Celebrities and Me (not to be)

Well, it's raining here in beautiful Arkansas today. No motorcycle ride (today at least). I was going to write about what a crappy week it's been. I can't remember how long it's been since I've had this much conflict with this many people. I don't care for my new position as site supervisor. I don't wear the mantle of "the man" comfortably. Well, I was going to write about all of that but why relive it? Instead, I thought I would make a list of all the celebrities I've encountered in my vast travels. I've never actually talked to any of them (I don't think) because that's not my style. Who wants to bug some guy you've seen on t.v. and you can't really get into what you'd like to in just a brief passing on the street with someone like Jimmy Carter. So here in no particular order is

Brian's Hall of Near Misses:

First up is the aforementioned former President. I saw him in the Fairbanks Alaska airport. I read in the paper he was on a fishing trip.

My next airport spotting was the "comedian" Carrot Top, pre-steroid days. We were both taking a puddle jumper from Dallas to Lawton Oklahoma. I remember being the only person to recognize him. He looked at me with an expression that either meant, please don't bother me or please ask for my autograph, I'm not sure.

Next celeb in an airport, Cheri Oteri (whom I used to have a crush on) in Denver airport. I was getting off the rail line and she was getting on. She is short, and cute. Her companion was about 7 feet tall. She also had a scared look on her face when she saw that I was aware of her.

Next, and final airport sighting was with my brother in Atlanta. We were walking down this lonely corridor, lost, when my brother cracked nonchalantly, "Hey here comes Al Franken" thinking it was some shmuck that looked like Al Franken. Turns out it was just that shmuck Al Franken. He had the best celebrity reaction I've seen thus far. He started looking at the blank wall like he was searching for something on it just to avoid eye contact.

One of my favorite sightings, like the Jimmy Carter incident, also took place in Fairbanks. David Copperfield was performing in town one weekend. My friends and I were coming out of the movie at the local cineplex. There was a group of younger teenage girls all running around exited. I didn't think much of it but kind of wondered what their problem was. As I walked out the exit, there behind the snack bar and a sales girl was the magic man himself. He had a super-sized soda up to his mouth and was looking on at the teens as they carried on. I think his greatest magic trick must be having women go crazy over him. I know the Claudia Schiffer jokes have all been overdone. I'll refrain. It turns out that of the four guys I was with, I was the only one that saw him. I'm proud of the fact that I didn't fall prey to his Jedi mind tricks. I'd like to think I would have got hold of his wallet if it had been me mugging him last week.

Then there was the Denny's in Gallup, New Mexico where I dined a mere twenty feet away from Mike Wallace. He's much taller than you would expect and pretty old looking. Don't know what he was having. Probably a double helping of ego with a side of pompus ass.

The last one is a judgment call. It's both my best and most frustrating. I was at Whistler Mountain ski resort in Canada. As I was walking out of the condo office I saw a vagabond sitting on the bench outside the door. I thought he looked out of place and he looked at me with that same scared look Carrot Top gave me. Then in two steps I thought, "Hey, that's Brad Pitt in his Legends of the Fall beard". In the time it took me to make those two steps, I turned around and the bum was gone. I'll never know if it was him but I've spent several evenings imagining myself sipping sherry and smoking cigars with Brad and Jen in the hot tub at Whistler Mountain.

Regret

Tuesday got off to a bad start. I had some words with a co-worker. We UXO techs tend to wear our emotions on our sleeve and most of my fellow Shaw employees are close enough friends that we don't hold a grudge. We vent and get over it later. I was pretty pissed though. I took off to run some errands and went into Conway. At the intersection by Walmart there sat a car broke down in the middle of traffic. The woman was waving people around and I got into the turning lane and went into the Walmart. I stop to help people quite a bit. Just last weekend on the trip to Clarksdale I stopped to help two guys. Well, I was still angry and the crappy Conway drivers didn't help. I get into this self-feeding rage.

I stopped at the edge of the lot trying to decide whether to go help the woman. I remember thinking at the time that she would probably feel better just having someone offer assistance. I finally convinced myself that she would be fine, after all in that situation I would be fine. I went in, picked up the supplies and headed out. I had put it out of my mind trying to remember the items I needed (memories going quick, but that's for another time, if I remember). As I went through the light there were now two police cars assisting the woman. I got a better look at her, she was an older woman, probably in her mid to late fifties, someone's grandma. I could see her red, puffy eyes from across the lane of traffic between us. It hit me hard right than and now the only person I was mad at was myself. I would be for the rest of the day too. I think I'll make an effort to stop and help when I have the chance.

By Popular Demand

Don't forget to click on the title.

My Ol Lady

I flew to Denver this weekend for Lisa's 30th birthday. It was a great weekend but way too fast. Because of a scheduling mistake on my part I only got about two and a half days with her. Fortunately it was quality time. I got in at midnight Friday night which was lucky as the flight scheduled before us (also going to Dallas) was cancelled and there were delays galore. I was only an hour late. The next day we started off with breakfast at Village Inn because Lisa loves the Belgian waffles. After that we packed up from her Mom's place and headed to the Cherry Creek Holiday Inn Select where I had a room reserved. We usually spend at least one night at a hotel when I come in to town. The room was nice but the elevators seemed to be suffering from gremlins. On the way to the hotel we stopped at the Shane Company first, where I picked out and purchased my wedding ring. Lisa was excited and relieved. She was sure I was going to end up with a twist tie-wrapped around my finger for the ceremony. It's a nice ring, very understated and simple. I was pretty excited too. I'm really looking forward to being married.

After a little nap at the hotel we headed off to the Tattered Cover, an impressive bookstore in Denver. There are actually two of them and I could get lost there forever. Lisa's sister Jennifer bought her a book called The Decade of the Wolf by Douglas W. Smith & Gary Ferguson about the effort to return wolves to Yellowstone. We went to see a talk by Gary Ferguson. It was really interesting and moving. Mr Ferguson was an excellent speaker, and Lisa was excited to get her book signed. After the signing we headed to Lisa's sister's house. Jennifer had construction paper signs with "Lisa's 30" printed on them, hanging everywhere. We had some cheese, fruit and wine (I had Red Stripe) and Lisa opened her gifts, than it was on to Pasquini's, one of Lisa's favorite restaurants. She loves the Pesto Penne with pine nuts. I had the spaghetti with Italian Sausage against my better judgement. It was delicious but I was suffering with heartburn the rest of the night.

Sunday, her actual birthday, we went to see "Eight Below". Boy what a great movie. I welled up and Lisa cried (and she never cries at movies). She had seen it before but really wanted me to see it. After that we headed down town to Old Chicago for dinner. Jennifer had got Lisa tickets for Christmas to the NHL team, the Avalanche for her birthday so we were going to eat and walk over to the Pepsi Center. As we were walking to Old Chicago we noticed everyone headed to the game. We thought it was kind of early but before we could order the game came on t.v. The tickets said 7:00 o'clock but the starting time had been changed to six! We settled up and headed over. We had a great time even though the Avs got the tar knocked out of them 5-2 by the Minnesota Wild (whatever that is). Jennifer arranged to have the ushers sing Happy Birthday to Lisa, she was embarrassed but a good sport. The fans sitting in our area even joined in. After the game we finally got to Old Chicago for dinner, a little late but better than never.

Next month I'm hoping Lisa will make it out here to Arkansas for my home leave, but it's going to be hard to top this one.

A New Blog

I like the fact that you can have multiple blogs on your Blogger.com account and I've decided to take advantage of that. I started one called Riding to post details of motorcycle trips I've taken. I was going to do that on here but I've decided I would keep the two seperate. Maybe Riding will be of more interest to people who are otherwise annoyed at my crazy posts or bored by my mundane ones. My brother turned me on to Wayfaring.com which looks like it will be a useful tool for documenting my rides. I may use it to keep track of all the places I work as well.

I've decided to start another blog for several different reasons. On here I just write emotionally with little correction for grammar. Everything here is of the moment and once it's posted it goes into the archives never to be read again (except by me maybe). I'm going to try to structure the Riding blog to be useful to people in certain areas looking for a good place to take a trip. Of course I'm not deluding myself, I installed a site meter on the blog last month and the numbers are less than impressive. But like I said, I'm hopeful that this will appeal to more people. Life's Been Good has always been more for my own entertaiment anyway.

I'll keep posting here though for the two people that read this blog.

Mac News

Mac introduced Bootcamp. I didn't really ever see the need for Windows in my life, especially since I got a promotion to management. I've been using it on the computer at work. For all it's refinement over the years it still sucks. But Bootcamp comes along at a good time for me, saves me the cost of a PC laptop just for work. And I'm all for anything that helps spread the Mac love.

Next Ride

Well, it looks like I've got a few places to pick from for my next motorcycle trek. I like the blues but I wouldn't consider myself an aficionado or anything. I mostly know of Rosedale from Eric Clapton. Since there seems to be a point of contention on the origins of the crossroads, I'll just hedge my bets and hit them both.

Last month, while I was driving down the Mississippi River on a magazine assignment, I had a curious experience in Rosedale, Mississippi. As I was eating lunch in a place called Leo's Market, a waitress mentioned that Rosedale is the place where the legendary bluesman Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in exchange for musical genius (an event alluded to in -- among other places -- the Cohen brothers' movie Oh Brother, Where Art Thou). As if to prove it, the waitress handed me a wrinkled, typewritten transcription of a "vision" about Johnson's fateful moment that had appeared to bluesman Henry Goodman as he was traveling the road from Rosedale to Anguila. For the sake of posterity (and because I have never seen it elsewhere), I am publishing Goodman's "vision" in full below, as well as a postscript by Rosedale's Crossroads Blues Society.

Interestingly, there are other contenders in the myth of Robert Johnson's devil-purchased soul -- and the crossroads of US 61 and US 49 in Clarksdale is where most blues tourists pay their respects (the newest Romantics album is called "61/49" for this reason). Of course -- as with ancient Roman tourists setting off to find "sites" from Greek myths -- the location of Johnson's crossroads is not exactly something that can be proven. He was born in Hazelhurst, and his supposed grave is in Quito (near Itta Bena) -- but Rosedale did figure in the lyrics for one of Johnson's most famous songs, "Traveling Riverside Blues".

It'll probably be a few weeks before I'm able to go but I'm already excited. Check here for the details.