Celebrity Sightings

Last night I met up with some new lady friends for dinner in my new town.  I love our new town, by the way.  It's quaint, has a Starbucks 4 minutes walking from my house, a park 5 minutes walking, and everything shop or service you would need within 10 minutes.  It's a great place.

Anyhoo, we decided to wander down to this "all chocolate" dessert place to end the evening with something sweet.  The place was almost empty, so we ordered our various poisons and took a seat next to a little fireplace.

About 10 minutes after sitting down, I became aware of a group of people sitting behind us.  I turned to look and was struck by a blonde lady.  Her hair was up in a messy ponytail, she had big blue eyes, was wearing those uber-trendy "nerd" glasses, and was hanging with a little boy and a few older guys.

I kept staring because my brain was making me stare.  The "face-recognition" portion was firing.  Ding.  Jenny McCarthy.  Yep.  Solved.  That's her.  I turned back around to my group.  They figured it out seconds after I did.  Our lively conversation halted and an awkward silence punctuated with whispers hung over our corner.  

We got over it.  And then Jenny (totally on a first name basis now) left and we were like, Whoa!  

I love seeing celebrities.  It's like seeing an alien or something.  I've seen a few in my day and while I used to get a bit starstruck, now I'm like, oh, what?  You're just a normal person? Your skin isn't always airbrushed?  

And now my list of seen celebrities:

-Flea, from Red Hot Chili Peppers.  I was 16, on Spring Break with my family in Hawaii.  I was walking down a side-street alone, when a guy passed me.  Instantly, I thought, "That's Flea."  I kept walking.  Then I turned around to look at him again.  He turned around too, because he knew I knew.  We smiled at each other.  I walked on.  Later it was confirmed when I heard on the radio that the Red Hot Chili Peppers where playing a concert that night in Honolulu.  

When I was 20/21, I worked for a spell at the front desk of the Hyatt in downtown San Diego.  We saw quite a few celebrities there:

-Stephen Baldwin (bluest eyes ever)
-Brian Austin Green
-TLC (except Left Eye wasn't there...I wouldn't have even recognized these ladies.  They looked utterly normal).
-Coolio
-Natalie Imbruglia (She was with a posse of other ladies and they came up and asked me what time it was.  I answered, then looked at her.  She was stunning.  It was like she was glowing or something.)
-Run DMC (Totally normal people.)
-Matthew McConaughey (I had no idea who he was.  No clue.  Until one of the other front desk gals had to go to the back and swoon.)
-R Kelly (I know.  Gross.  He called the front desk and I talked to him.  He was all smooth and like, Hey girl, and not in a Ryan Gosling kind of way).  

I stayed at the Hyatt for my wedding and while checking in, the one and only Mr. Ed McMahon was checking in next to me.  It was fun to watch people walk by him and do a double take.  I think that's the most fun part of the whole thing, is seeing how people react.

I also once attended a SDSU basketball game with an ex.  A bunch of people kept turning around and looking just past us.  Quite a few people came up to someone behind us and wanted to say hi or get something autographed. 

It bugged.

I had my ex turn around and see who it was.  It was the professional golfer, Phil Mickelson.  Now, I could care less about golf and although I recognized the name, it didn't mean anything to me.

After another fan left I turned around, tapped him on the knee and said, "Don't you get sick of all that?"  

He totally wanted to say yes.  He did that side to side with the head and said something that I've forgotten now.  Years later, all I can think of was that I had the gall to touch his knee (which is probably insured for like 10 million dollars).  He wasn't famous to me, he was just a person. 

I think that's it. 

Do you have any celebrity sighting stories?