When I was ten, in New York City, I saw Guns ‘N Roses cross the street from their touring bus. A friend of mine in high school was tagging along with her dad for a business trip to Seattle and (claims she) saw Courtney Love. Spending the summer in Ireland with my mom at age fifteen, I (strongly believe myself to have) played with Bono and his dog on a pier (they were both very friendly and shaggy). Husband, in 1986, met the Swedish prime minister (for sure this time) also on a pier, and then, in a boat, saw the leader of the opposition party naked (these were the stories Husband came up with when I asked him to brainstorm about famous people I had seen).
Douglas Hofstadter lectured at my university. My grandmother shook George W. Bush’s hand in 2004 and giggled about how cute he was for weeks after. I was in San Francisco when Jerry Garcia died and spent the evening in Haight-Ashbury among the aging hippies hanging around the steps of the house where Jefferson Airplane originated. My mom once hosted a descendant of W.B. Yeats in our home. I ignored friendly chit chat from American Idol singer Diana DeGarmo in a Starbucks line a couple of years ago, not knowing who she was until the cashier whispered it to me when it was my turn, awed by my sangfroid. It also turned out that an acquaintance through a mommy message board I used to participate in was famous porn star Asia Carrera (Husband had heard of her, though; he admired her for her computer programming skills). Though I’ve never met any of these people, my paternal grandfather’s brother’s daughter’s son married the daughter of a famous country singer (my father-in-law’s brother over in Sweden loves to tell people how closely he is related to her).
And tonight I met Moxie, elucidator of child sleeping and eating habits! She was in my city on business and some other readers of hers and I got together for dinner. Very fun!
