Why I Love Living in L.A., Part I

Yesterday I went grocery shopping at one of the Ralph's in my neighborhood. In the soda aisle, I noticed this guy looking rather intently in the area where the Pepsi products were, apparently searching for some hard-to-find drink. He was carrying one of the baskets rather than wheeling around a shopping cart, and it was already pretty full. Although he looked somewhat familiar, I kept moving on to the next aisle and the rest of my shopping.

When I finished, I took a place in a checkout line. There are never enough lines open, so I took the one that seemed to be moving the fastest. And the same guy was again in front of me. As he was speaking to the cashier, I realized how I knew him. He's on every Thursday night on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. That's right. William Peterson was buying a rather obscene amount of beef and quite a few of those little half-cans of Diet Pepsi. I don't even think the cashier or bagger recognized him. He was just wearing a t-shirt and jeans and baseball cap--the uniform of an off-duty actor in this town. Oh, and the sunglasses, of course.

By the way, this is the same Ralph's where I saw Kyle McLachlin shopping in his pajama bottoms and t-shirt and black leather jacket a couple of years ago; this was just before he started on Desperate Housewives. The Trader Joe's across the street is where I saw Dan Futterman the day before the Oscar ceremony when he was nominated for Best Screenplay for Capote; even unshaven, he's still adorable. Jennifer Beals uses the same dry cleaner I do (and is even more heart-stoppingly beautiful in person, if you can believe it). I also ran into Nicholas Brendan, better known as Xander on the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in (of all places) the 7-11 nearby and at Mani's Bakery a couple of days later; I began to think we were destined to "meet cute," as they say, but such was not the case, alas. And there's no way I could list all of the people who like to go to the movies at the Grove down the block (the most recent was John Krasinski of The Office). The highlight of celebrity sightings for me, though, was going to see Finding Nemo at the now defunct Beverly Connection cinema and standing in line behind Matthew Perry, Hank Azaria, and Craig Bierko. When the promo for The Whole Ten Yards came on the screens above the concession stand, Matthew Perry turned and asked me (me?!) if I thought I'd go see it. I didn't, of course, but at the time, I assured him that it looked funny--they are all rather insecure, aren't they? I think I was still a bit mesmerized by Bierko's eyes; he's a very tall fellow and quite the looker. The list of celebrity sightings could go on: Mr. Blackwell in the produce section with his partner, Ed McMahon and a huge family in tow at the Beverly Center, tiny little Leeza Gibbons on her way to see The Horse Whisperer (don't ask me why), Doug Savant (when he was still on Melrose Place) shopping for Christmas presents at the Glendale mall, former supermodel and extremely high-maintenance diva Janice Dickinson, Robert Urich shopping with his mom at the Farmer's Market (and almost being stalked by my mother, who had never seen a famous person that close to her).

Now perhaps none of these people is the most famous star in the entertainment business (although I did also sit in the same movie theater as Halle Berry once--also stunning enough to take your breath away), but they are all well-known to a degree, certainly. It's a bit disconcerting to see them doing such normal, mundane things as shopping or picking up dry cleaners or going to the movies. You wonder why they have to get their hands dirty the way we do. It really does, to me, reduce the level of mystery surrounding "celebrity status" when you know that they too need a chocolate fix and have to run to the neighborhood 7-11 in the middle of the night. Or even that they have to stock up on meat products for the week ahead. Yet there is something that sets them apart from us, even when they are engaging in the same kinds of chores and errands we are. I'm not prone to fawning--in fact, other than Matthew Perry, I've never spoken to any of the celebrities I've seen--but there's something about them that allows them to maintain a sense of distance from us even in close proximity. I guess that's what they call "star quality."

Working for the Weekend

I've been grading all weekend. Again. Third weekend in a row. I don't know why this semester is so work-intensive. I don't feel as if I've had much free time since we began school in August. I have taught the same number of classes and the same number of students (roughly) before, and it's never taken me this long to get through a stack of papers. Each weekend, I slowly make my way through the stacks I have laid out on the rug in the living room, and then I pick up more papers during the week to add to the stack. I'm trying to finish up the out-of-class essays and impromptus for the ENGL 100 classes this weekend because I know I'm picking up two more sets of papers from my ENGL 059 classes on Tuesday. Happy Thanksgiving, indeed. Some of what I'm missing: going to the movies and eating dinner with friends and watching old movies on Turner Classics and reading books of poetry (or reading anything that isn't a student paper) and catching up on my favorite shows and sleeping (I think I miss you most of all, old friend). The DVR is full (as always), I have magazines collecting dust (I just keep throwing them away unread), and the apartment looks as if no one has bothered to clean it since I moved in 11 years ago. I'm very much looking forward to the end of the semester and the few weeks that we have off until the spring semester begins (a week earlier than usual).