My tale of adventure and excitement begins on
Thursday, October 17, 2002.

I, of course, woke that morning at the "ungodly hour" of 3:00 a.m.
I use the words "of course" because anyone who knows me knows that I often wake up at 3:00 a.m. I'm an "early bird".
The plan for the day was to drive down to pick up by best friend Janet by 9:00 a.m., then spend the rest of the day doing last minute preparations. Then, back to my house by 3:00 p.m. to finish up my packing and to meet up with my brother Tommy and his best friend Russ.
Since the four of us were flying "standby" to Hollywood, (it's cheaper that way) we planned on taking the flight that departed at 7:20 p.m. But, while Janet and I were out and about, my brother phoned the airport and discovered that the flight was full! So, we had to change our plans and shoot for the flight that departed at 5:20 p.m.
Well, Janet and I were completely unaware of this when we arrived back at my house at 3:15 p.m. thinking that we still had plenty of time.
My brother had left a message on my machine informing us of the change in flights. He sounded a bit in a panic saying, "Where are you guys? I hope you get this message in time"! Well, you talk about panic. Janet and I thought, "Oh shit, we have less than an hour before we have to leave for the airport!"
So, rush, rush, hurry, hurry, Tommy and Russ arrive, more rushing, more hurrying, scurried out the door, raced to the airport and made our flight in time, no problem.
"Phew!" What a relief.
The flight was nice, very smooth and uneventful, which is always a good thing. Oh, and one last thought about the flight. Upon exiting the plane, I did run into a "famous dude". He was exiting the first class section. Gave me a nod and a smile as I passed by. Took me a minute to figure out who he was, but it finally came to me. It was Mr. Billie Dee Williams. "Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight".
Ahem, sorry. I'll move along.

After paying $60.00 for the Super Shuttle to take us from the airport to the hotel, (bit expensive I thought) we finally arrived at the Holiday Inn Walk Of Fame at approximately 8:30 p.m. (I think).
We checked in at the front desk, dropped our luggage in our room and headed for the hotel restaurant for some nourishment.
After dinner, we went straight to the hotel bar and greeted all the other Queen fans.
We drank a few beers, shared some Queen stories, and just basically relaxed in "Good Company". Things were just starting to get going when the bartender yelled out, "Last call for alcohol".
We were all shocked because it was only 10:30 p.m. Someone went to the front desk and asked if they would allow the bartender to keep the bar open. They were told, "Yes, if the bartender wants to stay, we will keep it open".
A couple of guys offered the bartender $100.00 to stay, but she refused, and closed the bar anyway. Bummer!
So, Janet, Tommy, Russ, and myself headed back to our room after saying goodnight to all.
We left a 4:00 a.m. wake up call with the front desk and did our best to try and get some sleep, which was not an easy thing to do, let me tell you! We were so excited about the events to follow, it was hard to close our eyes and keep quiet. But, somehow, we managed to grab a few hours of sleep.

Friday, October 18, 2002.

The Big Day! WooooooHooooooo!!
Being the early bird that I am, my eyes popped open at exactly 3:55 a.m., five minutes before our wake up call. I was pacing back and forth in our dark little room waiting for the phone to ring. Damn , that was the longest five minutes.
The phone finally rang and woke everybody up. Yay!!
I made some coffee, drank one cup, and then hopped in the shower. We all took our turn in the shower and soon we were ready to head out.
We arrived in the hotel lobby expecting to see everybody else, but not a soul was in sight. The restaurant in the hotel did not open until 6:30 a.m., so we had to wait around for about 20 minutes. (Geesh, more waiting!)
Finally, the restaurant opened, we had a lovely, quiet breakfast where we did see only two other Queen fans present.

With breakfast out of the way, we headed out to where the ceremony was to be held.
It was 7:30 a.m. when we arrived at the ceremony sight.
There were maybe 20 people already there.

We watched as a crew scrubbed the "Star" down, sanded it, washed it off again, dried it, and then polished it to a beautiful shine.

The crew that worked on the "Star" pulled out and left and everybody took the opportunity to get some photos.

We were standing just to the right of the "Star" in the front row.
It was maybe a half hour or so later when the crew returned and began to set up the staging area. Everyone was pushed back about 10 feet, maybe more.
Where we were standing is where they set up the press area. I told Janet, Tommy, and Russ that I had a bad feeling we were in the wrong spot and that I was going to go down front, into the street. Well, they did not agree with me and chose to stay where they were. I tried to persuade them to come down where I was at, but they would not.
The crew started putting the barricades in place, and sure enough, I had managed to get the perfect spot. In the front row, dead center! Boy was I happy.
By this time, a lot more people had arrived.
The crowd was definitely getting bigger by the minute. Just like I thought, Janet, Tommy and Russ were asked to move. Janet ended up in the front row as well, but she was all the way down near the end on the right side behind the press. She could not see too well. Tommy and Russ ended up in the back, somewhere behind me. So, there I was, up front with a bunch of Queen fans that I had never met before, but of course, that was not a problem. Queen fans are a friendly bunch!
There is always such wonderful camaraderie shared by all. We had a great time up there. We did get to hear some Queen music while we waited for the ceremony to begin, thanks to some fans that had brought their CD's with them.
A member of the crew seemed more than happy to play it for us. What a nice guy. Thanks Mr., wherever you are.
The press began to arrive and the buzz in the crowd was getting louder. The anticipation was killing me!
Then, I saw all the special guests, family and friends, coming out of the Ivar Nightclub and assembling around the stage.
Okay, everybody's in place. Wheeeeeee!

Yes! Finally it was time for the "big moment". The one we'd all been waiting for.
The Mayor of Hollywood, Mr. Johnny Grant, stepped up to the microphone and introduced our "men of honor", Mr. Roger Taylor and Mr. Brian May!
The cheers, applause and screams that came from the huge crowd that had gathered were so extremely loud, you couldn't even hear what the Mayor was saying!
I knew that Roger and Brian had finally appeared, but, due to that damn tree truck that was obstructing my view, I could not see them.
I waited impatiently for them to step into my view.
Suddenly, there he was, the talented and gorgeous Mr. Roger Taylor!
It took a moment or two before the ever-gracious guitar king, Mr. Brian May, appeared from behind that tree trunk, but he finally did.
I truly did not expect what happened to me at that moment.
My emotions went wild, completely through the roof. Or, since we were outside, it's more appropriate to say that they "touched the sky"!
My heart started racing a million miles an hour. I was all flushed, and my hands were sweating and shaking.
I had one hell of a time trying to hold my camera still (which resulted in a few blurry pictures, dammit! ).
I was just mesmerized by Roger!
Couldn't take my eyes off of him.
I turned to the lady that was at my left and said to her, "Oh my God, he looks even better in real life than he does in pictures" (I wondered how that could even be possible, but believe me, it's true!).
She did agree with me, even though she was more of a "Brian" fan (I think). Sadly, I can't remember her name. I turned to the lady that was at my right and saw that she had tears streaming down her face.
I was happy to know that I wasn't the only one who was emotional.
My tears didn't come until about a week later, when the full impact of the day's events finally hit me!

Click here for the mayor Speech

Anyway, there we were, screaming and cheering while the Mayor was giving his speech. (Couldn't remember a word he said. Thank God for the Internet, I looked it up when I got home.)
Then some guy from Capitol Records gave a speech (can't remember what he said either, but I remember laughing). Nor can I remember his name.
It was time for Roger to say a few words, and he did, just a few.
Short and sweet as usual, but of course, with that "Roger humor"!
Then Brian took to the microphone and gave his speech, which was much longer and sounded very well thought out, nice job Brian!

During a relatively quiet moment, I'm not sure but I think Brian was giving his speech, when I yelled as loud as I could, "Roger, take your sunglasses off!" (I wanted a photo of those beautiful baby blues!) Roger must have heard me because my brother and his friend heard me, and they were farther away from me than Roger was (but he did not remove them, darn ).

Maybe it was rude for me to be screaming when someone was trying to give a speech, but it truly just flew out of me, I had no control over it whatsoever.

They then gave special recognition to a long time fan of the boys, Nan Lawniczak. If it weren't for her, none of us would have been there, including Roger and Brian! (Special thanks Nan, from me, for nominating them, and, for all your hard work.) Brian helped her to get up on the stage where she gave a short speech and got her photo taken with Roger and Brian. Yay Nan!!

Roger and Brian then moved to the sidewalk in front of the stage where they got down on their knees to unveil the "Star". At this point, Roger is directly in front of me. They were posing for the press when I saw Roger reach up and remove his sunglasses.

I yelled very loudly, "Yay Roger", and he turned and looked right at me, gave me a very sweet smile and a thumbs-up (did he hear me shouting earlier about removing his sunglasses?)! Wow, what a moment! I thought for sure I was going to meet the pavement right about then, but that didn't happen (thank God)!

Somehow I managed to keep it together. Unfortunately my photo of that glorious moment did not turn out, but I'll always have the memory. Roger and Brian spent the next few minutes posing for the press, then turned towards the crowd with huge smiles on their faces, gave their fans a few fists to the sky, then waved goodbye to us all and disappeared back inside the nightclub.

The ceremony had come to an end, but not my excitement!
I turned and made my way through the crowd, trying to find Tommy, Russ and Janet. The first person from my group that I saw was Russ.
I couldn't hold back my emotions any longer; I just had to let it out! I through my arms around Russ and started jumping up and down like a bunny rabbit.
I can't remember what I said to him, but I can just imagine. It must have been humorous from his point of view.
I think he thought that I'd finally lost it (and he may have been right).

Okay, it was now time for me to change the film in my camera (proved to be a difficult task). I managed to get the used roll out, and was trying to put the new roll in, but my hands were so unbelievably shaky that I just couldn't do it.
My brother Tommy was standing next to me and noticed the trouble I was having. He said to me, "Here Sis, let me help you" with a mile wide grin on his face, and took my camera and loaded it for me.
I don't think Tommy had ever seen his little sister quite like that before. I do believe he got a big kick out of it!

With my camera ready to go and my hands continuing to shake, I turned and looked at the door of the nightclub, and holy shit!
At that exact moment, Brian walked out with a glass of wine in his hand and gave us all a thumbs-up.
This time my photo did turn out!
I only had time to snap one more shot of him before I was completely crushed like a sardine.
Brian had made his way to the fans and took the time to sign some autographs. It really was a lovely moment.
I didn't even try for an autograph. I was happy enough to just stand and watch in wonderment! I was already floating on cloud nine.
I felt certain that I really would pass out if I got any closer, so I thought it best to keep my distance (silly me)!
Then the press ran over and besieged Brian (poor Brian).
So much for the fans getting more autographs. Brian then disappeared back inside the nightclub, safe and sound.
We waited around to see if Roger would emerge, but it didn't seem that he was going to.
I would have preferred to wait around a bit longer than we did, but I could not persuade the others in my party to do so.
I very reluctantly agreed to leave the scene and go grab some lunch and float back to the hotel to prepare for the "after party".
I say float, because that is exactly what I was doing, floating, Janet and I both were!
Tommy and Russ considered tying a string around each of us to keep our feet on the ground, but they just let us float.
That was the end of the "Star Ceremony" for us. What a beautiful morning it had been!
And there was more to come.
More?!!!!
Was I going to be able to take more? Yes, I think so!

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Until now pairs of eyes did look inside the stars of Stacey...