9:45am Friday morning, first full day here

We are here! David and I arrived late Thursday afternoon and our first hint that things are different this year was the 45 minute wait to pick up our rental car. It was madness at the airport - they say 50,000 Sundance visitors are expected coupled with people flying in to ski for the long MLK weekend.

We quickly headed out and up the mountain to Park City. So far this is the coldest Sundance I've experienced, it was in single digits last night and snowing lightly. David is trying to recover from a flu/crud thing and the cold air is not helping his lungs. Couple that with the altitude and the poor guy is working hard to rally. But he's a trooper and excited to be joining me this year.

Our first stop was the supermarket to stock up on supplies - water, lots of water, and some food and snacks. We then picked up dinner at a local restaurant to share with our hosts, Linda and Neill. I drove David down Main Street which is where most of the festival action takes place, to give him a sense of where we'll be the next 5 days. Main Street was pretty quiet last night, the calm before the storm.

This is my second year as a houseguest of my former boss and friend, Linda Brownstein. She and her husband have a magnificent home on the top of Deer Valley. It feels like we are staying at a luxury hotel. We have the "Fall Room" - each room has a theme. We had a lovely dinner with them and had an opportunity to chat and catch up. They have a house full of friends and family arriving today and tomorrow, so this was our only opportunity alone together.

Because the process of buying tickets ahead of time has gotten so difficult and complicated (don't ask!), I was only able to purchase 1 pass. A pass has 20 tickets, so I got tix for 10 films for me and David. Today we only have 1 scheduled, but of course that is not enough so we will wait in line for more. One of the hotter films is a documentary about Palestinian hip hop artists. Conveniently playing this morning at the theater my friend Nancy is the manager of, we just popped in there and got the first two numbers for the wait list. This just about assures us entry as I've never seen everyone with tickets actually show up to any screening.

Nancy says there will be extra security at the screening and it is supposed to be a bit of a zoo. Nothing like jumping right in with a controversial documentary.

So we are waiting and relaxing in the festival lounge. David is having some tea and we are reading the daily festival newspaper. I like it here because all the filmmakers and attendees hang out here and it feels like we're all sharing something wonderful. Plus there's free beverages, lots of publications, and a good buzz.