Sundance kids

I had SUCH a good time at the Sundance Film Festival last year, I had to go back. Only this time, there were eight of us. Living above a cranky old couple. If you asked them, they'd probably say they were living below a herd of elephants. Moving furniture. But even their accusing stares couldn't dampen our spirits and we enjoyed several days of skiing and movie watching. And floor stomping.

Dinner at Cisero's

After Peter brought up the injustice of rampant Ebay selling of hard-to-get movie tickets, the manager gave us four tickets to "The Savages" (with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney), which was about the decisions two siblings had to make regarding their father, who was nearing the end of his life. Despite the depressing premise, it actually had a lot of funny moments and those two actors are always great.

Skiing at The Canyons

The next day, Peter, Em, Andrea, and I got away from the crowds and headed up (and UP means SOUTH in Park City, for future reference) Main Street for some snowshoeing. After much confusion about the location of the trailhead (beginning with Peter darting across busy Main Street into a store for directions, clutching the map to his chest, continuing with the rest of us spotting Tom Arnold, and ending with Peter's return and his frustration in vainly attempting to compete with our distraction - "Listen to me! Stop looking at Tom Arnold! He's not even a good comedian!"), we finally made it to a beautiful trail and had a blast hiking up and then sliding back down on our butts.

Cristina, Andrea, and I then stood in the waitlist line for "Year of the Dog," but after recognizing its futility, hopped into the line for "Resurrecting the Champ" instead. And it was cold. And oh yeah, it was snowing. You know, for good measure. After pleading with the waitlist guy to let us inside, he replied that he couldn't just yet, but if it made us feel any better, they'd be bringing the cast through the front in an hour. No, that wouldn't make us feel any better, we grumbled. But, oh wait, YES IT DID. Oh hello, Molly Shannon! John C. Reilly, greetings!

Waiting in Eccles lobby

We finally moved inside and plopped down to wait for our movie. Coming back from the bathroom, I found myself walking next to Adam Brody and after some frantic gesturing (how do you mime "Adam Brody"?), Cristina and Andrea caught on, grabbed a camera and us three delightful girls engaged him in delightful conversation (is how I replay it in my head, anyways). And then the rest of the waiting time flew by. "Resurrecting the Champ" starts out as a movie about a reporter angling for a good story to save his career and ends up about the relationship between a father and son. This one had a really interesting Q&A. On our way to the parking lot, we came upon Josh Hartnett, who chatted a little and took a pic with us. And then we jumped around on the snow-covered sidewalk back to our car until we noticed someone walking behind us. Ahem. BE COOL.

The last day, we waitlisted for a French film, "Blame it on Fidel," told from the perspective of a 9 year old girl whose world is flipped upside down when her parents decide to return to their old activism ways. Really really good. The kid in it was amazing. This one was in competition, so we got to vote and the movie got 4s and 5s from us (out of 5). While waiting, the filmmakers from the next movie, "Finishing the Game," popped down to visit their waitlist line (which was gathering beside us) and one guy wandered over to talk to us for a couple of minutes and gave us pins. I later asked someone who he was and was told, that's the lead actor, Roger Fan, stupid. Okay, so the guy didn't actually say "stupid," but the look he gave me said it all. Apparently he was in "Better Luck Tomorrow"? He was quite friendly and best of all, seemed super excited about his movie.

So we reported our celebrity meetings with much glee and were met with a lot of eye-rolling ("Who's Adam Brody? You GIRLS."). But then Peter blew his "I'm too cool" cover when he recognized Scott Speedman at the airport. From "Felicity." LOL.

Skiing, movies, celebrities? What could be better?? Nothing. Pics of us and our new friends here. And ooo, we met a muppet. Hahaha.