Fan Girl

 My first brushes with celebrity happened the Thanksgiving after my dad died. A neighbor took me with his kids down to the Channel 6 Thanksgiving parade; we somehow ended up in the staging area (he knew a guy or two), and I met Captain Noah and Gene London, two children's show personalities who were on the local stations since forever leading up to that point.  The autographs I had gotten are long gone. Captain Noah had his game face on, and Gene London looked like he'd rather be anywhere else. This cold, bright day is one of the few things I remember about that time after my own sun disappeared.

There were other brushes with celebrity; when I met the first incarnation of My People in high school, I went to Sci Fi conventions and met most of the original Star Trek cast plus Tom Baker (THE Fourth Doctor). DamnifIknow what happened to those autographs.  Running in the background of that, though, I was a serious Anglophile--I had it in my head that I was going to go live in England and join the Royal Shakespeare Company and get a permanent posh accent and everything (spoiler alert: that didn't happen). 

So I settled for the next best thing and went to England with my school shortly after my high school graduation. My mother would have rather had me loose in a foreign country than down the Jersey shore during Senior Week. As soon as we settle in our hotel and had itineraries in hand, I scanned for free times and plopped it alongside the RSC's brochure (one of the chaperones had tried to tell me they were closed for the season; I knew that wasn't the case).  And bingo, my crush du jour Roger Rees was playing Hamlet at the Barbican (alongside a then little-known actor named Kenneth Branagh) during one of those itinerary openings.

I hit the concierge desk and bought the last four tickets, 10th row center.  And then told one of the chaperones that I was NOT going to the Hippodrome with the rest of the group, I was going to see some Shakespeare, because dammit, I didn't come all this way to go to some freaking night club.

It legit was not that hard a sell: that chaperone and her husband were MORE than happy to not, but she told me I needed to get another student to come along.  Turned out there was a sophomore who would also Rather Not, so the four of us went to see some Shakespeare.  The rest of the girls made fun of us and told us to have fun.

DAY-UM. 

It was this excursion that introduced me to the Stage Door. And as jazzed as I was to see some incredible theater, it was an even bigger charge to meet my crush (also a bit of a let-down when my gay-dar went WAY off, but it was all good, I got what I came for, and I still have THAT autograph).  When the girls asked me sardonically how Shakespeare went, I rhapsodically waxed poetic about it for hours on end to the point that they as a collective had a little buyer's remorse.

This is the bar that all subsequent celebrity encounters was set against.

And there have been a few, Patrick Stewart, Salman Rushdie (who I literally ran into coming off an elevator while I was working at Random House), Kurt Vonnegut, Audrey Meadows, Brian Wilson to name a few.  We were at a gala a couple years ago when one of Nic's heroes was emceeing.  I announced to my table that I was off to get an autograph and a selfie for my son, and they thought I was kidding.

Nope. 

Then there was the time we took younger and his friend to see Mandy Patinkin.  Both were stunned to learn that you can wait at the stage door and MEET the person on stage.  So we did, and we did. Hubby got some good pics.

Then there was the time I drove into the city with my younger guy to meet his favorite cartoonist. Not only did we meet him, we have an awesome little cartoon drawn just for younger (we still need to frame it).

The latest iteration happened when I saw Lin-Manuel Miranda was performing for one night only in Freestyle Love Supreme.  I asserted my agency and bought four tickets and told elder, "We are GOING to this show and we are GOING to meet this guy."

Ordinarily my older guy is a reluctant participant in these outings, but this being one of his heroes, was a little different. Instead of the usual complaints, he was legit excited.

So there was no way in hell I was leaving the stage door area without LM's scribble.

Apparently half the audience had the same idea; and they had gotten to the stage door first.

So, the logistician kicked in:  where was my best shot at achieving my objective?  The boys and I had been in the back, and I saw LM's hat in the sea of people off to the left.  I made my way over and wriggled my way as close to the front as I could. 

I knew I was at the tail end of the signing.  Everyone was calling his name and waving their program. 

I called his name. Once.

I saw him look up and search. And we locked eyes. And he smiled, reached for my program, and signed it.

And I was one of the last programs he signed.

I could hardly believe it. 

I wriggled back out from the scrum and found hubby. I grinned broadly and waved my program.  The boys, having been dismissed with the rest of the crowd came moping over.  Elder was quite bitter about not having met LM.  I waved my program at him.

"WHAT?"

"HOW?"

Both of them grabbed the program and marveled at the squiggle. And then both marveled at me for having gotten it in the first place. It mattered not that they didn't meet him because as far as they were concerned, I was their proxy, and I did it for them. 

Anyone who had known me any amount of time will tell you that I can literally do anything I set my mind to.

Imagine what I could do if I used that power for good......