Celebrity BFFs

Here's a non-exhaustive list of celebrities I've seen in my lifetime:

Rick Moranis (right around the peak of the Honey I Shrunk the Kids fame, my dad and I got into the same elevator as him and his kids in the Yacht Club Hotel at Disney World)
Yoko Ono
Jonathan Taylor Thomas
Natalie Portman (sitting eating a yogurt in the lobby of a Harvard theater that I happened to be running through, on my way to a play that I was late for because I spent too long shopping at JCrew)
This guy
Brooke Shields

The latest addition to that list is: Mindy Kaling! Last night I went to a reading and signing she did to promote her new book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns). I've been really excited for this book to come out (and the first third of it has lived up to my expectations). She has such a smart, approachable writing style that makes it seem like she could actually be one of my friends in real life.

Now, I always feel a little bit awkward at book signings, fretting over what to say when it's my turn to meet the author. And normally I would never ask for a picture with a celebrity, but since everyone else was doing it....

Notice my awkward half-crouching pose? And the tired, "this is my hundredth picture" look in her eyes? I'm pretty sure those are both signs that we're on our way to becoming best friends!

I should also mention the fact that, between Mindy's Q&A and the signing, the event was hijacked by a woman who suddenly stood up on her chair wearing a clown wig, a painted on mustache, and, oh, by the way, was topless, and started ranting about some play she was in while she snapped pictures of the stunned crowd. She had to be escorted out by police, and was later seen peeking out from behind a newsstand outside of the store. It was quite a night.