so.

yesterday i get on my plane and i am minding my business and look up and see this guy:

i knew him. i could see him in an FBI jacket, in a military get up. what was his name? argh. i knew that i liked him as an actor. i snapped this picture to send my mom who is The Best at ‘name that actor’. watching movies with my mom is like watching movies with a friendly funny embodied IMDB.

i got off the plane and went to the pick up area. he came walking by while i was on the phone with my sweetheart and i told her, ‘one second.’

i tapped him on the arm and just said, ‘hi, i am a big fan.’

he nodded warmly and then i went back to my phone call and he went on down to sit on one of the pick-up benches.

my ride pulls up. it’s my girl jodie who has this very special white van from japan that is all opposites. she drives on the right side of the van, and i as a passenger had to go around to the left (or traffic) side to get in. i am opening the van door when a car behind us pulls right up on jodie, trying to get around us. the driver immediately starts laying in on the horn.

i lean back and wave at the driver with the universal hand signals that communicate: ‘just a second’. i realize she is some sort of official person, though i couldn’t tell you what she was officially in charge of. but she was maybe airport traffic cop patrol?

my waving and logical hand gesture appeal won us no reprieve, she is on the horn like she is personally having a baby that is having a heart attack and needs to rush them both to the hospital, like that level of urgency. plus yelling, ‘MOVE YOUR [curse curse curse] CAR MOVE!!! MOVE!!!!’ (such language in front of the imaginary urgency baby? no bueno.)

jodie and i are shock laughing as i get my bags in, which are heavier than usual because i am going camping, all with the horn blasting. i think: what a bad day that lady must be having! vitriol is spilling from her mouth like so much dragon fire.

then i hear it, the voice of the aforementioned and now overtly gallant actor. he is yelling back!! i daresay he is defending us! he yells at her to back up and stop making all this noise. when she doesn’t stop, he comes around to the driver’s side and gets in her face, both hands pleading as he yells at her to BE QUIET.

i yell to jodie, ‘that guy’s a famous actor!!’ and we both try to see more and then realize the situation is escalating.

part of me wanted to stop and thank him for being such a beacon of appropriate confrontation, but the larger part wanted to avoid jodie getting a ticket, so i slammed the van door shut and jumped in the front seat.

at this point, jodie is in a tight place because dragon lady had driven right up on us in her beeping fury. jodie backs up enough to kiss the lady’s bumper. in the mirror i see the dragon lady open her car door and explode out, all suburban hair-do and high waisted uniform pants.

‘go, go, go!!’ i yell to jodie as dragon lady starts pounding her fists on the back of the van.

we tear off into the stop-and-go airport traffic, laughing like bonnie and clyde, blessed with our innocence. for no discernable reason, dragon lady stays behind, utterly thwarted. i wonder if she realized she was in a yelling battle with the gifted and elegant david strathairn (figured out not by my usually accurate mama, but by google).

so i just had to take a minute to say: thank you! thank you david strathairn! now i am an even bigger fan.