Celebrity sighting of the day

Every so often, celebrities wander into Utrecht Art Supply (where I work one day a week). Some of them make more of an impression than others. Drew Barrymore sang a Prince song as a duet with one of the workers then cracked a bunch of Michael Jackson jokes as she was being rung up. The singer of either 3rd Eye Blind, 311 or Matchbox 20 (they are all the same to me, so I honestly don't remember which one it was) came in blind drunk at 10 am and hit on all the female customers before getting in a shouting match with the gay male cashier. The guy who played Isaac on The Love Boat came in and bought a paint-by-numbers set and quipped that it would be fun to pass the time, say on a cruise or something (the cashier insists he was fishing for recognition).

Occasionally I help someone famous. It's kind of weird to see them in the flesh, not on stage or on the television. I mean, they're only human, but still you kind of feel like you know them. I helped Todd Solondz (one of my favorite directors: "Welcome To The Dollhouse", "Happiness", etc.) pick out paint. I knew I recognized him, but wasn't sure why. I figured out when I saw his name on the credit card. Today I had the honor of helping Ric Ocasek of The Cars.

I once listened to my Cars Greatest Hits tape for over six hours straight on a school bus trip in 7th grade. My friend was supposed to bring the tapes, and I was supposed to bring the walkman to share, but he forgot. The only tape I had was The Cars. Now I know every nuance of every song on that tape. I thought about sharing that anecdote with Mr. Ocasek, but I figured it wasn't exciting enough to share (funny, that's never stopped me before!). I am happy to report, he had on his Rock & Roll Hair.