what a dame!

On Friday, I had a tremendous life event.  I met Dame Julie Andrews; you know, Mary Poppins, Maria von Trapp, and Queen Lillian (Shrek).  What the!

She was exactly how I thought she'd be, most notably she spoke royally, using the word "delicious" frequently and other British quips.  Julie, as I now refer to her as, was very beautiful and put-together with her cropped blonde locks and a flattering navy pants suit; we'd all been guessing she was in her late sixties, and she's seventy-five!  I must say, she seemed genuinely pleased to be in Minneapolis and didn't try to shortcut answers to crowd questions, even when she was asked "What is your favorite movie?"  People, she's been deemed a dame by the queen!  A humorous antidote she shared was when she was working with her late husband on a movie and as the director, he took her to the side after a love scene and said, "Darling, that was OK, but I know you can do it better."  Polished Julie was funny too.

Anyway, a really good part of the whole experience was that I got there pretty early and found myself first in line to meet her.  Can you imagine walking on stage to say "hey" to Julie Andrews?  We exchanged multiple sentences (I may have, as a typical Minnesotan, said something about the weather... but we actually had a good chat) and she hugged me!  It was a real hug too, not half-hearted or anything.  I just can't believe that I was that close to Julie Andrews!  When we were taking a picture, she gave me a bit of advice.  Every time she poses for a photo, she says the word "money."  If you say it, it really works out well that by the end you're smiling when and how you're supposed to.  So Julie and I said "money!"  We hugged, you know, me and the Oscar-Grammy-Golden Globe-Emmy-winning Dame Julie Andrews.

I too have a signed book, "The Very Fairy Princess Takes the Stage."  She's been writing children's books for a long time and claims she started the celebrity-author trend... I tend to believe her!  The Dame would never lie!

Money!