DAY 65: PRIVATE JET (A/K/A WHAT SEINFELD SAID TO ME)

     Guess who got to fly in a private plane today?  This girl!  And it was everything you think it'd be.  Nice, oh so nice, convenient, and no security lines.  The plane made me think of Seinfeld, yes Jerry Seinfeld.  So here goes my Seinfeld story.

     When I studied abroad in Seville Spain I met him and his friend, fellow comedian Mario Joyner.  My Spanish friend Julia, who'd be an au pair in the US, came to a birthday party showing off an autograph--it was Jerry's.  I looked at it and then forgot about it.  We left the party with some other girls and went out for some drinks.  While out and about we saw Jerry and Mario eating dinner outside of a cafe.  A little tipsy, I strolled over to the comedians, introduced myself, explained how I was studying in Seville.  I didn't ask for an autograph and didn't act starstruck, I just introduced myself.  They asked where they should go out later, which clubs.  I suggested some and walked away.

     The girls and I went out and had what we thought was a fun time.  As we walked back to Julia's car around 12 am, ready to go home, a stretch Mercedes sedan pulled up to us.  The left, back seat passenger window rolled down and Jerry, asked if we wanted to show them those clubs now.  I did what any 20 year old girl would do, I pushed my 3 Spanish speaking friends into the car and said "yes, of course, we'd love to show you those clubs now."

     Seinfeld's chauffeur took us all around Seville.  Mario and Jerry had just seen a preview of Austin Powers and keep repeating the "yeah, baby, yeah" line.  The girls and I had no idea what they were talking about.  We hit 3 or 4 dance clubs and stayed out until 7 or maybe it was 8 in the morning.  Since I could speak both Spanish and English, I was in charge of drink orders for everyone.  And with the drinks I got really chatty.  I asked Seinfeld question after question after question:  

"What's happening on the show?  I've been abroad for months and can't watch it."

"How old are you?"  This got Jerry searching for his wallet and showing me his driver's license.  He was 42. 

"What happened with you and Shoshanna?"  This got me some stupid guy answer about how the long distance was too hard, she was in LA and he in NY.

"I know you like the Knicks.  Do you have season tickets?"  His answer, "yes."

"What kind of music do you like?"  This question got me a story about Paul McCartney and how when Seinfeld mentioned on Letterman that he liked the Beatles, Pau McCartney sent him his then new album the next day.  Must be nice to be famous.  

     Then I asked "so how are you guys traveling around Europe?  Eurail?"  And this question got me the following answer "try, our private jet."  I was young and so excited about my own Eurail pass that I couldn't imagine anyone traveling any other way.  Well famous people, people with a hit show, they travel in private jets.

     That night was one of my best.  Dancing with Jerry Seinfeld to the B52's Love Shack and drinking many many agua de Sevillas will always be a fun memory to share.  The night ended with Jerry Seinfeld telling me the name of his hotel and the room number.  It was Hotel Seis, but I can't remember the room number.  I kissed him on the cheek and that was that.  

     Until the next day when I took my then boyfriend to Hotel Seis and let a message for Jerry and Mario, to meet us at a restaurant that night.  They actually showed up, with their same chauffeur coming in first to check out the place and to see if we were there.  Well "we" were there.  Me, the girls from the night before, and a new addition to "we" my boyfriend.  When I introduced Jerry to my boyfriend, I sealed the deal.  No late night out until the wee hours of the morning; well at least not with those American comedians.   

DAY 64: APPLES AND HONEY

     It's the new year for all the Jewish people out there.  To ensure a sweet and good new year one should eat apples and honey.  But we never say honey and apples.  Never ever.  Word order matters.  It just does.
     In the sermon I listened to last night the rabbi discussed fear and humility.  Humility is an important thing to remember, and an even more important quality to have.  One of the best role models I've had for humility was my mother and the other is my paternal grandma.  Those two women rocked the house, but they never acted like they knew how extraordinary they were...
     The co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, David Packard said: "You shouldn't gloat about anything you've done; you ought to keep going and find something better to do."
     Happy New Year!

DAY 63: ACCENTS

     Question of the day, why do people lose their accents when they sing, particularly British people?  When was the last time you remember hearing any of the Beatles, Elton John's, any of the Rolling Stones, Adele's or any other British singer's accent?  Exactly.  I didn't think so.

DAY 62: THE SPARK

     I went on a blind date set up last week.  When I emailed the setter upper to tell her I didn't feel any spark with the guy and that we'd better off as friends she emailed back and wrote 2 things I find curious.
     First, she wrote I'm sorry you didn't feel a "spark" in quotation marks.  I ask you, is feeling a spark such a novel idea or is a figment of my imagination that it deserves to be in quotes?  You're either attracted to the person, the whole person not just looks, or not, right?  And that's what spark is.  I felt like her quotation marks were mocking me.
     Second, she asked if I wanted her to tell the guy I wasn't interested or if I wanted to call him myself and tell him this news.  Who wants to call some guy and say I didn't feel a spark with you, when the person who set us up can do it and remove all of the awkwardness out of the situation?  I don't get it.  This wasn't a good friend of mine setting me up.  If it was I may have called, actually no, I would not have called.  I'd wait to see if he asked me out again and then I'd tell him (hey he might not feel a spark with me).  But I don't need to actively pursue someone to tell him I'm not interested.  Come on, that's odd to even suggest I call this guy.  This set up was more organized, much more formal than my friend's boyfriend setting me up with his room mate.   So again I don't get it; I don't get why she'd suggest I be the one to call him.
     But I do get what a spark is and there wasn't one.  Thanks but no thanks.

DAY 61: LET'S GO TO THE MOVIES

     My paternal grandpa, Papa, as we called him, loved going to the movies.  When he and Mama visited us from Delhi, India, he couldn't wait to get to the theater.  I remember sitting in the back seat of the car when Mom dropped my grandparents off at the movies.
     We left them there for hours--way longer than the time required to see a double feature.  We're talking a quadruple feature at least.  And I'm hoping Mama and Papa's movie watching included several buckets of popcorn.  One, because a movie just isn't a movie without popcorn and two, because I think it's one of the only movie concessions my Hindu vegetarian grandma could eat, unless of course the popcorn's butter flavoring was made out of animal products, like lard.  Then she for sure went hungry and despised her film-loving husband on those afternoons at the movie theater.

DAY 60: HOW YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE

     My friend's mom says that your face shows the way you live your life.  This came up over the weekend several times as I met people from different classes at the reunion.  Basically if you've got a perpetual scowl or frown you're probably not that nice, scary or not that happy and I stayed away from you this weekend.  But if you smile a lot it probably means you radiate kindness and I was drawn to that and wanted to talk to you.

DAY 59: MAD CITY

I'm here in Madison and these are my observations:

Things that never change:
-The beer is still cold
-The cheese curds are still delicious
-Babcock ice cream (house made at the U-W) tastes great as always
-(And I wonder how I became lactose intolerant--thank you Greater Madison, thank you very much)
-The same professor that had me wishing class was over was our class speaker last night and she made me feel exactly the same way (for the record I was not the only one who felt this way).  Who speaks for 45 minutes at a dinner?  No one.  Well someone did.  But no one should.
-It gets COLD here.  Its in the 40s and it's still September
-Tailgate parties are loud, fun and always serve brats

Things that changed:
-The airport is actually a real airport now, which means the guy that checks me in isn't the same guy who waves in the plane with orange flags and hand signals

Memorable moments:
-Saw my great friend
-Took a picture with Bucky Bagder
-Got hit on by a co-ed on State Street.  Oh make that two, one guy was on a skate board, but it still counts.