This is surely unhealthy.
Can I tell you something that is probably going to make me sound like a freak? (More so than usual?) Well, ever since I’ve come back from Chicago I’ve had this weird response whenever I heard about things going on in Chicago. Like, somehow I am now connected to any news out of Chicago because I was there for 3 days last month. Especially celebrity news. Oprah lives in Chicago? Yeah – well – I went there once. Brad and Angelina landing in Chicago this week to start filming a movie? Well – I have felt the need to tell everyone that as if they were moving into my own home. I’m like, “You know how I was in Chicago last week? Yeah. Well – Brad and Angelina are there now.” Like somehow that makes us connected.
It’s not just Chicago and the fact that it’s a recent trip. I’ve actually done it my whole life, the more I think about it. I was watching an interview with Noah Wylie one time and he was talking about going to Yosemite National Park and I kept thinking, “Yeah. I went there too. When I was 14.” And when I watched “The Librarian” I thought the whole time, “That’s Noah Wylie. He and I like the same National Parks.”
And don’t even get me started about people like Matthew McConaughey who supposedly like the same restaurants in Austin that I fell in love with. Anytime he’s on TV I’m like, “Yeah. He supposedly likes Ironworks BBQ. I ate there when I was in Austin. Three times.”
WHY? Why is this at all important or something that I care about? What valuable pieces of information or wisdom am I pushing out of my brain to remember all of the geographical connections I have with random celebrities? More importantly – what people have I scared away by spouting those tidbits off like it’s some sort of prized trivia they’re dying to know? What am I expecting to hear from people? “Courtney Cox is from Alabama just like you? That’s Amazing! I’m so glad you told me!” Yeah. I don’t think so.
I’m weird.
OMG, not that I didn’t lurve you before, but now I think I am madly in lurve with you! (I may even take up stalking. that is how much I lurve you now) I do THE SAME DAMN THING! And my husband thinks I am INSANE for it. I’ve never even been to Chicago, but a friend of ours recently moved there, and now becasue HE lives there, I feel like I am a partial expert on this city I’ve never been to. Went to Hawaii a few years back…now you’d think I owned all of Maui the way I go on about hwo awesome it is. God, then we had the nerve to move to Amsterdam (we moved back) and yeah, I can’t even talk to other people who want to go/have been to Amsterdam because I am afriad I sound so snotty with my “When I lived in Holland” talk. Oh, and yeah, if ther eis ANYTHING conecting a celeb with my home town, forget about it…you’d think *I* was the one who told them about Baltimore, and personally flew them in. or if they were born here, you’d think I was their BFF growing up.
I’m so glad I’m not alone.
My mom does this FOR ME. The week after I got home from Chicago, she TiVoed a HGTV show for me ONLY because it was filmed in Chicago. *lol*
Julia Roberts filmed a movie for about five minutes in my town and I think of her EVERY SINGLE TIME I drive past the street – which is about four times a day.
I went to high school with the lead singer of the Plain White Ts – “Hey There Delilah” – and the way I share that fact with EVERY SINGLE PERSON I come in contact with you’d think we were BFFs. I am not even sure we had more than two conversations the entire four years.
I live 40 minutes outside of Chicago in the ‘burbs, and have lived here my entire life. I can count on one hand the number of times I have actually been to Chicago. But I went into the city for the first time in three years last weekend, and suddenly *I* am obsessed about Chicago too.
Ugh, we will always be the geeks huh?
I have a friend who does this very same thing. I guess it’s like playing six degrees of separation … with yourself.
This must be a common thing. I’m always trying to relate my stories to celebrities. I, too, love Chicago. In fact, I have a lot of friends from the area, but few actually are from the city. They’re from elsewhere in the state — some as far as two hours away. But ask where they’re from, and they’ll all say, “Chicago.”
I like Ironworks BBQ too (and I’ve only been to Austin once). So, am I going to have to think about how we’ve been to the same restaurant every time I visit your site? Possibly!
My DH gets pissed when I do this about my hometown. There are a ton of celebrity stories about it. I think he feels a little jealous, honestly.
When you mentioned Matthew McCounaghy it occured to me that I do this about celebrities who live in and are from TX. Like they are my next door neighbor or something!! Imagine if Matthew McCounaghy was your next door neighbor!!!!
But I digress.
Maybe I could learn to spell his last name correctly if he lived next door to me! It would probably be pretty easy to do because I’d be snooping through his mail!!
But…..I digress.
Whenever I go someplace or make a new friend, I envision an invisible cord connecting us from then on. After that, I’m hyper-aware of anything that might be affecting them. I, too, have been noticing Chicago (and L.A.) stories more since I went there.
Oh man, I do this too. I can’t stop myself; even I know it is annoying and sometimes I am actively irritated with myself for doing it. My poor boyfriend has probably heard about how parts of “Bring It On!’” were filmed at my high school eleventy-million times.
But, hey, enough about me… Did you know that “Bring it ON!” was filmed partially at my highschool?
Did ya?
DID YA?
I TOTALLY do this! I’m so bad for it. I even wonder if I ever breathed the same recycled air that one of my favourite celebrities did. Especially being from New Zealand makes it really bad, I think, being so seperated from everything. When I was in New Orleans last, was the day Angelina and Brad moved there, and I didn’t find out until AFTER! I was so gutted.
Like, I got there the day they did. just for clarification. I think I need sleep