Ian Hank Marthaler: People's Choice Awards

On Tuesday, I left Madison with 6 of my girlfriends and headed to LA. We enjoyed breakfast at Nonna's in the Milwaukee airport.We arrived in LA around noon, got our rental car, and headed to the Roosevelt hotel. The hotel located on Hollywood Blvd and is directly across the street from Mann's Chinese Theater. It is a great location and is an amazing and historic hotel. We each settled into our rooms and then gathered in my room where I presented each of the ladies with a gift of a $500 American Express gift card from Clairol to cover all of our expenses (hair, makeup, food, and shopping spree!) while we were out there. The car and hotel were already paid for, so $500 is a nice treat! We were also connected with Jessica from People's Choice, who brought us our tickets for the show and the after party.

At Pig N Whistle

We headed to the Pig N Whistle for an early dinner. This restaurant is right on Hollywood Blvd and opened back in 1927. It was a hot spot for many movie stars for many years.

After a good nights sleep, we all woke up on Wednesday excited for hair and makeup people to arrive at our hotel. My sister in law, Allison, referred me to her stylist, Barbara, who was happy to drive up to LA from Irvine to do everyone's hair. She is an amazing stylist and did a great job. She also brought along makeup artist, Jamie. Jamie is an amazing makeup artist and made everyone look fantastic!

Jaime, the makeup artist

In the limo, headed to Nokia Theater

At 4pm, the limo arrived to take us to the Nokia Theater. People were everywhere trying to see the celebrities. As we walked out of our limo, we heard the celebs names being called out as they walked the red carpet. We took a lot of pictures and then attempted to find out how to get to the tent to walk the carpet. The security people gave us differing directions, so we were completely confused. After a frustrating attempt to get past security and take our walk on the red carpet, we gave up and proceeded to enter the theater before they locked the doors. We were shown to our seats, which were on the floor, left of center, right on the aisle. We were SO close to the front. We couldn't believe it! We were 4 rows behind Chevy Chase and Jackie Chan. Eight rows behind Taylor Swift, Sandra Bullock, Keith Urban, Nicole Kidman, Johnny Depp...the list goes on and on. We were so close to the stage where Queen Latifah was hosting.

Kimberly, Marcia, me, and Lisa in our seats

Johnny Depp accepting his award

After the show, we headed to the Conga Room for the after party. The place was packed! There was delicious food and drinks everywhere. We enjoyed many selections, including food prepared by Wolfgang Puck. We ate, drank, danced, and met so many interesting people. It was a surreal experience.

All I can say is WOW, what an amazing night! I have a lot more pictures on Facebook, if you would like to see them.