What do I win?

Bad quality photo of CBS Daytime TCA Panel.

Because I am so self-centered and forgetful, I don't often think about how most people don't get to intern at a television studio where, on occasion, they get to interact with celebrities or see the sets for television shows or witness the behind the scenes aspects of the entertainment industry.

I go to work every day in the same fashion. When I wake up I'm groggy and grumpy. When I get on the road I'm alert and disgruntled. When I arrive at work I'm relaxed and relieved. Then upon leaving I revert back to my "on the road" self. Which makes the moment I get home a return to the state of being relaxed and relieved, only to wake up in the morning and repeat the process all over again.

But the past few days have reminded me what a sore winner I am. I got this impeccable internship that not only looks good on my resume, but has inserted me into situations that, frankly, I would have paid for - nay, I have paid for - in the past.

Like today, for instance, when I went to work and was told by my boss that we were having our Daytime TCA (short for Television Critics Association - I don't know if I mentioned that yesterday, but I should have) panel in Television City, just down the road - okay, 30 minutes in medium traffic down the road - from CBS Studio Center where I work every day.

When I was invited along, I was obviously eager to accept the opportunity, mainly because I have been at this internship for nearly two months and still not traveled south to Television City yet.

So I tagged along with my intern friend from the publicity department and another girl who works there and offered to let me carpool, and we drove down a windy twisty road to our destination.

Even though I've grown up just south of Los Angeles County, I still feel like an outsider anywhere north of Chino Hills. My turf has always been the Orange County area. It's where I've frequented the freeways most often, where I've actually seen the nightlife (there is very little, let me tell you), where I've been to restaurants and shopping centers and movie theaters and the like.

Drop me in the middle of LA County and I'm as knowledgeable as I am in Miami or St. Louis or Saskatchewan. Seriously, I know nothing. Except the venues where I've seen the Jonas Brothers - which I clearly know much about. But I don't want anyone to know that.

Anyway, I digress (par the usual course). The point is my internship, aside from forcing me to learn to drive on my own, has also given me license to explore Los Angeles - something I haven't done despite living just an hour south of it for most of my life.

Once in Television City, we drove into the CBS parking lot and walked into the giant building where everything from The Carol Burnett Show to The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson have been and are currently being (respectively) taped.

We grabbed a bunch of Panera lunches for the CBS Publicity crew and went up to the Price is Right stage. Yeah, you read right. I went to see The Price is Right today.

Well I guess I didn't exactly see the show being taped. But I did get to see a panel featuring Drew Carey, Wayne Brady, Julie Chen, Sharon Osbourne and two daytime soap opera actors who I am too lazy and dumb to remember the names of. And it was pretty stellar.

While I may have expressed my enthusiasm well enough for the TCA press tour event on Sunday, this was almost just as exciting. In the small setting, it felt like I could have been part of the press rather than the corporate team. And for some reason, that role still appeals to me.

I love that my internship has allowed me to see what I could never see as a spectator. Even as a critic - which admittedly is a career path I still plan on pursuing - I might get ushered into the sound stages, but I'd never get the freedom and backstage insight that I do as an intern with CBS.

On the days that I'm working in an office, I forget what luck I have. Then I go to Television City and fist bump Wayne Brady.

And suddenly it's all put back into perspective. At last, I know I have won.