Unexpected and pleasant

The other day I was getting my nails done.
An elderly lady came in and sat down in the chair next to mine.
She smiled and said hello, I smiled back and said hello.
Andy was just about finished working on my nails when the elderly woman said "Oh my, your nails look beautiful"! I said "thank you, they do look nice". She seemed very pleasant.
At one point, she knocked over her diet coke and it spilled on the workstation where she was sitting. She and Donna (the lady working on her nails) quickly cleaned it up.
Every so often, I caught a glimpse of her looking at me and my nails and smiling.
When Andy finished my nails, I put my fingers toward the little fan to dry them.
Andy got up, thanked me, looked at the elderly woman and said "do you want to see a Kung Fu movie"?
The lady said "what"? I said "Kung Fu movie? Sure, turn it on".

I sat letting my nails dry. The lady looked at me and said "my niece is a movie star".
Honestly, I figured it was a nice old lady that was bragging about her niece (possibly a niece once or even twice removed).
I thought if I asked her who her niece is, that she would say someone I had never heard of then I would feel awkward for not knowing her. So, I just smiled at her.
When I did not ask her who, the lady said "Sandra Bullock"!
I was shocked it was someone that was so well known.

Without trying to appear starstruck, I said quietly "Oh, I love Sandra Bullock".
Our conversation went like this:
Lady: "She is a good girl. She doesn't like all of that celebrity stuff that goes on".
Me: "She does a good job of staying out of the tabloid".
Lady: "She doesn't go for all of that mess at all".
Me: "I think there is more respect for the celebrities that don't get involved in the tabloid".
Lady: "Yes, you are right".
Me: "Does Sandra ever come to Birmingham"?
Lady: "Well, her father just moved to Birmingham. He is my brother".
Me: (thinking ~ oh, she is Sandra's direct Aunt)
Lady: "She has been here twice since her father moved here".
Me: "I guess she can feel fairly comfortable walking around and doing things when she comes here, because the people here probably don't bother her".
Lady: "Oh, speaking of that, it was funny the last time she came here.
My brother called me and said 'you need to come by and get Sandra and take her to the antique store. She saw an advertisement in a magazine of an antique store in Homewood and has wanted to go ever since'.
The lady told her brother 'you know I am not crazy about antiques and I don't particularly like going to antique stores'.
He said 'well, you need to come by and get Sandra and take her because she has really been wanting to go'.
So I told him I would.
Apparently Sandra is just crazy about antiques. So, I went by and picked her up and we went to the antique store. Hmmm, I can't remember the name of that store. Anyway, we went inside and started looking around.
The people in the store started looking at her. Then someone came up to her and said 'hey, you know, you look like Sandra Bullock'! Then Sandra replied 'Oh? I look like Sandra Bullock?' "

We both laughed. I thought that was a clever response, not denying but not admitting!
At that point, someone that she had been with came in the nail shop to check on her. So our conversation ended.

There was a little nail small talk.
About that time, I checked my nails and they were dry, so I got up to leave. I thanked Andy and said goodbye to Andy and Donna, smiled at the lady, she smiled and said goodbye, and I said goodbye.

That made for a very interesting lunch hour. I felt as though I could have talked to her for hours. She was a very pleasant person, with an unexpected story.

Have a pleasant weekend!
~xo
Lee Ann