We arrived at Texas A&M two hours before Sean was scheduled to speak. We'd only been sitting there about ten minutes, and I was working on homework, when Shan grabbed my arm and whispered, "DeeDee!" It was Sean walking right past us with a few other people. The guy in charge of the event walked past us a few minutes later, and Shan asked if it would be ok to ask Sean for an autograph, and he said he'd find out.

A little while later, I heard, "Hi, I'm Sean," and I looked up from my homework to see Sean shaking Shan's hand. Shan introduced herself, then Sean offered his hand to me and held it firmly while I told him my name, and he said again, "I'm Sean, nice to meet you." He asked us where we were from and that sort of thing.

Then he looked down at my notebook and asked what I was working on, and I said, "Study questions for a class." And he said, "Oh really? What class?" I told him it was for a Tolkien class, and he said, "Wow! Can I see these?" He reached down and took the sheet of study questions on TTT, and read off the first question, about the nature of lembas. He said, "Hmmm, the nature of lembas." And I said, "I might get extra points if I had Sam's authoritative opinion." So he answered the question, then started going down the list and reading a few questions. After a little while, his filmographer (who had been standing at the side of my bench), moved around by Sean and also started looking at the questions.

As if I wasn't already about to die, Sean then said, "Would you two do me a favor and pose for a picture with me?" Erm, let me think..... yes?! So we got up and Sean put an arm around each of us. As his filmographer was setting up the camera to take our picture, Sean said, "Is it ok if I put these on my website?" Then the filmographer offered to take pictures with our cameras.

At this point, there were several people starting to gather around, so I figured Sean would move on. But he saw that we had brought things for him to sign, and he took Shan's big calendar page first. He said while he signed hers, "I always write 'The road goes ever on.' I should probably start using a good Sam quote." Then he took my calendar picture and said, "Ohhh, this is Mr. Frodo and I seeing the oliphaunt!" While he was signing mine, Shan asked jokingly what he had learned from working with Pauly Shore. Sean kind of laughed and said, "Um... I'd have to think about that for a while." He gave me my page, and he had written, "DeeDee, If they don't believe you back home, show them the picture + tell them to relax. Thanks for coming to visit! Sean Astin (Sam)"

After that, we knew it was about time for Sean to move on to the other people, because there were quite a few around us now. But he asked what we were studying in school. Shan told him about what she's studying in seminary, and then said, "And DeeDee's just gonna be an English teacher." Sean said, "I agree with everything up to the 'just an English teacher' part." He said how he was an English major, and that English teachers didn't get paid nearly enough. I told him my parents are highschool English teachers. Then we talked about Jane Austen, and how he had visited Jane Austen's home in Bath.

After that, we thanked him for his time, and he said, "No, thank you, it always amazes me how much trouble people go to to see me." He started talking and signing autographs for the other people, and at one point, one of the other girls said she was an English major. Sean pointed at me and said, "Hey, DeeDee's an English major too!"

While he was talking to us out in the foyer, he told us that he is planning to film an epic about the Galveston storm of 1900, and that we were the first people he was announcing it to, even before the press. Then he had to go to the press conference, and he invited us in to listen. But the people in charge said that wouldn't work, so he apologized to us and said he'd be back out soon.

He came out later, signed more autographs, and they took him somewhere else before his tribute began. I used the time to call home and gush insanely about what had just happened.

At noon, we went into the auditorium, and we had first row center seats. Sean was introduced, and he talked about how he had just sent flowers to his mother for her last night performing on Broadway. Then he talked about a movie he tried to make when he was a little kid, called "The Enchanted Dreamer," and how he wanted his dad to be in it.

Next he described his first acting lesson. He was filming a movie with his mother, where he played an abused child. He started giggling during the scene where she was "abusing" him, and she pulled him aside and lectured him about how she took a chance on him, etc. He started crying, and the director shot the scene. Then his mother told him, "That's acting!"

After that story, they showed two clips from Goonies. Everyone was cheering and clapping really loudly. Then Sean talked about how they had filmed the two scenes we saw. The first was the map scene where he tells the story about the pirates, and Sean told us that the speech was written for someone else, but the director gave it to him. He just told Sean the story and then wanted Sean to retell it in sort of a rambling, impromptu kind of way. The other scene was the one in the wishing well, and Sean just described how originally, it was shot with Mikey looking down at the others, and Spielberg changed it to have him looking up at everyone, and how that really changed the dynamic of the scene.

Next was a clip from Memphis Belle, where Sean's character bores a woman at a party. Sean laughed and said, "Just so you know, I've been married for ten years, I do know how to pick up girls!" After that was a Toy Soldiers clip, and right when it started, Sean exclaimed, "the naked one?!" Apparently he's naked in that movie, I haven't seen it. But everyone was laughing.

After that, the moderator asked him about the impact of 9/11. Sean talked a bit about politics, and his friends who were impacted by the disaster at the Pentagon. He told us how on that morning, Elijah had taken a plane from NY to LA, and Sean was worried about him until he found out Elijah was safe. He also recommended Bowling for Columbine.

Then came his official announcement of his plan to film an epic love story set during the Galveston storm. He described how he bought the rights, has been working on it for three years, and plans to shoot it on location.

Next they showed a funny clip from Encino Man, where he gets stapled to a wall, and a great clip from Rudy, where he first goes into the locker room and stands on the stool. People cheered really loudly for that clip. Sean mentioned how he thought Jerry Goldsmith's score for that film was beautiful, and never got an Oscar nomination.

After that, we saw a couple of LotR clips, where Gandalf throws him on the table, and then the scene with him running out to the boat. People were cheering so loudly we missed the first several lines of the clip.

Then they showed his short film, which he shot on the LotR set, "The Long and Short of It." People were cheering when they saw PJ driving the bus, and laughing during the credits, whenever they saw the names of Elijah, Dom, Billy, and the others. When the film ended, they presented him with the Texas Film Festival award for best short film, and Sean looked surprised and genuinely moved.

Next was the question and answer time. Shan asked him for his favorite rule of Tig, and he said he really didn't know, because he always preferred Cup. Someone asked him about him directing the helicopters. He was asked to show his tattoo, and he took off his shoe and sock and showed it to us, on his ankle. But we weren't allowed to take pictures.

He talked about his injury with the glass in his foot, and about another time when an Elven loom fell on his head and knocked him out. He said the swelling was so bad, it was pushing up his wig. A girl from the "Texas Ringers" presented him with some kind of pin. A girl asked (in a subtle way) if he thought Sam and Frodo had a homosexual relationship, and he said that he personally didn't think so. At one point he said "Mr. Frodo" in his Sam voice, and everyone went "Awww!" and Sean laughed.

Another girl asked if he had ever seen the Very Secret Diaries, and he laughed and said he had. Then he said how most of that online stuff was "all about Orlando and how cute he is." And someone yelled, "Viggo!" Some people started whistling and cheering, and Sean laughed and said, "Yes, Viggo. And they always tell me how beauuutiful Elijah's eyes are. But one of the crew once told me, 'If you want your man true - Sam's your man."

Everyone cheered, and then he had to leave immediately to catch his plane. As he walked out, he said, "I'm going to come back! That's a promise, and I keep my promises, Mr. Frodo!"