So You Think Only You Shop at WalMart

This is a pleasant surprise that I just have to blog right now. However, I will have to relax my original condition that it should happen to me at least, for it did not. But, it did happen to my loved ones, my wife and daughter specifically. So by extension I think I’ve every right to grant that relaxation.

Now back to the pleasant surprise.

My D (that’s the notation for daughter used when posting to CollegeConfidential, touted as the best source of college information on the Web) has just taken her SAT yesterday. From what I can gather from her post-test demeanor, she must have done better than the last time. So my wife wanted to treat her to some shopping spree. Being the mature D that she is, i.e., mindful of my wallet size, she had opted to shop at WalMart.

So today there’s where we went, but I left them at the entrance as I needed to return to the office to catch up on some work (see my previous post for an explanation).

After I was done at the office, I called ahead to announce my impending arrival, signifying that perhaps it’s time for them to wind up the shopping and meet me at the cashier. The first thing my wife said over the phone was “do you know what has happened?” How would I know? It could be a million and one thing as far as my wife is concerned. But I know it’s not something bad from the tone of her voice. So I played along and asked her to tell me about it.

“We met Travis.” Travis who? You know, the “So You Think You Can Dance” dancer, the runner-up. Oh, that Travis (that's the guy on the top right, courtesy of So You Think You Can Dance website). And they got his signature to prove it (top left: his full name is Travis Wall and if you look close enough you should be able to see that it's his signature alright). Apparently, while my wife was at the Shoes section, she spotted a guy who at first she thought was one of my son’s ex-classmates because he looked familiar. So she went up to him and said hello and was about to ask him whether he was working at WalMart (because it’s usual for high school students to have part-time jobs). For some reason she stopped short and turned to my D and asked who he was.

‘That’s Travis.” I can half imagine my D saying that in muffled excitement (because I really cannot imagine anybody feigning a muffled excitement). He kindly consented to signing an autograph, on a piece of white pocket notebook paper (lucky for her she has picked up my habit too, see here).

My wife was so enthused she related the incident to the cashier when we were checking out, but drew a blank. I guess not everybody is into So You Think You Can Dance. But my elder daughter at Oregon nearly freaked out when my wife told her about it over the phone.

So there goes My D’s first brush with an American celebrity, of sort. My wife’s too. And I’m happy for them.

P.S. Travis and the rest of the cast from So You Think You Can Dance are in Tampa to give two dance performances (today and tomorrow) as part of their round the nation tour.