My Brushes with Greatness

Okay, greatness may be a bit of a stretch. But I thought that a post about run-ins with the famous or almost famous would be fun.

Rosie O'Donnell and others--After my freshmen year of college, my roommate and I took a trip to New York just for fun. We were walking around the city one evening and happened to be outside a theater when we notice a crowd gathering. We found out that a Broadway play was opening and the crowd was expecting some famous people. So we stuck around and saw Gov. George Pataki, Wendy Wasserstein, and then the Queen of Nice herself (this was during her days as a talk show host) Rosie O'Donnell. She passed probably about 5 feet from me. A man asked for her autograph, but she told him that she only gives autographs to kids. I did slyly snap a couple of pictures but alas I have no scanner at home so you'll just have to use your imagination, or try not to, depending on your opinion of Rosie.

Steve Young--When my brother Jason was in college, he played football for the U of U. Go Utes! At that time, their kicker was named Steve Young. So one night my mom called upstairs to my room where I was hunkered down reading a book (shocker) and said "Steve Young is here. We're going to play games as a family with him." I thought, wow, some random team mate of Jason's is here to play games and I'm supposed to care? I called back, "No thanks. I think I'll just read." So there I sat content as could be the rest of the night. The next day my other brothers and sisters kept talking about how much fun it had been and how nice Steve Young was. I told them they were making a too big a deal about a guy who kicked field goals for the U. And that's when they told me that it was actually the other Steve Young who had come over. Apparently he was dating my next door neighbor Pam who was a good friend of Jason's. So they came over and hung out all night playing games while I stayed up in my room and read.

Steve Young part II--I think every Mormon girl of a certain age has at least a couple of Steve Young stories. Here are all my other run-ins with him. Once I passed him on campus at BYU while he was walking with one of the twins from a Doublemint commercial. He smiled and said Hi. So I said Hi back. Can you handle one more? Before my mission I worked at Thanksgiving Point at the golf course clubhouse. In my one summer there I got to chat with Johnny Miller, Steve Young, Richard Edgely (I think he was in the Presiding Bishopric at the time), Ron McBride, LaVell Edwards, and a bunch of men described to me as really important pro golfers but none of their names stuck. I was super popular with the men in my family that summer because I could play the course for free and anyone in my group could golf for half price. I have fond memories of my summer of golf.

President Hinckley--Jon's brother is married to woman whose father is Pres. Hinckley's nephew. Whew, I hope I got that right. Anyway, when her parents were called to be mission presidents we were all invited to the farewell. Jon and I were just dating at the time, but he invited me to come along. Right before the meeting started, Pres. and Sister Hinckley walked into the chapel and sat on the stand. It was pretty cool to see everyone in the congregation stand for him. The meeting was nice and he said a few words at the end. After the meeting, we all went over to their home for the traditional roll with ham or turkey, pasta salad, and a brownie. When we walked into the backyard, I was so surprised to see Pres. and Sis. Hinckley sitting on a couple of lawn chairs under a tree with a plate on each of their laps. It was one of those moments where the perfectly mundane and the absolutely unexpected collide. The whole time Jon and I were getting our food, he was trying to talk me into going over to them to say hello and shake hands. I kept refusing. It's just not who I am. I am not a picture taker, autograph seeker, jump up and down and squeal, go crazy kind of person. If I have ever seen someone famous, I tend to look the other way just because I hate to feel like I'm imposing or making people uncomfortable. But Jon insisted so eventually we made our way over there and we shook their hands and make a few moments of small talk. My greatest claim to fame ever is actually that when I told Sis. Hinckley my name she told me Mary was her favorite name.

So what are your brushes with greatness?