A Day in the Life...: Young and wild and free

I am now a celebrity by association.

I have made this decision on my own, and I think it is pretty legitimate. Here are the facts:

1) I have met/seen/worked with more celebrities in the last week and a half than I have in my entire life. My briefest encounter with an A-Lister was on my way to Mexico with my parents my senior year of high school. We were unfortunately bumped up to first-class (not bad huh?) on our flight to Xtapa, and guess who was sitting in front of us? The lovely Jamie Curtis. Pretty cool to see one of these specimens up close and personal. I kept a respectable spying distance from the back seat. Not creepy at all.

Hunter Mahan!

2) I am working at high-class golf courses that cater to celebrities. (I might be working, but I can pretend that I am enjoying the golf course in the same way as Tony Romo and his brother-in-law Chase Crawford. If you watch Gossip Girl you know who I’m talking about.)
3) I was Hunter Mahan’s personal photographer for about two hours. He might not remember my name, but he’ll definitely remember the 5’11” blonde photographer decked out in Under Armour gear with a tucked in shirt and dark circles under her eyes. I’m telling you, he’s going to remember me.

4) While I was at the Mavericks game, I swear both Jason Kidd and Dirk Novwiski pointed to me after they made a shot. (Just forget the fact that Kevin Hart was sitting in directly in line from me to the court. They weren’t looking at him!)

5) Hank Haney shook my hand like we were old friends. I could have reminisced with him about the Masters and he probably would have thought I was there by his side giving him tips about coaching Tiger. (It doesn’t matter that I know absolutely nothing about golf.)

That’s all I’ve got for substantial evidence, but I think I have a pretty strong case.

Anyway, leading a life of a celebrity is very time-consuming and exhausting, and that is why I have not had a chance to write in awhile. Seriously though, it’s a tough life.

Hank Haney!

If I am to be honest, I have to say that Houston is definitely my least favorite city we have visited so far. Houston is very, very big, and in its size, the southern charm that I wrote about earlier seems to disappear. Sure, they still say y’all with a southern accent, but they are so damn impatient. I apologize for the expletive, but seriously, they are just rude. Our first dinner in Houston, Ally was trying to park the beast of a Yukon we drive. We are required to back into every parking space just in case our battery dies or something goes wrong and we need to get to the car easily. While trying to back up in this cramped parking lot, at least five or six impatient Houstonians would zoom behind us, honk their horn, or flip us the bird. They sure rolled out the Welcome mat for us. Therefore, it took even longer to park. It was ridiculous. I don’t know why, but Houston just isn’t as cool as Dallas.

We were lucky this week though, as we were able to stay with a really cool family in The Woodlands, a ritzy development on the outskirts of Houston. It was an older couple with kids who were married with kids, and they definitely knew how to be hospitable. The first night, they took myself, Ally and Teddy out for dessert, the second night they took us to the Carlton Woods Country Club and told us to go wild. I let loose ordering a Cosmo (my first ever), a delicious beef appetizer, smoked salmon, and a berry tart. I was pretty stuffed by the end, and had quite the experience. (To add to my celebrity argument, Roger Clemmens had a locker at this place.) Our host family was really quite lovely, and the only downside to staying out with them is that it was an HOUR commute to the course everyday. That is actually how I have time to write this, is that I am sitting in traffic at 6:30 in the morning. At first we were not happy about this commute, especially since Aaron, Ben and Max get to stay 25 seconds from the course, but after meeting out host family it wasn’t so bad. My body might tell you something different, as I will be fighting off sleep all day.

At the Texans stadium

We ended up getting off work early on Tuesday, and the boys had mentioned something about Hank Haney being in town for a book signing. I know I work for a golf organization, but my ignorance of golf gets more and more apparent everyday. I didn’t know who Hank Haney was, but upon finding out that he coached Tiger Woods, I was interested. I picked up a copy of his book, chatted for a few seconds with Hank, had him sign my book, and started reading. It’s actually a pretty interesting story so far. It’s called The Big Miss, and let me just say that more and more people claim Tiger is really a jerk. If it wasn’t obvious after he cheated on his wife and slept around, Hank Haney says so, so he must be.

Wednesday we had a day off, and I slept in until 6:30, then drifted until about 8. At least I can say I don’t miss out on anything because I oversleep. Ally and I went to get our nails done, and then we headed to meet our team at the Texans facility to tour the arena. It was pretty cool, but the tour was about 15 seconds because we couldn’t see more than the stadium since the players are on site. I swear, they protect these professional athletes like a rare Panda bear gearing up to give birth at the San Diego zoo. You can’t look at them, you can talk to them…they need their privacy – they are working out. Well, call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t gawk at someone that looks like the Incredible Hulk. Not quite my cup of tea. I just want to see their facilities!! Gosh, I’m glad I’m not the kind of celebrity that doesn’t allow the average human being to look at me or be in the same room.

He's just a little guy!

After the tour, we drove the hour home and then I went for a run in 80-something degree heat. Probably not my best move, but I really needed to exercise, especially after our host-mom Jackie set the alarm and we were greeted by sirens and a convenient call from ADT. I pretty much set out running to avoid the police, but no worries, it was fixed before they could arrive and throw some handcuffs on me.

After my run, Ally and I went to dinner to meet one of my teammates, Tiffany. I had remembered that she was from Houston, and we were able to meet. We went to Ragin’ Cajun and had a bucket of crawfish. They were delicious! My brothers and I used to catch them in the creek during the summer. We would call these critters crawdads, and I think they are the same thing. My friend Ally told me you have to suck the head to get all the good juices out - she was right!

It was awesome to see Tiffany. She’s doing well and is going to move up to Seattle soon. It really made me miss college and how easy things were back then. I knew what I was doing, where I was going, and I knew who my friends were. Now everything is an unknown, but I kind of love the adventure so far.

Tiff and I after dinner

Now, we are on our way to the course. This tournament is a little lower-key than some of the others. It a preseason event, we don’t have a Junior-Am, a Qualifier, and we only have a practice round and two other rounds, each on a separate day. It’s still a lot of work, but definitely not as stress-filled as the first three tournaments.

I promise I will try to write more, but my celebrity status just does not allow me the same time as I once had. It's a rough life, but someone's got to do it.
And right now, I guess that someone is me : )