It pays to talk to your parents, kids!

After my Stephen Colbert sighting on Tuesday, I must have told, oh I don't know, EVERYONE I KNOW, about my big encounter with an A-list celebrity. What can I say, I highly enjoy celebrity sightings.

On a completely random-yet-kind-of-related note, I ended up watching SNY with my dad for a little bit that night, and he just kind of threw out that he sees Derek Jeter and Hideki Matsui sometimes. What. This was random cause a) I hadn't mentioned my own celebrity sighting for him to bring this up (not that he'd know who Colbert is anyway), and b) I hardly ever watch TV with my parents. So I asked him to tell me more, and it turns out that he sees them on 49th all the time "because that's where they live, you know." Hmm. I just got schooled by my dad. That hasn't happened since like the 6th grade.

The kicker? He's like, oh I really like Matsui, he's really quiet and keeps to himself. I was like, wait, what, how do you know that? He just looked at me like I was dumb and was like, well duh, I've gone up to him and said hi. Apparently his exact words were: "Hi, Matsui!" (Omg, I wonder where I get my dorkiness from.) Props to Papa Shin though, I would've been too nervous to say anything. And then this got him talking about how he has also run into Reverend Al Sharpton and how he said, "Hi Reverend!" (dork.) And he got a handshake out of it. Love the Rev or hate him, that's pretty cool.

But between this conversation, Julia's post about living with parents, and my own celebrity sighting moment, it got me thinking. I don't know about you guys, but I hardly talk to my parents even though I live under the same roof as them. And you know, they're actually really interesting people. They've got at least 20+ more years of life experience over you, which automatically makes them significantly interesting. Case in point: who knew my dad was such a magnet for celebrity sightings?

My dad's not the easiest person to talk to- he's super quiet and reserved. But I also see his dorky and funny side when I see his interactions with other people, mainly people who at least make an attempt to talk to him. I'm making it my mission to do that. As annoying and uncool parents can be sometimes, they'll really open up when you do the same, cause I bet you they're more intimidated by you than you are of them (if you are, at all). Give it a try, kids. You'll learn a thing or two about them you didn't before. And, that's pretty cool.