THE TRIP TO THE ONE RING CELEBRATION or
HITTING THE ROAD WITH Alatáriël Helyanwë & Losillë
By Losillë - Comments by Ala in Italics
PART ONE
The trip down was wonderful. There were no men in the car so we stopped at every rest stop and were blissfully unaware of our gas mileage. I crocheted a fluffy froufrou scarf out of Fun Fur and took it apart about four times. We decided the first time I made it, that it was crochet too tight and felt like a mat of cat hair. I actually told her it didn’t look right a couple of times just to see is she would unravel the damn thing again…she did.
The only real problem we had was the Grapevine. I had never been there so I had nothing to compare it to, but it took us 3 hours to go over it. That translates to less than 3 miles per hour in some areas. There was one lane of traffic about half way up. It took about 30 minutes to get back down.
We arrived a day early to find the motel and convention center. The map was a little off, but we got there. Actually, Ala repeatedly found the Bank of America, which was much prettier than the back of the convention center, but there were no Ringers there (at least, not that we were aware of). I liked the bank. It really was pretty.
After that we checked into the motel and found the convention center.
The next day we went....where else? SHOPPING. First stop at a realllly big Wal-Mart. We bought a few things -- I needed a purse big enough to put my 35 mm camera in, that way I didn't have to carry the camera bag and found a cool purse, which lights up when you open it.
Ala had never been to a Hard Rock Cafe so we went looking for the one in LA. We both live in tiny towns with no crime. In fact, most of us don't even lock our doors at night, so LA was very interesting. The Popeye's on Melrose and Vine had a security guard patrolling in broad daylight! We found the Paramount Studios gate by accident. I took a picture by resting my digital camera on the roof of the car while we were at the stoplight.
We found the Hard Rock and ordered a Pig sandwich. There was so much food on the plate it was ridiculous. We should have split a meal. If you go to that link you can take a tour of the restaurant and even look at the gift shop where I bought Thrania's California brown bear. My plan was to buy another Peace bear, but they didn't have them or even know what they were. The girl in the gift shop asked what I was going to do with the bear. When I told her Dom was going to hold the bear in a picture, she practically attacked me. She loves Charlie. My concern was that when I handed him the bears he would think they were gifts and then I would take them back. She said to tell him that if he wanted a bear of his own to come into the shop and she would buy him one. I bought my Granddaughter a T-shirt that said “My very first Hard Rock Café T-Shirt”. She promptly slopped chocolate pudding all down the front of it the first time she wore it. Our waitress was very nice; her name was Shelly . Ala took two pics of the inside -- they are here .
Then we hit a couple of other places. I needed 1600 speed film for my camera and we found a camera shop that had one roll. I grabbed it, even though I really wanted 4 or 5 rolls. The one thing that you learn in photograph class is if you taken enough photos, one is bound to turn out right. When we got back to the motel room later I opened the canister and it had 800-speed film in it. Not 1600, 800. I called the number on the receipt, after she ranted for 15 minutes, saying some very unkind things concerning the mans intelligence, but there was no answer.
We went to register that night and took some pictures of the hall. You can see them in the main picture gallery. They had really big banners on the wall of different characters. I had to remind myself that this was not a "Hobbit" event, it was a LOTR "everything" event. This was our first taste of standing in line to wait, something we got very used to as the weekend progressed.
There were tables set up to buy some merchandise and a table to buy tickets for autographs and pictures. When I was trying to decide what to get signed, the first thing was my Sam fabric card. After that it became difficult. I chose a FOTR mini-poster for our babies to sign. You got a signature from each of them with the Wizard ticket. I got the extra Sean Astin ticket and I was ready to go.
THEN! I remembered my Sam/Frodo aka "The Precious". I took the poster with the hope of securing tickets for Sean and Elijah. While I was standing in line to get the autograph tickets, I asked the guy if he had Sean and Elijah. He said Elijah was sold out. When I was second in line a girl walked up and said she had duplicate tickets and she was supposed to give them to him. He turned the tickets upside down and hid them under a pamphlet. I asked him who the tickets were for and he said, "He who shall not be named." Ala says I almost pounced on the man, but she exaggerates. She became the epitome of the screaming fan girl. The man actually blanched and stepped back after she lunged across the table, her hands forming into claws, spittle flying from her foaming lips, screaming incoherently. He said he didn't think the tickets were for sale. I pleaded with him to check. He did and they weren't. I decided to get the Sean Astin ticket and then decide how I was going to do split up the autograph tickets I had later.
Another girl walked up and said she had the wrong ticket. She said "I need to change this ticket. It is an Elijah Wood and I wanted a Dominic Monaghan." I think I might have been a tiny bit aggressive. I noticed that Ala had walked away and was pretending she didn't know me. Yup. She said that I was like Gollum after the ring in the final scene from ROTK. (the man still has all of his fingers) I said very calmly, "May I have that ticket." . He said, "Quiet." Then slipped me the ticket. clearly in fear for his life I may have uttered some noise that sounded like a squeal, but it was demure and very quiet. He leaned over the table and whispered that women were begging for "this particular ticket" and that I was going to get him beaten if I didn't keep quiet. I managed to not squeal too loudly, but I may have danced around the edge of the table.
Ala, who was still looking like she didn't know me, joined me in the hall and I did squeal then. I told some random (make that everyone in view) Ringers that I had both tickets and they were excited with me. After we got outside of the building I ran around and screamed! I called my husband to tell him the good news and he wasn't nearly as impressed as the Ringers were. In fact, he just said, "That's nice." Nice? I was getting "The Precious" signed by Sean Astin and Elijah Wood and he said NICE? We went back to the motel room and I was so high it took an hour for me to come down. Ala was very patient; I may have made her look at the tickets once or twice. Or a hundred times. Or more.
My cell phone rang and it was the owner of the photo shop where I had bought the film. He used his caller ID to call me back. It turned out to be a blessing that I had the wrong film. The owner said he could pick up 4 rolls of 1600 speed film on his way in and all I had to do was bring back the 800 for credit. Sometimes things just turn out right.
Part Two We get to see Dom.
