My brush with celebrity

I have no specific reason as to why I am telling this story except that I remembered it the other day and wanted to get it written down in the name of "personal history." When I turned 30, my husband surprised me with a trip to Southern California to visit two close high school friends- Lisa Bay and Lara. I have known Lisa since I was 6 and Lara since I was 14. They both have been great influences in my life. We are still very close. So in the fall of 2004 Eric, Katie- she was just a newborn- and I made trip to L.A. Lisa works for a company that advertises movies and at the time of my visit her company was advertising "Ray"-the movie with Jamie Foxx about Ray Charles. She had two tickets to a special event called "A Tribute to Ray" and invited me to go with her. It was a various collection of stars and musicians paying tribute to Ray Charles through his music. It was later broadcast on T.V. But there were many big names at this event- namely- Jamie Fox, Tom Cruise, Ellen Degeneres, Norah Jones, Mary J. Blige and many more. It was a very entertaining evening and I like to think that one Friday night I had the same plans as Tom Cruise! Lisa also had tickets to the after party, so I got to tag along with her. Now the stars at the after party weren't nearly as big as the actual event- in fact I think most of the people there were executives, producers, assistants and the like. But I did get close to a few "stars." When we were walking up to the event I was behind an actress I recognized from a sitcom, but I don't know her name. I do remember I thought she was so small I could fold her up and put her in my pocket. While I waited in the line for the bar the host of "Amazing Race" was right next to me. Again I can't remember his name and he was surprisingly small. While I was in the buffet line I was getting food across from Lou Diamond Phillips and yep you guessed it- he could have been folded up and put in my other pocket. What is it with Hollywood stars being so small and even more importantly why do I want to put them in my pockets?!? But by far the biggest name I saw that night was Bruce Willis. He was so close to me I could have reached out and touched him. Of course I didn't or you know they might have called security and this story would have ended very differently. Anyway it was an evening that was so different from my usual life. It was very interesting to be able to just listen in on conversations because everyone have an agenda or some project they were trying to promote. I got to be there "just for the food." I felt like the country mouse in the city... or maybe it was more like the post-partum mom at the cocktail party. Either way it was a fun evening. But what I remember the absolute best was coming home that night and crawling into bed with my sleeping husband and 6 week old baby and being so grateful that I shared my life with them rather than any too-small Hollywood star. Awwww- I guess I like being the country mouse or the post-partum mom!
Oh, and by the way- Bruce Willis' got nothing on my husband! Plus he's like 5' 6" and I like 'em a little more manly than that!