"Bill Groundhog Day Ghostbustin' Ass Murray"

*If anyone can name the film that quote came from, I will offer a prize of one gold star + eternal respect

Ok, so I'm going to start this story off with a little clarification. I'm not a celebrity person - meaning, I'm not obsessed with them, I don't model my life after theirs, I'm well aware they're just people in a certain line of work with fame as a perk. However, just as there are certain business leaders or musicians or writers etc. I'm excited to meet, because they're so talented, so are there actors/actresses. Bill Murray would be one of them. I love his films; I think he's hilarious; he's just a very talented and fortunate man. He's definitely one of my favorite actors (let's do just a quick naming: The Life Aquatic, Caddyshack, Lost in Translation, What About Bob?, Stripes, Rushmore, etc. etc.).

Now, I got tickets to the AT&T Pro Am Tournament through work, as my boss plays every year, and therefore gets free tickets. I decided to go with a coworker, Amber, and her husband, Tim, and the plan was to leave San Francisco around 5:30 in order to get there for tee-offs. We left a little late, but definitely arrived pretty early in Pebble Beach. I slept the entire way though, so when we did arrive on the golf course, I looked terrible. No real makeup, disheveled hair, the works. So we start walking, look to the left, Kevin James and Ray Romano were playing, and we set off to find Bill Murray. Coincidentally, right in our path, there he was, surrounded by a group of fans seeking autographs and perhaps playful banter. He seemed in good spirits as he made casual comments about fans' choices of what he signed etc. but as soon as I walked over and stood to his right, he started mentioning that he probably should go and play golf. I was disappointed, but I'm not into harassing people in general, so bowed my head and moved to the side so he could get through. The next thing I know, I hear this "Oh my god look at you!" Bill Murray had noticed the intense shade of red comprising my hair currently and apparently was shocked (my friends said he did a double take when he saw me). Now, my hair is red, to be sure, but not that red - I think it was the juxtapositioning against the brilliant green of the golf course that added the extra shock value. Anyway, back to the story. So Bill Murray puts his hands in my hair and starts rubbing my head and tousling my hair saying, "This is fantastic! My goodness... I just want to take a clipping... I could graft it to the back of my neck..." At this point, I'm pretty much paralyzed as one of my movie idols has his hands in my hair and I'm fairly certain all I did was giggle. Eventually I get up the courage to say something, but it turned out to be the stupidest thing I could have thought of... after the skin grafting comment I meekly responded "You can have it, if you want it." He laughed and then left to go golf but I was pretty much stunned for the next few minutes. Then later, we were walking by another hole and he started coming up from behind us and I just heard, "Hey girly! Keep moving!" I turned around and saw who it was, smiled and he smiled back. It was quite the moment. So, needless to say, that pretty much made my week. I wish I could've looked a little more together though! =)

Oh, and the other cool thing about that day (besides getting to see Tom Brady, Emmitt Smith, Don Cheadle, Peter Gallagher, Andy Garcia, etc. up close) was that both Amber and I were able to get an interaction with the star of our choice. Amber is a big Kevin Costner fan (early works - say Dances with Wolves era, and of course, Field of Dreams!) so we waited for him by the 10th hole green as we watched those ahead of him play through. He's supposed to be a fairly good golfer, but he hit a woman at the 10th hole (he made it up to her by going over and giving her a hug). After the teams were finished putting, there was a walkway to the next hole, on which fans wait in order to get autographs. Amber said she was going over to get him to sign her ticket. While over there, she later reported, people were just handing him whatever to sign and not talking at all (with the exception of a few murmured "thanks"). So when KC got to her, she made sure to say that she really was a big fan. He said thanks and signed her ticket and she turned to leave, shortly hearing "Hey, wait a minute!" She turned back around to see Costner retrieving a golf ball from his pocket, initialed, and he handed it to her. She was, needless to say, thrilled.

The concensus was then that Saturday = good day! Sunday was a lot less exciting, but I did get a snazzy new haircut (I think I'll post a picture soon), give my first Penn interview (alumni volunteers interview potential candidates for admission into the university), and catch up with a GREAT old friend - the original lovely redhead, Katie Timbers. In general, things are going well. There's several other things I want to post about (including Inland Empire, David Lynch's newest, which I saw last Thursday) but I'll have to save it for another time. Hope everyone else is doing just as well! M. xoxox