CHECK IT OUT: A house in Encanto Palmcroft in downtown Phoenix......Doesn't the red door just make you want to BANG on it. Who lives there and what is is like inside? Probably annoyingly cute and put together.

Ambushed

An afternoon with Grandma......... Ambushed AND famous. Who knew that a lunch on a whim at a new restaurant would result in an appearance on the five o'clock news? Bombay Spice, a nondescript place in a strip mall, proved to be more than we bargained for. It was our 15 minutes of fame and all we could think about was "Well at least they didn't interview us about the food". It just so happened that it tasted like spicy dirt.

It all started with the FOX news van pulling up with the sparkly reporter in tow, sporting the "stuck on smile". The reporter, followed by the sly camera man ( I am still in awe that he was able to lug around a camera the size of a miniature refrigerator with a beam of light that could kill) lurked around the restaurant pretending to just be observers, but in reality were secretly waiting for the opportunity to pounce on their prey.

The light came out of no where, like when you're pulled over by an officer in the dark, shooting their superhuman strength flashlight (OK floodlight) in your eyes, making you see stars, to throw you off guard and to daze even the most veteran "schmoozer". Well, this proved to be a precipitated sneak attack, we were "BLINDED BY THE LIGHT (song jingle)" of the camera man in front and sneaked upon from behind by a dumb fuzzy black cotton ball of a microphone, shortly followed by that trident grin(aka reporter) and a slider of a question.

Seriously, the way they literally came out of no where, I swear there could have been a conveyor belt for their moves, they were so smooth. I managed to bumble out an answer to her dumb question about the gay coin that the restaurant was giving out in order to "repay" their customers. I didn't have the heart to tell the owner that not even a fake gold coin could persuade me to come back to eat the spicy and snot inflicting food that had the texture of slop mixed with sand. What is that you say "they didn't want your comments about the food"? No thank God, glory and alleluia! I don't think I could have mustered up a good enough "it was delicious" for the camera. Grandma and I walked away from the "incident" unharmed and a story for our family to watch on the news that evening. Fame comes when you least expect it. I always knew I wanted to be a movie STAR.

Icing on the cake......
Later, after I dropped my supporting role of a Grandma off at home, I stopped at a Goodwill store. I was in the check out line with my great finds (as always) when I was caught off guard by the cashier. Instead of the usual focus on the scanning of items and the immanent "Hi how are you"? The cashier asked " Are you a movie STAR"? Maybe it was because I had on my gigantic sunglasses....which (for those of you that are US weekly frequenters) are the universal symbol for "I don't want to be recognized and if I cover up half of my face with these gigantic bug looking things, no one will notice me". I responded with a humble "No, No". After a second look at my drivers license he insisted that I had been in a movie, to which I replied with a swift tussle of the hair "I WAS on the NEWS today". He replied with an impressed "Ohhh (Spanish emphasis)". The deal was sealed and he gave me my receipt and told me "To keep smiling and that it would cure the world". I gave him a quivering lip smile , my first fan.