I've got BIG NEWS! Yesterday, August 27, 2005 was THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!

I MET CATHERINE DENEUVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, here's the story in brief (though it's gonna be like 10 pages long, it'll still be very brief, coz if I had time to give space to all of my emotions, I'd be writing a novel).

First of all, when I got on my train to Sochi, I was so worried that half of the way I thought I took the wrong train, though of course, I knew it was mine.

I have to say that NO TV channel, NO newspaper EVER wrote that Catherine was going to show up and light the ceremony hall with her presence, I read it on a French fansite and only on Friday night I read on the Internet that she arrived in Sochi and that's it. NO MORE INFO. So I knew NOTHING and went there … just coz I wanted to be there. Crazy… I had to travel 500km to see her.

So, I logically counted in which theater the opening ceremony might be held and went there. I guessed it right and when I came there, they had a few tickets left. In the very last row of the balcony and in the 7th row in parterre. Of course, I bought a ticket to the 7th row. And that cost me 1400 rubles. And the thing is, the opening was supposed to start at 19:30 and end at midnight, and I had my train set for 21:20… So the longest I could be there was 1.5 hours. I had only 10 rubles left for the entire day, I had no water, no anything… just cigarettes and a gum.

Then I wanted to go to the Radisson Hotel "to see her", but when I walked for 20 more minutes, I literally fell onto the bench (!!), coz I couldn't walk anymore. It was 3pm and it was so hot and I'd already walked a lot (2 hours straight) that day that I could barely breathe. And as I said, I had no water.

Anyway, I was back to the square in front of the theater at 5pm. I befriended two groups of security people while I waited (militia and some commercial organization). They told me everything about how it was gonna be and where Catherine was at that very moment.

Later, the red carpet arrivals started. There were all those Russian celebrities (of which I'm not a fan). I befriended another woman who is a frequent film festival visitor, she told me about seeing Jack Nicholson and Fanny Ardant (You HAVE to remember her. She was in Nathalie, the "older" one) and that was all very nice (the woman was kinda cute)… but these two actors go in no comparison with Catherine, though Jack is a good one, too... Anyway, that lasted for an hour. So, it means the show was supposed to start at 7:30pm and it already was 8pm… When I thought about getting me a gun and shooting all those stupid celebs, CATHERINE ARRIVED! She was the last… and everybody waited for her… we had to stand one whole hour to see her come last.

I nearly fainted! God, she's just so so so so so so so so beautiful! OMG, if there is one truly beautiful person on this planet, it's her. As she walked down the carpet, a lot of people were surrounding her, her interpreter and the head of the festival and some others schmacks. And she walked really really fast! I certainly couldn't get enough of her. It didn't seem surreal, but it seemed MAGICAL, INCREDIBLE and ….. PERFECT… and when she was walking down the carpet, I sort of waved at her and she looked at my 8 Femmes boxset and then at me. That was our first eye contact.

When she was mounting the stairs, SHE LOST HER RIGHT SHOE! And that was so cute! Everyone just went like "Aaaahhh", I don't know if she was embarrassed, but it was such a moment. Human is the word that comes to mind.

She then entered the theater and those people who had tickets rushed in. I could hardly walk at all, I had a lump in my throat and my knees were melting. I took my seat in row 7 and then CATHERINE WALKED IN and they TOOK A SEAT IN ROW 6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, my God. There really is no suitable word or phrase or even language to say how happy I was to have come there.

I jumped up from my seat, and I kept making pics of her and shooting tiny videos. Some TV channel camera operators were also doing that and so we all were standing there in front of her and she looked at me a couple of times and she definitely didn't like that, though she didn't expose her emotions (she rarely does that at all) and I totally understand her, but I couldn't and wouldn't stop myself. I then bent to her interpreter (and CATHERINE WAS JUST 50CM AWAY FROM ME, SHE'S IDIALLY PERFECT) and asked, "do you think I could ask Her for an autograph" and he said "oh, I don't know, maybe later" and I thought, "well, I'm fucking leaving later!!!" and I didn't do it. I don't think she would like that, I didn't want to make her feel any more uncomfortable than she was already feeling coz of the amount of cameras pointed at her. And plus, I don't think I'd survive it if she told me no.

Then it all began. I was sitting among some Russian celebs, I had no idea who they were, but everyone was staring at them. Some other celebrities were hosts of the show and some bands came out to the stage to sing and then Kobzon came out… he lip-synched two songs and then he said he wanted to greet Catherine and forced her to come onto stage. He kissed her hand. I felt she didn't really like it there all that much, coz she was stared at all the time (omg… HOW CAN SHE LIVE LIKE THAT?) and then she had to stand and let some man kiss her hand...

Everyone stood up and clapped their hands. It was really nice.

She then sat down and the head of the festival made a speech.. He said that it's the 4th time he meets Catherine and once Catherine and he kissed each other on the cheek and after that kiss no other kiss was actually a kiss for him. It sounded very hackneyed and banal, but it's true. Even seeing her last night was like nothing else in my life. When I say she's perfect, I mean it. I can't believe she's almost 62! Sixty-two!!!!!!!!!!!! Perfect, man, perfect.

After that, someone began to sing again and I had to leave, coz I could be late for the train. When I was riding that bus taxi, I sat there and was all sweaty, I kept rubbing my forehead and my face all the time. And I also got very very sad. A happy kind of sad. I was so glad to see her and yet I was so sad coz it was over.

When I was at the station, I was smoking and smoking and smoking… was so nervous. In the train I kept looking through the pics and videos on the camera display and really felt like crying. Actually, right now I feel like that, too. I don't know what is more shocking the fact that I met or the fact that I'm not gonna meet her again.