1.4.6 (2004-10-12 13:58)
first celebrity sighting so far happened sunday. (remember, i haven’t even been hanging out in the west side where it all goes down—this gem just came to me.)
setting: Target, Pasadena, CA. I am with my mom. we are cruising the excellent underwear section. my mom wants me to buy a padded bra, i want to buy wifebeaters from the little boy section. we can agree on buying hangers, many hangers, to accomodate my 8 years worth of clothes that have suddenly all accumulated in the bedroom closet i last inhabited as a teen. we make our way to the housewares section and i see a young attractive girl on her knees kneeling behind one of those crappy tapestry rugs that college kids sometimes have in their dorm rooms. a tall attractive guy in all corduroy and glasses is shaking his head, grimly. she snaps, ”but then everything’s too expensive!” she gets up, sulking. he says nothing. they walk away from her dream rug, arm in arm, her head drooping, as if in a ”moment” post-some relationship-threatening cataclysm.
i realize i know her. i have to know her. the half high-pitch-half-rasp, the freckles, that half-smile, that pout, even that particular tawny skin tone. she’s in her late 20s maybe. did i got to school with her? she seems like she’s of my high school—for some reason the predominant girl aesthetic there was always thick thighs, big boobs, tan, dirty blond, freckled, with a raspy voice, and half-street/half-prep clothing choices (very LA Gear and BUM Equipment at the time–now, I’d say, imagine pink JLo track suits, maybe a Von Dutch cap, some Abercrombie, perhaps w/ a touch of Baby Phat.) Girls who look like Lindsey Lohan. Shit, was it Lindsey Lohan? No, no, no…
I thought and I thought, and true to the cliche, the answer only came to me minutes before I fell asleep: Soleil Moon Frye. Punky Brewster.
Of course. She apparently went to a high school in a city flanking ours.
Her hair was long and dyed a cheap black-brown with conflicting colors peeking out accidentally (kinda like mine, sad) and she was wearing striped sporty capri-ish pants (J Crew looking), flip flops I can confirm are from Urban Outfitters, and a white t-shirt. Her lips were very glossy.
Punky Brewster cannot afford Target. Well, things are different now. there is now a Starbucks at that Target where all that Target used to offer were Icees and pretzles and i think corndogs. Seeing Punky on her knees at Target like that made me feel a bit better about where I’m at. Today, I’ve been fantasizing about getting my friends out here to donate a couple bucks or so to a Buy-the-Target-Dorm-Rug-for-Punky fund and sending it to her agent, should she still have one.