Film Festival?

I've always wanted to really participate in the film festival and do things such as line up in those long ticket lines when the box office opens, or stand in the rush line for an hour hoping to get in at the last minute, enduring rain and wind while gripping notes about the next films to be seen. Romantic isn't it? Ideally, I would have written some small bit of entertainment that might, just might have been film festival worthy.

I did go to the festival one year. The ticket prices were a bit lower and I was truly motivated since my sister was in one of the films. So I took in a few films that year. I didn't have to wait for hours for anything except the initial purchase of the tickets to the film my sister was in. I waited in a line that streamed outside the mall, across a barren lot and down the sidewalk. I went early and was about mid-pack in the barren lot (I think the lot was supposed to be some sort of park. Whoville has a lot of such parks in its downtown core).

The past couple of years I've been far too busy working to find time to hop from theatre to theatre and line to line. Catering (of course) is an essential service for those involved in the fete itself. Someone has to get food served at those pre and post parties. This has been my role in the festival. It's been quite entertaining. While I don't get caught up in star gazing like those poor saps waiting outside Holts on Friday to catch a glimpse of someone famous, I do find it kind of fun to be at the same function as these people. What I've noticed is that as catering staff we have a bit of a privileged view since we sit a bit in the background, not to be noticed and we can take quite a bit in. We don't participate in conversations so we can listen in. It's quite interesting really.

So without saying who I was working for or where parties were held, here's a list of the people I saw (at least the ones I recognized. There were other stars at these functions, but I didn't know who they were) and in no particular order:

Dustin Hoffman
Sean Penn
Mark Ruffalo
Kate Bosworth (didn't know who she was until after)
Dan Akroyd
Deepa Mehta (that was the best for me. I love her work!)
Norman Jewison
James Gandolfini
Patricia Clarkson

Here are the people at the parties I was working that I somehow missed seeing:
Penelope Cruz
Anthony Hopkins
Kate Winslet

There may have been others but I forget. Yes, I'm name dropping or bragging or whatever you want to call it. I also saw the former premier of the province I grew up in...Frank McKenna and his wife (sorry I don't know her name) were at one of the parties. I know he's in Washington now. Is he still posted there? What was he doing here then? Hmm. I almost wanted to speak to him because I felt we might share that east coast thing that I sometimes come across when i meet others from "down east". I thought maybe if I got Frank talkin' I'd hear that hard "ar" sound emerge and...I thought better of it since I'm the background right? I'm not at this party really. I'm just feeding the part goers. Also Frank became liberal premier of the province when I was 18 and working for the NDP. The fact that the liberals took all of the seats in that election really devastated me (and the rest of the province that wasn't liberal).
Now...
where am I going with this?
No where
really.
It's 4 am and I've got to get some sleep!