A Beautiful Day

Meeting someone you admire and respect for the first time can be a daunting prospect. As you approach, you can't help but experience a nervous flutter in the pit of your gut. Your hands get clammy with icky palm sweat, and your hearts speeds up to about a million beats per second. Part of you is excited, and another part is demanding you flee to the opposite direction. Now. At great speed.

Well, that's how I feel anyway. Your experience may vary.

So I did a thing today. I got to meet Felicia Day.

She just published a book, and today she stopped in Seattle on the last part of her tour. Myself along with about a thousand people were crammed into a church in North Seattle to listen to her speak, and then get our books autographed.

Now, I'm not usually the sort of guy who deliberately goes out of his way to meet a celebrity. I don't enjoy the huge crowds that inevitably spawn around famous people like murlocs on beachfront property.

I'm not a fan of waiting in long, tedious lines either. I don't think anybody is. Nor am I particularly fond of being in a large space with a bunch of people when the air is stuffy and a few degrees higher than is comfortable.

But I make an exception for Felicia Day, because she's awesome.

I'm not going to do that fan thing and start gushing. Because at the end of the day, celebrities are just people. They eat, drink, shower and sleep like the rest of us. That being said, she's one of those rare few who I can genuinely respect both as an artist and a person, because she's down to earth. She's unafraid to be her geeky self, and has done very well in turning that into an amazing career.

She lives how I'd like to live.

While I was waiting with one of my roommates, I got a flash of inspiration. I turned to my roommate and whispered to her, "I'm going to ask Felicia Day to check out my blog."

Naturally, as soon as the words left my mouth, I desperately tried to capture them. To no avail, of course. What the hell was I thinking? Felicia Day probably has fans requesting stuff like that all the time? No doubt she's a busy woman, with better things to do that read my nonsense.

My roommate turned to me and responded with a fierce, "Fuck yeah, you totally should."

Well, shit.

Fast forward another hour or so, and I stood in line to get my autographed copy of her book. The aforementioned nervous breakdown was going as planned. Peeking past a few people, I could see her at the end of the line, chatting animatedly with her fans. Yikes.

Finally my turn arrived. Swallowing my nervousness, I strode forward. She smiled and said hello. I think I responded in kind, but I honestly can't be sure. For all I know, I spewed green slime while spinning my in a head 360 degree circle.

She signed my book, and then stood next to me to have our photo taken. My arm around her waist, I plastered a fake confident smile on my face. It's the smile I use whenever I go to an audition and have to act like I don't want to vomit from nerves. Granted, by now I've mostly perfected it, so it looked genuine. Maybe.

After a few shots from my phone, there was a pause. The nice lady taking the picture for me looked up from my phone and said, "She's looking at you."

I turned my head, and there was Felicia Day smiling brightly at me, close enough to kiss.

I'm embarrassed to say this, but my confident mask slipped, and I found myself both amused and terrified at the same time. My smile sort of melted like wax and I looked, frankly, ridiculous.

The face of a star-struck idiot.

Felicia Day laughed and the fans laughed and I died a little inside. And it was over. As I collected my signed book, I remembered my presumptuous plan. I turned to face her.

"So, I hate to be that guy, but I sort of promised my roommate I'd try."

She looked back at me, her eyebrows quirked.

"I was wondering if you could check out my blog," I rushed, getting the words out before I lost my nerve. "You know, if you ever get a free moment."

"Wow," she responded after a pregnant pause, not quite smiling. "You get five bonus points for courage."

I grinned a big stupid grin as I stammered out an apology.

"No, it's fine," she said to me. "You have to take chances. Do what you have to do." And she smiled at me. It's okay for men to swoon, right?

I scampered away. Because I didn't want to hold up the line. And definitely not because I almost made like a chihuahua and peed a little.

"I wasn't scared at all. Not even a little. Nope."

So that happened. I don't expect she would actually check the blog out, but it would be really awesome if she did. Regardless, it was amazing getting to interact with one of my heroes.