Sunday, September 7, 2008

Starstruck

This weekend was amazing. It also contained abnormally high levels of awkwardness. This weekend I got to meet a celebrity. Actually, several celebrities. I've never really met one before. It's not something I really desire to do most of the time. In fact, most of the people that I would really be excited to meet could hardly be called celebrities at all: NPR hosts, the members of Muse, contributing writers to Wired magazine, or — as was the case this weekend — professional cyclists. This weekend, I met and rode bikes with several of the members of the Garmin-Chipotle professional cycling team, including Christian Vande Velde, the 5th place winner of this year's Tour de France.

If I had been thinking, I could have come up with dozens of questions beforehand to ask the team, but no. I was so excited to meet them, I didn't even think about where I would go from "Hi!". When I meet someone new, if I can find some sort of common ground, I can sustain conversation for a good while, but if not, I am useless. Meeting a personal hero, I guess I thought it would be easy, since we obviously had something in common, but I was wrong. How the heck am I, a bad collegiate cyclist with absolutely no professional aspirations, going to talk to a pro about his sport? What could I possibly bring to the conversation that he would want to hear, or that he hasn't heard a thousand times before? Again, I'm sure I could think of a few things, but without preparing beforehand, I just could not come up with anything intelligent. So we ended up making stupid small talk about where I went to college and what I did at Garmin. Snooozers.

I still really enjoyed meeting them; I just wish I could have said something that would have made them enjoy meeting me. Next time I'll do my homework. I'll come up with some startlingly deep or hilariously shallow questions. Next time, I'll be ready.

5 comments:

erica said...

way cool.
i've always wanted to meet the guy that plays opposite arnold s is Junior. he's also the dad in matilda.


just kidding.
i want to meet alan rickman.
hot.

rachel rianne said...

i'm proud of you getting to talk to him instead of saying "uhh can i have a picture?" and running away bc of a lack of ability for even small talk in the midst of celebrity.

when i saw rafael nadal,
i said, "he he... uhh. thanks."
bc paul asked for a picture.
when i saw david cross & amber tamblyn,
i hung within a 20' radius for a good while
(it was a concert, and i was sitting, and HE was the one who chose his spot within eyesight of me.)
and i clicked a cell phone picture from afar.
pathetic.
MUCH more pathetic than talking about school and garmin with a hero.
so kudos, man.

adam paul said...

i heard lance is making a comeback for the 09 tour.

adam paul said...

and in response to erica: i want to meet alan rickman in the form of marvin from hitchhikers guide. funniest voice ever.

ps. did you know the guy in the marvin suit is the same guy who played Wicket the Ewok in Return of the Jedi?!

adam paul said...

okay okay. and he was also Professor Flitwick in Harry Potter AND he was Nikabrik the Dwarf in Prince Caspian. what a STAR.