(I know, I know, Blue Angels aren't Air Force)
The Angels were at the air show and on Saturday night, there was an air crew dinner and a presentation. They gave a plaque to the museum, the air show gave a plaque with the volunteer signatures on it for them to take back to Pensacola (my name's in BA HQ!). During the presentation, S and I were standing off to the side and my eyes were wandering around the room and I noticed some of the BA crew standing right in front of me. People were moving all around and taking pictures of the back of them while the speeches were going on and while I didn't get up and position them or anything, I did snap a quick iphone pic
After the presentation, everyone was milling around and people were glued to the BA sides. I was chatting with some others but inwardly cringing at how people were acting around them. I mean, fawning and hanging on and asking them to sign the shirts people were wearing and my internal cause no disturbance and bother no one meter was hyperventilating. I wanted to meet them though, I mean, with my family's background in aviation it was practically law that I had to else risk expulsion from Thanksgiving dinner.
I hovered and waited till I saw one off on his own and after someone walked away, I walked over and tapped him on the shoulder and when he turned around I just kind of squeaked out 'can I just shake your hand?'
I KNOW OMG BIGGEST NERD EVER
Of course he said sure and he shook my (trembling, sweaty) hand and I said thank you and moved to walk away and he was all wait, what's your name, what do you do here and my very first thought was damn, your PR skills are amazing. Forget about the whole 18 inches, no g-suit thing, pish.
So I said Stephanie and babbled something about Dad and Pop and my uncles and cousins and how they were all going to be jealous of me (they so are) and then I realized I was veering perilously close to giggling so I wrapped it up and told him to have a safe trip back.
Of all the random celebrity encounters I've had over the course of life, my top two are shaking Neil Armstrong's hand and now this.
(Did I get his name? Of course not. I'm pretty sure it was #3 though based on what S said.)
And I knew there was no way I could pull off asking for a picture without looking and feeling like a complete prat so I just snapped one of the group from across the room.
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