I give you, I hope, the winning essay. It Rocks!!!!

Warm 106.9, LOOK NO FURTHER!!!! You have found Seattle's BIGGEST Wicked fan in me- Becky ZoBell. I love this musical and let's face it, what's not to love? I guess it all starts with my favorite movie, The Wizard of Oz. I loved it as a kid and love it still today as an adult. I am able to quote the movie - any part, at any time. When Wicked first came to Seattle back in 2006, my sweet husband got tickets. After seeing it I instantly fell in love with the story line, the songs, the characters and the music. Unfortunately the tour left Seattle and I hadn’t had enough – I just had to see it again. The problem with that is that we are a single income family. I am a stay at home mom to 3 children and my husband is a State worker. Yet despite tight finances it was obvious to me that food and shelter would have to come second... seeing Wicked again was my TOP priority (just kidding... sort of)!
Enter my fitness goals. Because nothing in life is free (except hopefully free tickets from Warm 106.9!), I set fitness goals that, if achieved, would result in my husband agreeing to pay for me to fly to Los Angeles to see Wicked again in 2007. The name of my fitness program was 50, 5/50, 20, 120. All on the same day I had to do 50 sit-ups non-stop, run 5 miles in 50 minutes, do 20 men’s push-ups non-stop and weigh 120 lbs (lose about 10 lbs). Fulfilling these goals was hard and painful. Almost as bad as giving up desserts for 2 months to lose those extra pounds! But I did it and the reward was sweet. Worthy of every step I ran. When I got to LA I was so excited to see that Bellevue's own Megan Hilty was playing the role of Glinda with a Guh! She was my Glinda in Seattle and I was thrilled to watch her perform again in LA.

Then Wicked came to Portland this year and I HAD to see it yet again. I rounded up 20 friends to go with me so that I could get priority group ticket seating. It wasn’t hard to find 20 people to go since I had told about two thousand people how great the show was! So we drove to Portland and we all loved it, of course. And imagine my surprise when a month later my aunt, who lives in Utah, called to tell me that she had tickets to Wicked in Salt Lake City. So this past spring I flew there too! I was so grateful to see it with family and to share with them my love for the show. And because I feel the need to share with others the greatness of this production, I later did a talent show dressed as Elphaba - black hat, dress, shoes and all. I painted my face, arms and neck green with acrylic paint and sang Defying Gravity on top of a table at the talent show that our church put on. Complete with a broom of course! Naturally I was a hit (are we allowed to brag?) and overall I just plain had fun!

And so Warm 106.9, I hope you are able to catch just a small glimpse into what my husband likes to call "my freakish obsession". I truly love this musical and would do almost ANYTHING for the chance to see it again. Even eat a Klondike bar! I am hoping that you will choose me for this wonderful opportunity. I just couldn't be happier!!!