The Arrival: Part II

...There were tables in front of the door entrances. Long ones. Bags were briefly searched. A group of 30 to 50 people at a time. A lane was reserved for the handicapped as well as a reserved lane for people without bags. After being filtered in we walked to the beginning of a corridor where there was a tble and people handing out the wristbands. Was it pink and green? One for contestants. The other for guests. I believe the green one was for contestants...
ID's were shown and wristbands were received.
We moved down to the next set of tables and stadium tickets were being handed out. Tickets that had your seat on it. For anyone familiar with Foxboro Stadium, being among the first to arrive I, Audrey, Norman, and Angelica had a seat in section 125. The first section for the American Idol auditions. (For those who haven't read "The Arrival" the pre-mentioned names of my companions are explained in that blog. Click on "The Arrival" located on the right side bar to read it.)
Arriving in section 125 row 16 we were happy to finally sit down...unfortunately, the stadium is an open field and we were not covered. The drizzling rain continued. Once section 125 filled, we were given a speech on people with wristbands can leave the Stadium and come back tommorrow by 5a.m. I didn't hear much. I had leaned on Norman's shoulder once I sat and fell asleep. I woke when I saw, or felt, people moving. We were free to go. I gathered with my new found friends in the corridor in front of our section and watched as people began to unravel sleeping bags, utilize the restrooms, stand in food lines, and sit on the ground.
"Do you want to sleep on my bag?" Norman asked me. My pants were wet. My pillow, towel, and sweatshirt soaked. I hung them on a rail next to other shirts, and pants, and socks, I laid down on the concrete ground on top of the sleeping bag and fell into a deep sleep.
Unknowingly, I was photographed. So was my pillow.
When I awole it was around 1 or 2 in the afternoon it was still so early. I was hungry, and still wet from the rains of the night before we were let into the stadium. It was loud. Karaoke was happening somewhere in the middle of the corridor.
Outside people were still coming in. The same speech I heard hours earlier were still being repeated to each filling section. News crews couldn't keep themselves away from the growing crowds.
Being on a limited budget stadium prices weren't calculated with reality of hunger. A small french fry at a stadium price will not quinch your hunger. Until you are really hungry. Audrey had brought a cake, and cookies, bottled water, and juice. She was kind enough to share. I remember being awoken by Norman to the sight of chicken selects. How sweet:-)
As the evening wore on, Karaoke subsided. The crowd began to thin as people made their way to their cars to sleep for the night. Others drove to their hotels. Many were fast asleep in their bags. Small groups gathered in song. Other groups were smoking outside the gates.
Rumours began to fly that at 3 a.m. they were kicking everybody out the stadium to do a line up for 5 a.m. What's worse, NO BAGS were to be brought in. Later (around midnight later) those rumours were finally squashed.
Somewhere between 10 and 11p.m. I went to the restrooms when it was very quiet. Only a couple went to this 20 stall bathroom every once in a while. I began to wash my body and start to get dressed. I did my makeup and did some voice warming stuff.
Other people were starting to get dressed too. I went back to sleep and just hours after midnight, I had my final awakening...

The presidents office! Noon.

I'm standing in line waiting to pay for a small plate of home fries. A lady comes up behind me. She's congratulating me on the article she read in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette yesterday. The news is quickly getting around. I will be in front of the American Idol judges this October.
I'm not sure who said what and I don't want to start any he said she said here, so I'm saying I was told by her pictures wanted to be taken of me for our school's public affairs department. Mount Wachusett Community College. Gardner, Massachusetts. The bus broke down this morning.
I told her my class is at 12:30p.m. It's my first class of the day. My only class of the day. Today is the second day of school. Yesterday was the first. I don't have a book for my class. I don't have any money for a book for my class.
I knew I wanted some computer time before I get into the zone. That's why I'm here now. I'll be at the president's door at noon.

The arrival

Arriving in Boston, Ma on Monday August 29th, I asked around for directions to South Station. I had my bike with me and couldn't bring it on the Green Line. The Orange Line was down. I made it there and saw a woman and young gentlemen waiting on a side bench. They had clothes on a hanger, covered. It was obvious where they were catching the next train to. At 10:25p.m. the Attleboro line left South Station Boston and arrived in Mansfield just after 11:00p.m. I looked at the couple. "You guys going to Foxboro?" We circled around. No cabs, no buses.
Another young lady from New York was standing on the platform. Audrey and Norman as I later learned are from New Jersey. We all pitched in $7:50 to pay for the $30 cab ride to Gillete Stadium in Foxboro. We arrived minutes after midnight making it officially Tuesday October 30th.
Once in line there were less than 100 people. A blue tarp covered the most of the first aisle. I'm guessing it rained. Soon after I didn't have to guess anymore. Prepared with a pillow, a towel, and a sweatshirt in my duffel bag, I stretched out on the grass and prepared to catch some z's. The first trickle of rain began not more than 30 minutes later. There were about 15 more people in line.
Audrey and Norman had lawn chairs. Audrey had an umbrella. She offered for me to sit on a bag next to her chair and lean under the umbrella. It began to rain...then pour. Some girls had a box of trashbags. I asked for one and Audrey helped me put it on.
I was lucky to have been wearing my military boots. They kept the rain out for the first 2 hours of downpour. After that the wetness from my pants was to much and it began to seep down into my boots.
For 4 hours it rained. Not more than 300 people endured the downfall. Some had tents. Others had umbrellas and raincoats. Some had nothing.
By 6 a.m. the rain had subsided and nearly 1000 people were in line with the crowd still flowing in. By 8 a.m. the line began to filter into Gillette Stadium...

News article

Hopeful hundreds audition to be next 'American Idol'
By JENNETTE BARNES, Standard-Times staff writer FOXBORO --

"American Idol" started a new season of famously brutal auditions yesterday with a massive cattle call at Gillette Stadium. Hundreds of aspiring pop stars emerged disappointed, even angry, from the stadium's metal gates.
Miranda Tozier-Robbins of Fitchburg was one of the few contestants to leave waving the coveted blue paper -- instructions for today's callback at the Seaport Hotel in Boston. "I'm nervous, very nervous," the 22-year-old said.
As the Emmy-nominated Fox talent show enters its fifth season, throngs of young people are scrambling to follow in the footsteps of previous winners, who have won recording contracts and instant -- if perhaps temporary -- fame.
Ms. Tozier-Robbins wants another crack at judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson, but first she will have to pass the second audition. She sang for them last year in Orlando. This time around, she performed snippets of songs by Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears. She wore basic white clothes that highlighted her multi-ethnic look: she is black, Mexican and Comanche Indian.
Everyone who was rejected yesterday had a theory about what the screeners were looking for. "I thought this was a talent contest!" shouted 22-year-old Laurie Chmielewski of Springfield, wearing a funky red cap on her stick-straight blond hair. She drew a crowd of media by bashing the show after her failed audition. "If they feel like it, they'll pass you," she said. "I really don't think it was about talent." She sang a few bars of Stevie Wonder's "Living for the City" for the news cameras and then shouted, "I think that was pretty good!"
Damon Whitehurst, a clean-cut gospel singer and administrative assistant who traveled from Elizabeth, N.J., for the audition, said he was too good to get on "American Idol." "I think they're looking for the average," he said, "somebody they could work with, as opposed to somebody that knows what they're doing."
Not everyone had sharp words for the show. Dighton college student Justine Guay, 19, said she was happy to have the experience. She sings karaoke when she is not commuting to the Gibbs College medical assistant program in Cranston, R.I. Auditioners said the screeners directed them to stand in groups of four. In one group, all four made the cut. Joanna Janetakis, 20, of St. James, Long Island, N.Y., was one of them. "I think it paid to be early," she said. "I think maybe after the judges hear a lot of people sing, their ears get tired."
Others said being early hurt them. Ms. Janetakis camped out Monday night at the stadium to get an audition pass on Tuesday. Her mother couldn't stomach the rain, so she got a hotel room and bought her daughter a Winnie the Pooh tent. "Thank goodness," her daughter said, "because there was seriously like a monsoon."
Other singers who made the first cut included Omar Ortiz of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who was born in Boston and sang two country songs for the audition, and Rance Wright, a Boston Conservatory opera singer who said he was shocked at his success because "I ain't nobody's pop singer." Curt Doble of Danvers drew stares with his elaborate armor costume made of duct tape. He wore boots, a belt, gloves, shoulder armor, and a full mask and helmet, all with large spikes. He said he calls it his "Gwar" outfit because of the growling noise he makes. "I just wanted to be funny," he said. And perhaps get on TV.
This story appeared on Page A1 of The Standard-Times on September 1, 2005.