Our ProScout Adventure!

So this last weekend was the big ProScout event in Philadelphia. If you've followed my blog for any length of time now you may have already read about how this whole thing got started here. If not, feel free to peek at this blog if you want some background on this little adventure.

I have a bunch of friends from high school living in the Philadelphia area, but I figured (correctly) that we wouldn't have any spare time to visit, so unfortunately I didn't get to see any of them.

So what can I say about this trip? It was a BEATING!

Yes - it would probably have been less difficult to run the Iditarod with a team of feral, bald guinea-pigs pulling a broken wooden pallet.

On Thursday we left after my husband got home for work... meaning we left after 8:00 PM. We figured it would be wise to break up the drive as much as possible, and allow the kids to sleep through the first leg. Of course the kids had other ideas. The Skink asked for food non-stop for the first 2 hours, and Iraq whined incessantly about not being able to watch a movie on the monitor that stopped working after she pressed one too many buttons that she wasn't supposed to touch in the first place. Oh yes... it was a lovely, relaxing drive... NOT! The hubby can only take so much, especially after a long day babysitting inmates. Mount Vesuvius had nothing on him!

We spent the night in a hotel along the rout, but the "queen-size" beds bore an odd resemblance to FULL-size beds. Fine if you're married to a fencepost, but somewhat less comfortable when your husband is the size of the average NFL linebacker.

In the morning The Skink figured out how to open the hotel room door... and leave. Picture linebacker-size daddy tearing down the hall after her wearing nothing but his boxers. We were just thankful we realized she had escaped before she got too far. We somehow managed to get dressed, enjoy the continental breakfast amid The Skink's insistence that she be allowed to run about the dining room making plenty of noise, and then we went on to Philly.

We've been VERY spoiled living in a small, quiet city. It's easy to forget what it's like to drive 2 miles at 1 mile-per-hour. Figuring out how to park at the hotel was just as much fun when we found ourselves in a maze of 1-way streets which all seemed to lead the wrong way. When we finally figured it all out, we realized that parking cost about $40 per day. The other choice was to get valet parking for... $40 per day. Sure. We have paid parking here in VA, but the only similarities between Philly parking and VA parking is the "4." Around here they just leave the "0" off.

The room in the big, fancy hotel was very nice... especially if you like full-size beds (which we really don't). We took all precautions to keep The Skink INSIDE the room. Everyone was exhausted and grumpy and we really couldn't afford to eat because the chain restaurants in Philly seem to think nothing of charging about 3 times as much as those outside of the city.

In the morning I got Iraq up and dressed and off we went to the first day of the ProScout conference. The hours and hours of lectures were great - if you were in your teens or older, which Iraq is not. I managed to pick up a lot of valuable information between multiple trips to the bathroom to retrieve Iraq who was bored and kept wandering off. After all those hours Iraq finally got one practice trip on the catwalk. There was only time for one trip because there were probably more than 600 people that needed to take a practice trip. Thankfully Iraq did fine, so I opted NOT to sign her up for the $25 "How to Walk the Catwalk" training course kindly offered by ProScout. Instead we practiced in the hotel hallway outside our room.

It was an exhausting day just trying to keep up with Iraq, deal with her boredom and channel her excess energy into some sort of activity that didn't damage the hotel or injure others. During the break she met a very ADHD 9-year-old boy and the two of them did cartwheels through the ballroom lobby. Hey - it was something to do.

Sunday was the "Big Day." I cursed under my breath every time a speaker talked about how frightened and nervous everyone must be and how everybody needed to try to relax. Iraq had NO idea she was supposed to be nervous or frightened, and I didn't want anybody making her think otherwise. Thank goodness she wasn't listening to a word.

Everyone was asked to line up for the catwalk walk in numerical order. Iraq was number 45 so she didn't have a long wait. Then off she went in front of the agents. She didn't exactly make eye contact with them (she does make eye contact one-on-one, but its not exactly her strongest point in a group situation) but she rocked the catwalk with her attitude and energy.

After all 600+ people did their walk, they were lined up to parade past the agents up-close. I didn't hear any mooing, but I rather expected to see someone with a cattle-prod pushing the line forward past the agents.

Then we had a few hours to do nothing but wait. I let Iraq run about the ballroom lobby like a banshee with some other restless children. She wanted to wear my high-heeled boots, so I sat on the lobby floor in my socks. Stylish, no? (comfortable... yes!)

Finally, finally, finally we got to go in for call-backs. I was surprised just how many people did not get any call backs at all. Perhaps one-quarter to one-half of the participants got called back. Iraq was one of the lucky ones!

Interestingly, many more people were weeded out at the call-backs. The agents were set up at tables around a large room. If a participant did not impress the agent face-to-face, they received a kind "thank-you" and that was it. They went home. I was worried how Iraq would do. She had been running around the call-back room with some other kids and in her completely over-stimulated state, had decided not to listen to me at all. I was stuck in a position where I could not risk stepping out of line and further delaying our little stay with ProScout, so I pretty much gave up. I captured her on a maniacal speed-pass just before it was her turn to meet the agent, but Iraq was NOT happy to be restrained in any way. My stomach sank. We'd been through a weekend of h3ll only to lose it in the last stage of the process. In fact, the people directly in front of us were sent home with nothing to show for it after meeting the agent.

So...

We stepped up to the agent, and Iraq was a little shy at first. Then the agent asked about her number. "Are you 45?" she asked. Iraq started giggling and said "No! I'm 7, but my number is 45!" Iraq was bubbly for the rest of the visit and answered all the questions the agent asked her with a big smile on her face. She made eye contact and even hugged the agent!

Then the agent, Kathy Donahue, spoke with me. "She absolutely has the face and the body for modeling," she told me, "And I want to bring her in and get her in front of a video camera to see what her acting talent is like. I want to see the range of her talent. Please call our office this week and arrange a time to come up here and meet with us."

Wow! What have I gotten myself into? What has Iraq gotten us into?

We headed out on Sunday night and spent the night at a (much cheaper hotel with REAL queen-size beds) in Hershey, PA. In the morning we took the kids on the free tour of the Hershey factory-thing. Everybody got to pick out a few chocolate items to buy, and The Skink found a plush cow. Have I mentioned before how much The Skink loves cows? LOL

The trip back was (still difficult, but) a bit better. I was able to stop the whining by putting The Skink's new toy cow on my head like a hat. The Skink and Iraq found it utterly hysterical, so I milked it for all it was worth.

So... now we're home. Of course in the next few days I have to call the agency and set up a time to GO BACK UP NORTH to meet with them. Yikes!

What did we learn this weekend? We learned that Iraq actually does seem to be cut out for this kind of business. She doesn't get nervous or embarrassed and she could care less what anyone thinks. She knows how to "work it" and she's far more photogenic than I've ever been. She also loves the attention.

The future is still a big "?" but I suppose the unknown is what keeps life interesting. We don't know if we'll be able to afford to help Iraq get into this industry, but we'll just have to get on the carnival ride and see how far we can take it before we either throw up or get kicked off.

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