Kaedee's Big Trip

Kaedee and I spent a week in NYC on Wednesday! It was a wild, whirlwind trip!
I'm going to write a few posts here about it for friends who would like to see and hear more, and to keep a record for myself!

So the story begins...

One day I was avoiding work by messing around on the internet, and somehow I came across a link to enter the Barbie's I Can Be... mentor contest. Kaedee was in the room, so I asked her if she thought she'd like to enter. She looked it over and said, yeah sure. So I wrote the essay the online application asked for, filled out all the info, and clicked SUBMIT.

One of those things you do a zillion times, but you just KNOW you'll never win. It's a nationwide search, they must get thousands of submissions.

Weeks go by, and one night at 9:30PM my cell phone rings. I look at the caller ID and it's a number with a strange 310 area code, so I don't answer it. But they leave a message, so I figure, hmmm maybe I should see what it was! Curiosity will kill this cat one of these days!

It was Stefani Green from Mattel to tell us Kaedee is on the short list and they'd like to verify that we'll be free to travel on the dates they'd need us too. I about fell over myself calling her back! Turns out she was in LA and forgot it was so much later here. And yes, Kaedee was on the short list!

We had to go online and look up the contest to remind ourselves what we'd entered! The contest was a partnership between Barbie/Mattel and The White House Project. The WHP does an annual list of "10 Women to Watch" every year, and this year they teamed up with Barbie. They matched up 10 girls with mentors, and Kaedee was going to be one of them! We were so excited, but on pins and needles, afraid to hope! Kaedee said, "Mom, I just wish I knew how short that list is!!"

Two days later, I'm in the middle of a private Photoshop class with a student, and my phone rings. I see that 310 area code and my heart stops. I excuse myself to take the call. And it's good news!! She's IN! The Mattel lady told me ALL kinds of information, I could hardly take it all in. Then I had to finish the class!

I raced into town and went to the High School, and checked Kaedee out. She must have been wondering what the heck was going on, but as soon as she saw my face she knew! I think there was some jumping up and down, and maybe a little squealing. It's all a blur. We called Dad, and hurried home to see if the email came from Mattel with the details, since my head was so full I couldn't remember everything!

We were now in full panic mode... for two weeks! Checking schedules to see what had to be re-arranged, figuring out what we would need for the trip! I had NOTHING fit to wear in the same room as Meryl Streep! Lists, lists, lists. Google, google google. Check maps to see where in the city we'd be. Look up the people we'd be meeting so we'd be informed. Hunt for clothes.

Once I found a dress for the gala awards event, I felt much better, but there were still a lot of details to deal with. But time marched along, and before we knew it we were packing up Daddy's big "road warrior" suitcase and loading up the mp3 players for a long travel day.

More of our story tomorrow...