Day 28: Sur-Reality

Today I worked at the studio. I made copies of schedules, checked in students, traded ideas with K, and trained a front desk worker.

Tonight I had my first 'Hollywood' experience as a participant in a flashmob at a benefit for Livestrong.

The benefit was held at Smashbox in West Hollywood. Smashbox is a warehouse space and tonight it housed a silent auction, open bars, tons of food, cupcakes, cameras and pretty skinny people.

After my identity was verified against The List, I entered the outside area and couldn't believe my eyes. To my right there were photographers from every major tabloid in the grocery store checkout line with cameras poised. My presence, of course, was a colossal disappointment.

On my left was a Fatburger truck serving fresh burgers. I stood still for few seconds to take in the smell, and the part of my heart that has rediscovered it's adoration of all things meat skipped a beat. I was then apologized to by one of the event workers, seemingly because she crossed my path at a distance of less than three feet.

I was perplexed but I moved on to the open bar to order my triple sec white grape martini margarita from a bartender who looked like he was carved out of a block of perfection and spoke with an accent.

Once I entered the warehouse, I looked around and felt ashamed that I'd forgotten to check 70lbs of my body weight at the door, until I saw the tables of cupcakes and nearly fainted with delight.

I walked around for a bit, admired the cool art, smiled at unfamiliar faces and passed waiters with trays of cheese topped roasted endive and quartered peaches wrapped in prosciutto on my way to the green room where my fellow flashmobbers were drinking, eating pretzels, running choreography and watching a rerun of 'My Wife and Kids'.

I love dancers.

As we planted ourselves in the crowd before we danced, my friend D pointed out that I was standing next to Michael Buble which resulted in an immediate change of position due to sensory overload.

Midway through our mob I looked to my left and into Reese Witherspoon's face. She was smiling and clapping and shouted, "I want to dance with you guys!", so at the end when we wanted audience participation, I invited her out and she and her friends danced with us for a little while.

After the mob cleared, I thanked her and her friends for participating which resulted in a conversation about when we'd learned the piece, who we were, who our choreographer was and where we danced.

Ten minutes later I was double fisting my cupcake and Fatburger on my walk to the car.

Surreal.