Just for a moment. Just for an hour.

Song of the day - "Just to be Close to You", Lionel Richie. Why? WE-he-hell, hold on a minute, hot stuff. That is called a setup. Or foreshadowing. Or something...

Really, why?  Okay, so I'm currently in the Los Angeles airport (which is really sort of dumpy, much to my surprise) and I'm not ashamed to admit that I was all about seeing Brangelina or Jessica Simpson while I was here. Can't help it. Years of a weekly smack habit called People magazine (and now the Website too. God. I have no shot at being a productive citizen ANY MORE. It's OVER.) have bred a benign interest in the famous, the silly, the talented, and the talentless that I can only defend because I read a lot of "smart people stuff" too that makes me have to think and ponder and analyze something way beyond whether or not Tom Cruise has locked his daughter up in a cage. We all need breaks, and People is my thing (one of them, anyway. You really don't want to know how many there actually are, but I'm sure you can imagine.) 

I haven't given up hope on the Brangelina or Jessica sighting, for sure, but I will tell you one thing that almost surpasses that possibility: I saw Lionel Richie! I was looking around for some wireless and some food, in that order, because I'm a cracked out internet junkie with a deep and abiding problem. It's a good thing I'm busying my hands with this madness because I guess otherwise I'd really be at my highest weight ever at this point. (not yet, thank God. There's still hope, and as long as I can measure it in ounces I'm going to.)

Sorry, digression. So yeah, I'm in LAX, like People always calls it - i.e., "Mary Kate Olsen fuels up with a mango and "coke" (get it? Get their smooth insinuations and friendly yet deadly patter? Oh yeah, it's how Star Tracks rolls, totally) smoothie as she waifs her way through LAX after a red-eye from NYC." And I was walking along, and damned if there wasn't Li-o-NEL, right there. Of course I'm fresh off my Jazzfest high where he was the headliner, and have long since outed myself as a fan of both his AND the Commodores. I've even forgiven him partially for "Ballerina Girl" at this point (although never "Say You, Say Me," because that stupid fast bridge at the end is so lame and the lyrics so ridiculous that I can't bear to hear it, even if it means turning off Delilah.)

I unfortunately missed my chance at paparazzi-dom (like I'd need another method of being PART OF THE PROBLEM. Really.) because I haven't slept in a long time and I was kind of disoriented, so my reaction time was bad. I'd just gotten off a long flight where the Very Important Airplane Designer next to me used his laptop the whole time and kept knocking into me. He didn't do it hard, just enough to be annoying after the tenth time, and when it got up in the hundreds, blah. He had no "using the computer in the center seat" skills, and five hours of that plus no sleep just isn't good. I did make an initial grab for the camera bag, but I was too slow, and Lionel had already passed me. A photo of his back was within the realm of possibility, but that seemed a little pathetic even to me, and standing as I was in the middle of the concourse, I knew that in my current bedraggled state I would not just look like but would indeed BE Crazy Camera Lady. I'm not trying to get this camera yanked on my first day in California. I could be a plant for the Enquirer for all they know.

So congratulate me - or feel sorry for me that I care a little bit, pick your poison - that I saw an interesting-to-me famous person in my first hour on the west coast. I imagine I'll be geeking out quite a bit more than maybe even is usual, so I'm not apologizing in advance, even though I probably should.

Comments

[Michelle]

Oh my- I LOVE Lionel Ritchie... You have much more control than I; I would have totally taken a picture of his back. I have no shame... Hope you have lots o fun at the conference!

[Elspeth]

So did you get your star sighting? I always have to have one when I'm in L.A.!

[laurie]

Just Lionel. That was enough, though. I hope you enjoyed the conference - our paths didn't cross today.

[Killer B]

I forgot, in all of your glory (or maybe I didn't?) to tell you that I saw Anjelica Huston at the Dublin airport last month. Did you know it was Lionel at once, because with her, it took me a minute. Then I started to follow her and thought, 'Where am I going, and what the hell would I say?' So I walked away. But I wouldn't have been able to turn my back on Lionel so easily...