Brush with Celebrity

When I was about 10 years old, we took a trip to Seattle to visit some old friends that used to live next door to us in Omaha, Nebraska. The Schoenoman family had a house full of kids and I had missed the crazy hum of their house filled with noise and the smell of the lemon scented bleach that Mrs. Schoenoman used to clean her floors. Most of all, I missed my good friend Cheryl so much since they had moved. She was my best Barbie-playing, swing-pushing, cotton-candy-eating, hide-and-seek-in-the-culdesac-late-into-the-night friend. Fate had brought both of our dads to the west coast; hers with Boeing, mine with the US Army Corps of Engineers. (Dams and Jets - no wonder these two guys became life-long friends.) I couldn't wait to see her again.

While in Seattle, we visited downtown and while I was amazed by the size of the Space Needle, and the incredible sights and sounds of Pike's Market, the highlight of my 10-year old trip to Seattle was stumbling across a shooting of one of my favorite shows - Emergency! (You young whippersnappers may not remember this classic - It was like an early version of "Third Watch" but only about the paramedics). There, on the streets of Seattle, was Johnny Gage! Stud-muffin paramedic with the smile that could melt a young girl's heart.

(My sincere appologies to hardcore fans - as a 10 year old, I didn't know the actor's real name and the show must have gone off the air before I learned it. That, or my 30-something brain has had to dump that information from the archeives to make room for other very useful tidbits of information, like the names and food alergies of my kids' friends, the phone numbers of the best pizza places on our side of town, and the grouchy clerks to avoid at my local "one stop shopping" joint.)

It was my first brush with celebrity and on a very short list of my encounters with anyone I'd consider "famous". I barely got close enough to even verify that it was actually him, but for a 10 year-old, it was close enough to brag about at school the next week!

My celebrity encounters since then have been few and far between. Working at a classy downtown Portland eatery in college offered some opportunities to see local and visiting celebs and big-name local politicians, but none made my heart skip and my knees feel like macaroni like Johnny Gage.

Tonight I feel like I've had just a taste of that feeling again. Two of my favorite bloggers (Marvelous Madness, GrowWings) left comments on my little ol' site. Wow! They don't know this, but I've been following their blogs for weeks (along with other ultra-creative and inspiring women in the blogosphere: Christine Miller/Swirly, selftaughtgirl, Andrea/Superhero, jengray). I'm amazed by their creativity, their passion for their art and the wisdom and humor that come through in their writing. Thank you so much Alexandra G. and Laini! Your comments were so kind and encourging and just the inspiration I needed to keep blogging. In case you visit again - You are my stars!