Ever have a conversation with someone and find yourself thinking, "Wow. Your life is a movie." Or, to quote Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail, "So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book when really... Shouldn't it be the other way around?"
Well on Saturday after my 11:00 Zumba class, I started talking with Joanie — a teacher for Kettle Moraine High School who's probably a few years older than my mom. She asked me if I'd gone anywhere this summer, and I was forced to reply with a "just up north" sort of response. But Joanie? She went to visit her kids out east. Her daughter, Lizzie, is living in New York City and studied theater at NYU, though she's now working in pharmaceutical sales to pay the bills. She just broke up with her boyfriend of four years, so Joanie said that for the next few weeks, Lizzie will be bunking with her aunt — Joanie's sister-in-law — who just happens to be president of Saks Fifth Avenue.
This is where my ears really perked up. "Really?!," I exhaled, eyes bugging out of my skull. Joanie laughed, "Really." So she told me how Aunt Saks has an apartment right in downtown New York, complete with leopard print on the foyer ceiling and bottom-to-top marble in the bathroom. The place is small, Joanie said, but impeccable — Vogue wanted to run an article on the decor. When Joanie and her husband went for a visit, the entire lot of them went to see "The Book of Mormon" and went back stage. "Ohhh yes, I do this all the time! Day in the life!," Joanie played — I had to laugh. She gets it.
But Lizzie's string of little adventures are what really captured my imagination. Joanie told me how one night, Aunt Saks had to go this cocktail and garden party in the Hamptons (of course!). Since Lizzie was staying with her, she was invited along — the dress code? White. Yes. Wear white, because the aim of this party was to show off the gardens to their best effect. Clearly — wear white or wear nothing at all! Lizzie's lone white dress wasn't quite up to snuff according to Aunt Saks — a little shopping was in order. Don't worry: a $400 Diane Von Furstenberg dress was just the thing! (My jaw dropped and I audibly gasped at this point in Joanie's narrative.)
So at this Wear White party, there was (of course!) a full band and a singer. Now Lizzie, having a theater degree from NYU, allegedly has a voice like butter — very Zooey Deschanel. Aunt Saks and this fellow Lizzie had been newly introduced to, Devan, insisted that she go and sing with the band. So what happened? In typical Hollywood fashion, Lizzie asked the band if she could accompany them while their lead vocalist took a breather. They obliged the girl, and after wowing the crowd, the singer told Lizzie to look her up — that she would help her get connected with the right people.
Now this being a cocktail party, it ended at 8:00. Luckily there was Devan to keep things interesting — he invited Lizzie to another party, and she happily tagged along. Not wanting to be too much of a clingy sort, she left Devan's side to mingle with the other folks at the party — and ended up landing a date. Later, Devan found her and said he'd been looking all over for her. Lizzie landed a second date — this time an official date with Devan.
I truly was hanging on Joanie's every word — so much so, that 45 minutes passed standing in the fitness center parking lot in the scalding sun. Sweat dripping down my back, I didn't care — I wanted the next chapter in Lizzie's so-exciting life. But how silly of me — this is an actual person. A girl who is actually living these Hollywood happenings. And in real life, things — even exciting things — take time. It's funny that I'm sitting here, musing over the life and times of a girl I've never met — a girl whose mother I barely know — but that's the romantic in me. I honestly can't wait for next Saturday's Zumba and the chance to ask Joanie what's new with Lizzie and Aunt Saks.
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