Jane Seymour

Yesterday was a day I've been waiting for my whole life. I know, this seems over-dramatic, but hey, I was a theatre major. I'm entitled.

I got to meet a movie star!

Jane Seymour is in town filming a movie at Smith Mountain Lake. She's recently written a book called Among Angels filled with her artwork and little stories and notes about angels.

Her people called my people (i.e. my manager at Barnes and Noble) last week to set up a book signing. It was really short notice but they managed to pull it off brilliantly. There were many more people there than I expected and we were selling her little books like hotcakes.

I was supposed to be working in the cafe so I wasn't sure if I'd even get to see her. As it turns out, they switched me to the cash register and I was working right beside the table she was signing at all night. It was amazing but super distracting.

Whenever there weren't any customers in line, I tried to watch what she was doing. But once she saw me watching and I felt like a stalker, so I tried to do that less.

The first thing everyone was whispering as she walked in was "She is so tiny!" And she is. Not only short but so thin. And gorgeous. She still looks just like Dr. Quinn!

She made a little speech before she started signing about why she wrote the book. Everyone in the store went silent and I think we were all a bit mesmerized by her English accent. It felt wrong to even make the noise of wringing up people's purchases, beeping them through the scanner, and stuffing them in the plastic bags.

I was in a serious state of hyperactivity the whole time she was there (and I crashed big time after she left) . Whenever there was nothing to do I was wiggling or tapping on something or talking non-stop. I'm pretty sure the girl I was working with thinks I'm crazy.

At one point I rang up the books of the woman who apparently drove Jane there. I didn't believe her and I thought she was joking so of course I made a fool out of myself. It turns out she was one of the investors for the movie. Oops.

We had so many excited people come through the line. I had one man with a magazine with her on the cover that he stole from his sister in 1984, tons of Dr. Quinn fans, some guys who loved her as a Bond girl, women who love her jewelry line, and a few reluctant men sacrificing their night for the sake of their wives.

So, by the end of the night, I was desperate for my chance to meet her and suddenly it seemed like it may not happen. She was getting tired, her hand was cramping, and she needed to rest before filming that night from 1am to 5am. Yeah, that's right, 1-5. What could they possibly be filming at the lake from 1-5 at night. Anyway...

I was freaking out. One of my co-workers said, "Just go. They should let you past (the security guards) and I'll cover for you here." So I picked up my book and camera and ran. They put me through the line, my manager pushed me to the front, I threw my camera to the assistant manager, and handed Jane my book. I said "thank you so much" and she said "you're welcome". She signed my book, we flashed our smiles for the camera, and I'm pretty sure as I was sprinting off back to my post, I may have yelled "I love you!!!"

Embarrassing? Maybe. But it's ok. According to my autographed book, she loves me too!

A Happier Stomach

I've been having issues with my stomach since January. Issues like intense, long-lasting, ridiculous pain every few weeks or even every few days.

I went to the doctor in France to try to make it better. He asked if I was stressed (to which I replied "Of course, I'm living in a foreign country.") and then diagnosed this pain as the result of stress. The French are really big on psychosomatic illnesses.

I thought he was right at the time. It seemed to be the only explanation for this otherwise unpredictable thing.

I quit my theatre class (which involved me driving into Marseille during rush hour, convinced each time that that was the day I would die) and lived with the worry that every time anything nerve-wracking would occur, I would be in pain as well.

While I was over there it happened a lot. And it was miserable.

But then I came home. For the first few weeks, and even now, being at home was the least stressful thing I have ever experienced. I literally did nothing for days at a time. It was boring for sure, but not stressful. But still I had days of pain. I decided that this had to be dealt with.

So I went to my doctor. I described what was going on and she said she didn't feel like it was just stress. So we did blood tests and only came up with one slightly unusual thing. So she referred me to a specialist. He asked questions, poked and prodded, and then had me scheduled for a biopsy of my stomach.

I was terrified of the biopsy. The plan was to put me to sleep, stick a camera down my throat, and take out a piece of my stomach. Yikes! I'd never had anesthesia before and I was not looking forward to it.

It turns out that it was fine. Kinda fun actually. I remember parts of that day like they were a dream and that's kind of amusing.

But after all that, they didn't find anything wrong.

So I had an ultrasound. That was fascinating. I got a good look at my kidneys, spleen, and other various organs, but so far, it looks like everything is fine there too.

I am so frustrated! I obviously don't want them to find anything seriously wrong, but I know something is going on and I want to know what it is. But the pains have been a lot less frequent these past few months. What if the French doctor was right and it was just stress, or maybe something about the food, or some other random thing? Did I waste all this time and money on nothing?