i'm with coco

i met Conan O'Brien twice. the first time (pictured below) was on my twenty-second birthday. i was a senior in college and Kerri and i had tickets to a taping of his show. we were devout fans of Late Night—and also both single and each secretly harboring a deep belief that we were a perfect match for Conan. we were wildly attracted to his totally awkward, self-deprecating ways—we knew no guys at school who were so adorably dorky—and i, of course,  was drawn to his tallness and pasty white skin. basically, there was no other place i'd rather spend my birthday that year than studio 6A at 30 rock.


bolstered by the fact that it was my birthday and i weighed thirty pounds less than i had a year earlier and that i actually wasn't failing any classes for a change, i decided to be bold. i forget how it happened exactly (hello, it was eleven years ago) but toward the end of his pre-show schtick with the audience, i asked Conan if he'd take a picture with me since it was my birthday. and, because he's Conan, he agreed. i was on cloud nine for days. 

he bears an unfortunate resemblance to Grandpa Munster here, but in person he was dreamy. 

the second time i met him was a year-and-a-half later, after a performance of The Vagina Monologues. Kerri was there for that, too—in fact, i nearly broke her hand when Conan sat down in front of us just before the play started. i think i watched him more than the actors on stage—especially during the part when the audience is encouraged to yell a word generally considered the worst thing you can call a vagina. (Conan refrained.) 


afterward, as we were waiting to meet the star of the play, Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal at the time), Conan wandered out onto the sidewalk in front of the theater. again, this is many drunken-weekend-filled years ago so i forget the details exactly, but i think i wanted to pay Kerri back for the fact that she took the picture of Conan and me but never got one herself. so i said something like, "hey, Conan, will you take a picture with my friend?" i'm sure i babbled like an idiot to him, said something inappropriate or embarrassing, but he did take the picture and couldn't have been nicer or funnier. 


(in retrospect, i can't believe we didn't follow him when he left shortly thereafter. that seems like something Kerri and i definitely would have done. hmm. we really blew that one.)  


anyway, this crap NBC pulled is ludicrous, but i'm sure Conan will be better off, wherever he lands. i have my fingers crossed for New York. i really wouldn't mind bumping into him again someday.


mbm