I am a lucky girl. Since some of my family members used to work on Angel and Firefly, I have gotten to visit both of those sets. I've stood next to David Boreanaz, had lunch with that Groosalug guy, and sat in the captain's seat of the Serenity. All of these things are very exciting, especially considering that I worship Joss Whedon as my god. But this weekend trumped it all. I visited the Buffy set.

[While I was there, I heard a funny story about my old pal Nathan Fillion, which is going to be very anticlimactic later, so I'll just tell it now. Towards the end of the show's run, he wrote all of his castmates fake fan-mail, playing off all the crazy people who write because they think the characters are real. He wrote one to Alan Tudyk that went something like, "Dear Mr. Tudyk. I understand that you are an actor. Which is why I think it's very dangerous for you to fly that spaceship. You could get hurt! Do you like cats?"]

I woke up at seven in the morning to get to L.A. in time, all the while trying to keep my excitement to a reasonable minimum (yeah, just ask me how successful that was). I had no idea who might or might not be there, and I couldn't think of any set that I was particularly excited to see because all the old sets--like the high school, Giles' apartment, the Magic Box, the library--were gone.

All of my poise and cool was erased when my sister and I walked into the office. We walked past a row of offices with names on the doors--names like Rebecca Rand Kirshner, Doug Petrie, Marti Noxon, Joss Whedon--all of whom were in a story meeting "or else I'd introduce you." I was having palpitations already, and I'd only been there ten seconds.

Our tour guide took us down past the trailers to the sets. We said hi to Tim Minear, who was sitting outside reading a script or doing some other important thing. I am beginning to feel like Tim Minear's stalker, since he was on the sets of Angel and Firefly every time I went there, and by now he probably knows who I am. "Oh no, here comes Abby's sister, the crazy freaky fangirl. Hide me!"

Anyway, we walked through some of the sets. The new Sunnydale high school, Buffy's office, an Ominous Cave of some type, Xander's apartment, Buffy's house, etc. Then we walked into a dark room and our tour guide said something I didn't catch, and then, "We use this room for storage sometimes." "Aha! A storage room," I thought. Then she said, "Oh, you can go up on the catwalk if you want..." I turned around and suddenly realized--holy fuck, it's the Bronze! I forgot about the Bronze! A set that has been around since the very beginning, so that was my favorite one to see.

We walked past the place where the camera crews were setting up (in the Summers kitchen) but we didn't see any actors. Believe me, my eyes were peeled. But none. I started to think we wouldn't see anyone, but that was okay, it had already been pretty damn exciting.

We walked outside and saw the cemetery (or the patch of grass that serves as every cemetery on the show) and the streets of Sunnydale--the movie theater, the boarded-up Magic Box, the Espresso Pump. It was incredibly cool. There was another little camera crew set up outside, and now I saw some actors! Tertiary characters, but still very cool, and the scene was very interesting. It's a huge spoiler even to tell you who it was, and my lips are sealed. But just so I can prove I am not making it all up, I will tell you that someone was threatening someone else, and saying something like, "You kissed me...only for a moment, but..." I hope that's vague enough. Watch for it as proof that I am not crazy!

As I was watching this scene being filmed, tour girl looked over her shoulder and said, "Oh, there's James Marsters." I turned around and saw Emma Caulfield, but I had missed James. So she said we could go back inside. And there was James, sitting in a director's chair! Michelle Trachtenberg was there too. I turned around, and Alyson Hannigan was walking towards me. Principal Wood walked by. Nick Brendan was standing on the set.

I was mildly excited. By which I mean, I think I may have been peeing my pants.

The thing with going to these sets is, you keep your mouth shut and you stay out of everyone's way. You certainly don't talk to any of the actors or ask for autographs or take pictures, or anything else you might do if you saw them on the street. It's a workplace, and being there is all about blending into the background and being respectful of the fact that a whole lot of people are trying to do their jobs. So I certainly wasn't expecting our tour guide to call James Marsters over and introduce me to him.

I could type out our entire conversation, since I wrote everything down so as not to forget any of it. But that would tip the balance too far into the nerd category--and also into the spoiler category--so I only have a few things to say.

1. He is so nice, you guys. He is so friendly and nice, I could hardly stand it. And hot. Did I mention hot? Well, he's hot. And he shook my hand. And he smirked at me in the cutest way when I told him, "You know the whole 'Giles is dead' thing? I don't buy it." He didn't give anything away, though, that scamp.

2. I was able to detach my inner screaming fan--I don't know how, maybe it was the lack of a Spike-accent, or his disarming friendliness, or his excitement when talking about his band. He came across very much as a regular guy. After we left the soundstage, my sister told me that I had completely played it cool. I don't know how I managed this. I really don't.

3. At one point, I told him that I thought Spike was going to die. He clutched his heart and said, "Ouch!" and you know, we had a moment. But it occurred to me that it was the exact same gesture that he did during "Rest in Peace" when he was talking about his love for Buffy. So clearly, it was his subtle way of declaring his love for me!

4. Later on in the conversation (after we'd been joking about sending Spike to the "spinoff dimension" instead) he leaned over and asked me, "Can I ask you--why do you think they're going to kill Spike?" And I said, "No, you can't ask. I don't want to talk to you anymore."

5. Yeah, right! In fact, I explained my whole theory to him and we had this substantive conversation about his character's story arc, and seriously, how cool is that?!? He was interested in my theory and everything! I love bouncing my Buffy theories off of people, but I am here to tell you, bouncing your Buffy theories off of James Marsters? It doesn't get better than that.

Well, there you have it. Man, I am such a dork. I am not cool at all, am I? I guess I can be cool about some things, but not about a conversation with James Marsters. It was so exciting. If Anthony Stewart Head had been there, or if Joss had come out of his office maybe, I might have dropped dead.

Believe it or not, that wasn't the only thing that happened this weekend. That was Friday afternoon. On Friday night, I went with Bruce, Lucy and her quasi-boyfriend to see Pamie's show. Man, was it ever funny. If you are in the area and haven't gone to see it, you are missing out. Pamie even sings! I love it when Pamie sings.

It's a bunch of staged readings from Anne Heche's book, and in case you were wondering: Anne Heche is a nutbar. Which makes her book great monologue material, and the actors were so hilarious--and the direction so skillful, of course!--it made everything even funnier.

There's always a risk in taking your friends to see another friend perform; you sort of feel responsible for them enjoying themselves. Fortunately, everyone agreed that it was really funny. Bruce was doing his guinea-pig laugh, so I knew that he liked it.

On Saturday, I went to Bruce's parents' 50th wedding anniversary party. They had a mass and renewed their vows, and then had a nice big party with all ten of their kids, and a whole bunch of other people.

It's pretty rare that the whole fam gets together--the last time was when his mom retired a few years ago--and it was great to see all of Bruce's brothers and sisters (Bruce is the youngest) and their spouses and kids, and all the other people who, like me, have sort of been adopted into the very big family fold.

It's been a while since I've been to a Catholic mass, but damn if it all doesn't come rushing back. It's hard for me not to say the mass responses that were so very drummed into my head as a kid. Somewhere, in a dark back corner of my brain, I remember it all. Aah well. Short of a lobotomy, there's really nothing I can do about it.

The renewal of vows was very emotional. All ten kids surrounded their parents, and Bruce's dad broke down crying, and they are just such a beautiful couple, and they love each other so much, that I think everyone had tears in their eyes and crumply faces.

After that was the party! We ate, we danced, we drank at the open bar.

Bruce's sister T. is a reader of this very site, and so is her best friend from high school, J. (I feel weird giving you guys pseudonyms, T. and J.--maybe you should give each other pseudonyms. And no, nobody gets to be Doug.) J. and I have both had very similar experiences as members of Bruce's extended family, and we have many other things in common, so we had a lot to talk about. She has a daughter my age also--which is weird. It's hard to imagine J. (or T. for that matter) being old enough to be my mother. They're too hip!

Anyway, the party was a good time. Some crazy drunk lady cried on me, I got to meet Bruce's brother's new fiancée (this is the brother whose wife died almost two years ago--her absence was definitely felt) and see his nieces and nephews of various sizes and ages and cutenesses. I would absolutely not have missed it for the world!

After it was all over, I made Bruce drop me off (in his fancy new Infiniti--remind me to tell you about the Infiniti, because if I don't, he might not be my friend anymore) at Tim's so we could hang out for a while. We didn't do anything exciting, just went out for food and talked, but we don't get to do that so much anymore!

And that was my weekend. Pretty exciting, eh?

All of this, and I haven't even mentioned how the Useless Shagging Bastard rendered himself slightly less useless by fixing it so I could get my Master's degree. Yes: I have my degree! I will tell you all about it next time. Now I have to go and compose a love letter to my new boyfriend, James.

I wonder if he likes cats?