like the 3rd try, and told me I should try b/c the contest ended that day. So, when I got home from work that day, I actually remembered and gave it a shot! To my surprise, I qualified on my very first try! I figured, why not try again to enter someone else, since I seem to be having good luck? So, I scratched maybe 10 more times, but never qualified again. So, I gave up...figured atleast I had that 1 small shot, but NEVER expected to actually win the contest! I went to bed that night, not ever really giving it a second thought. The next day was my day off, so I slept in. When I got up, I turned my phone on, then went over to my sister's bed and began talking (we are temporarily sharing a room right now). Then about a minute later, I heard my voicemail tone go off. So, I went over to check it, didn't recognize the number, but thankfully listened anyway. The voicemail said, "Hey Hannah! This is Matt calling from 993 KissFM. Just wanted to let you know that I needed to talk to you...I do have some pretty exciting news for you, but obviously I can't leave it over voicemail...So, give me a call back!" My first thought was "I did just enter that Grammy's contest...but, there's no way this is for that!" I do enter contests for them a lot, so I figured it was something else...it had to be, right?! I told my sister, McKenzie (or as I like to call, Skim) about the voicemail from KissFM telling me I won something! She was like "Have you entered anything?" I was like "Well, I entered to win a trip for 2 to the Grammy's, but that was JUST last night..." She was like "WHAT? Oh my gosh...call them back!" I immediately started shaking and freaking out, even though I didn't know what it was that I won...I just had this really good feeling. So, I called, and Matt was like, "Do you remember entering a contest for the Grammy's?" I was like, "Yeah..." He was like, "Well, you are actually our winner!" I was like, "WHAT? Oh my gosh! Are you serious?" He was like, "Well, I didn't call to kid you..." Meanwhile, my sister, sitting right there, could hear everything going on, and very sternly said, "I'M GOING WITH YOU!" Haha, I had no choice in the matter. He then proceeded to get some info from me, and told me he'd get my info to the record label, and get back to me soon. My sister and I started screaming and just totally freaking out. We ran downstairs, a hundred miles an hour, still screaming, looking for my family. They thought something was wrong! So, they were even more shocked when I told them about my trip! Their mouths just dropped. Everyone was in shock, including me! I think my first thought was, "What am I gonna wear?" Haha. I started freaking out a little bit, but at this point I was more excited than nervous...but not for long! I heard back from Matt a little later that day, just to get Skim and I's social security numbers for our plane tickets, but then that was it...for days! So, FOR DAYS, I was freaking out, getting more and more nervous! I had no information to go on to start preparing/planning! So, that just made it worse. I went into work that night to pick up my paycheck, and told my boss. She freaked out! I do partially have her to thank...if it weren't for her, I probably wouldn't have entered. I just casually was like, "So, you know that Grammy's contest we entered? Well...I totally won!" She was like, "If you are kidding me right now, I'm not going to be very happy with you!" Then immediately started looking up anything and everything on the internet for me... She's so funny! So then 3 days go by...It was Tuesday now, as in 3 days before I was supposed to leave, and I hadn't heard anything! So, I decided to call Matt, but there was no answer! But thankfully when I checked my email that night, I had gotten an email from him with my itinerary! So, thankfully I atleast had SOME info now, but I had so many questions... Questions mostly about like, what to do when we get there and at the Grammy's and such. So, I replied to him thanking him, of course, and asking my questions. He got back to me the next morning, but was pretty vague, and didn't even answer all my questions, haha. Atleast I had enough to move forward now... I just had no idea what we would do the whole time there! Now, I'm a person who likes to see the beginning, middle, and end. I like to over-analyze, and plan. My sister and I had never flown before, and never been to LA. And my sister had never been in a taxi or subway before, and I only had once. So, we were pretty much freaking out! It was quite scary! But, we were trying to focus on the good, and not stress out. We went out the next day to shop for dresses, and I got my hair done. We both tried on lots of dresses (my sister more-so than I) before we found "the one." For some reason, jewelry and a handbag never crossed my mind until it was too late. So, I didn't buy either of those, and the shoes I had in mind, didn't look as good with the dress as I had hoped. But atleast my dress was pretty! And thankfully, my friend, Kendra let me borrow a small, fancy, black purse that looked great! I feel like my necklace and shoes threw off my outfit, but what can you do on such short notice? I spent ALL DAY, and into the night Friday packing and preparing. Got to bed late, and thankfully slept well, which I didn't expect... But b/c of getting to bed late, I only got about 4.5 hours of sleep, before having to get up really early! We left about 7, got to the airport around 8. Thankfully, we were flying out of Harrisburg, and not BWI or Dulles! My mom took us. She went in with us to try to help us as much as she could since we had absolutely no idea what we were doing. We were terrified! It didn't take as long to check in as we thought, so we had a little over an hour to kill, but better to be safe than sorry. It just gave us more time to worry... lol. Our first flight was to Philly, it was only like 30 minutes, and it was in a VERY small plane, AND Skim and I weren't sitting together! So, it wasn't the best experience for our first time in a plane....but we survived! The man beside me was thankfully very nice though... He talked me through the whole thing. And atleast the flight wasn't long. We landed in Philly somewhere around 10:45, and were immediately confused. We had to take a shuttle to get to the right terminal, which took a little bit to figure out, but we got it! We ate, and then had about 3 more hours to kill! Yeah, we got pretty bored. Our flight was at about 2, and from there, it was a straight shot to LA! It took forever to take off b/c it was snowing, and we had to wait (in the plane) for the plane to go through this long process of getting cleaned and coated with some ice/snow protectant. But thankfully we were atleast sitting together this time! Other than it taking forever to get off, the flight wasn't too bad. I was SO tired, so I slept a little bit...but not too long. We mostly talked, played games on Skim's phone, and listened to some music. When we landed in LA I think about 5:30 (so it was 8:30 our time), it was 63 degrees! I looked up the weather back home and it was only 25 degrees there! It was SO weird to go from freezing, snowy weather, to warm, sunny weather in a matter of hours. We had been told that there would be a shuttle for us at the airport to take us to our hotel, so we went to where the hotel shuttles were and waited for I think about a half hour, but never saw a shuttle for our hotel. So, I called the hotel and asked if they had a shuttle that picked people up at LAX, and they said no! So, we ended up taking a taxi, and it cost $55! It was insane! It took like 45 minutes to get to the hotel, and the driver was insane, and we were exhausted and starving, so at this point, we weren't in very good moods, especially since the taxi cost so much! Haha. After we checked in, we had to go to the concierge desk to pick up our Grammy's tickets that the record label left for us. We felt so official and VIP, haha. Then we went up to our room, where we basically just collapsed into our beds...after exploring our room, of course! The room was absolutely incredible...the whole hotel was! It was so luxurious and big! We fell in love! I'm pretty sure I will never stay in a hotel that expensive or nice again! It just added to the awesomeness of the experience, knowing we didn't pay for it. Anyway, at this point it was like 7:30, and we were starving! We had planned on walking somewhere closeby to get something to eat, but we literally couldn't move! So, we just ordered room service. It was very convenient, but insanely expensive! It was cool to do though b/c we had never ordered room service before...anywhere. Skim got linguini and it was amazing! I just got a ham and cheese sandwich, and it cost $15! Skim's cost less than that! Haha. I dunno why I did it, it just sounded good! And it was...absolutely nothing wrong with it! It just didn't compare to the linguini, b/c that was epic! Then I showered and we turned in pretty early...but it actually wasn't early, b/c it was like 2:30 our time, and we had been up for over 18 hours. We slept for almost 10 hours...we needed it! Those beds were SO comfy! We even had to have the air conditioning on...that was weird! Thankfully our tickets came with some instructions, and apparently the tickets got us into 2 events...we had no idea there was anything other than the Grammy's! So, we thought we would have most of the day on Sunday, but the 1 event was at 1:00...we ended up not going though. It was a pre-telecast ceremony, and it was at a venue other than the Staples Center, where the Grammy's were. I wanted to go, but it was just too much to think/worry about...we didn't want to have to worry about finding transportation to 2 events, 1 was going to be stressful enough! Not to mention the money! We weren't sure we could afford it after spending $55 on our taxi ride the night before...we didn't even know if we could take a taxi, b/c streets were closed off surrounding the venues, and you couldn't even get anywhere near them if you didn't have this special transportation pass that came with your ticket. So, anyway... we had planned on ordering room service for breakfast, just b/c it was the fastest way to go... so, we called to order about 10:10, and they apparently don't do room service from 10-5, so we were like "greaaat!" haha. So, we ended up ordering Dominos to be delivered b/c we just needed something fast, and we didn't wanna go anywhere in our fancy dresses and risk getting anything on them. Turns out at a fancy hotel like that, the pizza delivery guy isn't allowed to come directly to your room, like we had always experienced...so Skim had to go to the lobby to get it. After shoving some pizza down, we got ready. It took a little longer than I had planned for, so we didn't have much time to take pictures like we wanted, but we did atleast get some! While I was getting ready, a family friend, Scott had messaged me on facebook, offering himself as a chauffeur to do some sight-seeing, b/c he lived in the area...which was such an unexpected, but pleasant surprise! But, I'll get more into that later. Literally the only free time we had was after the Grammy's that night, so we planned on meeting him then. Since we didn't really know how to get to the Grammy's, I called down to the front desk to see if they happened to have a shuttle going or anything. They said the hotel didn't, but from what she understood there was a shuttle across the street that was taking people...but that was all the info she had. "Across the street" could've been 4 different directions, so that didn't help much! So, we figured we'd probably be taking a taxi...but to our surprise, as soon as we walked downstairs, people were nice and pointed us in the right direction. We were lead outside, where more nice people directed us. Then when we got out onto the street, we saw the shuttle across the street, and the driver signaled to us. So, we ran over, got on, and they took us right up to the red carpet. It couldn't have been easier! We were SO thankful! We left a lot of extra time, thinking it would take a lot longer to get there, so we ended up getting there like 2.5 hours early! Haha. And we couldn't even take advantage of that and take our time, taking pictures and stuff, b/c there was security literally every like 10 feet, and if you would stop for a second and try to take a picture, they would rush you a long. It was a little frustrating...we were on the red carpet, for pity's sake! We wanted pictures! But oh well...we did get a few! Plus, I didn't really even expect to be on the red carpet...we were even on the SAME red carpet as the celebrities! They were just in a roped off section parallel to us...but they were surrounded by cameras, press, security, etc...so you couldn't really see anyone. The only 2 people I know I saw for sure were Willie Nelson and Hunter Hayes...whomp whomp! lol. But it was still REALLY cool to walk the same red carpet as them! The red carpet was really long...it was on a road that led right up to the Staples Center, and it had like a big canopy over it. The doors opened at 3:30, so we had probably close to an hour to just wait outside. So, we took a few more pictures. Then, when they finally let in, and we went inside, we were shocked to find that they had merch for sale...didn't expect that! So, we obviously had to buy something! I had wanted to get a shirt that said "CA" on it anyway, and they had a shirt that said "56th Annual Grammy Awards" and "Los Angeles, CA" on it...so it was perfect! Then we went and found our seats and sat down...that took a while though! But once we finally found our seats, it was nice to sit down...our feet were killing us from our heels! Haha. We were up at the almost the top of the arena, but it actually wasn't that bad of a seat. The place was a lot bigger than I had pictured, and there were TONS of "normal" people there, which I also, for some reason, didn't expect. It was cool though, b/c we had a really good view of the floor, where all the celebs were. So, we could see them coming in, sitting down, and getting up to mingle during the commercials. The Awards started at 5. Unfortunately, there wasn't really anybody there that I care about...other than Taylor Swift and Sara Bareilles, but I'm not even like a huge fan of them. I thought for sure One Direction would be there, so that was disappointing. It was kinda cool to see Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, even if I'm not a Beatles fan. It was also cool to see some of the actors that presented awards, like Julia Roberts Anna Faris, Anna Kendrick, and Steve Coogan. And I did REALLY love Taylor Swift's performance! I couldn't believe she did All Too Well, that was such a pleasant surprise! I'm not gonna lie: I deff teared up. I just absolutely love and relate to that song, I couldn't help it! Haha. It was by far the best performance and my fave of the night. She's good live! I gained some respect back for her that night, after that performance, and seeing her dance during other's performances. She was so cute! She was going all out, and just didn't care. Most of the time, she was the only one standing and dancing...so, good for her! On the opposite end of the spectrum, I lost all respect for Beyonce...not that I had any in the first place, but she just...wow! One word: skank! Lol. I'm sorry, but it's true... anyway, Pink I surprisingly enjoyed! I'm not a big fan of hers, but I do like some of her songs. The whole acrobat thing was pretty cool. I wasn't very impressed with Katy Perry...I mean, she sounded good, but I just didn't think it was anything special. Just my opinion...don't hate me! LL Cool J hosted, which was awesome! I like him. On a side note: if you ever wondered why there are so many commercial breaks, it's b/c: during the breaks, they have to set up for the next performers! There were 4 stages, but the one stage was just split into 3 sections. So, that was cool to see. Even if I'm not really a fan of anyone that was there, it was still really cool to be there...and see everything and be in the same room as so many celebs! Plus, that was seriously a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I wouldn't trade it for anything! When it was over about 8:30, everyone was ushered down and out the same way... In fact, I remember one of the ushers saying if you were leaving to go out that way... So, Skim and I naively followed everyone, and we ended up back on the red carpet where we had gone in. So, that was good, b/c then we knew we were going out the same way we came in, could get back on our shuttle, and wouldn't get lost...or so we thought! Everything was going fine, until all of the sudden we came to a complete stop... no one was moving! Skim and I were SO confused! We couldn't figure out a reason that we wouldn't be moving. We eventually kept inching forward, but at a VERY slow rate! I was beginning to worry b/c I had told Scott to pick us up at our hotel at 9:30, thinking an hour would've been plenty of time for us to get back there, but I was wrong! It was getting close to 9:30, and we weren't even close to being out, so I texted Scott to tell him to make it later. Finally about 9:40 or so, we approached the end of the line....only to find that everyone was getting checked by security. We became even more confused...why would we be getting checked by security if all we were doing was leaving? Turns out, we were in line to get into the VIP After-Party, which we obviously did NOT have tickets to! So, that was a bit frustrating! We waited all that time for nothing...and it got us lost! B/c then we got up to security and had to be all, "Um, we thought this line was to leave...we don't have tickets to this." (A bit embarrassing, by the way.) Anyway, so they had to open up a gate to let us through, down into the kind of alley, squeezed in between the canopy over the red carpet, and the side of a building, and eventually got out onto the street... but we had absolutely NO idea where we were! It was a totally different place than where we had come in, we didn't know the area at all...and we didn't even drive there...we were driven! And, b/c of the streets being closed off, there were no taxis around! And our feet were about to fall off...they hurt SO bad! We literally couldn't walk for who knows how far to try and find one! We were so lost and confused...it was scary! Makes for a great story though, right? Haha. So I had to text Scott, once again, and see if he could come pick us up... I felt so stupid, but I literally didn't know what else to do! He finally was able to get to us, after begging some policemen to let him through onto the closed roads, and he took us back to our hotel so we could change. We ran upstairs and changed super fast, then ran back down cuz we didn't wanna keep Scott waiting... By now it was already a little after 10, but we were ready to sight-see! We were starving, so first we went to a local favorite, the famous Pink's Hot Dogs. Apparently tons of celebs have been/go there...there were autographed pics of them covering the walls. It was just a small place, but it was VERY good! I got a chilli cheese dog...a bit messy, but worth it! Then we went to Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and saw the Hollywood Walk Of Fame with the stars and the footprints...which was SO cool! I loved it! The Hollywood sign was also there in the backaround, but we couldn't see it b/c it stinking wasn't lit up! What are the chances? I've always wanted to see the Hollywood sign! I even had this picture in my head of a picture I wanted to take with it in the backaround, and everything! That was beyond disappointing! We took some other pictures though. It was really cool to see all these old stars footprints, like Clark Gable and Shirley Temple. Jimmy Kimmel Live was also right across the street, so that was kinda cool. Then we took the 20 minute drive to the Santa Monica Pier! On the way to the beach Scott kinda gave us a tour...we drove through Beverly Hills (and can I just say that gas was the same price there as back home! How does that make sense? Beverly Hills is 1 of the most expensive places ever! Crazy!) Anyway, he showed us a few cool things...like where part of the Dark Knight Rises was filmed...that was pretty sweet! I love that movie! The beach was amazing...so pretty! I wish we could've seen it in the daylight... at this point it was probably around 12:30 AM. It was so weird to be at an ocean, in January, wearing a dress and flip flops, dip my feet in the ocean, and not be freezing! I could get used to living in a place like that! Haha. The water wasn't even that cold...but it got pretty cold when a big wave came out of nowhere and soaked me from the waist down! I couldn't see it coming since it was dark... so, that was pretty funny...cold, but funny. Then we walked around the boardwalk a little, and I hugged a few palm trees...haha. I love palm trees! They were everywhere! I never knew palm trees could be so big and tall! It was awesome! Then the night was over. We didn't get to see everything we would have liked to, but we did squeeze in a lot! And we wouldn't have seen anything if it weren't for Scott, so I am SO thankful to him! He was such a life saver! We got back to the hotel probably around 1:30, and we were absolutely exhausted! So, we passed out and had to get up pretty early. We did order room service that morning! Part of what we got was a fruit tray, and it had pineapples on it and oh my gosh was it amazing! Seriously! You have never had pineapple, until you've had CA's pineapple! It doesn't even taste like any of the pineapple I've ever had! It was just heavenly...words can't even describe! I'm not even a huge fan of pineapple normally, haha. We made arrangements for a shuttle to come and pick us up this time to take us to the airport, b/c it saved us $20 than the taxi would've cost! We didn't really know what time to have them come...so we guessed. And that would've probably even been too early, but they ended up coming 15 minutes earlier than the earliest time they said they'd be there! We weren't quite ready and we hadn't checked out! We had planned on leaving a little time after we had checked out to take pics in front of the hotel, and a few pics inside it...so that sucked! B/c I will never stay there again...so, I'll never get those pictures! That made me so sad...but, what can you do? So, we ended up getting to the airport really early. But, it gave us time to have a quick bite to tide us over, figure everything out, find everything, and I bought an awesome keychain at a gift shop. Then was the flight home...the plane left at 2:20. We were so incredibly bummed to leave! I didn't wanna leave the warm weather! It was in the 60's the whole time we were there...It was so nice! We noticed our seats weren't together, so we tried to get them changed, but couldn't. We were quite a few rows apart too...so, that sucked! It was a lonely flight! I mostly just listened to music...and dozed off, off and on for pretty much the whole flight b/c I was SO unbelievably tired! Jet lag is real, yo! Even if it was just a 3 hour difference, haha. I was in the middle...and the man to my left, at the aisle, was really old and had no sense of personal space... he was so spread out. He kept hitting me with his elbow, and would have like a newspaper hanging over my lap, or a book...whatever he was looking at... so, that got a bit frustrating. And then I had to pee SO bad, but felt bad asking him to move since he was elderly and hard of hearing...plus, he eventually kept dozing off too. So, I never went, and then when we landed in Philly about 10:25, we only had like 15 minutes to find everything, take a shuttle to our right terminal, and make it onto the plane, so I didn't have time to go then either... I had to hold it all the way til we landed in Harrisburg about 11:40...that was rough! Haha. Then my dad picked us up and took us home, and it was all over! I loved LA...it was so pretty and nice there! I deff wanna go back! The whole thing just was such an amazing, incredible, surreal experience, and it flew by so fast! I'm SO thankful to KissFM for making a dream come true... I've always wanted to go to LA! And it's funny, b/c 1 of my New Years Resolutions was "to go somewhere new," and I got to...so early in the year too, so that was awesome! I will never forget this experience! Here's some pics... (credit goes to my sis for some of these)
