Celebrity Sightings

This blogger I sometimes read posted a few weeks ago about all the celebrities she's seen, so I decided to do the same. Except I'm leaving out the ones who I saw perform in concert or interviewed for work, etc., because that's not really just a chance encounter, is it? I don't know if I will remember them all, but here goes ...

Reggie Jackson: Would you believe it if I told you he owned a car dealership in Quincy for a while when I was a kid? My stepdad worked there, and we met Reggie Jackson one time when he came to the dealership for some sort of promotional event. He told me he'd buy me a horse. He never did. I hate Reggie Jackson.

Neil Patrick Harris and Max Casella: At the Ports O' Call in San Pedro, we stumbled upon an episode of Doogie Howser being filmed.

Sarah Chalke: My sister and I spotted Sarah Chalke when we were at the Universal City Walk with my Dad and Deb one time, eating frozen yogurt or something. This was way back when she was on Roseanne.

Ted Danson: When I was about 19 and had just started working at the Monterey Plaza Hotel, I passed Ted Danson on the sidewalk in front of the hotel as he was on his way to speak at an event on whales or some such save-the-earth event. He nodded at me.

Niki Taylor: Working at the same hotel, Niki Taylor was staying there one time for a Liz Claiborne shoot, if I remember correctly. I was at the front desk when she stopped by to pick up a fax. (If that was today, she probably would've gotten an e-mail on her smart phone and I'd never have seen her.)

Leonardo DiCaprio: Working at a toy store on Cannery Row in Monterey, Leo came in and bought a disposable camera from me. He was wearing a hat and trying to look incognito. Later, I also saw him and Gisele walking down the hall, but I only saw her from behind.

Clint Howard: Ron Howard's brother came into the toy store in Monterey one time when I was working.

Melissa Joan Hart: The owner of the toy store I worked at owned three stores on Cannery Row, and I managed them. One time, a co-worker from one of the stores down the street called me at the toy store and was speaking so muffled, I thought perhaps she was getting robbed. I ran down the street to make sure everything was okay, and it turned out she was just trying to let me know that Sabrina the Teenage Witch was in the store.

Danny Glover: In 1998 I went with friends to see a Boyz II Men concert (opening acts were Next and Destiny's Child) and Danny Glover was at the concession stand.

Bill Murray: I didn't actually meet Bill Murray, but when I worked at the Quail Lodge, he called to make a reservation and I took the call. I thought from his voice it was the Bill Murray, and it was confirmed the following day when all the front desk agents were buzzing about when he checked in.

Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds: Living in Monterey for five years, you'd think I'd have seen Clint Eastwood around town sometime, but that wasn't the case. I actually saw these two together having dinner at a restaurant in Bel Air where my friend Lindsey worked. The paparazzi was outside when we left, and restaurant staff were making plans to sneak the two out the back to avoid the cameras.

John Stamos: Chris and I saw Uncle Jesse at a bar at LAX while waiting to catch our flight home.

Don King, Annie Leibovitz, Angela Bassett, Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson: Spotted at Obama's Inauguration.

Tyra Banks and Ron Howard: Spotted at the Inaugural Ball.

Dennis Farina, Dustin Hoffman, Bo Derek and Mike Smith: Spotted at Santa Anita last year during Spring Break.

George Newbern: Spotted at lunch with Deb last year during Spring Break.

Rod Stewart: Spotted at breakfast with Lindsey last year during Spring Break.

What celebs have you spotted? Did you attempt to talk to them?

Sketchbook Update

I didn't get quite as far in my sketchbook as I had hoped, but I filled it more than halfway and earlier this month shipped it off to Brooklyn. Here are a few of the sketches. I also did some in pencil, charcoal and chalk, and even a couple using stamps, but for some reason all of the ones I chose to post were done with a ballpoint pen.

This is one of my favorites. It was doodled during my geography and film class.

Another in-class doodle.

Detail shot of another sketch, which turned out very similar to the one pictured at the top.

I call this one "Breakfast at Dad's." I drew it when we were in L.A. earlier this month.

This one I drew when we returned home, inspired by SoCal.

There are a lot of things I had hoped to do with this project - I wanted to stay with a theme, and fill every page, and come up with a clever decoration for the cover, but things just didn't turn out that way. There's always next year!

Life

Chris and I took advantage of the long weekend to visit family in Southern California. The trip, as it turned out, started off differently than we had first envisioned it. After our flight landed, we headed to San Diego for my great Aunt Roz's funeral. Aunty Roz was my grandmother's sister, and we had spent a lot of time with her as kids. She owned a boutique, and when she closed it she gave my sister and I all kinds of costume jewelry that we loved to play dress-up with. Years later she discovered a box of brand-new scarves from the store, and she gave us those as well. I still have them. She took us shopping, and sometimes she, my grandmother, sister and I would play Yahtzee together. I will miss her, but I am glad that she no longer suffers. I wish I had seen her more often in the last few years. And though we didn't plan it this way, I am glad we were there for the service, to say goodbye, and to see family members we otherwise might not have seen, and share memories together.

Back in L.A. the next day the weather was quite toasty for January - 80 degrees! - so a visit to the beach was in order.

That night Dad, Deb, Chris and I went out for a nice dinner to celebrate my Dad's birthday.

And on the final day of the trip, we spent the afternoon and evening with at my cousin Jen's house, where we met the newest addition to the family, her daughter Josephine, who is too precious for words, and played with Juliette, who is getting so big and talking up a storm and kept Chris busy playing all night.

It was a nice trip, and we wish we could visit everyone more often.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday, Elvis!

My friend Lindsey and I have been friends since the 9th grade, when she moved to Quincy (even though she insists I have her dirty looks on her first day of school, which was not the case!) For the past 12 years or so she has lived in LA, which has been nice because I got to see her several times a year when I went to visit my Dad. But this fall, she moved back to Quincy, which is even better because now she's only an hour and a half away and we can see each other a lot more (weather permitting!)

Lindsey and I during our senior trip in Santa Cruz

One thing Lindsey and I have in common is that we are both big Elvis fans. Since snow had gotten in the way of seeing each other up until now, we decided to get together this past weekend for an Elvis-Birthday-Movie-Marathon. It was really fun to hang out and talk and watch corny Elvis movies together. And, our friend Hannah happened to be in town for the weekend, too, so we got together with her and Nikki for breakfast on Sunday.

Lindsey, Nikki, Hannah and Me (photo borrowed from Hannah's Facebook)

It was a fun and relaxing weekend in Quincy and I got to spend some time with my Mom, too. Hope I get to see all these friends again soon!

Happy New Year!

Chris and I welcomed 2011 like a boring, old married couple. We went out for a nice, Italian dinner, followed by a movie.

We thought we'd timed it just right to get out of the movie in time to watch the fireworks in downtown Reno. But we forgot to include time for previews, so the movie got out at 11:59, and we were in downtown Sparks. At least we had our midnight kiss, and could see the fireworks a few miles away in the distance. It was cold, so we watched what little we could see from the car.
Over dinner we discussed our resolutions. Turns out those are pretty boring, too. Pay off the credit card, eat healthier, exercise more. Hopefully the results will be better than my resolution for 2010 (maybe I'll keep working on those this year).

I hope you all had fun, however you rang in the New Year!

What are your resolutions?