K Belle and I headed to NOLA Saturday morning for her audition for The Voice.
There were a few kinks in getting there:
1. Leaving a little behind schedule
2. The inability of Racetrac to give me cash back, causing me to head elsewhere to get cash, putting us even more behind schedule
3. After being on the road for a little over an hour, we realized K Belle had left her driver’s license at home, which she needed for the audition.
4. Waiting for almost an additional hour at the Love’s Truck Stop, while Beau drove 85 mph, dodging traffic and a military caravan to get it to us … this making us REALLY behind schedule, thinking we were going to miss our time
5. Driving through a torrential downpour to get to the audition and actually praying to God that I wouldn’t get a ticket despite the fact that I was breaking the law … yeah, that’s good logic.
6. Parking. That’s all. Just parking in NOLA at the Convention Center … ending up in a shady, unattended lot, where some guy was relieving himself in the corner and thinking the lady character with him, who was giving me the evil eye, might break in my car and steal all our luggage
BUT … we made it with about 10 minutes to spare.
The audition process was way less painful than I thought it was gonna be. This ain’t no American Idol, y’all. This is for real.
It was very organized. The whole process took between 2 and 3 hours.
It was like a huge cattle call, though. I only got to go back with K Belle because she was a minor. No family or friends are allowed with those 18 or over.
After you go through multiple lines and rooms, you finally end up in an audition room, which includes one judge and 10 people.
Each person gets a turn to sing. They state their name, where they’re from, and what they’re going to sing. You get limited time … one verse and once chorus of the song of your choice. That’s it. It goes very quickly.
If you watch The Voice, you know they only have maybe 50 people who come through the show to audition. That’s quite a cut from thousands auditioning in multiple cities.
I sat at the back of the room and observed each singer and thought about which ones I would bring back for a callback. There were some pretty awesome singers in K Belle’s room. She was definitely one of the top 3 in the room. I predicted she and 2 others were going to get a callback. I mean … I am a singer and know the difference between good singing and great singing. There was some great singing.
Let’s put it this way … I don’t know a whole lot of singers that sing better than the 3 in that audition room. I definitely do not! 
I was pretty shocked when the judge said, “Unfortunately, I’m not going to call any of you back for a callback.” Total silence. Weird.
So, if there were 3 amazing singers in just our room, how many more were in the other rooms who got passed on? Harsh.
K Belle said she wasn’t expecting to get a callback. I don’t think she knows how good she is. She was just ready to go eat and enjoy the rest of our time in NOLA. She didn’t seem too disappointed and it was definitely a great experience for her.
I would say the highlight of the audition though was the last man to sing in her room … a 70-something-year-old man who sang “Wrecking Ball.” Yeah. It was definitely worth the wait.
We ended the night with sushi, teriyaki chicken, and, shopping, and, of course, walking over to the French Quarter for beignets and cafe’ au lait. K Belle’s words of wisdom, “There’s never a wrong time for beignets.” I do agree. Morning, noon, or night … they’re good anytime!
(I think I have posted at least 7 pictures of beignets on this blog.)
The most fun of all was just spending time with this jewel of a daughter.
And, there will probably be no next-year or the year after audition for anything. She’s done with it. Too much waiting around, she says … not worth it. 
Teenagers. So impatient. So dramatic. So ridiculous. Gotta love ’em!