Meeting Boomer

I have to make an apology to my readers. Yesterday I posted the list of 100 things, and highlighted which ones I'd done. Well, reading through my comments, there was a question from a couple of my readers asking which movie I'd been in. I thought that was funny, because I've never been in a movie. In fact, I didn't even remember that question being on the list. But, sure enough, I had highlighted that. As I was doing the list, I read that question as ever having been to a movie, and I thought how silly that was - hasn't everyone been to a movie? Anyway - I wasn't trying to mislead anyone. So, in an attempt to redeem myself, here is the story of meeting a famous person: the story of meeting Boomer Esiason. In fact, not only did I meet him, I inadvertently went to a Christmas party at his house.

 

I was 17, and a junior in high school.  My sister and I were driving to a dance at our church, but because we were earlier than we wanted to be, we decided to just drive around a bit.  It was raining/misting a bit, and also quite foggy (as it tends to get in Kentucky), and I had also taken some cold medicine that had made me a tiny bit groggy - that is my defense anyway.  The neighborhood we were driving through was hilly, and we were driving down an especially large hill.  At the bottom of the hill, it was quite foggy, but I could see the road continue back up the other side, so I kept driving.  Unfortunately for me, the road dead-ended about where the fog started - and I kept driving.  I ended up getting my very snazzy, green Chevy Corsica (hey, this was 1991) high centered on a large mound of dirt.  All the rocking and engine-gunning I could do did nothing to get the car moving again.  Two of the tires were actually just spinning in air, and there was a large mound under my feet where the car had actually buckled.

 

Great - I was stuck.  And here we were, on a cold and rainy night, stuck on a residential road.  We were a good 2 miles from any type of commercial establishment.  It was raining pretty hard, and I had no jacket (I was too "cool" for jackets back then).  Being that this was well before the days of cell phones, we had no choice but to knock on doors and ask for help.  Just down the road, was a house all lit up.  It was obvious they were having a Christmas party, as there were several cars parked out front.  We chose that house, because surely someone would be inside to help.

 

We nervously rang the doorbell, and who should answer the door, but Boomer Esiason himself.  At that time, he was still the QB of the Bengals, and they were actually a good team back then.  I just about died.  He was so nice, and invited us in.  I told him that I was just there to use the phone, because I had run my car off of the road in front of his house.  I told him that I needed to call my dad, and then probably a tow truck.

 

But, he had a better idea.  He was having a party, and there were several other football players at his house.  Surely they could get my car from atop the mountain of dirt.  About 6 or 7 other players went out to my car, and tried their best to get me unstuck.  But to no avail.  My little Chevy Corsica was no match for the defensive line of the Cincinnati Bengals.  One of the poor guys had on some white pants (it was 1991) and he got really muddy - I felt badly about that.

 

I had no choice but to make the call to my dad.  And I was scared - my dad was a very scary person to me back then, and I knew he was going to be upset.

 

I nervously dialed the phone.  When my dad answered, I immediately spilled out my story:

 

"Dad, I'm sorry, but I ran the car off of the road, and I'm stuck on a pile of dirt."

 

"Where are you?" He asked.  "And are you and Jen ok?"

 

"Yes Dad, I'm ok.  I'm actually at Boomer Esiason's house.  He tried to help me, but the car is just too stuck.  I need some money to call a tow truck."

 

My dad started laughing.  He honestly didn't believe me.  I think I actually had Boomer get on the phone to explain the situation to my dad, but that part is a bit fuzzy.  In the end, he gave me the credit card number and I called the tow truck.

 

While we were waiting, Boomer invited us in and they were so friendly to us.  They asked us where we were headed, and I was too embarrassed to admit that we were headed to a nerdy church dance.  I lied, and told them we were on our way to a party.  Then Boomer asked me if I'd do him a favor - his 17 year old nephew was there visiting from Colorado for Christmas.  He was really bored, and wondered if we'd mind taking him to hang out.  He brought the kid over to meet me, and he was a hottie - definitely a 17 year old girls' dream come true.  But, since I'd lied, there was no way I was taking him to a nerdy Mormon dance at the church.  So, I told another lie, that I wasn't feeling up to partying, and I just wanted to go home.  I missed my chance on that one - I'm sure had he gone with me, we'd have fallen madly in love and lived happily ever after.  Oh well - at least I learned my lesson about telling the truth.

 

Finally, the tow truck showed up.  The driver was actually a kid who used to ride my bus - a kid who I had mercilessly teased.  And unfortunately he remembered me.  He refused to take the credit card information since it was just numbers and not the actual card, and told me that unless I had a valid form of payment he wasn't helping me out. 

 

I was still stuck.

 

That is when Boomer came to my aid again, by offering to pay the tow truck driver for me.  I declined his first off, but he insisted.  So, he paid the driver for me.  Of course I sent him the money back the very next day, but he was very generous and probably not expecting to get the money back.  He was such a generous and kind person, who could have been a big jerk when I interrupted his Christmas party.

 

And that is the story of meeting Boomer.  Did that make up for my lie about being in a movie?