It was an unassuming afternoon at the Disney World’s Magic Kingdom on Friday, September 17, 2010. Ashleigh and I had just finished roaming around Tom Sawyer’s Island and we were waiting for the next showing in the Hall of Presidents. I was excited to see the new updated show, now featuring Barack Obama. Sitting cross-legged on the floor and sending out texts to friends back home, I heard Ashleigh mutter something about some girl who ‘looks like Holly’. I had already noted this girl, who was with a friend. Both were wearing knee-high socks and were relatively attractive – but not so much that I had fixated on them while we were waiting.
“No, that’s really Holly!” Ashleigh said. “I just heard someone say hi to her and take her picture.” Finally, I perked up. “What’s this?” I thought, “A celebrity encounter here at Disney World?” Of all of my times at this park, never had I encountered a celebrity there by chance.
Since Ashleigh was a much greater fan of Hugh Hefner’s former reality series The Girls Next Door, I told her to go get a picture with her. She would have none of it. So I asked her to take my photo and she refused that too. (Later she told me that she would have taken my picture, but thought that I was asking her to be in the picture). None of this stopped me – as I’m sure you’d expect.
I approached her and listened to her finish talking about the Presidents and then asked if she would pose for a photo with me. She was very kind and receptive, so I handed the camera to a Disney employee who was apparently assigned to accompany her around the park. Immediately, I noticed that I had had the flash set to OFF, but I had already bothered her long enough. I lived with the photo that I got.
She watched the Hall of Presidents show, same as everyone else, and then exited the building. Ashleigh and I were walking next to her, the friend, and the park employee for a bit before they veered off toward Fantasyland and we hit the Haunted Mansion. I was hoping that they would be waiting in line next to us…but that probably would have just got me in trouble.
As interesting as this all was, there were two things that I couldn’t help noticing. 1) That I had now met two of the three Girls Next Door (after meeting Kendra in 2008 – and had yet to see an episode of the show, and 2) That I was once again wearing my Nerdy Bert shirt – the same one that I was wearing when I met Mr. Spock at LAX.
Maybe I’m on to something here.
Return to the Magic Kingdom here…
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