May 23: Super Terrific Happy Thing #16

You meet one of your favorite celebrities and AREN’T disappointed; he or she is even nicer, more charming, and friendlier than you imagined.

In the few opportunities I’ve had to meet a celebrity whom I admire, I think I’ve been pretty lucky to discover them to be decent people. It probably makes a difference that a lot of the public figures I admire are writers—typically intelligent and at least a little bit intuitive, they tend to do more than just say, “Hi, nice to meetcha.” Some have been downright chatty.

The local celebrities I’ve met have been a mixed bag of dazzling and, well, the opposite of dazzling. Former coworkers who were at a company Christmas party at my house in 1997 know of whom I am referring to and that is ALL I’m going to say about that. Let’s see… Mike Donahue? Super-nice guy. Jim Bosley, what a dude he was. Paul Linnman? Friendly and personable. Ramblin’ Rod? He was Portland’s Captain Kangaroo!

I think I’ve blogged about most of my author meeting or seeing experiences over the past few years: Armistead Maupin, David Sedaris, Heather Armstrong (dooce), Lisa Schroeder, and Sarah Vowell are the ones I easily remember. I keep an eye on the bookstore lists of authors scheduled to read in the Portland area so I can support these brilliant writers—no matter how popular they are, I always fear they’ll end up with a small crowd. If I decide to hang around to meet them personally, I usually feel nervous when it’s my turn, but I almost never regret it. Of course, it’s a treat to have my book signed, too.

The other day I wrote that I was all excited because Pamela Ribon visited my blog. I emailed a reply to the comment she left, and today I received an email back. Again, I have to try not to blather myself into a puddle of author worship, but I am thoroughly impressed with her kindness, especially after I asked her a question that totally bummed her out.

Here’s the thing. Y’know that camera commercial with that awful Taylor Swift where all her fans are brought in so she can take a panoramic photo of them? And they’re screaming, and she pretty much ignores them all and acts totally unimpressed while she takes the picture? And there’s that one guy who won’t leave and she just stares at him like he’s a freak (because he is)? Well, that’s how I think most celebrities see their fans—it’s probably unfair and inaccurate, but I just imagine that they don’t really care all that much about any of us, ESPECIALLY when we fawn all over them. So it’s nice to find out that there are some out there who are nice, considerate, normal kinds of people, who show an interest in their fans and truly appreciate our presence. Either that, or they’re really good at pretending we don’t drive them nuts.

To me, meeting some of my favorite celebrities has been a super, terrific, happy thing. What about you? Have you had a rotten experience meeting one of your favorite public figures? Do you limit yourself to sightings only? (That’s OK too, Laura; lots of people go through life without ever taking the chance to invite fake Sammy Hagar to a barbecue...)