"Celebrity" sighting

I used to be a HUGE fan of Trading Spaces. I watched all the new episodes, would sit on the couch all day if there was a marathon happening, and even entered a contest in college to participate in a poor-man’s version of the show, sponsored by our design students. My suitemates and I were bitter our entire sophomore year about not winning that damn contest.

Now, though, I watch it if there is nothing else to do. And when I mean nothing else, I mean that pretty much the rest of the channels on my TV have to be blacked out and someone has mysteriously stolen every book or magazine in my apartment and my internet connection is dead and neither SK nor the dog are willing to talk to me.

I’m over it. The designers are unoriginal, the materials they use are cheap, and seriously—what is with the walls hidden by ginormous sheets of hideous fabric? I don’t get it.

Maybe it’s me. Maybe I just don’t SEE the designer’s visions. The show has just lost its majesty. Possibly it happened when Paige left. Or maybe when Ty got his own show. Or perhaps when they started giving Hildi more air-time and she kept producing vomit-inducing rooms covered in FAKE FLOWERS. WTF, Hildi?? Whatever the reason, I am just not into the show anymore.

Which is why I didn’t completely lose my shit today at Barnes & Noble.

I saw Frank Bielec. The guy who does the chickens and the country EVERYTHING? Yeah, him.

Sadly, he was not wearing his signature red high-top Converse and jean shorts. He was wearing jeans and a black tshirt, with a black baseball cap covering his round, bald head. Apparently he is from Katy.

He held the door open for me while I was walking in, and then got in line behind me at the Starbucks they have inside the store. (When I have time to take a lunch break, I go to B&N. Their soup is ridiculously good, and I have gotten through more than a few books during my hour stay there.) I didn’t tell him I was a fan of the show, or ask if it was really him. I smiled politely and said thank you when he let me through the door, and then laughed when he made a lame joke about my crumpled receipt (issue with the receipt printer thing) looking like the barista had used it for an origami project.

I thought about telling him that I used to enjoy watching him be crazy and flamboyant and all red shoes and jean shorts, but many of the experience I have had in the past with celebrities have resulted in them being major pricks (I’m talking to YOU, Thomas Hayden Church) so I thought, why bother?

Although, a guy who cracks weak lines about origami receipt art probably isn’t a prick. Just a guess.