Skewed Perspective

When you live inside the beltway you have a tendency to end up with a skewed perspective on celebrities.

Sure, all of the mainstream celebs, from actors to singers to models still count, but if you live in DC and have any remote level of political awareness then you end up adding Congressmen, Senators, key Administration officials and political pundits and correspondents to that list.

Most American's wouldn't notice if they were waiting in a line for sushi behind Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, but when that happened to a friend of mine it sparked a flurry of excited texts most would reserve for a similar experience with The Boss or The Biebs, depending on your demographics.

I've well documented my disappointment in not having a first family sighting, but that doesn't mean I haven't had any [political] celeb sightings in DC.

My first was when I was at a neighborhood coffee shop shortly after I moved to the area. My job had more of a political bent to it at the time so I was spending more time watching the pundits and keeping up with political news. As I spent a lazy Saturday morning sitting on the patio of the coffee shop enjoying breakfast and a book I noticed the man at the next table was the Washington Post political columnist and frequent cable news commentator Chris Cizilla, aka "The Fix". Now this wasn't a sighting that was worth running straight to my FB page over, but it was still kinda cool. Mostly that I recognized him because to me it signaled that I was starting to fit in to the world of politics.

My next political celeb sighting was at a work event, a reception being held in the Capitol building. Yeah, I kinda agree it doesn't count when you are actually in their work place, but I'm counting it anyway. I was serving a a greeter, directing our attendees up to our event and as I was standing, looking off in one direction someone bumped into me from behind. I turned to look as I heard him apologize and realized it was Senator John Kerry, a much higher profile celeb sighting and, as a former presidential candidate, someone whose recognizability is likely pretty high even outside of DC!

He's also the whole reason this topic is on my mind this morning. I'm in Boston this weekend, actually visiting the friend who had the close encounter with Justice Sotomayor, and her apartment is across the street from John Kerry's house. We were walking back on Thursday night and she pointed out his house as well as   other important residences and aspects of the neighborhood.

Well, yesterday morning as I was walking out the front door of her building to head out for a day of playing tourist who do I see stepping out of his car, but Senator Kerry. And I'll admit, I immediately went for my phone and fired off a few texts to friends about my celeb sighting. Luckily, my friends are big dorks like me because I got responses like "Exciting!" and "How Fun!"

Just another example of how living inside the beltway can really mess with your mind!