We're home. I'm exhausted, in pain, giddy, alive and sad, all at the same time.

Tonight's awards were held at The Drake Hotel's Grand Ballroom. We got there early enough for cocktails (I hate this kind of cocktail events - where you have to go and pay for blasted "tickets" so that you can pay the barkeep with a ticket instead of cash... of course, I would have much preferred an open bar, but something tells me you don't do that with these television broadcaster types...)

Carol and I met up with Bill and it was a wonderful meeting. Actually, my entire time with Bill tonight was wonderful. We've all aged a bit, and yet Bill still sounds great and he's still got this funny little, sly glint in his eye that I still remember strongly from 30 years ago. That's when you know you've seen a piece of a man's personality that is truly a part of him and not part of a persona.

Had a wonderful time meeting the gentleman that was going to be introducing Bill - Jim Engel. First off, great guy. Fun guy. Knows his history of Chicago's children's TV extremely well. And you know, you got to love somebody who says - first thing out of his mouth - that he's been to this ol' website a few times and likes what I've got here!

It's odd being in a room full of broadcast people, mostly because they're usually filled with "unknowns". Management types, producers... people that you never see on-air, so it's weird when you see familiar faces - and the only reason they're familiar to you is that you've seen them on TV and have them in your household, and none of these people know who you are because... you're one of the many people behind the scenes. Weird.

We were honored to actually by able to sit at Bill's table (all of the honoree's had their own table of 12). Another weird thing of the night is that being at his table means you're in the front of the room and all of those other people that are the "famous" ones you know by sight are behind you, toward the back of the room.

It gets weirder - we wanted to make sure Bill faced forward to see the podium, so Carol & I faced the back of the ballroom. That meant we were 6'-8' feet right in front of the podium, with spotlights hitting our eyes all evening.

The food was... OK. The salad was OK, but I didn't like the chicken entrée. The dessert was served as the activities started, causing a lot of scrambling of the wait staff just as Jim Engel steps up to the podium to start his introduction of Bill, who will be going first this evening.

It was a very good speech, from the heart of someone who has been touched by children's TV in Chicago. They should a quick clip package of Bill's stuff over the years (that - for some reason - I felt didn't show the quality and breadth of the things he did here).

Bill accepted the award and went into his thank you's. To Bill , that also means acknowledging everyone who had worked for him over the years and particularly, every one at the table.

There's a little piece of out-of-body experience and that strange weirdness that seems to rush over me at times tonight, when you hear your name mentioned and are forced to stand-up in from of everybody in the room to be recognized... yes, it was my 3.5 seconds of fame in front of the broadcasters... it was very weird...

Anyway, we congratulated Bill and he returned to the table. We started eating the desserts that were delivered while he was gone, and the we listened and watched the other presenters and honorees.

That's when you really field odd... Again, we're feet from the podium, and during Roger Ebert's acceptance speech, he started talking about interviewing Bill Clinton, and he looks directly at Carol and says something about "he was only about a few feet away from me like from me to you.." Let's just say that made Carol's night because 1) it was Roger Ebert, and 2) he was talking about Bill Clinton and 3) he was talking to her.

Some of the videotape packages were good, some long, some way too long. And there's one emotional one for someone who received the award posthumously, who died of cancer much too young, but had a hand in NBC Network Saturday Children's programming and heading up ABC Family.

After the 5 awards, the evening was over, the room dispersed quicker than I had thought, and we lingered back a while. We were one of the last groups to leave - us and Linda Yu's family.

We said goodbye to Bill and knew we would be in touch again... I want to work on a certain something and I'm going to need a little help from him.

Carol & I left the Drake, picked up my car, drove to the brand new 2 story flagship McDonald's on Ontario for an evening bite (I was still hungry) and finally made it home.

My suit... didn't hold up. Though I was still able to button my jacket - sort of - my pants were another story. I used the restroom at McDonald's and broke off part of my zipper. I was able to get it back up but was unable to get out of my pants here a few minutes ago.

Time for a new suit.

I wore brand new shoes. The drive downtown almost killed me. There's something going on with the back of my right heel. I could barely walk by the end of the evening. I pried my shoe off as I was driving down the Kennedy on the way home to relieve the pressure. I've got a huge blister there now, and you can actually see the stain on theinbside of my shoe. *yuck*

Anyway, there's so much more to say about the evening - who we saw, what we talked about, the whole feeling of the ceremony... but I'm too tired, and I've rambled enough about it anyway.

It was great seeing Bill again - I'd do it all over again, without hesitation.

I've never wanted it to end... and, with any luck, it will still go on...