Excess In Moderation

Randy from A Quiet Place In My Mind has graciously, albeit randomly, tagged me for what I can only assume is a Blog365 meme. Fortunately for me he changed it up a bit and instead of 7 weird facts about myself, I have to talk about the 7 most famous/infamous people that I have met. Here are the rules:

Link to the person who tagged you.
Leave a comment on their blog so that their readers can visit yours.
Post the rules on your blog.
Share the seven (7) most famous or infamous people you have met. Or go with the original 7 wierd things about yourself.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post.
Include links to their blogs.
Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

“Met” shall be defined as EITHER touching or having a conversation with the “famous” individual. There is no requirement on the length or nature of the conversation. It could simply consist of “us” the un-famous saying, “Hey can I get your autograph?” and the “Famous” saying, “Not on your best day.” Any two way conversation will do….

So without further adieu:

When she first burst onto the scene for Guess, Anna Nicole Smith was one of a kind. She helped usher in the full figured model if not started the revolution. When you heard the term real woman, you couldn’t help but think of her.
She was doing promotions for Guess at the time and appeared at the Macys flagship store in Herald Square, NYC. My buddy who at the time was a buyer for Macys, let me tag along with him as we skipped the line to get our picture taken with her. She said howdy in her Texas accent and I said something to the effect of, Hi, nice to be here, nice to meet you. She put her arms around me, we posed for the Polaroid, and quicker than you can say dead guy with lots of money, she was welcoming the next guy from the line. What I took from that moment that has stayed with me to this day was – she towered over most of us that day, she had a big smile, her boobs really were huge, and she really enjoyed being in front of the camera.

If there was an Internet during my Deborah Debbie Gibson days, I surely would have been creepy Internet stalker guy. There wasn’t a magazine or newpaper article/cover of hers that I didn’t have. I requested her songs constantly on Z-100, and had numerous mixtapes of hers.
When she ‘hit it big’ one of the definite stops of her would be the Nassau Coliseum – right smack dab in the middle of Long Island NY. I knew this and camped out at a TicketMaster for 10 hours way back when TM had actual ticket counters. So I was able to snag 3rd row tickets roughly 3 minutes after they went on sale. Needless to say, the night of the concert was deemed Debbie Gibson day which meant spending it at the mall and then heading over 3 hours before the concert started. While we were there we heard some people talking that DG had performed her mic checks and gone back home but was now on the way back for the concert. So we immediately ran to the performer’s entrance and waited. A limo pulled up and out popped her dance team, backup singer and some other people. Another limo came and sure ebough she was in it. She took the time to sign as many autographs as she could and as she picked my picture of her out of my hands, I was smiling like a fool and said that I really enjoyed her music. She looked at me, said thanks and signed a dozen or two more pictures before being whisked in.

Back when Steffi Graf ruled the tennis courts, my buddies and I were fixtures at the US Open. We’d get general admissions tickets and then spend the day trying to sneak into the main draw courts. Fun times indeed.
We knew where all the players came through and would usually hang out by the barricades to get a glimpse of them. One year I found myself a mere 2 feet from the entrance door which was prime position to “chat” with the players as they walked by. A big roar came over everyone and I saw that it was SG. She was kind of in her playing/training outfit which consisted of a t-shirt and shorts. I don’t know if they were short-shorts or what, but her legs seemed to go on for days. And you could see each and every muscle fiber twitching as she walked. I wasn’t about to offer her my [tennis] ball to sign, so I put out a program I had and asked if she had time to for an autograph. She kinda grimaced and said in pretty decent English, Come back after my match. I thought that was pretty cool as she could have easily dismissed me, but as it turned out, we left early that day to go for gyros and fries over in Astoria.

Other than sleep, meat is probably one of my most favorite things. And there’s no better place then here to get your fill of it. It’s great for group outings since the place is pretty big and most nights there is music, so get as loud as you want.
So about two years ago I’m there with some friends and along the wall is a table of about 15, with one person on the end who’s got everyone’s attention. They were pretty much finishing up as we were seated and I caught a glimpse of the guy who everyone was listening to, but couldn’t place his face. So I turned back to my group and we started talking and catching up. As soon as the topic of money/finance came up, it hit me like a ton of bricks – that’s the guy I watch every night on CNN. We place our drink order and I go to the bathroom and on the way down the stairs, I see he’s about to head up. He notices me and I wave him up since it’s a somewhat narrow staircase. He gives me a nod as he passes by and I just blurt out, So what’s good tonight? He ponders a bit and says The sausage, definitely the sausage. I said Okay, thanks, and headed down to go and wash my hands.

Back in 1996 at the NBA AllStar game in San Antonio, I was the proverbial kid in a candy store. My buddy scored 2 press passes for the entire weekend which included locker room access. You know that commercial with the guy trying to steal the player’s practice jerseys and equipment? Yeah, I wasn’t too far from that except I was allowed to be there!!
I picked Gary Payton out of them all – Jordan, Ewing, Pippen, Malone, Stockton – because of a conversation that he was having which should never have included me, but somehow did. Basically he and another person were jawing back and forth about something, and were getting really into it. So I guess GP thought he’d end it by saying, I’ll bet ya 15 thousand dollars. At which point it all went quiet. I was roughly 4 feet away from him and just said out loud, I hope he doesn’t take it. And GP says, Oh he’ll take it. I’m like, No… He goes, Oh yeah… Then you hear, You’re on!! And then it’s back and forth yelling and screaming, before I got a chance to ask GP what he was betting on.

Jimmy Smits is a Brooklyn kind of guy. I think it was his grandmother that still lived in BK whom he would be visiting, whenever he stopped by Kings Plaza mall.
I was working in the GAP as a supervisor when he came in one day. Looked and acted just like a normal guy, wasn’t expecting the royal treatment, just out to do some shopping that day. As he was at the cashwrap making his purchase, he asked for some boxes which I just happened to be stacking – ahh the good life of a supervisor… – so I said, How many do you need? Just 2. I looked at the big pile he had and suggested he take extra since all that stuff might not fit in 2 boxes. He said, Yeah you’re probably right. And then he was off and on his merry way.

Now anyone who knows me should not be surprsed JLH is on this list. What should be surprising is that I’ve only met her once and that I don’t watch her tv show at all.
It was the year that she made I Still Know What You Did Last Summer with Brandy. They did a photoshoot for Entertainment Weekly and were on the cover and she was doing a promotion over at Tower Records near Rockefeller Center in NYC. So I called in sick of course and waited in line with about 600 other guys. At the time I didn’t have a buddy working for the store so I actually had to wait on the line. I thought for sure she would have left before my turn came but she was either a quick signer or had nowhere else to go. The article about her and the movie had a quote to something of the effect of, her being on cloud 9 and no one pushing her off of said cloud, so I wanted her to sign that page. Bigtime cheese-ots!! So I get up to the table where she’s sitting with her bottled water and pile of Sharpie’s, turn to the page and tell her how much I really enjoy that quote. She leans forward to look at the magazine and quote, and gives it ‘The Look’ – the intense gaze/stare that she does that’s meant to convey seriousness/despair. She does this for about 5 seconds and then looks up at me and said, Yeah that rocks . And I swear I heard harps playing in the background, birds chirping and a chorus of Alleluia being sung. She looked absoutely gorgeous with a capital gor. I got my picture taken with her, unfortunately we were on opposite sides of the table and those type of pictures never come out good at all.

You would think that I kept that autograph and picture but since then, 1999, it’s bounced around until I think it got accidentally thrown out. I say accidentally because while I didn’t throw it out on purpose, I didn’t really do much to prevent it from being past of some landfill.

The Anna Nicole pics though, I know I still have in a shoe box somewhere…

Random Blog365 taggage:

I Run With Scissors
Cupcakes and Icing
Champru.net
Chelsea Talks Smack
Bee in Bondi
Romeo’s Rant
Musings of A Housewife

Now to leave comments notifying them off their being tagged… Hopefully they won’t mind playing along!!