Sunday, September 14, 2008

Black-tie event!

Last Saturday I attended the re-opening gala for the Mark Taper Forum-- a theater that is part of the Los Angeles Civic Center in downtown L.A. It was an invite-only affair primarily for large donors to the theater. However, my sister is an employee and she received an invite for her and a few guests. And I was lucky to be one of the guests.

There was a special dinner before the show held on the plaza in front of the Taper for the donors. The entire plaza area was surrounded with huge temporary walls of greenery and cloth so it was almost impossible for someone to look into the area and see the VIP guests. While waiting for the doors to open for the non-dinner attendees, I saw Laurence Fishburn standing outside the doors smoking a cigarette. I pulled out my camera and joked with my friends about asking him to take a picture of us (not with him, just of us alone ;).

After we entered the theater, I had so much fun looking at all of the people in their fancy dresses and tuxedos. It was crowded and was difficult to move around. While waiting for people to move up the stairs, I looked over and saw Angela Bassett waiting to move down the stairs. She saw me notice her so I gave her a friendly smile and she smiled back. She looked just as gorgeous in real-life as she does in the movies.

While we were taking a quick self-guided tour of the newly renovated theater during the intermission, we saw Ron Rifkin, Victor Garber, and Joel Grey hanging out with each other. I also saw Robert Sean Leonard who plays Dr. Wilson on 'House' which was a bit of a thrill since I love that show and think that he is a great actor. I also saw Ed Begley Jr. who my sister remembers as 'that guy who sells earth-friendly detergent at the farmers market.'

The play showing at the theater was 'The House of Blue Leaves'. It starred a bunch of people that we recognized from television shows-- John Pankow (Mad About You), Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle), Kate Burton (Grey's Anatomy), and Diedrich Bader (the Drew Carey show).

After the play, they had an after-event reception with drinks on the plaza. Dame Edna was holding court with some children from one of the sponsored charities at the reception, and Tony Shalhoub (Monk) was there joking around and taking pictures with Dame Edna.

As we were leaving the gala over the Red Carpet, a woman asked my friend to take a picture of her and her mother with their camera. Standing behind the woman was Zachary Quinto, the actor who plays Sylar on Heroes. Seeing him was a bit of a surprise. He looked much taller in real life than I had imagined.

The next morning I was buzzing from the fun of the evening. I felt a little bit like Cinderella at the ball that night... and now, two days later, I'm back to my regular world of blue jeans and t-shirts. *sigh*

Monday, September 01, 2008

Disneyland Half Marathon

My friends who ran the Disneyland Half Marathon last year said that it was a lot of fun. I believed the hype, and signed up for the race. The registration is expensive for a half marathon ($100+misc fees) but I thought the experience would be fun and I had to try it. The race runs around and through Disneyland and California Adventure for the first four miles. Then it is directed through the 'neighborhoods' of Anaheim past Angel stadium and back through Disneyland to the finish.

I'm typically up for a good half-marathon. I've done quite a few because they are usually a lot more fun than a marathon-- I usually feel great afterwards, and they don't require extra training over my daily running routine. Unfortunately, I think I will have to play the role of Cruella de Ville and say that I didn't really enjoy this race (I know, Boo! me).

Starting from the beginning, the race was irksome. The pre-race instructions (which were posted online a few days before the race) were vague about how to get to the race expo to pick up my registration/bib. They assumed everybody knew how to get to the Disneyland Hotel Convention Center (or were staying at a Disney Hotel) and did not even provide a hotel address. Also, the expo was placed in the back of the Disneyland Hotel without clear signs on how to get there unless you parked at the $12 hotel lot. I parked at the Downtown Disneyland parking lot (first 3 hours are free) instead and ended up walking around and asking several people how to get to the hotel and expo.

The real clue that the race organizers are probably not serious runners themselves was the fact that the safety pins they gave us to attach the bibs were HUGE. They were almost the size of diaper pins. I ended up using some other smaller safety pins from a previous race to attach my bib.

On the morning of the race, there were lots of really enthusiastic people. It should have made the race more fun, but instead it was annoying because the streets of Disneyland are too narrow to move that many people efficiently-- especially when they wear huge costumes and stop to get pictures with the Disney characters (which I admit to doing also, see below). I darted and wove through the crowd which added about an extra mile to my race (according to my Nike plus).

It wasn't like a hometown half- marathon race like Palos Verdes, San Jose, or Los Angeles' City of Angels. All of the people cheering the race through Disneyland were paid employees which made the race support feel a little forced with the frozen smiles and beauty-queen waves. Later, in the streets of Anaheim, they did have a few high school kids and bands cheering which was fun. But I couldn't help thinking how volunteers at other races cheer people on for community spirit versus for free tickets to Disneyland. I really missed seeing those personal 'Go Cindy, Love Mom' type of signs on the side of the road that I usually see at really crowded races.

What I think really annoyed me the most was the humidity--which is not Disney's fault. It has been uncharacteristically humid in Southern California this summer and it made the race exhausting. I was cranky at the end, and people singing (or was it piped in?) 'It's a Small World' through the last tunnel before mile 12 made some people hurl-- literally. Okay, that may be an exaggeration. It was probably the heat and exertion that made them stop on the side of the road. But I FELT like hurling when I heard the music. Does that count?

This is probably a great race for Disney fanatics and first-timers who are looking for a half-marathon party. I guess that I am just too much of a Scrooge McDuck and feel that the race wasn't worth the cost. I'm glad that I did it so that I don't have to do it again.

As promised earlier, here are a few of my documented "celebrity" sightings.
Buzz and Woody:


Boo and Sully:


And here is the door-knocker sized medal from the 'Happiest Race on Earth':