My Most Cosmic Fateful Day of the Year

Who would've thought. I'm in shock.

I called up a pizzeria to order lunch, and as I punched in the area code on my phone, I accidentally dialed "1-911" and then hung up immediately after realizing my mistake. A minute later, the office receptionist gets a call from the police inquiring about the call. I told the receptionist there was a misdial.

10 minutes later, a cop comes into our office and asks for my last name just to put it on the record and confirm that there was no actual emergency. As he was talking to me, I asked him if he knew the name of a cop from his county who pulled me out of my car after my near-death accident last October.

He said it was him. He asked me if I was the guy who ended up in the reservoir off Route 22 and said he had pictures of the accident confirming that I drove a Jeep. Up to this day, they're puzzled as to why I wasn't killed judging from the pictures. I was speechless; I shook his hand and told him I couldn't thank him enough.

What makes this even more shocking is the fact that I was planning (and still planning) to visit all the people who helped me on my first year anniversary of the accident, which is just a few weeks away.

Such a cosmic world we live in.

Old Friend and Faith Hill

I recently discovered that a middle school friend of mine is Faith Hill's hairstylist. My friend's stories are pretty amazing. Judging from recent posts on this blog, I should probably change the title to "Confessions of a Starstruck Man."

Just a random thought on the same general topic: I saw Mick Foley (the wrestler) and Madeline Albright on the street once (no, they were not together; I saw them on separate occasions...but I'd pay to see a conversation between the two).

"God" Responds to Lawsuit Against Him

Maybe some you have heard of the story involving a Nebraska state senator's attempt to sue God for "making terroristic threats" and causing destruction etc. Well, as much as it may be amusing, a recent turn of events makes the story even more amusing. Apparently, God filed a response to the lawsuit arguing that, among other things, the court has no jurisdiction over Him. While there was no address on the response, St. Michael is said to be listed as a witness in the filing.

Here's the story (the court clerk, the recipient of the court documents, has a funny quote):
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070921/ap_on_fe_st/odd_suing_god;_ylt=AmOHjQN6QK2Ic3e2WRtIJgOek3QF

A Most Special Evening

As an individual who was always starstruck, I wondered how it would be -- how I would be -- to meet a favorite actor, Hollywood crush or favorite band. Last Saturday, I had an opportunity to answer that question with the most incredible first-hand experience in my life - meeting the Brand New Heavies. It was so much better than I expected. I still have not yet returned to earth. The shock has been intense, although it has numbed me to the extent that I'm acting bizarrely normal. Let's get to the story.

So last Saturday, I drove to Atlantic City. After an awesome italian dinner at Specchio in the Borgata with a friend, we decided to kill some time on the casino floor and throw out money before picking up our "special guest tickets" at the box office, which was on the same floor of the Borgata's famous casino floor. After losing some cash to ridiculous casino games, I headed to the Box Office about 30 minutes before the show started. I approached the lady at the Box Office, and she said the tickets weren't available yet. I was getting really nervous, so I decided to call the Brand New Heavies tour manager. I asked him about the tickets, and then he said something, which sent my world tumbling down: "Sorry buddy, we made a mistake. We're out of tickets and they won't give us any for you or any other contest winner, but I'll see what we can do to help you."

I wanted to fade into darkness.

Until....

The tour manager appears behind the desk of the Box Office and starts talking to the people working for the Borgata. A few minutes later, I still don't have tickets, just the backstage passes for after the show...or so I thought. Apparently, the tour manager negotiated with the Borgata people to have me and my friend backstage DURING the concert.

10 minutes later, I'm on stage-right, 10 feet away from Andrew's bass amplifier. I watched the entire concert from the side of the stage -- and no one bothered me and my friend in that little private space. I sang every song word for word and at one point had N'Dea Davenport point at me as she turned around while singing. It was crazy. Flippin' crazy. The Heavies played a lot of old hits off their Brother Sister album and a lot of their new hits off the Get Used to It album. It was just incredible.

Fast-forward. After the concert, I expected to meet them for a few minutes, get my free t-shirt, tell N'Dea I love her and Jan that I wish I had his brain, and then split. Instead, I'm in their dressing room for 2 hours with some of their friends, and their manager mixing drinks. It was an intimate party (last night of their US tour) with a lot of conversation and alcohol. At one point, Simon Bartholomew (guitar god), told me to take some nasty brandy shots with him (check out my pics to see the before, during and after shots). N'Dea was just a sweetheart. I picked Jan's (Keys, Drums, songwriter/leader) brain too. I realized later on that on my web pages (e.g. friendster), I've had his name come up a lot under the "people i want to meet" question. Well, it's done. Andrew (Bass) was a riot. I made connections with the backup singer and the session keyboardist, and most importantly, exchanged information with the band members and their tour manager. Let's just say that it's possible that this isn't the last time that I get to spend some time (no pun intended) with them.

There are just too many details to this most special evening, and no blog entry or novel can truly encompass and express what I've experienced. Incredible. That's all I have to say.

Shakira in UCLA

So Shakira thought it was a good idea to study ancient civilization in UCLA. Some lucky starstruck dude who signed up for the random elective is going to have a chance to see the hip-shaker in the flesh. Cheers to you buddy.

http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=275674&GT1=7702

Tomorrow Night

...is the night. I get to meet the Brand New Heavies, a band I've been following since 1991. It somewhat reminds me of that feeling of excitement and anticipation before the Jamiroquai concert back in October 2005 (I may have blogged about this back then but am not sure at this point - blogged about it because it was also a date), and by the end of tomorrow evening, I can truly say that I've watched two of my favorite bands ever.