My Bubbles of Nothing

So I was just thinking... I've had a lot of really great encounters with people who I admire and consider to be heroes/role models of sorts. I figured I would compile a list because it makes me happy to think about these things, and it also is helping me to realize how lucky I am to have lived all of these moments. I will try and put these into chronological order because that is the easiest.

August 12, 2006 (I actually remember the date for this one!): I went to Opryland in Tennessee, where one Alton Brown was doing a show type thing. He stood up on a big stage and talked to everyone and cooked a turkey... deep-fried a turkey (showing us how to do it in a safe, yet REALLY COOL way, of course). It was pretty soon after his birthday (thank you, internet), so I'd decided to make him a card before I went... at the end, he had people come up to the mic near the stage for questions, so I went up and gave him the card. He thought it was awesome... Later, my mom and I went to a meet & greet reception which included food (AB recipes, of course!) and... well, meeting and greeting. We stood in line, and the closer we got, the more I could feel my heart pounding. I should probably mention that Alton Brown is my absolute HERO. Anyway, we waited in line and finally we got to the front, and he was saying goodbye to the people in front of us, and then it was our turn, so he asked us our names and we talked. I remember he asked about my shirt, which said, "Babette ate oatmeal."
AB: What's that?
Me: It's from Gilmore Girls... it's this show on tv, I dunno if you know it...
AB: I do live on this planet, you know.
OK So I realize that typed out, that doesn't sound very nice of him to say, but it was in a way that was joking and actually very nice. It was amazing because I was standing there, JOKING with my hero, Alton Brown. Anyway, he picked up my mom's camera (I think she'd set it down on a nearby podium) and he was like "Is this yours?" and she said yes, so he took a couple of pictures of himself on it (which was strange... I think he didn't know how to use it, which is why it was more than one...) and then we got a picture with him and the we said goodbye. As soon as we got out of line, I just started crying... Not sobbing or anything, and definitely not sad... I think the shock had just hit me that I'd just met my hero, a person who I found to be excellent and awesome and someone to really want to listen to... So yeah, that was one of my greatest life moments.

April 2007: As you may know, I really love this band called The Academy Is... (the ... is part of their name). In April of 2007, they put out their second album (which was, admittedly, not as good as their first or third, however I did not know that until after this next thing happened). So there was a meet & greet with the band at Best Buy if you bought the CD. Well, I bought the CD and stood in line with my dad (who was amazingly patient and wonderful, especially since that specific BB was like 45 minutes from where we live). Anyway, we waited for a really long time, and then I got up there, and the first one at the table was Adam T. Siska (the bassist) and... all I remember were his gorgeous eyes and adorable smile and how sweet he was, asking me how I was and such. He genuinely seemed amazed/ecstatic to see all the fans. The whole band was like that (ok, maybe minus Bill...), but Sisky was the most. I felt bad for not knowing who Chizz was (he was new, at least to me!) but I still said hi and got my CD signed by him and the rest of them. So yes, another fantastic moment.

January 8th, 2008 (aka my 15th birthday): After school that day, I stared at my cell phone, which my friends had demanded I leave on all day. As I started to get into my mom's car, it rang. I didn't recognize the number, but my heart started pounding. I picked up the phone and said hello. The person, the guy, on the other line said hello to me too. I asked who it was, and he, without answering, asked who I was. I told him "I'm Norah, who is this?" and he said something like, "Well Norah, we heard that it was your birthday today, and we also heard that you are a fan of this band called LENNY." And then my heart really started racing and I got out of the car (which my mom, magically, had kept parked) and just said "uh-huh" and they said "Well this is JD and Jason, and we're from LENNY, and we're down in Georgia with this other band called Cartel (who I also love, but they weren't there right then) working on music, so sorry that this call was so late... we weren't sure about the timezones." At this point, I couldn't really talk so much as say things like "oh" and "yes" and "uh-huh" and such. Well, they asked if they could sing me happy birthday, and of course I said yes, and so they did. And I said thank you, and they told me thank you for being a fan, and they said they were happy to make my birthday special and we ended up talking for like 10-15 minutes altogether... and it was just amazing. After I got off the phone, I went SCREAMING back into the school to my friends (who were still there, since we weren't of driving age, yet) and freaked out with them. It was AWESOME.

November 14, 2008: I had just started using Twitter, and had posted something about how nerdy I was to only be using Twitter to follow webcomic artists, for the most part. The next day, I saw that I had a new message. It read, "perhaps nerdy, but most appreciated! (by us nerds anyway) welcome to my twitters :)" and it was from none other than Jeff Zugale. If you don't know, he is the artist behind the comic Just a Bit Off, which I enjoy quite a bit. Even though this was a little tiny message (Twitter is built on that sory of thing, you know), I was still super excited and hyper. It's nice to get a little recognition from someone of whom you call yourself a fan. :)

I know there are more examples of this, but I'm getting sleepy so I won't write about them today... But yeah, this really just cheered me up a lot, thinking about these awesome memories and really how great the people around me are to have made these moments possible (even that last one... if it hadn't been for The Boyfriend, I would never have read that comic, probably). So maybe you should take some time to remember some awesome times like this, ya? It's pretty sweet.

♥