It's summer. To my daughters this can be a time of amazing fun, or not so much. School has been out for 2 weeks.
Daughter #2 (who will from now on in my blogs be referred to as Munchkin) has already spent a week as a volunteer at a church camp. She came home Saturday morning. After the usual 12 hours of "catch up" sleep, the dreaded words escaped her mouth. "I'm bored!" I threw out numerous suggestions of things to do, all met with "That's dumb", "Ya, right", "Noooa"...you get the idea.
Thanks to my newfound Twitter addiction, I heard that Peter Facinelli was making an appearance in Hollywood last Tuesday at 10:00 AM. Since we live about 45 minutes from the land of movie stars, I suggested we go check it out. After she got over the horror of the prospect of waking up at 7:30 AM on a summer day (GASP!), she agrees to go if she can bring a friend. To those of you who don't know who Peter is, he played Dr. Cullen, father figure to the beloved Edward in "the best movie ever made (swoon)", Twilight.
I load the two half asleep girls in the car at 8:30. You never know how LA traffic will be. We arrive at Hollywood and Vine in plenty of time. Peter isn't there yet. The girls are still sleepy and standing on the sidewalk, in the sun, with dozens of other Twilight fans. This is suddenly starting to seem like a stupid idea. Munchkin is giving me that "why must you torture me like this" look.
Suddenly, the crowd roars and there he is. "OMG mom! There he is!!!!" The appearance is made and now it's time to go. People rush him. He agrees to a couple of pictures. Suddenly, Munchkin asks him if he will take one more. This shocks the heck out of me because she is a little on the timid side. He says sure and Munchkin and Friend get on each side of him. My hands start to shake with the camera. This is a make or break picture. I'm either the hero or the idiot mom who messed up Munchkin's once in a lifetime picture. I hold my breath and take the shot. Then he is gone.
Munchkin and Friend grab the camera out of my hand. They rush to the shade to look at the picture. They look, they squeal, they start jumping up and down. "OH MY GAWD!". The picture is fantastic. "Mom, I will NEVER make fun of you for being on twitter again!". I heard Peter is doing an autograph signing at 4:00. I casually suggest we get the photo blown up to 8 x 10, and see if he will sign it. "THAT'S A GREAT IDEA, MOM!!!" They aren't even worried about trying to fill the 5 hours until the signing.
We decide to do some tourist stuff. We look at sidewalk stars, and hand prints and foot prints at Mann's Chinese theater. We have lunch at Pink's. We finally get the photograph blown up...it looks great.
After waiting in a 2 hour line, it's finally our turn to see Peter. They put the picture on the table in front of him. He looks at it for a long time. With a big smile on his face he says "This is a great picture! Who gets to keep the autograph?" "Don't worry" Munchkin says, "We have two of them!" He laughs and signs one for each of them. "To 'Munchkin' ♡ Peter Facinelli". The most amazing written words Munchkin has ever seen!
The girls literally float to the car. As we are driving home Munchkin says "You are the GREATEST MOMMY EVER!!!". I LOVE it when my 15 year old calls me Mommy!
I will still make many mistakes in the eyes of the teenager, but on this day I got it right.
Friend Munchkin
