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plunkybugHeh.
Earlier in the week, I had learned from my Good Eats group on Yahoo that Alton Brown, of Good Eats (aka my favorite food show), was coming to Orlando for a promotion with the Simon Malls. Yup, a mall tour. Different chefs for different parts of the country, and since AB is from Atlanta, it makes sense he'd stay in the south, right? Anyhow, Chas had a meeting early in the morning on Saturday, and therefore had my car, but the event did not start till 11 am anyways. But he comes home around lunchtime and tells me he can't take me to the mall, that there is too much work for him here to do. :( Technically, my car is back, and I could drive myself, but the mall they picked is like the farthest one from us, it is 40 minutes or so by car (whereas there are at least 3 malls half as far away). So my mind began racing with names of people I could call who might want to go with me. I just wanted a little company on a drive like that. I call and call and no real success, so then I go to my cell phone and scroll through the list and I see![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
maggie226 there, and then I remember she liked Good Eats because she'd commented on my grilled cheese post. Bingo! So I called her and she was running errands with her mom, but she remembered reading about the event now and said she would to try to rearrange her time to go with me. A few minutes later she called and said her mom will drop me off and then we can go if I can bring her home. Yay!!!
Eventually she gets here and I get my stuff, and I see my Jellyfish cd under my purse and, on a whim, I grabbed it to listen to in the car, having completely forgotten that Maggie liked the band too. I've found the other person in Orlando who likes the band Jellyfish! So the pilgrimage to the Florida Mall begins with Jellyfish leading us on. And we both sang as many lyrics as we knew for the songs, and we had fun. We arrived just about 3:00, with an hour or so left. Having no idea where in the mall it was being held, we were concerned where to park. I knew from the old days of taking Chas to Sears every weekend, that the Sears was really far away from nearly everything else in the mall, so I decided to park in the opposite direction closer to the Saks Fifth Avenue store. Didn't know we even had one here. Heh:) And we found a somewhat shady spot too. We found our way through the store to the mall entrance and we immediately heard someone on the loudspeaker. A few steps further and we both agreed it was definitely Alton. The floor was kind full, but we could both see what he was doing and stuff. Maggie decided to go to one of the nearby staffed tables, and after talking with them, we learned that a meet and greet line was forming and we decided to stand in line. We couldn't see the demo, but we could hear it. Neither of us had anything he could sign, or any money to but a book (which we both want), but then Maggie spotted promo fliers with his name and mug on them. Perfect. So the demo ends and he says he will stay til everyone who had wanted to meet him had. He comes to the line and we realize that we were farther up in the line than we had initially thought, so we will see him soon. We give our item o be signed and they put a stickie note with or name on it on our item to be signed. Finally our turn comes; Maggie first, then me...she was smart enough to bring a camera so I took pictures of her with him, then she took the picture of me and him. He put his arm aorund us for the pictures. :) He also signed our little fliers. :) And then I break out into stupid fangirl mode. Here's roughly how our brief conversation went:
AB: Hi Heather, I'm Alton. Pleased to meet you.
ME: Hi, nice to meet you too. Wow, so much Alton goodness in such a short period of time.
AB: Yeah?
ME: Yeah. The Scrap Iron Chef episode of Good Eats* and the Iron Chef America** special and first battle were on last night.
AB: That's right. They were on last night. How was it? My hotel room here doesn't have Food Network.
ME: They were great! You can always come over and watch with us. (stupid fangirl, stupid fangirl, stupid fangirl)
And then it was over. And I have been repeating those awful words I spouted in my head ever since. Coud I have said anything worse? I suppose so, but this was pretty lame. This is why I said nothing to Paul McGann (Doctor Who #8) when he was in LA at the last convention. I didn't want to say anything stupid, so I didn't say anything at all. I just smiled. If I had been thinking, I a) would have brought him a present...we have a Mac fridge magnet poetry/picture frame set that would have been nice since he is a big Mac fan, and b) I could have said something better and more meaningful, like "Take good care of yourself AB. You mean a lot to us fans here. We don't want anymore hospital gown pics of you on the blog, got it?"** or something like that.
After getting the autographs and pictures with him, Maggie and I made our way to the food court since I hadn't eaten all day. I was looking for the frozen custard place and could not find it. I figured if I am all the way out here at this mall, and this is the only place in town that serves frozen custard, that this would be the best time to finally try some, but much to my dismay, it was all the way at the other end of the mall (once I found the directory of the massive mall), and since Maggie had to be home soon, we just both went to Orange Julius near us for some yummies instead. We got our drinks and made our way to leave. On the way back, I ran into some former co-workers of mine. Oster was a sponsor of the event, and they'd set up a booth near the main stage. i said my hellos adn then we went on. Apologies go out tophishtails. We had to leave early and did not get a chance to look for you after the show. But the set looked great! You did a good job. Sorry we missed you though. :(
Anyhow, dropped Maggie off, and than came home, still swooning from my close encounter with Alton Brown. :)
*He cleverly combined Junkyard Wars and Iron Chef, two hot cult shows at the time, and showed how to make bacon with items from the junkyard while battling one of the Scrap Iron Chefs. Brilliant show, brilliant concept.
**He was the culinary commentator for the Iron Chef America shows, replacing both Dr Hatori and Fukui-san from the original show. As culinary commentator, he also was the narrator/guide to the "making of" special. It was during the filming of these programs where he was rushed to a hospital in LA somewhere. He did not have a heart attack, but had stress, dehydration, and fatigue issues working against him. It was then where he posted a pic of him in his hospital gown on his blog telling us loyal readers he was ok, and what had happened.
Earlier in the week, I had learned from my Good Eats group on Yahoo that Alton Brown, of Good Eats (aka my favorite food show), was coming to Orlando for a promotion with the Simon Malls. Yup, a mall tour. Different chefs for different parts of the country, and since AB is from Atlanta, it makes sense he'd stay in the south, right? Anyhow, Chas had a meeting early in the morning on Saturday, and therefore had my car, but the event did not start till 11 am anyways. But he comes home around lunchtime and tells me he can't take me to the mall, that there is too much work for him here to do. :( Technically, my car is back, and I could drive myself, but the mall they picked is like the farthest one from us, it is 40 minutes or so by car (whereas there are at least 3 malls half as far away). So my mind began racing with names of people I could call who might want to go with me. I just wanted a little company on a drive like that. I call and call and no real success, so then I go to my cell phone and scroll through the list and I see
maggie226 there, and then I remember she liked Good Eats because she'd commented on my grilled cheese post. Bingo! So I called her and she was running errands with her mom, but she remembered reading about the event now and said she would to try to rearrange her time to go with me. A few minutes later she called and said her mom will drop me off and then we can go if I can bring her home. Yay!!! Eventually she gets here and I get my stuff, and I see my Jellyfish cd under my purse and, on a whim, I grabbed it to listen to in the car, having completely forgotten that Maggie liked the band too. I've found the other person in Orlando who likes the band Jellyfish! So the pilgrimage to the Florida Mall begins with Jellyfish leading us on. And we both sang as many lyrics as we knew for the songs, and we had fun. We arrived just about 3:00, with an hour or so left. Having no idea where in the mall it was being held, we were concerned where to park. I knew from the old days of taking Chas to Sears every weekend, that the Sears was really far away from nearly everything else in the mall, so I decided to park in the opposite direction closer to the Saks Fifth Avenue store. Didn't know we even had one here. Heh:) And we found a somewhat shady spot too. We found our way through the store to the mall entrance and we immediately heard someone on the loudspeaker. A few steps further and we both agreed it was definitely Alton. The floor was kind full, but we could both see what he was doing and stuff. Maggie decided to go to one of the nearby staffed tables, and after talking with them, we learned that a meet and greet line was forming and we decided to stand in line. We couldn't see the demo, but we could hear it. Neither of us had anything he could sign, or any money to but a book (which we both want), but then Maggie spotted promo fliers with his name and mug on them. Perfect. So the demo ends and he says he will stay til everyone who had wanted to meet him had. He comes to the line and we realize that we were farther up in the line than we had initially thought, so we will see him soon. We give our item o be signed and they put a stickie note with or name on it on our item to be signed. Finally our turn comes; Maggie first, then me...she was smart enough to bring a camera so I took pictures of her with him, then she took the picture of me and him. He put his arm aorund us for the pictures. :) He also signed our little fliers. :) And then I break out into stupid fangirl mode. Here's roughly how our brief conversation went:
AB: Hi Heather, I'm Alton. Pleased to meet you.
ME: Hi, nice to meet you too. Wow, so much Alton goodness in such a short period of time.
AB: Yeah?
ME: Yeah. The Scrap Iron Chef episode of Good Eats* and the Iron Chef America** special and first battle were on last night.
AB: That's right. They were on last night. How was it? My hotel room here doesn't have Food Network.
ME: They were great! You can always come over and watch with us. (stupid fangirl, stupid fangirl, stupid fangirl)
And then it was over. And I have been repeating those awful words I spouted in my head ever since. Coud I have said anything worse? I suppose so, but this was pretty lame. This is why I said nothing to Paul McGann (Doctor Who #8) when he was in LA at the last convention. I didn't want to say anything stupid, so I didn't say anything at all. I just smiled. If I had been thinking, I a) would have brought him a present...we have a Mac fridge magnet poetry/picture frame set that would have been nice since he is a big Mac fan, and b) I could have said something better and more meaningful, like "Take good care of yourself AB. You mean a lot to us fans here. We don't want anymore hospital gown pics of you on the blog, got it?"** or something like that.
After getting the autographs and pictures with him, Maggie and I made our way to the food court since I hadn't eaten all day. I was looking for the frozen custard place and could not find it. I figured if I am all the way out here at this mall, and this is the only place in town that serves frozen custard, that this would be the best time to finally try some, but much to my dismay, it was all the way at the other end of the mall (once I found the directory of the massive mall), and since Maggie had to be home soon, we just both went to Orange Julius near us for some yummies instead. We got our drinks and made our way to leave. On the way back, I ran into some former co-workers of mine. Oster was a sponsor of the event, and they'd set up a booth near the main stage. i said my hellos adn then we went on. Apologies go out to
phishtails. We had to leave early and did not get a chance to look for you after the show. But the set looked great! You did a good job. Sorry we missed you though. :(Anyhow, dropped Maggie off, and than came home, still swooning from my close encounter with Alton Brown. :)
*He cleverly combined Junkyard Wars and Iron Chef, two hot cult shows at the time, and showed how to make bacon with items from the junkyard while battling one of the Scrap Iron Chefs. Brilliant show, brilliant concept.
**He was the culinary commentator for the Iron Chef America shows, replacing both Dr Hatori and Fukui-san from the original show. As culinary commentator, he also was the narrator/guide to the "making of" special. It was during the filming of these programs where he was rushed to a hospital in LA somewhere. He did not have a heart attack, but had stress, dehydration, and fatigue issues working against him. It was then where he posted a pic of him in his hospital gown on his blog telling us loyal readers he was ok, and what had happened.