My Celebrity Encounter

When I was blogging over at The Big Lead this weekend, I made a passing mention that I met a celebrity the day before. Of course, no one was paying any attention to anything I wrote that day - Or at least that's what the comments imply. So here, exclusively, is my story of hob-knob-ery with someone you might recognize.

Saturday afternoon, Lauren invited me to go to her neighbor's big annual party. Her neighbor is an older gentleman who I have interacted with once in my life. At the beginning of the summer, I helped him bring his mini-fridge out of his shed and set it up by his pool.

Not that it matters in the context of this story, but this guy's backyard rules. He's got a roof that goes from his house to near the edge of the in-ground pool and underneath the roof he has a television with cable, fridge full of beer and a picnic table. If you were going to set up your backyard, this is what you would have in mind.

Anyway, every summer this guy and his wife have a big party with karaoke and booze and whatnot. It's a big to-do.

We were there for a short while and Lauren and I went to sit down with her grandparents who know the neighbor. We were sitting there for a few minutes when an old lady came and sat down next to us so she could smoke a cigarette. It quickly became apparent that she was a feisty gal.

I wasn't really paying any attention to her when I heard her say something about Family Guy. It was odd. What was something her age doing, making Family Guy references? I eventually realized she was saying her grandson worked on Family Guy. I perked up because I'm not used to older people talking about Family Guy.

What does he do?

He's a lead animator.

Oh, wow. That's cool. Small world. Then she dropped this bomb:

You know Peter's mother? Thelma?

Yeah.

Then she pointed to herself.

She drinks, smokes and chases younger men.

Then she explained that she doesn't chase younger men. Though she was smoking and the entire time was complaining about the lack of hard liquor. When we told her we thought there might be some inside, she seemed quite pleased.

We sat there and talked to her for a good 15 minutes before she left us to search for the hard stuff. In that time she told us about the hard work that went into her grandson making it in Hollywood; the great jewelry that used to be made in the Capital Region; how raunchy she thinks Family Guy is; her friends and family in Rome; her many trips to Vegas; and the fact that Seth McFarland often inquires about her love life.