This time was Laurel's House of Horror in Maryland, where they also do an Escape Room that involves the same terrifying people coming into the room and effing with you as if you're not trying to use your damn brain to escape a damn room! [Still feeling very anxious about all of this, tbh.]
Here are some of the best moments of sheer terror, surrender, and also finally fighting back.
I'm done for this year. Plus, it's Friday the 13th. That ain't right.
I've decided I'm sick of talking about these cool random products that I find on the internet... and I'm going to start buying them. Unless someone wants to send them to me but lol that's funny.
Native is an all natural deodorant company and they've made a pumpkin spice latte scented deodorant because they're smart and know how to capitalize on the basics.
When it came in, I did the only thing I know how to do: make other people uncomfortable.
I asked people in the office to smell my pits and guess what the scent was. It didn't go over well.
Fun fact: I also did gymnastics today. I made a video AND did gymnastics in one week. I feel so happy-EB right now and I just hope I can keep it up!
Are you a #Nashie?! Because I'm OBSESSED with the show Nashville. There are so many likable characters and enough drama to make me crave the next episode but not drive me crazy during the week between.
From the beginning, I've always loved Deacon. He's one of those characters that goes through a lot of s#!*, and makes some really bad decisions, but you still root for him. You see YOUR soulmate in him.
FINALLY... I got to meet him. In my head, we've already been best friends for a long time, and I told him that. He found it pretty funny. Then I told him my name and he had some difficulty with it so I guess maybe the friendship was one sided... UNTIL TODAY.
He was just as awesome as I've always imagined/hoped. Sounded great, was humble, appreciative, friendly, warm, and funny. I was smitten... and also freaking out.
I only had two minutes with him on selfie-cam, so I had just a few very important things to bring up:
What he does when he comes home to NoVA
If he and Chris Carmack have a battle of the DMV territories on set
How incredible Lennon and Maisey Stella are in real life
Yeah, it's shaky and stuff but like WOULD YOU BE ABLE TO HOLD A CAMERA STILL WHILE TALKING TO YOUR FAVORITE PERSON ON YOUR FAVORITE SHOW?! No. So stfu kthanks.
A couple months ago I got an email from a "Brad" saying he was a fellow 90s loving and fanny pack wearing freak. Turns out, it was BRAD FROM FREAKING LFO.
LFO= one of the few albums that I'd say defined my life. I know every word to it. I was effing pumped to get this email.
He said he was coming to town and wanted to come in to the studio and all I could say was HELL YES.
Fast forward to today and they came! Brad and Devin joined me in our Southwest Soundstage to chat, play Truth or Dare Jenga, and play their new song. Then they surprised me by challenging me to sing every word to "Summer Girls.." IN THE MIDDLE OF THEM. I immediately turned 14 again, blushed the whole time, and freaked the freak out.
The full video is below, but here are some highlights:
2:50 - What they've been up to since we last heard from them [hint: family time and Devin crashing in Brad's house]
4:35 - How they continue on without Rich and honor him on their tour [Rich In Love]
14:15 - Brad prank calls a girl who was on her way, but running late
16:10 - The main thing that's different this time around... they have important things to say
19:25 - Their new song Perfect 10
23:00 - They make me prove that I know all the words to Summer Girls, which I.... well... I TRIED OKAY!
Talking to people that I never even DREAMED of having the chance to meet will never get old... or normal. I kept telling them that it felt surreal, even if "the main guy" wasn't there. Now I can forgive my mom for not paying hundreds of dollars for me to see them way back when. She thanks you for that, LFO.
Answer: he doesn't. While he refused to play, he did have a response that made it absolutely perfect and further proof that country artists live like normal ass people.
Another normal person story: He took an Uber to the station, and then another Uber all the way to his Baltimore hotel.
If you ever get the chance to see him, do it. He's hilarious and crazy talented.
It seems like it was a year ago that we found out Girl Meets World was a thing and I started a very enthusiastic countdown... but now it's coming to an end after three too short seasons.
I'm glad that before it comes to an end, I was able to talk to Sabrina Carpenter about the impact of the original show, and the truths of the new cast.
In the best version of Truth or Dare, she has to answer questions about her cast, and if she doesn't- complete a dare.
To be honest, I'm surprised it was such a simple, silly question that made her go for the dare! Maybe she was just intrigued.
And as for Sabrina herself- she's a star... and just like all the current Disney stars, she has multiple talents and is an incredible singer. Beyond talent, she's humble, smart, genuine, and basically everything great that I can say about an artist besides "knows how to drink" because she's too young for that. She's not gonna disappear, that's for sure.
Now.... can we maybe stop with all of the shows coming back? GMW did it right, but now we're all heartbroken again. Fuller House is good.... but we don't need to be doing all this other nonsense.
HOT 99.5 Jingle Ball. It's the biggest night of my year. It's like prom, or maybe even a wedding. MONTHS of planning. MONTHS of outfit picking. LOTS of dollars spent... for one day... that you pray goes smoothly, but rarely goes according to your assumptions.
In September, I was pretty pumped that I had an outfit I loved ready to go, only missing one piece. Then, come Black Friday, I go to try it all on again and realize I actually hate it. *cue panic* I ordered a bunch of things, mostly from Boohoo, and prayed one would work. Two days before Jingle Ball, nothing had arrived. I was forced to find something else. Instead of going to any of my usual places, I hit up the Rent the Runway STORE in Georgetown, and got really lucky when they had just one sequin jumpsuit left- in my size. [I knew I wanted pants and sequins before I even began shopping.]
Damn, it's amazing what angles and a good mirror can do, huh?!
I picked up shoes from DSW, earrings from Charming Charlie, necklace from Forever21, and prepared myself to do my own hair and make-up. I was too devastated with how it turned out last year when someone else did it for me[I don't even like linking to it in reference but here we are]. Cue the waxed-up braids, curling wand, Urban Decay smokey eye, NYX red lipstick, some failed attempts at contouring, and stila mascara and I was really diggin' my look for this year.
I ended up finishing the look with a giant SACK this year [with flask inside] and gave out some random goodies to the artists backstage.
Machine Gun Kelly was easily the most appreciative [and just the most fun in general throughout the entire night], Ellie convinced me that she might actually use what I gave her, Daya was the first to practically throw it away in front of me, and Joe Jonas was the one to call me out for having holiday leftovers. Sigh.
Unlike last year, I got some time "on the couch," in the broadcast room with some of the artists coming in for an interview. My girl Alessia had more than an interview coming for her, though. Days before Jingle Ball, the Grammy noms came out and her name was not included in any of the lists. That ain't right. Luckily, I know a place with some good and quick trophies and we made magic happen.
OBVIOUSLY I wish she would have been as excited as Meghan was, but I get it- she's gotta play it cool and stuff or whatever. JUST WASTE MY MONEY ALESSIA IT'S FINE.
Tove Lo also came in and made it real easy for my to once again just talk about her boobs and naked body.
Diplo came in to talk about holiday parties, what you need, and to receive a gift of course. I also tried to get a preview of his after party but there was no predicting the clustereff of artists that ended up being on his tiny stage that night. I have no idea how he was able to perform under such conditions. This is a real HQ video, straight from Facebook Live because #variety #allthesocials #HOT995JingleBallbeTrending.
And when you have a duo of DJ/producers who made a dumb but catchy song about a Selfie, then turned around and made the year's biggest hits there to close the show, I HAD to stop them backstage. I cornered them after their meet and greet for a very professional game of Urban Dictionary... which they definitely beat me at but I'm gonna say it's because they have more experiences with *substances.* Maybe. Probably. #DJlife
There are so many other clips that I'm gonna have to post as Throwback Thursdays or something because... well... let's be honest. It's January 5th and I'm JUST NOW getting this entire post up. I'm behind on things... but to look forward to:
Machine Gun Kelly's room had some nice "air fresheners" that neither of us would shut up about
DNCE's Cole and I had a very fun relationship, that came to a dramatic end when he asked if he could keep my flask
Daya definitely thinks I stalk her, or mooch off of her, like her friends who were visiting in her room
Ashley I from the Bachelor, who is seemingly everywhere, even made it backstage at our Jingle Ball as some sort of correspondent
Ellie Goulding is one of the sweetest, but coolest chics, who is great at sneaking in the subtle dirty jokes or lines
The girls of 5th Harmony were more separate than I've ever seen them, but now we all know why. Still- they're the sweetest girls I've ever met so I will never say anything bad about them. Especially Ally. Girl- you are a special kind of human being that I wish I could be
Finally, I wouldn't have ANY of this to show you if it weren't for my little brother. I'm sure you've heard of him once or twice. His name is Mike.
I was able to fly him in from Toledo to be my camera guy... but really, he's there to be my inspiration, my comfort, my focus-and-be-you-and-let's-make-this-great. Having him around reminds me to be myself, not focus on the camera or the fact that I'm "interviewing celebrities." I'm just a girl with a mic, genuinely interested in meeting these people who create good music and great shows. I know I won't always be able to have my favorite person next to me at big events, but it's hella nice when I can, and I'm gonna take advantage of it.
It's almost weird to even look back at all of this because it all happens so fast, you can't process it at the time. We're sprinting to the stage, then back to the hall to catch someone, then sitting and waiting for something to happen for 45 minutes, then sprinting again, losing something, forgetting something else, hitting record, and suddenly stepping out in front of 16,000 people. It's a rush that I never wanna lose the ability to feel, that's for sure.
So in 2017, my goal is to keep the rush alive. Create more opportunities to feel it. Share it more with you... and what I preach to you and myself every day: stop making little excuses for why you can't do something or why it can wait. Don't let anything wait. Don't push anything off. Live in the today and the now and make things happen.
love,
elizabethany
PS: Never thought I'd get a sweet gif of myself and the Grinch on a huge stage at the Verizon Center but that's my life now.
I have something to admit: I'm ADD... and extremely forgetful.
Oh wait, you knew that. duh.
Some people forget and for some reason, they expect a lot out of me. They expect me to remember little things and they're shocked when I don't.
Case #847632: I forgot to turn my gas/fire stove off.
HELL YEAH, I'm worried about myself. HELL YEAH I know it's not okay... but like, that's not gonna prevent me from doing it again, unfortunately.
I went a step further to call my mom on the show to possibly get more punishment.... Mama Plog is a worry wart.
I'd say she has about 50% faith in me in life. She actually freaked out WAY MORE once we hung up and she got back on Facebook. I don't think she'll ever learn that I just can't help the way she made me.
But hey... CHEERS TO NOT BURNING THE PLACE DOWN, AMIRIGHT?!?!?!?
Volkswagen and me: We go together pretty well. I grew up on them, I raced them, and then I bought my dream one a year ago. My friend Patrick knew this about me, and since he works at VW, he gave me some pretty awesome opportunities.
Some of them were with the Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross racers champs, Tanner Foust and Scott Speed. It's actually a pretty big deal [which I found out once I started telling some friends and they were unexpectedly excited for me]. I was just excited to play some Minute to Win It games and talk ish to some racers.
A dozen oranges, a box of cookies, a cheating attempt, and a very messy face later- we got the ultimate loser.
Yeah I got real comfortable with the guys real quick, which made it fun. Plus- they're both hella fun which made it easy.
...but I'm embarrassed that I can't even try and cheat [during the cups game] and win. Idiot Elizabethany.
The day after filming this, they invited me to do a HOT lap with Tanner Foust, which promptly made my dad and a lot of my Snapchatters very jealous. I was pumped to go around the track twice in this car that drifts and goes over jumps. Fear wasn't really a factor; I knew I'd be safe. I mean, they strapped and buckled my helmet to the back of the seat and everything.
Then, we took off. We hit 130 mph as we went straight for a sharp turn.
I. WAS. F#@%ING TERRIFIED. I tried to open my eyes. I tried to laugh off the terror. I tried to hold on, but there was nothing to grab. I accepted the fact that at least if we flip and crash, I'll be totally safe in here.
Luckily, they caught it on video. Be sure to catch the moments of my eyes being ALL THE WAY OPEN.
Seriously, it was the scariest and coolest thing I think I've ever done... and I'd like to think I try a lot.
When I went to the race, I took my very excited dad. I don't think I've ever seen him walk with such a pep in his step, and he's definitely never brought up getting a picture with someone like he did Tanner and Scott.
We were able to watch some of the other rounds with the guys, which was super neat to see the comments they had to say to each other, and celebrated as Scott took 1st and Tanner slid in front to get 3rd in the finals! WOO! Papa Plog did point out that I appeared to have PTSD, though. As the cars raced around, I was feeling some intense emotions and flashbacks to the ride!
Now I will watch who I throw out my "former racer" credentials to, though.....
love,
elizabethany
PS here's a good look at the whole race event at RFK!
Hi, I'm Elizabethany. I go to sleep at 3am on an EARLY night. I normally try to sleep til 10, doctor's orders.
Today, I was woken up when my phone came out of silent mode because it thought there was an emergency going on with all of my notifications. Turns out, everyone wanted to congratulate me on my pregnancy thanks to this post.
My GRANDMOTHER got excited. My BEST FRIENDS asked why they didn't know before anyone else. My MOM said "Whose is it?!?!"
..... great, Mom.
I don't know if everyone had a case of the mornings or what but it made me lose my mind a bit.
I'm STILL baffled by how many texts I kept getting throughout the day. The people of the Internet seriously need to check their gullibility levels.
I can promise you I'm not scaring this world with a little EB ANY TIME SOON. No matter how much my family [insanely] begs.
#4condoms
They also hacked into my email, by the way.... sending emails about me dropping MASSIVE deuces. If you wanna see me barge in on the Kane Show, and then discover the emails and read them outloud, skip to 23:00 in this video.
One of MY biggest motivators, is trying to hopefully motivate other people. Hm, maybe it's even my biggest motivator. But I'm not exactly the most intelligent person, or super serious, or professional, or... well, you know me by now I'd think. I just like to work my ass off, hope someone notices, and keep having fun. I don't really know how to go about *officially* motivating people with words.
Hell, even with my own little brother, my best friend, I don't know how to go about giving HIM the inspiration to make sure he's living up to his fullest potential! English may have been my major, I may talk for a living, but my whole life has been made by talking out of my ass.
So when I found out Montgomery College wanted me to give a keynote speech for 8-10 minutes..... that was kinda funny.
Everyone asked if I had written it yet.... Write a speech?! That's a thing?! Nah, I decided to write down some bullet points 30 minutes before leaving and go from there.
Before you go and watch it, let's preview some of the screenshots before you commit to anything.
Alright... Now THIS.... is what I told some smart people with high GPA's at the Harry Harden Jr Academic Excellence Awards.
I could did sit here and critique myself all day, but even with all of the uses of "dumb" and "ridiculous" and other really powerful words, I feel pretty good about the experience. It's almost like I caught a bug... because I wanna learn how to do this better. I wanna do it more. I wanna become really great at it. Hopefully I'll get some more chances.
In the meantime, go out and make some dumb and ridiculous decisions today, ya hear?!
And thanks again to Montgomery College for having me out!
When artists come in to the studio, there's one thing I have to get them to do: Be a part of this artists interviewing each other series.
Maybe it's because I think it's interesting to see what they wanna know about each other, maybe it's because I'm terribly lazy... but it's still fun! It's especially fun when they get excited about who they're asking or answering.
Fifth Harmony's Ally Brooke kicks this one off to Troye Sivan, who asks Ruth B, who asks We The Kings, who asks Tinashe, who asks Iggy Azalea.
There's a lot of food being talked about. How is it that celebs can talk/think about food so much and still look so damn good all the time?!
How cute is Ally though?! She was so flustered, but she's the nicest person on the planet so of course made something happen and gave the ultimate compliment to Troye.
The next one has already started, with Iggy asking Halsey... hopefully that one will be complete with our visitors in less time than this one!
A couple months ago I found out I was giving away tickets to some Naked Magic Show with Australian men. I did a quick search and decided one thing needed to happen: An interview/video with Chris and Mike.
After a lot of trying and drive to Baltimore, we made it happen. Now I'm in love and moving to Australia once their tour is done.
That last part may or may not be true.
We had a lot of inappropriate jokes and they told me I suck at spanking, AND I guess I was distracted by them because I called them musicians instead of magicians in my video... but it's still a good one.
Now that I've seen the show allow me to confirm that it is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I don't wanna ruin anything, but you will be impressed by the magic AND their humor [and their entire package, if you will]. If they're coming to you this summer, SEE THEM.
I swear I'm not being persuaded by this naked picture OR the fact we got to hang with them for a while afterwards....
When you work with a bunch of radio legends, you gotta find a way to do your own thing and get your own content. Now that I'm also music director around these parts, I have a little more credibility and decided to get my hands on some artists while they were in their dressing rooms, walking down the halls, or doing press.
It's basically everything we're told NOT to do. It's the most unprofessional thing I've ever done... yet it's probably the video I'm most proud of to this day.
Enjoy a different look at Jingle Ball:
The way it works back there is crazy. Everything is so specifically timed. They'll do an interview at 6:48, meet and greets at 7:04, and perform at 7:27. Squeezing in extra PLANNED time was impossible... so sometimes you just need to demand some attention and pray you don't get in trouble. [I definitely got in trouble. I always get in trouble. This time it was a scary bodyguard for a certain band made of four certain male humans.]
Drake put out his rather boring and "Dad Dancey" video for "Hotline Bling" last night and I immediately knew he needed the help of my fantastic White Girl Dance skills.
By now you know how to Whip and Nae Nae [and in a couple weeks the song will disappear for a while until we're reminiscing]. He came into the studio one night to host the countdown with me and do some dancing.
Yes, of course we did the full dance together, but more importantly- I taught him how to do THE White Girl. [I should probably trademark that ish and come up with a song so I'm rich, bitch.]
[If no one on the Internet finds this funny, at least someone from his entourage who was filming did! Win.]
The face on his producer/friend on the left is priceless the entire time. That 16 year old is so not impressed with me.
Silento was awesome, by the way. Typical high school kid-hustler who said he knew this song was going to be a hit right away, even though everyone else in the room disagreed. He's also hella attractive, but I probably shouldn't say that in public since it'd be illegal.
Maybe they'd be impressed with Mama Plog, though. Each year we try to teach her a new dance [until one time she told me it felt like she was trying to achieve an O, which made me immediately run, cry, and hide for a couple years]. This year it was all about the "Watch Me" dance and a side of Stanky Leg.
[For the record, we could barely hear the music which is why I seem confused. Somehow it was loud enough on this here video.]
Now you know why it's so easy for me to get my White Girl on. Thanks, Mom. Your Stanky Leg is spot on.
I had an idea one day when I was completely braindead to have the artists ask each other questions!
Not only does that take a workload off of me, but they come up with the weird and random stuff. Or the stuff that is really relatable to the fellow artists.
We plan on continuing this cycle, but here's what happened with Natalie La Rose, Shaggy, Ryn Weaver, Andy Grammer, and Katy Tiz!
*note: sometimes the video takes forever to load. working on fixing that!*
I feel like I was admitting more than he was, but here it goes... along with a clip of him performing the song, duh.
He was easily one of my favorite people I've ever met. SO cool, down to earth, and thankful for everything. He hasn't been gone, he's been winning awards for reggae music, but I'm pumped for his new song that could take over the summer.
What do you do to celebrate the holidays at work? Hand out some cards? Bring in some goodies?
I choose to get mostly naked and shoot a Nerf bow and arrow gun thing at my coworkers.... and Shaggy. Like Mr Boombastic Shaggy. Who randomly walked in when I was dressed like a frickin weirdo. He loved it.
This is the real way to show love in 2015, duh.
I wish you coulda seen the whole run-in with Shaggy. Homeboy came through the door and I had no idea he was early. "Oh... heyyy Shaggyyyy....."
Side note: Do you see that huge dent in my thigh?! That's not cottage cheese, that's an actual dent I got when I fell down the stairs during Santacon a year and a half ago. Sexy.
Sorry I'm not sorry to my coworkers. There will be more of this coming.
Ein von Zara Larsson (@zaralarsson) gepostetes Foto am
SO... turns out she's a 17 year old Swedish singer and was set to come into the studio. Obviously I had to turn it into a very unique game that no one else would ever be down with.
Her mom was in the room, and I dared her to race me in putting condoms on crazy ish. Those Swedes are a lot more liberal than we are, though. their openness in sex talk is ridiculously refreshing. They called us Americans out for almost whispering every time we mention condoms on the air. That's just silly.
So who wins?
Yeah, that was bad on my part. Like, really bad. I don't even have nails and I still managed to break them all. Hey Trojan- have any comment on why a grown ass woman can't make it happen?
Seriously, though... that girl is a champ. I'm speechless.
Hopefully we'll have more of the performance posted on the website soon.
