Fame, Political Style

Yo dudes and some dudettes (definitely not all dudettes). I'm back from northern Michigan and had a great time on Lake Walloon. It's hard to have any reasonable complaints when the weather is between 78-84 and sunny every single day for a whole week. I also have my first and only tan of the entire year where if I stand up against a white backdrop, you'll actually be able to identify me as a human being instead of a possible shadow or stain on the backdrop, so that's pretty nice, too. Now I have to play some catch up as I must try to get back up to speed on some of the responsibilities that slipped while on vacation. For example, my parents, Maureen, and I spent about 12 hours adding a tile back splash to the kitchen (no, we're not 100% done with house now or ever) yesterday. It was a pretty successful-feeling day, until Maureen and I were headed up to bed and I somewhat slashed the sole of my foot on a glass shard that must have followed me into the house during one of my hundreds of tile cuts yesterday. That was not super great.

Aside from that biographical catch up for all you somewhat important people, today is a good day to update you on one of my favorite pastimes, assessing how much famous or slightly famous people like to spend time with me. Today I was dining on a Subway submarine sandwich down in Campus Martius and who came over and talked to my table? None other than gubernatorial candidate in the primary tomorrow, Andy Dillon. Sure he looks a little bit like a villain from a science fiction show, but his hair is amazing in the way that it says in place. Really stunning hair. Anyway, he came over and told us about how the election was super important and pivotal this year and I very much agree with that sentiment. After his brief speech, I asked him what time he is going to bed tonight. I wasn't trying to be a smart ass, but really I wanted to know how late a candidate goes to bed the night before the primary (thinking that maybe they stay up really late campaigning and shaking hands).

He didn't seem to love the question, but answered that he would be getting home at about 9 and then going to bed somewhat shortly after that. That seemed a little bit early to me, so my follow up question was "Are you going to watch America's Got Talent tonight?" He responded that he doesn't follow that show and doesn't have much time to watch television to which I said "that's OK, the show's not that great." At this point Andy Dillon walked away, happy not to have to talk to me anymore. in retrospect, I really should have said something like "I respect the way you tried to bring all state employees under one insurance plan, thereby instantly saving Michigan hundreds of millions of dollars", but instead I asked him about America's Got Talent. Lesson learned for next time, I guess.

In addition to Mr. Dillon, Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh was also walking around and telling people to go out and vote for Andy Dillon (I think that's what he was saying). He was following up behind Andy D., so I think his handlers steered him away from our table so he wouldn't have to talk to me. However, I did hear him talking to the table next to us and felt like he said something kind of weird. He told that table that the election was really important and they needed to go out and tell "everyone, even Pookie and Ray Ray" (Rae Rae?) that they needed to go out and vote. I'm pretty sure that he didn't know them personally, so Pookie and Ray Ray seemed to be some sort of weird thing to me. What I didn't really care for is that if I said that phrase to the table next to me, I would not be able to blog right now because all of my fingers would be broken.

With this level of political exposure I'm experiencing right now, I wouldn't be surprised if I come across Alvin Greene tomorrow.

Oh yeah, also while I did not hang out with them directly, Harold and Kumar were filming right across the street from me in pretend New York at the intersection of pretend Wall Street and pretend Broad Street during pretend Christmas. I felt bad for all the extras wearing winter clothes (hats, gloves, coats) on the hot day. Hopefully part of their compensation package was water. If someone had gone and told Harold and Kumar that I was across the street, I'm pretty sure they would have rushed right over to spend some quality time with me and Andy Dillon.