It was very obvious when the two hobbits entered the building downstairs. There was lots of cheering to be heard and flashes to be seen! I felt my knees go all wobbly as I watched Billy Boyd head up the stairs with his typically cute British fashion sense - a suit with a loud, striped shirt underneath. As he reached the top of the stairs, flashes all over were going off. I'm sure he was blinded, but he did a double take at Jeffrey, squinting through the light to get a better look at him! I wonder if he thought it was Elijah, or just some freak in a hobbit costume (the latter is true, of course).

He made his way with a SWARM to another room, followed closely by Dominic Monaghan. Learning from our previous mistakes, we reassembled, made sure we were breathing, and followed. Billy and Dom had threaded their way through to one of the smallest rooms of the second floor, unfortunately! We found our way inside, but ended up sitting in the corner, basking in the glory of their presence until one of us worked up the courage to approach and interrupt the constant stream of people seeking their attention. That person ended up being  me, quite unintentionally. We had worked our way up to standing right behind Billy Boyd as he conversed pleasantly with others. I was too shy to interrupt his conversation, so instead I reached out and very delicately touched his back with my index finger. I turned back to the group, grinning like a fool, holding up my finger and mouthing, "I TOUCHED BILLY BOYD!!" But no, I wasn't satisfied with the one touch. After shaking giddily, I reached out for a second touch. This time, I fear, I was a bit too thrilled because he felt it, turned around and gave me an odd look. What a sight it must have been - BIG GRINS . . . cameras in hand . . . costumes . . . everything. Poor guy! Those cute eyebrows arched inquisitively!!! I managed to still have a voice at this point (I'm not entirely sure how), and told him, "I'm so sorry to bother you, but can we get a picture with you?" He replied with some very generous comment about sure! He'd love to! I don't think he realized how big our group was. He had that slightly overwhelmed look on his face as we assembled around him. He was very sweet about it all, though, and he even posed patiently (and so PRECIOUSLY) with LadyBird. This has to be one of my favorite pictures from the night.

At this point, Melonie and Tami were able to strike up a conversation about Scotland - how they'd been there and had wanted to see his show, but missed it. I seethed in envy, as all I could add to this conversation was a lot of whining about how I wanted to go. I did desperately want to say something to him personally, so I complimented him on his shirt and how sharp it was. He seemed a little confused by the comment, but thanked me for it anyway! He seemed happy to be talking about his show, saying he'd had a lot of fun doing it. Melonie asked if he preferred stage or film, to which he replied, "I like them both a lot. As long as I can mix them up, I'm happy." He was pretty impressed by the hobbit prosthetics, but at this point I had to tear myself away to try to make it over to either Dom (who I noticed Jeffrey was already talking to) or Craig (who we noticed, thankfully, was in the room as well).