So, the Pacers posse is being cool to me, just sort of recognizing me with smiles. I’m not bothering them. Everybody’s being cool and nice.
But the hotel security guard is watching me like a hawk. I can basically feel his breath since he’s right overtop of me. I open my phone to try to sneak just one little innocent photo of the Pacers in the lobby.
Yes, this is incredibly rude of me, I’ll admit. Just because people are famous doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be allowed some privacy. I think that the super-on-social-media me in this instant blurred the lines between what is appropriate and what is not. Because it’s not appropriate to take pictures of strangers in hotel lobbies.
(Though, let’s get real. Andy Lassner and many others are always taking pictures of random people in airports and stuff if they think a hat’s weird or a facial expression is weird or whatever. At least my people were famous, so they have to expect it in some sense! Right? No, I know I’m grasping at straws and it’s really not appropriate either way. I digress…)
Anyway, I try to super stealthily take a picture. I could’ve just as easily been on twitter or doing something else. But because the security guard is practically attached to my body, he sees me open the camera icon. And he’s all “Ma’am. You absolutely cannot do that. You need to go back to your room.”
Oh, okay, sir. No problem. I’ll just wait here with the Indiana Pacers for the elevator so I can ride up with them!
(Seriously though, where’s the logic in that? If he actually thinks I’m any kind of threat at all, maybe don’t send me up in the elevator where I’ll see what floor they’re on?)
So, I get on the elevator. It’s all kind of a blur to me because it’s happening so fast. But I’m pretty sure that Roy Hibbert was the person in the back of our elevator because his head almost hit the top of the elevator! He was SO TALL! I had to look all the way up (like I would if I were looking at the sun) just to see him! (I mention him, because he’s not pictured because I couldn’t angle the camera the right way…)
So, as I’m in the elevator, I’m say super quickly, “Um, I know it’s rude. I’m sorry. Would it maybe be okay with you all if I took a selfie in this elevator with you guys in the background so I can tell all my friends I was here?”
Everyone in the elevator was so nice about it. “Sure, knock yourself out.” So, I did. I just got a blurry photo where you can’t tell what was happening… But I could tell.
As I got off the elevator, I wished them luck and got some big smiles back from them.
And I’ll finish out with just a bit more story (from the following day) tomorrow.