I can’t believe I forgot to tell you that when I was in Chicago, I stood just a few feet away from a TV and movie star in the lobby of a hotel! And I was too chicken to say “excuse me, but I am a BIG fan of yours! I watched every episode of ___, and I just saw you in ___ the other day. Gosh, I don’t have any paper, would you autograph, oh, I don’t know, my BOOB?”

Who did I see? No no, not yet. You have to get the whole story first. See, the city of Chicago has two hotels with the same name-Chicago City Center. The “W” hotel chain had theirs first, and then the Holiday Inn got a new owner or something and changed their name to the same damn thing. I don’t know how that is possible, why there wasn’t a lawsuit or something, but maybe it’s not illegal to call your hotel the same thing as another hotel three blocks away.

Anyway, so the Thursday that I arrived in Chicago, I had just about 90 minutes before I had to be at speaker training, as did my train companion, Joy and my roommate Dana, so we asked the bellman at our hotel, the “W” Lakeshore, to please get us a cab to the “Chicago City Center”. He hails a cab, and tells the driver to take us to the “Chicago City Center”. I can only assume that because we were coming out of one “W” hotel, the driver assumed we wanted to go to the OTHER “W” hotel, the “W” Chicago City Center.

So we pulled up to the hotel, Joy paid the driver (she had a nice expense account for the weekend, and THANK YOU AGAIN, Joy) and we walked into the lobby of the “W” Chicago City Center. We had a feeling right away that we were in the wrong place-no people wearing the BlogHer pins, no signs or anything. Joy walked up to the front desk and asked if we were in the right hotel, and was told no. So, terrific. While Joy and Dana were talking to the desk clerk, getting the location of the other City Center hotel, I sort of wandered over to the middle of the lobby. I saw a very large man walking towards me wearing the gold nametag of hotel security, plus two other men walking with him.

I wasn’t really paying attention to the actual conversation, something about did they enjoy their stay at the hotel, did they enjoy whatever it was they had been doing in Chicago-I was too busy listening to one of the men’s voices and figuring out pretty quickly who he was. His voice is distinctive, plus, when you’ve watched every episode of the TV show he starred on at least half a dozen times, you remember the voice. Now, did I politely interrupt to tell him how much I enjoy his acting? How cute I think he is? Um, no. And I should have! My husband says he probably wouldn’t have minded waiting while I got a piece of hotel stationery for him to sign or something, but I didn’t. I just watched him and his friend walk out of the hotel, and then walked up to the security guard and said “Was that __ ?” And it was!

Sigh. I could have had him sign SOMETHING, but I chickened out. We could have had a moment, but oh well. At least it made being at the wrong hotel more pleasant for me! And that is the true story of how I saw J. August Richards in Chicago.

jaugust3.jpg

Rate this:
2.5