Celebrity Sighting #1

This last Friday I had the extreme pleasure of attending the AT&T Pebble Beach ProAm for the first time. That's right, I got to be one of those people that pisses off the golf fanatics because I'm just there to gawk at the celebrities. Yep, sixty buck was dropped on behalf of my internally squealing to myself "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, I'm less than ten feet away from Carson Daly."

Okay I really didn't think that. There were two major celebrities there that caused little girl jumping up and down in my head moments, but I did not get the chance to get that close. Which is more impressive? Being close enough to Bill Murray that I could hear what he sounds like without the help of surround sound, or being so close to Carson Daly that if I fell forward with my arms out I could probably grab his shoes? I guess I should have maintained my dignity and used the former. I can say that I was in the realm of people who had to duck when Samuel L. Jackson's ball went a little off course and hit a window. He was wearing the most awesome lime green argyle sweater with a magenta hat. As I pointed out to my boyfriend's mom, (who was gracious enough to provide the transportation, financial means, and non-celebrity entertainment) Samuel L. Jackson is probably the only man who can get away with that and look good.

Now back to the event at hand. I felt bad. I know nothing of the sport. For a while I confused Pismo Beach and Pebble Beach. That is why I couldn't find info on the event for the first couple of days. It took me half the day to realize what Pro-Am meant even though I knew professionals were paired up with not so much professionals. What I know about golf can be thanked to roughly thirty hours of playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 on Xbox. But this is a charity event with famous people in it to draw a crowd. I was surrounded my non golf fans. People paid to see the famous people. But I still recognized where I was. Among players of a gentleman's game. When the kind volunteers put up their hands to signal for quiet I shut the hell up, stopped moving my feet, and prayed my allergies wouldn't kick in at that moment. I think because I did that much, I was entitled to be there and not feel that bad for my motives. That and I paid eight bucks for a hamburger.

I got to say though, I did a lot of walking to see a lot of people. They aren't people I was dying to see but it's fun seeing famous people. When I got there at first, I was in full blown little girl getting a new bike for Christmas mode. But my first sighting was Rush Limbaugh. I don't know if this is a shocker to you people, but I don't have posters of him lined up on my ceiling. (And for those of you who do, seek professional help. Like someone with a ladder to get those down.) That moment was up there with the time I saw Pat Buchanan checking into the same hotel I was. (Jealous much?)

But the golfing started so I watched with respect and resisted all urges to knock the cigar out of his mouth. Traditional or not, those things stink. So hovered around the foursome golfing, I could have sworn out of the corner of my eye I saw Bill Murray. But I could only see about a third of this guy's face and what are the odds considering he wasn't due at this hole for another hour or so. But I had to check. Asking the boyfriend to save my spot I moved to the practice putting green and behold, there he was. Of course, how many professional golf players do tournaments in big bulky sweaters and shorts? That fact aside, I though how much do I rock being able to recognize him so far away? That proved to be a disaster for the rest of the day. From that moment, my celebrity sense was tingling and I thought I saw more people that were actually there. Throughout the day I swore I saw William H. Macy, Terri Hatcher, Richard Belzer, and Mark Harmon. I'm pretty good at playing the "if my life were a movie, who would I cast to play that guy" game. But it's no good at events like this with people everywhere. It got so annoying after a while. People need to stop wearing glasses, hats, being far away from me, and looking like famous people.

The rest of the day was pretty interesting. The first few hours we were there, my group was trying to get organized and making a mental list of who we wanted to see. I, of course provided my services of who was in what that made them worthy of walking that far to see them. I'd like to point out the very small amount of sleep we had to excuse the following story. It was very funny to me at the time and maybe not so funny to you. I kept bringing up celebrity siblings at this thing. But the timing was funny. I was talking about how it would be funny to see Brian Doyle Murray at the event. "You know, his brother." Unfortunately my boyfriend's mom thought I was talking about Samuel L. Jackson again. Then laughed when she realized I said Brian Doyle MURRAY. And within the next hour we saw Mark Wahlberg a few greens away from Justin Timberlake. I made a comment that I saw his brother Donnie when I was younger. She thought I was talking about Justin Timberlake. So yes we now have Donnie Timberlake of New Kids on the Block. At four hours of sleep and three on the road, this was funny to me. Also, I cannot blame her confusion. I pride myself in knowing a plethora of pointless celebrity information.

I did get the chance to see a lot of somewhat big names. I have to say it's refreshing to see them up close without their own personal lighting director following them. Oh and on a side note, Mark Wahlberg is a lot shorter and smaller in real life. Let's see, I saw in the order in which I care: Bill Murray, Samuel L. Jackson, James Woods, Dennis Quaid, Andy Garcia, Huey Lewis, Ray Romano, George Lopez, Mark Wahlberg, and Chris O'Donnell. The rest fall into the interesting but whatever category: Carson Daly, Justin Timberlake, Donald Trump, Glen Campbell, Kenny G, Thomas Gibson, Craig T. Nelson and Rush Limbaugh.

Oh and I saw Ozzie Smith. My boyfriend had asked who Ozzie Smith was. I knew he was a sports celebrity and my instinct was to say the first thing that came to me and I responded that he played for the Cowboys. It was after I said it that I thanked God I didn't have a penis because it would have been revoked right there. I took a look at the gentleman and realized he did not have the build of football player. When I went back to my tomboy roots, I searched hard and remembered he played baseball. I used to have so many cards of him. Funnily enough I did get to see Emmitt Smith a few rounds earlier. I knew a Smith did play for Dallas.

But that sums up my celebrity sighting tour. I know this post wasn't as fun as my others, but this one has me out trying to touch the world I want to be in. Or at least touch the men I think are so cool. I knew I built up the day to be more than what I actually got to experience and it was nice to not be so star struck. Maybe I'm out- growing my celebrity obsession. Then again maybe if the tournament was filled with my list of five, I'd be that little girl at Christmas again.