Snow Day & Conan (Not the Barbarian)

It snowed today! New York is really at its best in winter. The upper west side looked nearly perfect in its idyllic white covering and pre-Christmas decor. Everyone seemed to be smiling, enjoying the mammoth snowflakes that fell consistently till about noon. It was really cold though. Right now at 6:15pm my fingers are just thawing out from a day’s activity in the snow; my fingers froze during the glove-less snow ball fight.

Me throwing a snowball:



I think the reality of winter is starting to dawn on me. Every time I mention how cold I am, people tell me how much colder things will be getting.

In line with today’s perfection, I finally had my first official Celebrity Run-In. A while back I spotted author Malcolm Gladwell, of Blink & Tipping Point fame, on the 47-5oth platform, but he’s not the kind to write home about. Today while leaving Alice’s Tea Cup, a quaint UWS cafe where we lunched, I bumped into a very tall gentleman who was accompanied by his wife and child. He was reaching down to hear his son speak unintelligible babble and replied dryly, “well said son, well said.” It was then that I noticed this was none other than Conan O’Brian. He was much taller in person than I ever would have guessed and not quite as skinny. He had a bit of facial hair growth, which I guess is due to the writer’s strike leaving him currently unemployed. Conan and I made eye contact for a few seconds, during which he communicated a subtle amusement. Quickly, and of course silently, I could tell he found my cowboy-ish fedora a bit odd. Just my luck to be wearing some silly hat on my very first C.R.I., which I always hoped would be like some sort of life-defining Bar Mitzvah of sorts. My wife and I exchanged the silent question, “did you just see who that was” and walked out of the restaurant/Conan’s life, better for having experienced both. I considered, then thought better of running back to the window where Conan was standing to take a quick picture to show all of you. I was reminded that we lived in New York, where one never gawks at celebrities, not L.A., where Brittney Spears buying a Jamba Juice makes the nightly news.

So, anyway, it was a good weekend. By the way…Conan’s hair really does look like that.