Ruben, Thank you for emailing me back so quickly! :o) I am including my story in this email the same way that Matt did. I just wanted to say a few things first... I love your website.... I'm sure you hear that all the time, but I seriously do! I can tell you put so much time and energy in it and without WOB I would never have had the chance to be on FANography because I visit WOB at least 6 times a day to keep up with the Britney's happenings. I want to say thank you for all the Britney fan's out there because it is truly amazing. You do so well about updating, your content is exceptional, I just can't say enough. And also, thank you for posting the contest this summer when you heard about it! I would have never entered had I not seen it on your page. Also, I just wanted to tell you that I went to a costume contest last night and I dressed as Britney. I won 1st place for most unique costume (I was Brit at the 2001 VMA's... I even had a fake snake!) I won a DVD player. I would love to send WOB my pictures of that night whenever I get them developed. Just let me know if you are interested. :o) Ok, now that I have rambled on, I am going to tell you my FANography experience......

One day during the summer, I had a break between my summer classes here at UWF. I did what I did during most of my free time... I surfed onto WOB to see what Brit had been up to. I noticed a little box talking about a contest that MTV is looking for Britney fans. I couldn't let this opportunity pass me by. I e-mailed the requirements to the given e-mail address and days past. I had honestly forgotten about the contest until about a week later, I received an e-mail from one of the producers saying that they were interested in my e-mail and would like me to send a tape. They asked me to respond "yes" or "no" if I would be interested in sending in a tape and also with a phone number I could be reached at in case the producers wanted to do a phone interview. I was so excited but I figured that everyone who had responded to the contest had also received this e-mail so I didn't really get my hopes up. I responded with a definite "YES! I WILL SEND IN A TAPE!" but in all the hype, I forgot to send my phone number. *lol* I received an e-mail back from Judy Myers (one of the producers) saying "WE NEED A PHONE NUMBER!" I felt like such a goob! I e-mailed her back pronto with a phone number to my apartment at school. That night my boyfriend and I went to my house to eat diner with my parents. After we ate, we sat down in the living room to watch the Braves' game. All of a sudden my house phone rang. It was my roommate and she was like, "Guess what?!?!?!" I was like, "Huh?" She kept rambling on about how I was not gonna believe what she had to say. I thought she had burned down the apartment or something. Finally, I pulled it out of her that one of the girls working on the Britney project, Rebecca, had called asking for me. She took the number down for me and I immediately excused myself from the living room with a 120 minute phone card and I nervously dialed the number to speak to Rebecca. I get really shy on the phone, especially when other people are listening so I locked myself in the bathroom. Rebecca was so nice and she made me feel totally at ease as she grilled me about Britney and her life. She asked me everything from how many birthmarks she has to the color of Britney's bathroom sink. Just kidding.. the questions weren't that invasive, but they were thinkers. We ended up talking for 1 1/2 hours and then before we got off the phone Rebecca told me how impressed she was and what a great job I did. She told me I had to make sure to send in a tape so I promised her I would.

The next night I was making my tape! My boyfriend had gone back to his hometown of Niceville and my friend Anna was working so I recruited my roomie to film my audition tape for me. She HATES Britney so they tape was kinda difficult to make because I could see her jokingly mocking me as I ranted about how great Britney is. My audition tape was done in a spoofy "talk show" theme. I had a cut out of Britney's face over mine with the lips cut out so my lips looked like hers. I introduced myself and went on about how great Britney is, all the things we have in common, and all the greatest moments in her career. I ended the tape by saying, "If you pick me I would be so LUCKY so please DON'T LET ME BE THE LAST TO KNOW or it may drive me CRAZY because SOMETIMES I wonder what Britney has it like." Then I dropped something and said, "OOPS! I DID IT AGAIN!" *lol* The next day I went home to try to convert the tape to a regular kind (I filmed it on a Mini-DV  tape) but after trying for an hour with the help of my dad, it didn't work so I gave up. I sent in my tape with the converter and everything! It cost me about $40 to send the tape plus the converter I lost. I didn't know it yet, but it would be worth it!

About 1 week later, I got a call from Rebecca (she had been keeping me updated) and she said they loved my tape, but that the contest hadn't ended so they would be letting me know whenever they got a chance. I didn't hear from her for about 1 week and I assumed they didn't choose me. I was a little bit upset but just happy I had made it as far as I had. On July 4th, me, my boyfriend and his parents went to Daytona Beach for the Pepsi 400 (they went a year ago and saw Brit be the Grand Marshall). On the way up there Rebecca called my cell phone but I had it off while we were traveling. I got the message and accidentally erased the number to call her back at. I was devastated. I thought for sure I had ruined my chances. My last resort was to call my roomie back in Pensacola and ask her to go through my drawers until she found Rebecca's number. I finally got it and I gave her a call. I got her voicemail. I left a message and waited anxiously for her to call back. It was the weekend by now so I didn't know if she was gonna check it. Then, I remembered she had given me her cell number and I had it stored in my phone. I called it but no one answered so I left her a message. No answer the whole day. Then Sunday afternoon, we headed to the track to watch the race. No joke, as soon as the cars revved up and started making lots of noise on the very first lap, Rebecca called! I could hardly hear her through all the loud cars! I was able to make out something about going to Britney's hometown to her houses and stuff. I was so excited I almost peed on myself. She told me that she would call me the next day with more details so I was like "ok!"

The next day was a Monday and I had just gotten back from Daytona when Rebecca called. She asked how far I live from Brit's hometown. I wasn't quite sure because I had never been there but I told he I live about 2 1/2 hours from New Orleans. She asked if I would like to go to Britney's hometown! I was sooooooooooooo happy! And to make it even better, she asked if I had some friends that are major Britney fans. I said that I knew just who I would bring along and she asked for their names, ages, and she wanted me to Fed-Ex their pictures the next day. I chose to take my boyfriend (okay, so he only likes to MUTE Britney and LOOK at her) and my friend Anna who also loves Britney. I got the pictures together and mailed them the next day.

Later on that week we were contacted with the information about hotel arrangements and directions and all that jazz. I was getting excited! We left Pensacola at about 5pm Wednesday, July 17th. I have never had such a fun road trip! Kevin (my boyfriend) was such a good sport. He drove my Mustang the whole way to Port Allen, LA (where the hotel we stayed was). On the way there we played with my video camera, sang numerous Britney songs into hairbrushes, bottles, and anything else we thought looked like a microphone. At about 9pm we arrived at the hotel and we checked in saying, "we are with MTV!" We felt like such celebs! *lol* We played around in the room and then Kev fell asleep. Me and Anna were up all night talking about how cool this was gonna be. We finally fell asleep. Anna and I woke up at 5am the next morning and we began the tedious "girlie" process of hair and makeup. We were told that the camera/sound crew and producers would be at our door bright and early at 8am. 3 hours hardly gave us enough time! Judy and Tiffany (two of the producers) arrived about 30 minutes late and talked to us about what we would be doing. We received instructions for the day and a list of places we were going to! It was so awesome because it was like a scavenger hunt in Britney's hometown. Our list looked like this....

"Serenity" mansion

Britney's childhood home

Nyla's Burger Basket

Parklane Academy

Kentwood Museum

First Baptist Church of Kentwood

When I laid eyes on all the "Britney" destinations we had in front of us, I was so excited! The sound people came, hooked us up to mics, and we were off. Judy and Tiff handed us the map of Louisiana, a highlighter, and tons of bottled water and said, "We're following you guys!" We listened to Britney the whole 45 minute drive from Port Allen to Kentwood. Once we got there, I was like, "Dad-gum, this place is small!" But I am from a small town in the south myself so it was kinda comforting. We stopped at a gas station to ask directions. The camera crew made me feel so special and everyone was gathering around. The people in Kentwood were so nice and they were talking about Britney and how they are friends of the family and stuff like that. I was very impressed with everyone's "southern hospitality!" The first stop was "Serenity." OMGoshness! It was sooooooooooo beautiful! We looked around the gates and left her a message on the surveillance cameras. Before we left, we took pics in front of the gate and I had to take some rocks from her yard. Our next stop was her childhood home...... it was so crazy. There was a NIIIIIIIICE truck parked out front and a white Benz. There were like 4 HUGE German Shephards walking around the yard too! We could see the TV on inside and we desperately wanted to knock on the door but Judy wouldn't let us because she said that if the dogs bit us, they could get sued. I freaked at her house. I almost started crying because it's like my dream coming true! They had to tear us away from her house and plus we were hungry so what better place to grab a bite to eat than the original "Nyla's"?!?!?! I ordered Britney's favorite (grilled chicken). I can see why Britney loves this food! It was great! Nyla's is such a cutesy little country place. There were tons of signed Britney stuff all over Nyla's and they even had like regular Kodak pics of Britney on a little corkboard. Let me tell you that she is even prettier in those regular pics than made up magazine covers! For all the people who say she is airbrushed and fake, they need to see these pics. She was gorgeous. While we were eating two girls (about 16 years old) came into eat with their granddad. They saw the camera's and stuff and they started bad-mouthing Britney and just making rude comments. I got so upset because I was like, "This is my day and these girls aren't gonna ruin it!" Then when I was talking to Judy and Tiffany and everyone with us the girls started mocking my accept (I kinda have a heavy southern accent). I was like "Ugh! Whatever!" The greatest surprise at Nyla's was yet to come..... just then guess who served us our food... no, not Britney- NYLA herself! She was sooooooooo sweet to us and so nice! She was so motherly and just plain out cool! She shared with us some of her own personal pictures of Britney at the opening of the Nyla's in New York and she showed us some of the goodies Britney gave away in the goody bags on the opening night. She sat and talked with us and she was so nice. She even gave us a souvenir menu to take home with us! She was so nice. Before we left, we asked he directions to the Kentwood Museum (it sounds bigger than it is). She graciously wrote them down for us and as we were leaving she pulled out her camera and asked if we would take a picture so she could give it to Britney! OMGoshness! I was like "Heck, yeah! I will take a picture for Britney." So me, Kev, and Anna got in a picture that Nyla took for Britney. Then we were off to the museum. Two really nice old ladies ran the place, which was teeny tiny- only like 5 rooms...... 3 of which Britney stuff occupied. They wouldn't let us film inside the museum but we got to look around and then talk about it on camera. It was really neat! They had all her awards she had one, trophies, tiara's, her MMC jacket autographed, some of her clothes and in the last room they had her actual bedroom set. In the first Rolling stone that she was in (where she was in her room wearing white and leaning against the dresser) they had the whole set there set up just like her room... they had her dolls and everything... teddy bears, everything!!!!!! It was great! They also had 3 life-size posters of her that fans had signed to give to her. It was so full of signatures, it was hard to find a place to write my name but I did get to leave her a message! :o) Then one of the ladies that worked there called her granddaughter up there because she is friends with Britney. Once she got there, I got to ask her questions about Britney and what they would do together. The girl was really nice but kinda shy. The museum had a little gift shop of Britney stuff. They had postcards with a picture of little Britney, pens, books and stuff like that. Kevin bought me a "Heart to Heart" (signed by Lynne) and 2 Britney postcards. Anna bought some pens, the book, and some postcards.... MTV paid us back all we bought.. they were very generous. Our next stop was Britney's church. The camera's didn't follow us in and we didn't stay long. We talked to her pastor and he didn't seem very happy at all. I have heard that her church is unhappy with her and her clothes and things she says so he was kinda quiet. He said that they don't like to talk about their members. Next we drove about 30 more minutes to Parklane Academy where Britney went to school. We looked around and I went on a mission to find someone to interview. I found her 7th grade basketball coach. He was a really nice older man and I asked if he had been interviewed before and he said, "No!" We were the first people to ever talk to him about Britney! He told us about her good attitude and sweet personality. By this time we were pooped but we still had one more scene to shoot. They took us to the "Welcome to Kentwood" sign and we did a little segment there. We looked so tired and worn out by then (it was about 6pm) but it's gonna be funny because it'll be the first thing they show!!!! :o) Well, then we said goodbye to the producers (they gave us tons of MTV shirts) and crew and we headed back to P-cola with tons of great memories! It was so amazing and I cannot wait to relive the adventure when I see it on FANography! :o)

Posted by Ruben