Tuesday, April 12, 2011

A brush with celebrity...


So Instigator and I (along with Lynn Raye Harris and a thousand other people) spent last week in LA at the RT Readers' Convention. We had a blast. I'll get more pictures and things up later, but I have to tell you about our brush with the celeb lifestyle the day before the conference started.

We went out sightseeing. The Santa Monica pier, Venice Beach, Hollywood Blvd, and, of course, Rodeo Drive. (I'm a Presents author. Rodeo Drive is *research.*)

We're window shopping mainly. But in the window of Dior, I saw a beautiful purse and wanted to see it up close. Of course, I knew there was little chance I could actually afford something from Dior, but I wouldn't have another chance to fondle a Dior purse anytime soon. So we went inside.

Even though I was as travel-worn as only a day of sightseeing can make a girl, the Dior saleswoman was still nice to me, showing me the purse, telling me about it, etc. Then she offered us champagne. Now, I know if I drink her champagne, she's really going to expect me to buy the purse, and since we haven't mentioned price, I'm not hopeful it's in my price range. So we say no to the champagne (although I do wonder what brand Dior serves in their store...) So she offered us espresso. Now I'm getting worried I won't get out of there without eating into AC's college fund.

I will say that y'all would have been impressed at the very nonchalant way the three of us reacted when we finally got to the $2700 price tag. You'd have thought we honestly considered buying $2700 purses every day. But we got out of there PDQ after that...

But that wasn't my brush with being a celeb. (That was simply my anti-Pretty Woman moment, which was rather cool.) No, the celeb status came at the Coach store.

We'd been in earlier that day, and while Lynn made her purchase I made small talk with another salesman and mentioned we were romance authors. When we came back shortly before closing time, word of the romance authors had spread to the rest of the sales staff and they had tons of questions for us. But it was getting close to closing and I had one more thing I wanted to look at.
I apologized and told them I'd be quick since I knew they were getting ready to close and probably wanted to go home.

The salesman helping me just shook his head and told me to take my time because, they'd close the store and let us shop all we wanted. I, being a nice person, said that was very kind but we wouldn't want them to do that.

His response? "That's what we do for celebrities."

Me, a celebrity? Really? Cool. They treated us like superstars and it was fantastic.

Of course, then we left the store and caught a very non-celeb cross-town bus with the rest of LA's non-celebrity citizens for a very long, slightly smelly, ride back to the hotel.

That'll bring you back down to earth real fast, let me tell you.

But for a little while I was a celeb on Rodeo Drive, having sales clerks offer me champagne and drinking wine in trendy sidewalk cafes. The stuff of dreams.

Of course, now I'm home and the only sales clerk I'm talking to is the butcher at the grocery store. But a girl can dream of champagne, ridiculously expensive purses, shopping in a closed store, and the star treatment.

I love LA...

PC

**Stephanie! You are the Free Book Friday winner. Contact SP at smartypants@writingplayground.com to claim!

6 comments:

Playground Monitor said...

I've never been to LA (at least not the California version ~grin~). I had a Pretty Woman moment at Needless Mark-up in Atlanta in 1973 (and I was all dressed up too!) and have never forgotten it. I won't walk into one of their stores to this day. I love your anti-Pretty Woman moment. It's nice when they make you feel special even if they are trying to get you to buy a $2700 purse. I don't suppose you took a photo of you posing with the purse. I'm curious what a $2700 purse looks like. Solid gold? Diamond-studded handle?

Way to go, celeb!

Cheryl said...

Hey, I had one of the "Pretty Woman" moments too! Except mine was at the Mercedes dealership. Dressed in jeans on a rainy day, we were looking for a new car. I wanted to test drive one of the Mercedes and the salesman hesitantly said he didn't think it would be possible with the rain and all. I didn't miss the snub so I left and went to Lexus. Bought one (I've had five since), drove over to the Mercedes dealership, rolled down the window and asked our salesman "You work on commission right? Mistake, big mistake." I laughed all the way home. Thanks Julia!

Glad you had a good time at RT. We're proud of all you girls!

robertsonreads said...

Impressive PC. And I was very impressed to meet Lynn Raye and you back in the Fall.

In my work I have met quite a few impressive people (to me anyway). Governor Bentley, Former Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom, Truett Cathey family (Chic fil A), Rick & Bubba, numerous government reps from China, Indonesia, Brazil, etc.

I have been given many opportunities.

LA said...

Cooool....so now I'm related to a celeb???? Way cool! Della Reese commented on my beautiful child in the Denver airport....does that count?

Angel said...

Been gone all day!!! But got lots of pretty basket stuff with PM's help at Ross.

I wish I could have been there. It would have been cool just to watch. :)

Angel

Lynn Raye Harris said...

I'm a day late (seriously, I about had a cow when I realized it's Wednesday!), but great recap of our Rodeo Drive trip! What fun we had, and yeah, that lady treated us like we could've bought $2700 purses all day long. Classy woman.

I miss LA. I loved it to bits!

Hmm, word verif is a not so subtle ceattl. Am I being told to give Seattle a try too?