For the most part I’m a pragmatist and a realist. I don’t believe in anecdotal evidence, I don't believe in the Loch Ness Monster, or that anybody has ever been abducted by alien’s and anally probed, or that Elvis is still alive, or that the Da Vinci Code is anything but clever fiction.
But here's something that you may not know about me...I believe in luck. I believe in luck because I have it. I have parking luck.
My parking luck is the ability to find a parking space as close as possible to whatever place I’m going. For instance if I need fish food I’ll always get the space just in front of the local PetSmart.
I would gladly trade my parking luck for lottery luck but I don’t think that luck can be traded. It’s just something that you have or don't have.
For instance, one of my best friends, Steve, has Sweepstakes luck. Over the last several years he has won trips to Switzerland, Vail, Italy, Puerto Rico, LA for the Hottest women of Maxim Party, as well as a trip to Mexico for himself and 30 of his best friends. He’s also won a full assortment of concert tickets and all kinds of swag like snowboards and golf clubs.
Now you are probably thinking that Steve spends 24/7 entering every sweepstakes under the sun. I’ve asked and he says no. What’s his secret? He tells me that if he happens to come across a contest that is offering something he likes, he’ll enter, but that’s it. He won’t go out of his way to enter a contest. I know the real reason he wins so much. He has sweepstakes luck.
Speaking of secrets and luck, in a former life I managed a restaurant. One day this large family comes in for dinner. They are celebrating a 100th birthday. The patriarch of the family is a spry and diminutive guy who does not look a day over 70. It turns out that he is turning 100 and they are celebrating this huge milestone date.
Here’s the sad part, he’s currently living with…get this…his daughter’s daughter, who is something like 60 herself. He has outlived all his children and he might just outlive his grand kids. Anyway as we bring out the blazing birthday cake (image 100 candles) to his table, I make an grand announcement that we have a octogenarian who is turning 100 in front of the entire restaurant. Everybody claps. In fact I recall that he even got a standing ovation.
So while all this is going on I lean over to him and whisper, “So what’s the secret to living to 100?” He turns to me and with a wry smile he says, “I smoke, I drink, but I don’t eat butter”
So there you have it. The secret to longevity is to smoke and drink like a cowboy in a wild west saloon but for god’s sake keep away from the buttered bread.
I suspect that real secret is that he has longevity luck.
At this point I should confess that I also have another form of luck. (Reader advisory: This is the only part of this story that has anything to do with endurance sports) One day, about 10 years ago, I was doing my usual half-hour stationary bike ride at the club when I noticed a rather attractive women on the bike next to me. At the time I had lots of work clients so I was trying to place her because she looked very familiar. After a while I gave up but it was then that I noticed the rather burly man in a dark suit standing behind her bike.
Now it was strange enough to see a big burly dude in a suit at the health club, but I also happen to notice that his suit jacket was open and exposing a rather large pearl handled gun.
In an instant, it dawned on me that this guy was a bodyguard and that the attractive young woman was Claudia Schiffer. Now it may seem strange to you that Claudia Schiffer was at my health club but you have to know the rest of the story. I was living in Prague in the Czech Republic at the time and my health club happened to be in the Intercontinental Hotel where Claudia was staying and filming her workout video.
Since that time my celebrity luck has only increased. Here are a few more examples.
- I’ve had dinner with the boys from U-2,
- I’ve bumped into the Rolling Stones,
- I’ve played golf with Sean Connery.
- I’ve had odd encounters with Hilary Clinton, Sigourney Weaver, Rob Schneider and even Fabio.
What is an odd encounter you ask? For instance I was at a local pizza place with a Irish friend when this tall guy in a overcoat walks in. As I’m ordering a pizza the tall guy asks me what’s good. I say that I like the vegitariano pizza (that’s an all vegetable pizza) he says great and orders one. I sit down and my Irish friend says, do you know who that was? No I say...some tall guy in an overcoat. He says no you dummy that was Liam Neeson.
So now you know that Liam Neeson likes vegetables on his pizza.
Perhaps my celebrity luck was strongest when I walked out to the hot tub at a hotel in Aspen. I notice that there were three other people in the tub. From behind at least one looked like a pretty attractive woman. I get in, look up, and I’m face to face with a bikini glad Cindy Crawford. I make some stupid remark like the water sure is warm. She agrees and I sit down in the tub trying not to stare.
After about 5 minutes she and her friends leave just as two big cigar-huffing Texans are heading into the tub. “Boy you know who that was?” they say with their jaws wide open. “Yea I know who that was” I reply. “I have celebrity luck.”
Editor's Note: Have you ever met a famous sports person, celebrity or personality? Send in your pics and I'll post them for all to see.
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