About this time of year, you long for summer.
Most of all, I miss the random adventures I had with my friend Ivy this summer. What kind of random adventures?
Well, I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there and I'll tell you how we stalked someone from ""The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.""
I was working on a spreadsheet in my cubicle one July afternoon when the phone rang. ""OH MY GOD Laura. You're not going to believe who's in town today!"" She was right. I didn't believe it. TV cousin of the Fresh Prince, Carlton Banks himself—Alfonso Ribeiro.
Carlton was in town as a SOAR parent, and we could not have been more ecstatic.
""Bad news is, I don't know where we'd find him,"" she said. Disappointed, Ivy and I went to the terrace to enjoy the sun (you know, chillin' out maxin', relaxin' all cool) and memories of the show.
""Geoffrey was obviously the best,"" Ivy said. ""He had to put up with those kids. But man, Carlton was great. What was that thing he always did?""
""The dance!"" I said. ""Remember, he LOVED Tom Jones and every time ‘It's Not Unusual' came on he would do that crazy dance.""
After hanging out at the terrace, Ivy and I decided to head for home. That is, until we bumped into my friend Ross, a SOAR guide. We chatted with him as he walked with his SOAR parents for a few blocks when it hit us...we were walking with the SOAR parents. We convinced Ross to let us tag along on the SOAR parent after-hours tour of the Chazen Art Museum.
We sauntered in casually. When the Chazen Art Museum lady said, ""You look a little young to be SOAR parents,"" Ivy beautifully concocted a story how our siblings were at SOAR and our parents were ""over there somewhere."" Although we had to listen to her talk about angel paintings for 20 minutes, our ""Wedding Crashers"" attempt was a success.
We set out amongst the parents to look for Carlton. We eventually found him near the Russian paintings. Ten years later, he looked exactly the same—and TALKED exactly the same. He could probably say, ""Wiiill"" and still make everyone laugh.
While Ivy and I pretended to admire a weird Italian door, we pondered our next move.
""Should we say something?"" she whispered to me.
""Oh yeah, what are we going to say?"" I said. ""‘Excuse me sir, you look familiar. Were you by any chance on a television show in the mid-'90s that shaped my childhood perception of life?'""
As we broke away from our huddle we turned around and nearly stepped on Carlton's toes. They had given the parents a trivia game, and it appeared he was frantically trying to win the free art poster.
""Is this door on here? I don't see it on here. What kind of piece is this anyway?"" he chattered rapidly to his companion.
Ivy and I were so embarrassed at the self-realization that we were following a TV character around an art museum, that we broke into two separate, idiotic conversations to cover our stalking asses.
""I saw so many doors like this in Spain, they're handmade!"" Ivy said. While I went a completely different direction, ""Oh yeah, they're Asian. Marco Polo used to paint them for people or something when he was dropping bombs at Iwo Jima. Is there food downstairs?""
And we ran away.
Carlton Banks will always be my favorite celebrity sighting. Yes, if anything I could say that this sight was rare.
Should I have said something else? Of course.
""Carlton, do the dance!""
