I was one of the lucky ten who got the call. I had won first prize in a trading-card sweepstakes, and I had won an all-expenses-paid trip for two to L.A. for the FIFA World Cup final.
We boarded the plane in St. Louis for the first leg of an all-day trip, with a layover in Denver. Puttered around the airport, looking in the duty-free shops, not being able …
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I was sitting in the lounge or library of our master's program. In walks one of the few extroverts--a fairly pushy, outgoing woman. She's talking a mile a minute.
The Fonz walked into the restaurant where she was. She chatted with him for a bit. He was checking out the university for his daughter.
As I was walking to get lunch on State Street, he was at the …
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It was years ago, Phoenix in August, temperature on the tarmac above 127 degrees, and I was ready to get out of the desert if I had to hitchhike. Crowding onto the plane, I was pleased to find I'd snagged a bulkhead seat up front--but it was already occupied by a tall guy in a serious suit with dark shades on his face.
"Excuse me," I said, showing him …
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I almost ran over Dennis Rodman while pulling out of the parking lot of the Orange County court.
Luckily, he was quite nice and just made a friendly joke about how he'd sue me if I hit him. I thank everything that is sacred to me that I _didn't_ hit him. I wouldn't favor being known as Rodman's Manslaughterer.
I'd been in an auto accident and was wearing a neck brace, but my husband decided it was time to get out. So along with a few friends and ours kids, we went to a Tigers game.
We were sitting on the third-base line, and I had been warned about foul balls, but I was more intent on keeping two boys in line so that everyone around us would …
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There was a club once in Washington, D.C. It's no longer there. I drove six hours there to see my favorite band play a concert.
Arriving early, I peeked into a door and saw them. The "Crüxshadows":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cruxshadows were warming up. Luckily, I was early. I got to meet them! I stood for prime spots at the stage in the center.
Every time Rogue hopped into the crowd, he …
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Ever have such a crush on someone that you talk to his friends in hopes that he'll come by and, by default, talk to you, too? That happened to me.
A Thursday night, dining alfresco in Seattle with my husband, during the week of the Sub Pop 20th Anniversary Fest. My favorite band is Flight of the Conchords. My favorite show (most of the time) is _Flight of the …
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At 16, I swam in a meet with Olympians.
Cullen Jones, Gary Hall Jr., Ryan Lochte.
My friends and I went to a "Fatone Family Foundation":http://www.fatonefoundation.com/ fundraiser a few years ago. We were walking toward the entrance and we saw Joey Fatone and Lance Bass standing outside talking with a few other people.
I stopped and looked over toward them once and said, "Is that Lance Bass?" My friends looked and agreed. I turned again, looking to make sure. As we were walking by, I …
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After a divorce, I moved to a place about as far from Oklahoma as I could think of: the state of New York. People from the South imagine that New York is a place separated by distance and culture to the point where there is no common ground on which to build.
I ended up living in Peekskill and found an apartment, which was a real accomplishment. Employment was …
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It was my job. I worked for a paper and had to write a few lines about "Peter Cincotti":http://www.petercincotti.com/'s gig in Switzerland. People think that because it is your job you are going to be less impressed. They could not be more wrong.
I actually chose him because I am a fan. The pressure was huge: meeting him and trying to shut down that voice inside my head saying, …
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In the early '80s, our family made an annual two-hour jaunt to Palm Springs to attend an AA convention at the Ramada Inn. This was the Hollywood chapter, so it was usually brimming with celebrities.
My brother and I, ages 10 and 12, didn't think much about that aspect of it. We were too thrilled with the prospect of spending our time playing hide and seek in the hotel, …
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He said "Hey" leaving the restroom, holding the door for me.
I said "Hey" back.
I now have zero degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon, and you have one.
I took a gentleman's order through the speaker box at the Starbucks drive-through. He ordered a drink and a blueberry scone. "Absolutely," I chirped to him over my headset. "Come on up to the window!"
As I gathered his order, I realized we were out of blueberry scones. "Crap!" I thought to myself. "I hope this guy doesn't give me a hard time about the scone."
The man …
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I always liked the character of Chewbacca in the _Star Wars_ movies. He just seemed lovable and cuddly. So I was excited to hear that Peter Mayhew, the actor who portrays Chewbacca, was going to be in town at the comic-book convention.
It was my first year at the convention, and I was overwhelmed, in awe, of how many celebrities were there! I saw Jason Mewes and Joss Whedon, …
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I was leaving a Sears department store in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1960 when I noticed a phalanx of police, reporters, and people gathered as a parade of sorts. So I thought, Who is coming down the street?
The streets and sidewalks began to fill up to the doors of the store. I needed to get home, so I pushed my way toward where my car was parked, but I …
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I thought, Why is this weird black guy with a fro staring me down?
Then Corbin Bleu smiled and took off his glasses, and I freaked out. I feel bad that I thought he was creepy.
Although at the time I wrote to Norman Mailer I was a 36-year-old rounder, con man, and literary hack, I pretended to be an 18-year-old cheerleader named Buffy. He wrote back and extolled the virtues of my story "New Jersey Turnpike," which I had sent him.
After I few months, I revealed my true identity. He still continued to write. Said that his favorite author was Tolstoy and that …
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My son Simon loves celebrities. But Simon, age 25, is different from most fans. He has fragile-X syndrome and is mentally impaired. His disability is obvious: He has the typical odd, long face and stick-out ears of fragile-X. His speech is difficult to understand; when he does talk, he often repeats the same few phrases over and over. One of those sentences is, "I met Tim Gunn!"
Simon is …
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The old truck had been giving us problems. We decided to take it in for service before work one morning, but we had to get a rental car at the airport first—it was the closest location for my partner and me. So off we went, extra-early, so that we could maneuver through the traffic on the roads and the traffic of the business travelers hoofing it through the wide hallways …
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