Monday, June 23, 2008

My brush with greatness (I think)

Last night at 10PM I went downstairs to take Holly out for her evening walk. Since the ground floor of the hotel is a conference center, it's usually pin drop quiet that time of night, especially on a weekend.

As I walked towards the door there was a tall man in a suit eyeing me. Then, when I got to the door there were security gates blocking my path along with a TV camera. There was also a small crowd beyond the security gates. It reminded me of tourists with "hi mom" signs in NYC, trying to get on a Good Morning America taping.

I was puzzled but needed to get the dog out, so I picked my way through the people and the gates, even working my way around the camera man with a camera pointing in my general direction.

On my way back in, I watched the crowd continue to grow, with people running up from cars carrying soccer balls and journalists running along clutching high end cameras. I asked a cab driver next to me who it was, and he replied "Dutch team."

Aha! More flash bulbs went off and I saw a few of the players behind the security gates in their street clothes. I couldn't get back into the hotel the way I'd gone out so I went in another entrance and started to go up to my room. Imagine my surprise when one of the team members I had just seen downstairs was standing at the elevator bank! By himself, just 1 foot away.

It's too bad I didn't have my camera to record any of this. I almost always carry it here. Oh well. Even if I had a photo, I still would have had to scour the soccer sites to figure out who it was. Still, it was kind of cool in a "I'm not sure why I should care but others seem to be gobsmacked" kind of way.

1 comment:

cyndeegeoff said...

I guess Giovanni enjoyed a quiet moment and was relieved when you didn't make a big deal over him at the elevator (or was he disappointed that you weren't a fan....) I love your daily stories.