Celebrity sightings

With the Oscars last night and all the awards shows that have been going on the last month, I thought it only fitting I end the awards season with my own celebrity encounter.

For those that don't know, I live in Southern California.  While I venture to Disneyland in Anaheim quite a bit and the San Diego area every once in a while, I very rarely find myself where the celebs hang most - Los Angeles and the surround areas (rarely as in I've lived here 3 years and only been to LA twice).  Despite that, I got to have a celebrity encounter last week.

Now, before I get into details I need to mention that my last celebrity encounter didn't go so great.  We'll call him EEW (yes, two of those letters are part of his initials and yes there is a pun intended).  I met EEW at a work function.  We had contracted with him to be in our booth and sign autographs and take pictures with adoring fans (trust me, he had them...much to my surprise).  I honestly thought it'd be great!  I was familiar with his show from watching when I was younger (he's old enough to be my dad) and was looking forward to meeting someone in "the industry".  Oh, how naive I was!  EEW is/was a complete womanizer and decided that I would be the object of his affection/adoration the two days we were around each other.  I could have filed a sexual harassment suit when it was over!  Needless to say, I've been a bit jaded/skeptical since then.

So before meeting this celebrity (again, arranged by work as a possible person for booth autographs at future events) I had my guard up.  Fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice, same on me.  I'd learned my lesson.

Here is a pic of myself, the celebrity, and my co-worker:

Does he look familiar?  He may not.  I'd honestly never heard of him before three weeks ago.  But, while we were at dinner, people in the fire industry (the show we'd been working was focused toward firefighters and such) started pointing and whispering.

Here's a more of a professional picture of him:

 And here's what got him his claim to fame:

Recognize him yet?  Michael Lombardi from FXs Rescue Me.  He is also the lead singer for Blood Moon Therapy (formerly known as Apache Stone).

Let me just say, this guy (and his manager/agent Rodney) were the nicest guys!!  We had dinner with them on Wednesday night and we just all sat around and chatted and laughed like we were old friends without a care in the world.  It was great!  (none of which I ever felt with EEW)  While I don't do many conferences like last week, I do have one on the schedule for August that Mike might be attending with us (that's right, we're on shorter name basis!). 

And there is my latest celebrity encounter...be jealous.  Ok, not really...

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