I realized I didn’t tell you guys about the Strawberry Festival, so I figured I’d fill you in. I knew that they would be picking me up in a car to go to the hotel. I thought that was pretty awesome, but imagine how surprised I was when there was a limo in front of my house! I got pretty excited, so we hopped in once we got packed up and everything. We got caught in traffic, but that was okay, because I had my iPod and my sister and brother there, as well as my mom. When we got to the hotel, we were treated nicely and told where our room was, but we didn’t have much time before we had to go cut the cake (the largest strawberry shortcake in the world).
We took a shuttle over there, and the cake was on a stage and everything. They were introducing the celebrities (including Cloris Leachman, the star of the show–wow, she’s a character! I learned that fixing people’s hair is a hobby of hers when she spent a few minutes doing mine before I took a picture with her. If any of you saw her on the Bonnie Hunt show, you know what I’m talking about). When I got onstage to be introduced in front of this huge crowd of people, I had no idea that I had to talk, so I proceeded to humiliate myself in public. There was a lot of stuttering and “uhh…”’s from me, and my “speech” basically ended with something like “I feel out of place up here, to be honest” before I hastily handed the microphone back to the man who gave it to me. I was pretty embarrassed, but felt better once I did an interview with this nice guy.
The night at the hotel was so much fun. I had cheesecake, Wendy had fudge cake, and we watched Coraline on the TV. It was my first time seeing it, and for a G rated movie, it was pretty creepy (and fantastic!). It was so imaginative–it’s those types of movies that inspire me. I think the look of everything was what was most creative, and I loved how everyone kept getting Coraline’s name wrong.
The next day we had to wake up extra early for the breakfast. People were introduced again, although thankfully there were no speeches this time, unless you count Cloris. She received a gift (a pitcher with strawberries on it) but she acted like the paper in the box was her present. It was hilarious the way she was waving the papers around and saying, “Oh thank you, how generous! Such nice, white paper!”
Then we waited for the buses that would take us to the parade. I talked with some girls that asked for my autograph for a while, and Shanica Knowles, who works with me on Hannah, was there as well. Poor Shanica got barely any sleep the night before, so she was exhausted. Soon enough, we were on our way to the parade and brought to our floats.
Now, keep in mind that I never considered myself famous. I still don’t. When I got to my float, or rather, my hundred-year-old car (which was pretty cool), I was surprised to find that it was just for me. I had imagined sitting on a large float alongside the rest of the celebrities, just waving to the people as we passed by. That was far from the truth. The people who led me to my car and drove it were so sweet! Lots of guys were there asking if I needed water and everything. I’ll admit I felt kind of guilty being treated to that kind of luxury. I mean, I didn’t do anything! I didn’t help the human race! I didn’t discover a cure to cancer!
Then came the parade. Oh my gosh. It was terrifying. Of course, it was fun as well, and I LOVED seeing all the little kids get excited when I went by. But by the end, my face hurt from smiling and I literally could not feel my right hand. People were yelling my name from both sides, screaming “Hannah Montana!” and asking me to smile and wave at them. I didn’t want to miss anybody–I wanted to make sure everyone got a hello–but that was physically impossible. That really sucks, because I remember being little and watching the Disneyland parades, hoping that Princess Aurora or someone would see me. Some people gave me this look like “Who’s that?” as I passed, and I sympathized with them.
Oh, at one point, a bunch of little kids ran up to my car and started running along with it, brandishing things in my face for me to sign. I tried to get all of them (I was so scared they were going to be run over or something) but the police escort guy told them “no autographs”, so they had to leave. I felt really bad that I couldn’t sign everything, but at least there was an autograph booth later, so hopefully the ones that didn’t get anything during the parade got to go to that. According to the police scanner, I found out later, my car was the one that was “mobbed”. I was thinking, huh?! I mean, I guess you could consider it a “mob”, but they were little kids…
I signed autographs for a while. I ended up being the last one there to sign, but I didn’t want to leave until everyone in line got what they came for. I mean, come on, how awful would that be if I just stood up in the middle of signing, with ten or so people still in line, and said, “Well, sayonara! My hand hurts, so if you didn’t get what you stood in line for for an hour, too bad for you!”? I didn’t want to walk away while some little girl who wanted my autograph had her spirits deflate and her hopes and dreams crushed like an old soda can.
The carnival was fun, but I didn’t stay late, because one of the first rides I went on made me, Wendy and Thomas all nauseous. I got to stop at this amazing booth with all this Kingdom Hearts and Death Note merchandise (I don’t think I ever mentioned that I’m obsessed with Death Note. L for the win!) I ended up getting a watch that’s twice the size it should be for a wrist my size. It’s a wind up watch, and I love it. It even has the rules of the Death Note written on it, albeit in badly translated English. Actually, it’s barely readable because of the weird translation, but that’s okay.
Then I got to go home in a limo and relax. You know, I check a lot of journals myself. As you can tell from my previous post, I check Libba Bray’s livejournal. In addition to that, I look at Emma Watson’s online journal and Paramore’s (love them!) livejournal. I’m always so excited to see what they’ve written, get a little peek into their minds, and see what they’ve been up to, how their lives have been.
Then I realized, whoa, wait a minute. I’ve got a journal that is checked by fans as well. And I never update! I got to thinking, when I post an entry, do they get excited? Do they look forward to reading the new ones, like I do with Emma and Libba and Paramore? Therefore, I have decided to update more often. True, I don’t usually have much going on in the world of acting, but hey, it’s not like I’m doing nothing. I’ve been doing oodles (how awesome is that word?) of writing and tons of school, not to mention lots of philosophical thinking on important subjects. Even if nothing much is happening Hollywood-wise, I still have thousands of topics to choose from!
Be sure to check back every once in a while, because I am now determined to write on a more regular basis. It should be fun!
~Morgan
