For those of you who have been asking how my night was:
I remember as a kid always watching the Academy Awards and trying to figure out what year I would realistically get to go. I think I had figured by the 80th year- I made it to the 83rd. Not too bad for calling it when I was in high school. Even last year I had said I would be at the Oscars in a year. I was right but I wish I would have been more specific in my statement. I wasn't expecting to be working at the Oscars. Still, it was a lovely, interesting, and entertaining experience.
I was unsure of my exact duties before I went. All I knew is that my fellow Kodak tour guide co-workers and I were to be helping the ushers. Even when I showed up the day of I still didn't quite know what I was doing. At least I was at the Kodak and knew my way around, this theatre is kind of another home, so I wasn't too nervous.
I got to the theatre at about 11am, watched some of the tech rehearsal for the evening show and just observed the hustle and bustle of the lively theatre getting ready for show time. At 1pm we had a meeting going over all the things we needed to know - knowing who went to which floor by looking at the guest's tickets, who was allowed on to the Orchestra level, when people could be seated, what to do with wheelchairs...I got a little overwhelmed with all the information but figured a) I'm good at just pretending I know what to do and b) I could always just ask if I get really confused. Thankfully to start the evening off I was given the duty of handing out programs to all who came through the front doors. The doors were opened at 2:30 and I stood in the cold draft for about 3 hours. People started to slowly trickle in and then for the last hour the masses came. I was handing out programs so fast I almost missed noticing Colin Firth was standing in front of me. There I was with plenty of funny witty wisecracking things to say to all the people coming in and then there was Colin Firth. I don't get star struck, but there was this moment of having two worlds sort of collide. There is the Hollywood world where you see these people on the big screen and they seem somewhat bigger than life and far removed from you, and then here they are standing right in front of you as just another friendly human being giving you a big smile.
I didn't see all the "big stars" come through the front doors but every person I handed a program too I gave a big smile and warm welcome. My tour guide mode turned on and I had a ball just joking with everyone.
Throughout the evening I was all over the theatre except for inside. They are very very strict about who goes into the "chamber" during the show, but running around the lobbies on all the floors and taking people up and down the elevator had it's perks too. Joined Geoffrey Rush in the elevator at one point.
I wish I was better at explaining how I felt that evening. Part of me felt like it was just another job, the other part took everything in and fantasized about the day I would be there as a guest and perhaps even as a nominee. It's a funny thing to admit that. You know so many people wish and think that but for some odd reason if you say it out loud you are scoffed at or just given the "ya, sure you will" followed by a pressed smile. But I don't think any of those people there that night ever let that really get to them. Even when a lot of them started off completely broke, about to give up and go home, living in their cars, or trying desperately to just get a foot in somewhere, did they truly listen to the cynical and jaded voices of "You're wasting your time." "Who do you think you are?". Sure those voices are there...but there is a drive, a passion, a hunger that will not let you go. You have to push on because you know that you weren't meant to do anything else.
So, as I left the theatre that night with my tour guide friends, we walked down the red carpet to go home. Passing Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and his Oscar, and Jeremy Renner, I headed to my car that would take me back to my little studio apartment in North Hollywood. Back to the little place I call my own and where I'm writing out my own journey and dream.
This won't be my last Oscars night.
