So I was in Target on Sunday with the boys. They both got gift cards for Jacob’s birthday last week (they didn’t want Matteo to feel totally left out for his brother’s birthday, so they got him something too, which is kinda cool), and I got to take them to the store so they could spend them.
Guess who we ran into in the Lego aisle?
Ok, this is a totally weirdass coincidence…it was the dude who wrote that good Bitcoin blog I told you about a few years ago. The one me and Keaton met in Disneyland when the Mexican family was singing him the Mexican Birthday Song, and who I then ran into on his birthday the next year at the Starbucks near where Keaton used to live. I didn’t run into him last year (no one was going out in May of last year), but, well, there he was on his birthday this year in Target, looking at Lego sets. He was in a Corey Seager shirt and a cool Dodgers hat in like a raspberry color with a light blue brim. I know, it sounds kinda gayass, but the dude was totally rockin it. Sometimes I wish I could wear pink and not feel totally gay lol.
He looked at me puzzled for a couple seconds, not like he was checking me out, but like he was trying to figure out why I looked familiar. I get that a lot, actually; I’ve decided it’s normal when you’re on TV. Only thing is you can’t offer to shake hands and say: “I’m Hunter Block; you know me because I’m on At Home with Maya.” You gotta let the other person figure it out.
On the other hand, I recognized him, so I was able to start the conversation:
“Hey…I don’t know if you remember me…we met at Disneyland a few years ago on your birthday…and, I know it’s a totally weirdass coincidence, but isn’t it your birthday again today?”
“Yes it is.”
“Happy birthday.”
“Thanks,” the dude said, still looking puzzled, although I got the feeling that he’s like me and likes it when people remember your birthday. “And…you’re…oh, duh…you’re on At Home with Maya. I can’t believe you remembered me, though.”
“Hey, how often do you keep running into a dude on his birthday?” I put my hand out, then pulled it back. “Wait…have you been vaccinated?”
“Yeah,” he said, putting his hand out for me to shake. The dude definitely knows how to shake hands.
“I’m glad we can go back to doing that,” he said. “Now we need to get rid of these fuckin masks. I mean, we’ve been vaccinated, haven’t we? We can’t get it, we can’t pass it on…so what’s the point? If you ask me, masks are the MAGA hats of the left.”
I burst out laughing. It was funny. And he was right.
“Oh,” I said, remembering that I was with the boys, “this is Matteo and Jacob.”
“Of course,” the dude said, “I know you from the show. I gotta admit that I don’t watch every episode, but it’s pretty good for reality TV. You a Lego fan?,” he asked Jacob, who was holding a Lego box and looking at it pretty closely.
“Yeah,” Jacob said.
“They both are,” I said. “But it’s seriously Jacob’s thing.”
“You like Lego?,” Jacob asked the dude, a little surprised. It was then that I noticed the dude was holding a black box of legos.
“Yeah,” he said. “Mostly the Architecture sets, but I do some of the others too. They had a Mini Cooper a few years ago. I built that one. The Architecture sets are a little easier to get away with as a grown-up. They’re more ‘serious’.”
“Which one do you have there?,” Jacob asked.
“Trafalgar Square,” the dude said. “It’s a big square in London.”
“It says 12+,” Matteo said, “so you can get it.”
“I just turned 12 last week,” Jacob explained to the dude. He picked up a box just like the one the dude was holding. “Looks like a pretty awesome build” said Jacob, studying the back of the package.
“What have you been doing?,” I asked the dude. “You know, I check out your blog every once in a while. You haven’t posted anything recently.”
“No,” he said. “I’ve been too busy writing other people’s blogs.”
I reckon I looked pretty puzzled. I mean, I have a blog, but I thought the whole point was to write your own.
“Yeah,” the dude continued, “believe it or not, not everybody writes their own blog. Mostly it’s a business thing: people need fresh content on their sites – Google likes that – and they don’t have the time or the wherewithal to write their own shit. So they hire people like me.”
“I guess that makes sense,” I admitted after I thought about it. “I have someone who writes my Twitter account for me.” Still, it seemed weird that someone would write a whole blog while pretending to be someone else.
“Have you built this one?,” Jacob then asked the dude, holding up another set. They then got into a very technical conversation about legos that I wasn’t entirely able to follow. Matteo got in the on the action too after a while. I didn’t know grown-ups played with legos, but, I reckon they must have an adult audience: building a model of Trafalgar Square is probably something a grown-up is gonna want to do more than a kid. And, hey, I’m a grown-up who makes his living from a boys’ game…so who am I to judge lol?
I didn’t want the boys holding the dude up, so I interrupted after like 5 minutes; Jacob can talk about legos forever. We wished the dude a happy birthday, and he went off with the Trafalgar Square set. That left Jacob wondering if he wanted the same set with his birthday Target money (Matteo had picked out what he wanted before we even ran into the Bitcoin dude.) He finally decided against Trafalgar Square (“it looks dang cool…but it’s all one color”) and got the Star Wars Imperial Shuttle set, which, if you ask me, was all one color too, but I reckon Star Wars is a lot cooler than some place in London he probably never heard of.
Maybe it’s time I sat down with the boys while they’re building with legos. Seems like I’m missing out on something there lol.
It is pretty dang weird how I keep running into that dude on May 23. Meemaw says there are no coincidences, but I’m not sure what it means that I keep crossing paths with the same dude. (And how come I never manage to catch his name?) But he looked like he was having a good birthday, and y’all know that I’m big on birthdays.
Mine’s November 8, in case y’all forgot. It’ll be here in no time.
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