Movie Stars and Artists

The unexpected feeling of shock and enthusiasm was welling up inside of me. I wanted to muster up the courage and say "Hi!", but I was choking up on my words and was left afraid that I was going to sound like a stuttering idiot. This doesn't happen often. Well, that feeling and seeing Ben Stiller up close. And when I say "up close", I mean like a foot away!

What was a normal day of chilling at a friend's house, watching The Social Network, and eating a McDonald's dinner (yeah, if you read my blog, I tend to eat at McDonald's a lot) at the mall turned into an exciting night to end it. We went to the mall because one of my friends didn't want to spend a lot of money at a nearby diner. So we decided to go to the food court. Upon entering the building, we noticed a bunch of lights and what seemed to be a movie set. Cool. The paper by the escalators explained that this was to be for a movie called "Untitled Heist Project" at the moment. We sat down at the closest table which was a table right next to the escalators. As we all got our food and was starting to settle down, the star himself descended down the escalator.

Ben Stiller. Gaylord Focker. Tugg Speedman. Larry Daley. Derek Zoolander.

I was starstruck. He was within reach to give me a high five if he wanted to. He did a side glance over at our table and I swear I maintained eye contact with him for a good two seconds. I felt like a giddy little girl giggling to myself. After we all pulled out our phones to update our Facebook statuses and Tweet the presence of Ben Stiller, we turned around and checked him out on the set. Surprise, surprise. Standing next to him was Eddie Murphy!

That's Eddie Murphy in the middle.

An aerial shot of Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy as we were leaving the mall. Will upload a better quality picture once my friend posts it on Facebook, ha!

You'd think that living in New York City would let you see all these celebrities. The closest I've ever been to another celebrity was seeing Shelley Duncan, ex-New York Yankee, on the 4 train after school one day. But he's no A-list celebrity.

Our table was in prime position to be in the movie. We were sitting by where all the extras in the scene were supposed to be involved. But right before they started filming, the director (I assume he was the director) told us to kindly move to another table outside of the shot. Darn it!

EDIT: Nevermind. That guy wasn't the director. The director is Brett Ratner and he was not Brett Ratner.

It was cool while it lasted. In other less exciting news, I am officially a VPA student. But it wasn't your typical admission. I won't post what happened on my blog. This will give you the incentive, hopefully, to ask me in person. It's nice talking to people and this is a good way to start conversations. Right?

I remember a time when I wanted to be an artist when I was younger. I saw a bunch of paintings for sale at a booth in Chinatown. I thought to myself, "I can do that!" I remember this painting I wanted to paint if I ever got good enough. It was an alien that looked like it ran into a glass wall. But, I've learned art is much more difficult than my 7 year old self can ever imagine.

It's been a long while since I felt this. Actually, I can't remember the last time I felt this. But, I've had this feeling that everything's going to be alright. I am beginning to align myself with God's plan for me. I'm gonna be alright.