Sunday, January 2, 2011

Wait! Dinner. Suprise Show?

     Our Thursday night was unusual. My daughter wanted to go to The Cheesecake Factory for her birthday. Sounds good to me! Of course there isn't one near the house. It takes around an hour to get there. I called to make reservations for our party of nine, but they only take reservations up to five o'clock. No, I wasn't calling after that time. They don't make evening reservations. Odd, no? Okay, so we go and wait. No big deal. Everyone else can walk around while I entertain myself watching people. Most of us ended up waiting in the restaurant. Half of Cleveland was there that night.

     Once our hour and a half wait was over we went to our table and got comfy. We perused the 20+ page menus. We ordered beverages and realized our server was just a lot sassy. We like her! We were feeling quite celebratory that night. It was Allison's birthday, and her boy Michael joined us. Crystal's boy Alex joined us as well. They each added so much fun to the evening. This is an exciting time for each of them. Michael was on the Akron Zips soccer team. They just won the NCAA Division 1 championship. He got signed to go play major league soccer. He leaves soon for the combine, and then the draft. Alex just graduated college with his engineering degree. His internship with the company he loves turned into a full-on job with benefits and stuff. We are all so happy for both of them.

     While we were waiting for our food a man at the next table started playing with is utensils. Musically. It was cooler than ice cream! He did it a few times. I got my son Michael (yes, two Michaels) to capture some with his new camera. We noticed the people at the table were all leaning in just mesmerized by this old man. We started trying to guess who he was. Two of the guys said "Indiana Jones." (It was the hat) I said we might be sitting right next to Leonard Cohen's drummer or something and not even know it. Alex was all "Leonard Cohen has a drummer?" (For this he gets wise-guy points, redeemable at any family function for cupcakes) Maybe also a kick under the table, who knows?

      We all gobbled up our scrumptious appetizers, entrees, and desserts and were still paying attention to this man. He was too interesting. I announced that I was going to have to meet him. My husband got up went to the wash room. I started to wish I had not said I was going to do it and just done it instead. Now the family is encouraging me in a "We can make fun of you for this forever, if you'll just do it" kind of way. I somehow managed to involve our server. I might have asked her if they paid by credit card and if it was his card and could she find out his name. Or something. She came back with no information but offered to approach them.


     She approached the table. I could not hear exactly what she said but they all looked over. Of course I smiled and waved and looked at the old man in the Indiana Jones hat and said "Are you famous? Because you should be famous!" The lady next to him turned to him and asked "Did you hear what she said?!" Then she repeated it to him. They laughed. I went over and sat next to him and he held my hand and did not let go. I told him his dinner companions were all looking at him as if he was a hot fudge sundae and hanging on his every word so he had to be an amazing man. Still a death grip on my hand. (Forget about how I molested Ray Bradbury, right?) We had our nice little chat. He told me he interviews people. His words: like an international Larry King.

     Back at my own table we were chatting and the family was no doubt thinking they can't take me anywhere. The man and his group stop by on the way out the door. His friend leaned down and told me that while he himself is really a nobody, the other man is indeed famous. "Look up Marty Conn when you get home", he tells me. "I think You'll be surprised." I informed him that I am also a nobody.

     Since we are nothing if not technologically overindulged, we looked him up on the way home. Yeah, he's just a little bit interesting.
Two pieces of Marty trivia:
He was the last person to interview Bob Hope.
He helped launch the careers of Jay Leno and Barbara Streisand.


*Me with Marty. The photo is fine, I am a blurry person. Also, the camera adds 50 pounds.


The moral of the story is I am always right If I say you should be famous, you should!

     Now I wonder if Alex and Michael will ever been seen with us in public again?

8 comments:

  1. LOL this is an awesome story. How much sadder would you have been if you never asked who that guy was, and never found out? Your family should thank you for keeping their dinners interesting. :)

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  2. Definitely an awesome story! Happy New Year by the way :-)

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  3. That was too funny. I bet you really made him feel good too. Google reader ate my blog list so I just found out how to recover my followers.

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  4. Thanks for stopping in and fanning me today and entering the $100 CSN Stores Giveaway! Good luck with that! I'm, of course, following you back! Susie

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  5. So neat! P.S. I wanted to let you know that you have an award waiting for you today over at my blog so check it out when you get the chance! ;) http://livinginhighcotten.blogspot.com

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  6. Did you get the email I sent you Wed. that you won on my blog? I have not heard back from you yet?

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  7. Thanks for visiting my blog. What a very cool story! When you said Cheesecake Factory my mind immediately went to that yummy brown bread.

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