A Day in the Life

Eagan and I experienced another celebrity sighting last week. Add this to our list of impressive C/D/E list celebrities we've seen in the past few years (like the guy who played Rufio from Hook -- what a find!). This time it was Toby from The Office! I would say his real name (Paul Lieberstein), but then nobody would know who he was (myself included, I only found out his name after I looked it up on imdb).

"Your name is Toby, boy"

The sighting was at a Vancouver International Film Festival screening. Eagan and I were sitting in the theatre when Eagan said "Hey, it's Toby from The Office!" My first thought was, We don't work with anyone named Toby. Then I looked towards the aisle and there was Paul Lieberstein! He looks exactly the same in person as he does on TV. He's the height I imagined; the weight I imagined; he has the exact same hair; and the same droopy, sad eyes with light eyelashes (go team Light Eyelashes!). He was in street clothes (no Armani suit, Paul?) -- a baggy, gray sweatshirt hoody, jeans (the kind of 'comfortable jeans' that he's probably had for years and wears all the time...the kind that would have a wallet indent in the back pocket), and tennis shoes. A little on the frumpy side, if you asked me.
What I thought was unusual was that he was just there to watch the movie. He wasn't in the movie, wasn't involved in the writing or producing of the movie. Nobody made an announcement of "...and with us in the audience is Paul Lieberstein..." He was just, like, an average person watching a film festival movie on a Sunday afternoon. There was no fanfare. I think only Eagan and I recognized him (as I mentioned, it was a Sunday afternoon movie -- which means lots of old people).
He came in with a lady, I'm assuming his wife. They sat down and then she left the theatre. A minute or so later, Paul switched seats to a few aisles up. He kept looking back at the theatre door, probably to catch his wife's attention when she returned to alert her to the fact that he moved. Well, it just so happened to be that I was sitting in the sight path between Paul and the door. So he kept looking back at the door, and every time he looked back I was totally staring at him. I couldn't help it. And he totally noticed. He kept looking at me with those sad, droopy eyes -- with the look of recognition that I recognized him -- and he looked kind of worried, like he was just waiting for me to do this:

But, I didn't. I only stared in a really plain way.

Eagan said he was really tempted to yell out in the middle of the movie, when the theatre was quiet, "Toby! I know you're in here!"

But, we didn't harrass him. We didn't ask for a picture or an autograph on our chest. It's not our style. My style is to just stare. But I stare with class, and don't you forget it.

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After the movie, we stopped at Dairy Queen for a treat. I was enjoying my chocolate-dipped ice cream cone when I noticed this totally depressing message on my cup:

(don't you just love the 'Little Kid Handwriting' font -- very convincing.)
Eagan's cup said something like 'Thanks DQ for ice cream and donating money. Money pays for hospital machines. And without hospital machines I wouldn't be alive."

Wow. That's depressing. While eating ice cream, I don't want to have to produce any feelings of sympathy, pity, or sadness. They just don't mix well.