It’s hard to sit down and watch an event like the Oscars and not imagine yourself in a floor-length gown (or stately tux), standing at that podium with tears streaming down your face, fingers wrapped around a hefty gold statue. If I were invited to the Oscars, you better believe I’d be wearing red! My mom announces every year that she, too, would be in a red dress. Forget those demure blues, blacks and browns — we’d be impossible to miss in a crowd!

Okay, releasing my daydream now! Unlike last year, the only Best Picture nominee I’ve seen is “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which I liked. “Revolutionary Road” never opened locally; I was too sad about Heath Ledger and freaked out about the plot of “The Dark Knight”; “Frost/Nixon” wasn’t terribly attention-grabbing, and definitely never came around here; not sure what the plot of “The Reader” actually is (though I dig the name, of course). I did want to see “Slumdog Millionaire,” but I wound up seeing “The Spirit” with Palmer instead. That movie was terrible — like, laughably and unbelievably horrible. Bad call on our part.

But I’m still excited for the Oscars. Last year, we had a makeshift awards ceremony ourselves when Gwyn was still working with us. We all “cast our ballots” before leaving work that Friday, made a photo copy for ourselves and let Gwyn, or our own PricewaterhouseCoopers, talley up all the winners. The staff member with the most right guesses won a prize. I think we had a second and third runners-up, too! Lots of fun. Gwyn is now happily settled in South Carolina, so we’re all on our own this year. I have copies of the ballot for my family, and I’m going to come up with a prize of my own!

Want to play along at home? It adds a new sense of interest to the awards show if you’re keeping track, too. Print out a ballot here!