I Threw Away My Shot...Twice!

I’m cheating a bit here and copying my Facebook post from July 18, 2022. We were in Copenhagen at the time. But you’ll see why I’m only posting it now, down at the bottom.

Youguysyouguysyouguys!! So, yesterday when we were having drinks with our friends Nick and Tammy in Nyhavn, I caught a glimpse of a guy who looked familiar. Very familiar. I did a double take and then kinda couldn't take my eyes off him. I like to think I was smiling at him, but I might have just looked like a squinting slackjawed yokel.

But he definitely saw me looking and gave me the tiniest knowing nod and smile. I still wasn't sure if he was who I thought he was, but the nod led me to believe that it I was right.

I didn't want to interrupt what was clearly family time, with his two sons and some other family members. Also, I didn't want to look crazy, and I'm notoriously bad at facial recognition, so I left him alone. And I forgot about it till morning.

When I remembered, I mentioned it to the kids, who gave me shit for being a wimp and not saying hi.

And then today, we all went to Tivoli Gardens (an amusement park). The kids were waiting in line for a ride, and Mike went to go chat with them while they waited. He came running over to tell me that the same guy was there, right next to him and the kids. And that, yes, it was definitely who I thought it was.

I was on the opposite side of a field from them at that point, so I would've had to run like a crazy person to say hi myself. But I waved to the kids to do it because if they were gonna give me shit about wimping out, then they sure as hell shouldn't.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, Sagan walked up to him and asked, "Are you Lin-Manuel Miranda?" And he answered, "Some days I am." And my kids told him that they loved Hamilton and his songs, and he said "thanks" and smiled and went on his way with his kids.

And now I can die happy because I made eye contact with one of my favorite celebrities ever, and even made him smile (possibly by being a slackjawed yokel).

P.S. I'm not blogging this yet because I don't want to out him or his family's location while they travel. So y'all better hush your mouths on Twitter.

And now a P.P.S. from almost a month later:
I may regret not talking to LMM for the rest of my life. Then again, there’s no way I could have fit into one sentence how much his music has meant to me. Not just Hamilton, but of course mostly Hamilton.
It allowed me to introduce my love of musicals to each of my kids at different times, and bonus points to him for including so many Easter eggs from my other favorite musicals.
It taught me more about our country’s history.
It got conversations going in our house about laws, war, marriage, psychology, women’s rights, clothing, slavery, race, and music.
I have listened to the entire soundtrack countless times at this point, and I still can’t begin to comprehend how the actors can sing “Quiet Uptown” without falling apart the entire time. I haven’t become numb to it yet and still cry every single time I hear it. After the Uvalde shooting, I let myself listen to that particular song a couple times in a row while I had a cathartic sob of my own, for all the families living with the unimaginable. I’ve enjoyed introducing Hamilton to my kids, sister, mom, friends, and even my kids’ friends.
The best was introducing it to Mike, who isn’t into musicals and who at first just let me download a few of the more upbeat ones onto his phone. He listened to them on shuffle, so when we got a chance to see the play in person, at intermission he happily said, “Wow, there’s a storyline!”
Now that we’re on this 6-month travel adventure, I fully plan to incorporate Hamilton into my homeschooling. I bet you could create a damn good curriculum around it, honestly. (Maybe math would have to be something with all the different time signatures, but that’s above my pay grade for either music or math.)
I would also want to tell him how I ignored the buzz around Hamilton for a long time, because I’m not typically into hip-hop and who the hell cares about Alexander Hamilton?? But I love Saturday Night Live and will watch even when the host is some guy whose name I don’t know. So when he hosted and did the SNL version of his own song for his monologue, I was hooked. Downloaded the entire album during the commercial break and never looked back.
There’s no way I’d also get to the music from Moana or Encanto or even the fundraiser song for the hurricane in Puerto Rico. (Yes, of course I bought that one, too!) Or to how much I love all the actors from the original cast. Mike knows I might leave him for Daveed Diggs someday, or Christopher Jackson. Or hell, any of the Schuyler sisters. Lin himself is too cute with his own wife and kids, so I’d never mess with that. I’m no Maria Reynolds. ;)
So I make myself feel better about not speaking to him, because I would have been a fumbling, bumbling mess of words and maybe would have nervous-puked on him, too. But maybe someday he’ll google himself and come across this blog post on page 300 in the search results, and he’ll know that I love him.