My Weekend With A Baywatch Babe

No, it won’t be as spicy as the title suggests.

Last week I threw out a bunch of brief encounters, but I do have some more in-depth ones. Please understand, the purpose of this is not to brag. Meeting a somewhat famous person would be a silly thing to brag about anyway. For me it is interesting to go over because every event has a lot of other memories with it, and that is kind of fun.

In addition, I hope readers will think back and remember their own encounters, so that when you get asked, “Who is the most famous person you have ever met?” you will be able to answer right away, and have their own interesting memories. While I think it might be too much to say that the unexamined life is not worth living, I know you get more out of the examined one.

That being said, the part about how I have never stalked any of them was bragging.

Anyway, while I was on my mission in Modesto, one of the families I got to know was good friends with Kelly Packard, as she was very close friends with one of their daughters and basically a part of the family. I met her once when she was visiting them, and she was really nice. I am afraid I had never heard of the show she was working on at the time, “California Dreams”, but it had just started the year before and I hadn’t really been watching much television that year between school and work. I did catch an episode later, after I was home. It was kind of in the same vein as “Saved by the Bell”, only about a band instead of high school.

I didn’t think much about it beyond that. I finished my mission, went home, and after working for a while returned to school. Fall term of my senior year, I signed up to try out for the “Jeopardy”college tournament, and my tryout was going to be in Los Angeles. Hoping to reduce expenses and not be completely alone and vulnerable, I approached Sister Seamons to see if maybe I could contact Kelly and see about staying with her. She thought it was a great idea, and put us in touch, and we were all set.

I didn’t realize that she lived in Valencia, and started to feel like I was going to be a very inconvenient guest, but we basically met halfway. I flew into LAX, and then took a ground shuttle to Burbank, where she and her boyfriend picked me up and we went back to her place. They were going to go to see “Ace Ventura 2” and I could have gone with them, but this was before I could stand Jim Carrey (I will never watch “Dumb and Dumber”, regardless.). I stayed at her place and watched “Stargate” on TV.

The next morning she drove me to the studio in LA, picking up her costar Jennie Kwan on the way, and they visited while I took the test. I called them when I was ready and we went back to her place, Kelly and I met up with her boyfriend again for church, and later that evening back to Burbank where I took the shuttle to LAX again, doing everything in reverse order.

Kelly was a wonderful hostess, but I do not feel like I was a great guest, that maybe I was too stiff and uncomfortable to be really warm and friendly. Naturally, I also did not pass the tryout, which is a bummer because I have always wanted to go on “Jeopardy”.

I suppose part of the problem was my naturally low self-esteem and occasional shyness. I can be bold, but sometimes it is really hard. A friend once talked about sitting for a socially awkward dog, and I felt like that was a perfect description of me. Except when I said that she explained that his awkwardness manifested itself as inappropriate peeing, and I have never had a problem with that. I’m a lot more secure in myself now, but this was over ten years ago. Naturally I was anxious about the tryout, as would be expected.

I was also obsessing over a boy who was living in California, wondering if I could see him, or talk to him, and in a move that still makes me wince over a decade later, I faked a wrong number to talk to him a little before the trip.

These are all fairly typical, but were not my worst problems at the time.

About three weeks before the trip, my mother called me crying because my father had walked out. It had not been a good marriage for a long time, and he had not been a good husband for a lot longer, but it still hurts and it was done in a cruel way, and as I listened to her crying I felt utterly helpless. The first time I would be able to get home and see anyone at all was that weekend, and so I could not be there to help them. Also, it was midterms, and I did not see how I could get through that.

A few days before the trip, one of my dorm’s resident assistant’s Frank, and his friend Michael went hiking and never came back. They were both experienced climbers, but a storm came up and in addition to probably contributing to their misfortune, it definitely hampered the search efforts. As I was leaving, it was right at the point where you know they are probably dead, but can’t quite give up, and I sensed that the giving up point would come while I was gone, and I did not feel good about that. But I had already payed for the plane and bus tickets, and it was going to be my first chance to see my mother and sisters since everything had happened, so I went.

I guess sometimes the best you can do is not visibly be a basket case, and I like to think I achieved that.

Better times were ahead. Although my father’s departure changed a lot of things, most of them were really for the better. I not only survived midterms but made Dean’s List that quarter (after trying and failing for my entire college career, I got it then and that spring term). My mother and younger sisters and I took a wonderful vacation that spring, too, that we really needed. However, Kelly and I did not become best friends forever, and not because of anything wrong on her end.

Nonetheless, I am glad to see that she is still working. I admit I have never seen one of her Baywatch episodes, either, so all I have really seen her on is when she was a guest on Arsenio Hall, but do you know how much television is out there? I can’t watch it all, and my not watching something is not necessarily a comment on the quality of the show or the cast. Also, as mentioned previously, I rarely try and take control of the remote. It’s just easier that way.
Next week: Sports!

http://www.uoregon.edu/~opp/endow/a_c_endowment.html

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001585/