The day began with butterflies, in my tummy I mean. The excitement of the ensuing day was upon me. I rushed out of bed (well not really, I went back to bed a couple of times, but my sister was so noisy that I got out of bed at 6:45) and hopped onto BillyBoyd.net, hoping that someone had found out where the premiere was. Still no one knew, and my one source of info, Ned (the lucky bum with tickets), had not called as promised. After searching abortively on the internet for half an hour, I proceeded to dress myself and leave for school, going outside in the cold to wait for the bus. We were going to have an early dismissal today (parent-teacher conferences) at 1:40, and my plan was, after school was over, stop at home, and then rush off to find wherever the premiere was.

While I was waiting for the bus, I heard someone calling my name. For some reason (a weird echo or something) I couldn't tell where the voice was coming from. Eventually a nice lady pointed to my mom across the street in a car. "That woman is calling you," she said. It turned out that Ned's mom had called and said the premiere was at the Ziegfeld.

When I arrived at school it had begun to snow hard, and having an even shorter day looked hopeful. After being told in advisory that parent-teacher meetings were canceled, I went back on BillyBoyd.net and informed my fellow fans on the location of the greatly anticipated premiere. Shortly after, I found out that school was changed to end at 11:00. Perfect, that meant more time to spend in the cold.

When I got home, I called my mom and told her about school being closed early, and found out the address of the Ziegfeld. I then took a quick shower (I wanted to look nice and clean) and piled on the layers. I had 8 shirts, one coat, 3 pairs of pants, 4 pairs of socks, big boots, and a pair of wool gloves (big mistake). As I rode the M104 down to 54th Street, I imagined the crowd of people that might be there. When I arrived, however, I was pleasantly surprised, for there were only about 10-15 people who weren't in the press.

The first problem was finding out the time when the stars would start arriving. Someone heard 3:00, another 4:30, another 7:00. I don't even know what it turned out to be, it was too cold to look for your watch.

For the first hour or two I stood with a girl named Vicki, who was 16 and from Illinois (coming was her birthday present, her birthday was Nov. 25th I think). I also stood with a woman whose name I can't remember, who I had stood near at Viggo's signing at the Robert Mann Gallery. At first we were standing right by the entrance, but then the workers built a tent with plastic walls completely covering that side, so we moved to the other side, where there was clear plastic. After standing there for an hour or two, they moved us across the street, what we had been dreading most. However, we trudged (or stood) on. It was around this point that I went into the Hilton for the first time. It was freezing outside, my hair (which had been a little wet) was frozen into clumps, and I had lost feeling in my toes and finger tips.

When I came outside I stood with Heather and Angela. We hung out and talked for a few hours. Then my mom came and I told her I needed new boots, more socks, more gloves, another coat, and a Vanilla Crème. After she left we talked more, and I went inside again and realized I couldn't move my foot. Heather came in to get me, and I limped back outside. My feet felt like huge cement bricks that weighed me down.

We talked more until some guy came, that none of us knew, and just started to hang out with us. We then moved our position in order to be closer to the entrance (and the guy came too), in fact, across the street from it. Then Heather and the guy went to buy McDonald's. While they were gone Angela and I struggled to save their spot.

When they returned they had both fallen, which gave as all a good laugh, and I ate all of Heather's french fries. Then, finally, my mom showed up with a Vanilla Crème for me and hot chocolate for someone else. I gave it to Heather to compensate for the fries. I then went inside with my mom to put on my new clothes.

My feet were really frozen and my mom had to massage my feet, and they hurt so much I started to cry. A woman in the lobby who was a nurse came over and told me they looked okay and they had a pulse, and that slowly the blood would begin circulating through the whole foot again and it would feel better. She was right.

After re-bundling I went back out side. Angela, Heather, and some English boy who happened to be walking by and pretended to be a fan, had been interviewed. I hung out there for a while, and then we saw that across the street they were making a little standing area. My mom went over and asked where the best place for me to stand would be. He said the new spot was for the press so I couldn't go there. However, my mom stayed there, and a little later the guy (named Ken) came back and said, "Is she by herself, your 13 year old daughter," and when my mom said yes, he told her to bring me over and he would save me a spot in the front. Standing there I could see all the way down the red carpet, it was great.

When the stars started coming, a bunch of people from New Line who were working there stood in front of me so it was harder to get pictures, but I still saw everyone. Lij came first, with his ugly hair. I could hardly see him because he is so short, and I am sooo short, and the New Line people were tall, but I got a few glimpses of him as he walked down the red carpet. There was Sean who I yelled to, and PJ with Phillipa Boyens. I was lucky, the crowd parted in front of me for a second when PJ was there so I got to see him, my fellow hobbit-stature friend. Billy came later and a woman I was standing with ran out to hug him. He seemed so nice, and it was awesome to see him. I think Dom was next, and boy, did he look good. I yelled and yelled and yelled until he turned around and waved to me (well, it was something like a wave, he looked at me and did a thumbs-up or something over his head). I later found out that he had written "Trees" on his hands, very Sblom-y. Somewhere in this mix John came out, and Richard Taylor (who ran across the street to see some other fans), and John Howe, and Bernard Hill, and Andy Serkis (with scary looking hair), and Brad Dourif, and David Wenham, and Karl Urban, and many other random celebrities such as Susan Surandon and the two girls from the Princess Diaries. I called to everyone from LOTR, and most turned and smiled, and lingered in the front a little so we could abjectly attempt to take a decent picture, which none of us did. Liv came a little later with her sister Mia, and ran inside (I think it was because she was cold, her dress had a wide open back), her sister stayed and let the press take her pictures, though. Eventually the press made Liv come out again, and even take off her coat (brr), but she looked amazing.

Finally, the star, Orlando Bloom, arrived in a long black coat with his long dark hair pulled back in a small pony-tail. He had his cute beard thing too, which has grown to suit him so well. Even my mom gasped, "He's gorgeous!" she said. Well duh! I screamed and yelled and roared, but he didn't turn around. He did, however, take forever on the carpet, so I stared at him from afar and was satisfied. He looked soooooo good, I can't believe I was so close to him, and he was soo freakin' hott!

After Orli a lot of the press left, he really was the star.

Next to me was a reporter from a Danish newspaper who asked me a lot of questions and took notes. After all the stars went in she asked if she could write some of her article about me, I said yes (duh).

Then, after everyone was in, my mom, after me begging her, went to go ask a woman if there were anymore tickets, and they practically swept us inside before she said it. They were picking 10 people to go inside, and our timing had been impeccable. Ken was counting the 10 as we were going in "Wow, you got yourself in," he said, "You're doing good." I smiled.

We walked through the gorgeous building (the walls were lined with the final theatrical poster for the movie) and entered the colossal theater. As we did, Peter began his speech. He talked about the work, the effort, the usual stuff, and then he called up the cast and crew, and I got to see them all. When he was done, we were escorted to our seats, and immediately the movie began.

As it went on, people applauded together, and laughed together, it was like a play in the way that you got to show each actor how you felt about their performance, it was magical, and the movie was amazing, fantastic, superb, I can't describe, I don't think even an Ent could. There was so much more Elvish, and more Orli, and Gimli was hilarious, and Gollum, OMG, Gollum. I will be forever haunted by Gollum. He was so real it made you cringe, and cry, and want to help him, and want to kill him. The expressions in his eyes, and in the tones of Andy's voice clearly showed the relationship between Smeagol and Gollum. You also really start to see the change in Merry and Pip in this movie. They're not funny anymore, they're serious, and smart, and wise. They also had hardly any lines. Oh, also, the Ents are great, but they're indescribable, you'll have to see the movie.

After the movie, when we went out into the hall, we saw Hugo Weaving, but since I was nervous and took too long, I didn't get his autograph. I vowed to myself that I would not miss an opportunity again.

When we went outside, I almost didn't, I got Bernard Hill, then Brad Dourif, Miranda Otto, then Howard Shore, Liv Tyler, and then Richard Taylor. Only Phillipa Boyens and PJ passed me, and it was because they were in a rush and didn't stop for me. A nice policeman with blonde hair, who had seen me standing there all day, and a guy standing behind me, helped the people stop for me. The policeman asked me if I had seen the movie, I said yes, he smiled and said, "You've got people looking out for you."

Then, when I was waiting for a cab, a cop car drove by and on their megaphone they said "Can I have your autograph?"

The day ended with butterflies, in my tummy, and my heart.