Before I start here, I have to mention something I left out of yesterday's entry. We had gone to Pomona and actually drove too far and had to turn around and drive back several blocks. When we did that, we passed a strip mall that made me realize I was in So. California. In a row, one right after the other were: Ironman gym, a juice bar, a Pilates salon, and a tanning place. Now there's a mall I'm not going to feel comfortable walking through! I need one that has a Krispie Kreme, Ben & Jerry's, a fat lady store, an Internet Cafe, and a book store with plush chairs where you can sink in and read.
But I digress. Let me talk about today.
That it was Valentine's Day was just coincidental. It was really a perfect day. We lazed around the hotel room for several hours, since we had no place to be at any time. Walt watched all of his Sunday morning talking heads on TV and watched last week's 24 which he'd missed since the power went out. I read my book and when he wasn't on the computer, got caught up with e-mail and facebook.
We had breakfast at Denny's again and then since it was too late to "do" anything but too early for Says You we decided to drive on up to Skirball anyway and see if we could beat the antisocial guy. When we got there, there was only one waiting fan that we could see and it wasn't A.G. But then Walt walked out into the courtyard, and there he sat!
I'm going to have to stop calling him "antisocial guy," though because Walt met him at the vending machines between the two tapings and he smiled and acknowledged Walt and after the show he waved and said he'd see us next year. Maybe I'll just call him "early guy."
Anyway, we were quite early, which gave me a chance to read my book. When it was getting close to time to open the doors, we stood in line and pretty soon Tony and his wife Harriet Reisen (author of "Louisa May Alcott: the woman behind Little Women") came in and he stopped to chat briefly on their way to the green room. He had seen my journal entry this morning and wanted to make sure that I would have an unobstructed view and said he was going to go and check on it.
The Magnin Auditorium at Skirball is much better suited for visibility and I chose a seat that was about 4 rows from the stage and because of the steeper rake of the floor, should be just fine, no matter who sat in front of us.
(We had to laugh, though, when two women sat in front of us and the one in front of Walt had a big head of dark curly hair! Fortunately because of the design of the theatre, it did not present a viewing problem for him.)
The next thing that happened was certainly a surprise. A guy named David came up and introduced himself and asked if I was "Bev, the nearly famous blogger" and said that he enjoyed reading my stuff. Now, since he emerged from backstage, I kind of think that Tony had a hand in sending him out to check on me, but whether he did or not it was very nice (in a somewhat embarrassing way!)
Next came the Says You cast onto the stage. The first thing they always do is a mic check, where each panelist says a few words so that the sound guys can check the sound levels. Tony mentioned that yesterday he'd received a text message on his cell phone from "a friend and fan of the show" which included a picture of this woman's head of hair and that I had not been able to see the stage. He said he just wanted to check and make sure my seat today was OK. I said that it was. That was also very nice in a somewhat embarrassing way.
Walt and I decided that today's tapings were perhaps some of the most fun we've seen (though perhaps we forget past years). Such a good time. I can hardly wait for them to begin airing on February 26 and the next four weeks to see how much of the scatological humor made the cut!
For one thing we sat next to what was probably THE loudest guy I've ever heard in any show. This guy was enjoying himself soooo much and howled at everything, tensed up when trying to think of the answer to a question, yelled "YES!!!" when a panelist got it and applauded loud and long. (I'm looking forward to seeing how much of that you hear too!) When the show was over we saw him and his female companion outside and he asked about Pomona yesterday (since Tony had announced to the audience that I'd been to the previous day's tapings). He said they had thought of doing that, and that after the fun he had today, they probably would go to both days of tapings next time too.
The panelists hung around on stage a bit at the end of the show, but Tony was talking to people and though I consider him a casual friend, I felt I didn't want to intrude. I was glad to have been able to see him for a bit before the show started.
We went looking for a Chicken and Waffle place that had been recommended for dinner, but couldn't find it (I checked the internet after we got home and it wasn't anywhere near where I thought it was!) but instead ended up at Mucho Mas, a Mexican family restaurant that was not only colorful...
...but tasty too.
We got to the airport very early. Our flight was also postponed, so we were looking at about 3 hours wait time in the airport, but then we noticed that the flight leaving right then was hardly full at all, so we managed to switch our tickets to the earlier flight and were home before 10 p.m.
The dogs were VERY happy to see us, especially Polly who nestled into my armpit the instant I sat down and proceeded to very vocally tell me all about how upset she'd been at my absence.
All things considered, it was really a fun trip and worth every penny...even the time spent trying to see around that huge head of hair yesterday.
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