Thought you might want to hear about the little adventure some friends and I had yesterday.

Yesterday afternoon some friends and I were sitting around watching "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" after having met Baz Luhrman this morning and turned it off to find that the SAG awards were on, and our very own Elijjah was on screen. Of course there was an outcry among the group at seeing this. Well Melanie suggested in passing that the Shrine Auditorium, where the awards were being held were really only 15 min away, did we want to make a run over there? In two minutes I had my shoes on and we were out the door.

Of course we didn't really expect to be able to see anything, in fact we were quite sure security would be so tight there's no way we'd be able to get in a hundred foot radius of the place. And at first we thought we were right, as there were barricades around all the streets in the area. But then we noticed that they were actually only blocking cars, foot traffic was perfectly fine. So we parked and walked toward the Shrine.

We walked to where I knew the exit was, and hung out a bit. We debated whether or not to go to another area, but decided we'd stay put. It paid off. Not long after that the show ended, and people started coming out to the party that was being held in a tent in the parking lot at the rear of the Shrine. Sure enough, celebrities were among them.

So we started taking pictures of them, at first just barely waving. But after awhile our inhibitions were gone. We'd yell out the names of the actors, etc. and wave and take pics. We saw people like Baz Luhrman and his wife Catherine Martin, Nicole Kidman, the cast of Six Feet Under, and so many more. After awhile we finally started seeing some of the LOTR cast. John Rhys-Davies came out, but we didn't really scream at him. Sir Ian McKellen came out and proudly held his award up high for us to see. Sean Astin and his wife waved before quickly getting into their limo. We were just having a great time.

And then it started getting later, and the other fans who were hanging out around us started to go home. But of course we were determined, we had no clue if the cast was still in there, but we were going to wait around long enough to find out. First came Orlando, and I spotted him first. I pointed, and immediately we all screamed his name. Sure enough he waved, and after a second he ran over to us. We took pictures, got autographs, it was great. And damn did he looks and smells fantastic!

The we started talking to some other LOTR fans that were there, and got along great with them. It was getting late, and we kept joking that the guys were going to be closing out the party. Then we noticed Billy walking around outside the tent. We waved once, and he was definetly looking towards us, but we don't think he realized we were really waving at him!

After awhile he came out, and was just as charming as could be. We again got pictures and autographs. He was the sweetest thing and you just wanted to give him a big hug!

So Billy left, and by this time we were certain that Dom and Elijah were still in there partying. We joked about how drunk they must be by then (it had been about 4 hours since the show ended) and how they were probably the only ones in there still dancing. Then we saw Dom. We yelled and he ran over, momentarily teasing us by running away, but finally came over to take pics and sign. He was very animated and friendly, and honestly it was quite clear that he had been drinking a lot. Someone asked if Elijah was still in the party, and he said he must be because they were supposed to be sharing a limo, and then he realized that he had forgotten to tell Elijah he was leaving.