there were the kids in the hall, of course. that made me pretty damn happy.
long story short: after a show of theirs when they were touring, our car broke down and we walked back to the small town where they had performed.. got a room in a hotel i later discovered, at the hotel bar, that the kids were staying in too. ahh! :)
once, on the phone at my old job, i talked to leslie abramson, the menendez brothers' lawyer. she prefers the term "attorney" (mrow!). she's not a celebrity, i s'pose, but she was spoofed on SNL (jan hooks, puffy hair, john malkovitch hosting), so she counts in my book.
another time, i talked to the mom from home improvement, patricia richardson. she was pretty nice.
i also had the opportunity to talk to a sci-fi author, orson scott card. i doubt anyone else in the 200-person company would've known who he was, so what luck i got the call! he wrote a book named pastwatch that made me cry for the last 20 pages. such a beautiful past/future this guy dreamed up for us! i had to put him on hold to collect myself.
anyway, while in wisconsin, i was enjoying pasttime #2, hanging out at the bookstore. #1 is eating. i swear, just being in the midwest quadruples your appetite. anyway, so i was in barnes & noble, by the magazines, and saw a guy who looked very much like ron livingston from the corner of my eye. however, i am still in florida mode, where i avert my eyes from contact with any male strangers, lest they approach me, smelling strongly of cologne, and try to get my number while i divide my time between 1) thinking up an excuse to get outta there and 2) wondering if they're mentally deficient or just high.
so i go up to pay and the bookstore girls are whispering excitedly with one another. "has someone spotted a cute customer?" i asked, amused. "no! it's an actor!" "which?" "i dunno.. he was in a movie with brittany murphy..." i have no idea what she was talking about, but i did think that guy looked like... "nuh uh," i interrupted. "you mean the guy from office space?" "yeah!" she exclaimed. "ron livingston." "omigod, i'm going to get his autograph!" she handed me my change and scampered off.
okay, there are some things you have to realize about ron livingston:
1. he was in office space. as a girl who works in an office, this means a lot to me. now when i get possessive about my stapler, i think of that movie and laugh instead of slitting my wrists because THIS IS WHAT MY LIFE HAS COME TO.
2. he looks like my friend, steve.
3. his brother, john, was in mr. wrong as walter. long ago, my friend anna and i (we were 18 or so) used to watch that movie on a near nightly basis, speaking along with the words ("the three-fingered dawn crept slowly up the hills and the foothills...") and cooing over how cute walter was and, "ohmygod, look at his hands!" walter has nice hands.
4. he was on swingers! (by the way, i'm trying to link to that all-too-painful message-leaving scene but am coming up with some mighty disturbing links when i google that.) and sex & the city!
okay, so #3 shouldn't count towards ron, but still! i had my freaking camera with me for once! (other photo opportunities lost include aforementioned kith encounter and a dog on a motorcycle)
so after Shopgirl was done telling him how much she loves brittany murphy, i asked him.. well, stammered to him may be how to say it.. as politely as i could if i could have a picture. amanda did the honors. turns out he was in la crosse for thanksgiving with his sister (no word on walter).
but i did get a picture! ¶ 11:41 AM
