Since dropping my crutches a couple weeks ago, I have resumed my traditional Friday before-work caffeine stop at Starbucks. Carrying coffee to work while navigating on crutches is near impossible - though don't think I didn't try. Anyway, my Friday routine is a beautiful thing and a good thing for everyone around me as it makes for a happy start to the day. This morning I stood in line, observing other patrons as we slowly made our way around to order and then wait for our order. I checked out a couple of guys awaiting their order (hey, I'm single, I'm allowed) and noted one of them was super tall and slender and kind of came off as a "too cool" guy with his aviator sunglasses and scruffy face.
The barista missed getting his breakfast sandwich and he was very nice in asking about it and letting them resolve the issue. The girl next to me loudly said excuse me ... excuse me ... to him as he was walking by, but he kept walking. She reached across me to grab his arm to get his attention. I assumed she knew him and was saying hi. He paused to look at who was touching him and she asked him "Are you Michael Phelps?". Visibly irritated, he said yeah. Yeah, I am. And kept walking.
Now, people have said that this Olympic star is a jerk in public and maybe he is ... but in this 10 minute experience I witnessed, he was super nice to the Starbucks folks when resolving the sandwich debacle. He chatted with someone else waiting at the bar for their shot of morning energy. He smiled at me when we passed each other in line ... he didn't appear to be anything but a regular Joe ... I honestly would have never recognized him but then again I don't really get star struck so I'm not on the look out for "famous" people.
He only got irritated when someone felt justified in reaching out and grabbing him. I'd be pretty unhappy with that as well - what gives people the idea that if someone is famous, they lose their personal space and privacy ? It would never occur to me to grab a random stranger's arm (unless he was cute and the metro bounced the right way to give me an excuse !), so why would it be okay to grab someone I thought was famous ? Let the man get his breakfast in peace ... he clearly made the attempt to be incognito so he wasn't looking for attention - he was just looking for a sausage breakfast sandwich.
1 comment:
I'd have given him a break, too. It can't be easy for a stoner to get up that early.
I'll be here all week, folks...
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