Tuesday, September 11, 2007

where oh where can i be?

I've been so busy lately. I've catered 4 weddings in 8 days. Oh, and I met Bill Clinton! That was a big deal. He was at the B & N in Union Square last week and I worked the event.

I must say, it was surreal. After all of the wristbanded folks went up, I was able to go in myself. The line upstairs winds in and out of the shelves, so you can't actually see the area where you are ultimately heading. After waiting in line for about 20-25 minutes, I got to the secret service wanding area. Once wanded, I was in the home stretch. That was when it started to get weird for me. For me some reason, I started to feel very, very nervous; short of breath even. I felt the way I've felt in the past at King's Island or Cedar Point while waiting to ride a really big roller coaster. Like maybe I'm not sure what I've gotten myself into and I'm nervous and excited all at once. At this point, the woman in line behind me leaned forward and said, "It's too soon." I thought that was hilarious. A good tension breaker and I totally understood what she meant. So when I was in the penultimate position, the twit in front of me decided he wanted to jabber on and on to Clinton about who knows what. All I knew is that he was eating into my potential face time. Not that it really mattered since I had no idea what I was going to say anyway. When I finally had my turn, Clinton reached out and shook my hand, and I told him I was very happy to get to meet him. He then said , "Thank you. Bless you." At which point I cocked my head like a curious dog. Bless me? Um, okay.

Next month, Jimmy Carter's coming to the same location and I'll have the opportunity to meet him too. Now if he were to bless me, it might seem a little less strange, what with his proven history of god fearing. But it would still be weird to be blessed by a stranger who's not also a panhandler on the R train.