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Jamie Meets George in Lousiana
Thanks to Jamie for sharing her fun experience of seeing George in Cameron, Lousiana on December 20th. Please don’t remove the photos or articles from Clooney Network. However, you can click on each image for a larger version. 
“I wouldn’t go all that way to drool over someone.” That was the exact words my Husband said when I told him that I was thinking about going to see George Clooney in Louisiana that Wednesday. The problem here was that I would go all that way to drool over someone.
I found out on Clooneynetwork.com that Monday night that George Clooney and George Bush Sr. were scheduled to be in Cameron, Louisiana on Wednesday, December 20th. My first thought was that was as close to me as he was ever going to get. Then my mind went into overdrive and left me in the dust. If I could get my Mom on board there was nothing keeping me from going down there and seeing George Clooney. The major problem with that was Mom being scheduled to work that day. I, myself, would quit my job and live the life of a vagabond if it meant that I got to stand within a few feet of George Clooney. So I was good. When I called Mom I braced myself for the let down. If she couldn’t go I knew there was no way I could go. My mind almost couldn’t process the sentence, “I was going to call in anyway.”
So here we were. We didn’t decide immediately whether or not to go. Instead I thought about it all throughout my 8 hour work day. I thought about it all throughout my daughters Girl Scout meeting. It was the subject of many discussions with friends. Earlier that day, Mom had made me call the Cameron Police Department to confirm that George was actually going to be there. The last thing we needed was to drive the length of Louisiana and him not be there. A very excited lady named Debbie confirmed that he was going to be there. It was about 7:30 PM that night when we made the final decision to go. Another 3 hours later we actually began our road trip. We dubbed it (brace yourself), “Clooney Quest”.
She drove for awhile. When her eyes got tired, I drove. I also prayed a lot. I prayed the truck wouldn’t break down, or that none of the tires would go flat. I prayed that a deer wouldn’t jump in front of the truck, or that I wouldn’t fall asleep, and around 5 in the morning, I prayed for a place to eat. I am convinced that, in the remote area of Louisiana we were traveling through, the cops clocked out at 5 and went home for the day. So you know that there were no eating places open and we were starving.
All of my prayers were answered that morning. The final being answered when we found the Waffle Shoppe. My Mom, thinking she was English Royalty, sat down to a four course meal. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see her chuck a leg bone over her shoulder. She also drank lots of coffee. As I attempted to sleep while she drove, it dawned on me how much coffee she had guzzled. I can’t really tell you what she talked about, only that she talked a lot.
Cameron, Louisiana is as far south in Louisiana as you can go without running into the Gulf of Mexico. It is a small town in a very secluded area. Cameron, Louisiana was almost wiped off the face of the Earth. I wish that I was a proficient enough writer and could convey to you how ugly the scars of Hurricane Rita are. It had been a year and peoples houses and lives were still destroyed. There is still not much relief. The people and the land have still not recuperated.
When we pulled into Cameron we were exhausted. The local motel was still under construction, but the owner assured us he had a room. While we went to the ATM, we decided to do a drive by. We drove to the courthouse where the ceremony was going to be held so we could scope things out. I chatted with a local cop who thought we were nuts for driving all that way. He then informed us that Clooney had cancelled because of a cold. Certain things just aren’t funny when the only hour of sleep you had was in a truck driven by a mad, chatty woman. He started laughing and I slapped him on the arm. I was going in again when I realized that Zsa Zsa Gabor had been arrested for something similar. He was still shaking his head laughing when we left back for the motel.
After a nice hot shower and about an hour of lying in bed waiting to fall asleep, it occurred to me that I was too excited to go to sleep. Mom couldn’t sleep because of all the coffee. We got up, beautified ourselves, and went outside into the rain. The rain immediately let it be known to both me and my Mom that our hair was not going to hold any curl anywhere. I am pretty sure I heard my bangs sob. We ate a breakfast of burgers and nachos and decided to go and visit Debbie at the courthouse. I had told her the previous day that if we decided to drive down I would come and see her. Imagine my surprise, and Debbie’s, when it came out that we had never talked. Apparently, someone who was not Debbie had used her name. It was a mystery that the entire office tried, without success, to solve. They did, however, have an enjoyable time ribbing us about coming from Arkansas to see George Clooney.
We left them and went to stake out our place on the bleachers. The seats in the middle were reserved for the staff of the hospital that was destroyed. They were some of the first people there. After that, there was nothing to do but wait. School buses arrived. More people came. Coast Guard helicopters flew overhead and dazzled the crowd because we all knew the 2 Georges were getting closer. Then, it was getting close to time to begin.
The thing you must understand about my Mom is that at this point, she is just not a real big George Clooney fan. She doesn’t dislike him, per se, but she’s just a Ben Affleck girl. In fact, when there were plans
for Clooney to open a casino in Las Vegas, the only way I could con her into going was to say that Ben Affleck was going to be there at the opening. Yes, I did and yes, it worked. It is at this particular junction on our Clooney Quest that my Mom almost got the crowd into hysterics. She thought she saw him so she pointed and declared, “Look, there he is.” It was, in fact, not.
I thought the 2 Georges would be there throughout the whole ceremony, but they weren’t. They broke for a reception for the luckiest hospital staff in the entire world. Everyone sitting in a white chair had about an hour to schmooze with Clooney and Bush. I was wishing I was a nurse. Plus, my butt was really numb.
I was grateful to have my Mom there because it was as close to being in two different places at once as I was going to ever get. She went down on the ground to get a good shot of him coming out of the courthouse. My numb butt whimpered as I forced it to stay seated so I could get the stage shots and guard our seats.
I knew George had walked out when the crowd started screaming and clapping. I couldn’t immediately see him because the stage was in my way. When he didn’t appear on the stage for a few minutes it dawned on me that he was walking the perimeter greeting the crowd. My Mom was fuming at me when she got back to the bleachers. She had gotten to shake Clooney’s hand and I was the reason we had came. So I took a couple of shots of him sitting down and passed the camera off to Mom. I bestowed the honor of getting
the speech shots to her and made my way down to the perimeter rope. The rumor floating around was that after the speeches and money was donated, he and the President would make their way around the perimeter greeting the crowd. Sure enough, when I got there I heard the sheriffs department saying that Clooney wasn’t suppose to go around the first time like he did. It had caught them a little off guard.
I wish I could say that I heard the speeches but I was too involved in a conversation I was having with a group of 12 year olds. They were ecstatic! He had autographed the one girl’s notebook and posed for a photo with them. What none of us knew right then while we were jumping up and down (yes, me too) was that picture of them with Clooney would be in the paper the next day bigger than life. It was a good picture.
As predicted, after the speeches the 2 Georges came down to greet the line. The only problem was that I was at the wrong end of the line. It became apparent after a few minutes that they were not going to be coming down my way. I hustled my way to the end of the line and commenced to ducking and weaving. You duck so a person’s camera arm doesn’t smack you in the head as they raise their camera and you weave your way in while others weave their way out.
Victory was mine to be had when I finally reached the front of the line. George was 3 feet from me and inching my way. The impatient crowd, however, was pushing his way and I was losing my balance. Of course, you know the person in front gets in trouble for the crowd surging forward. Secret Service or body guard, I have not a clue, but he asked me to step back. I am wondering where he thinks I was going to step back to? In the end, I was just grateful I didn’t fall on George because it was getting a little
hairy there for a minute.
Then, it happened. Clooney shook my hand and looked me square in the eyes, just like all the other people whose hands he had shook said he would. If he shook your hand, he looked you in the eye. Victory was indeed very sweet.
Clooney and Bush retreated back into the courthouse after a long while. I didn’t find out until about an hour later that Diane Sawyer was there. She was interviewing them inside the courthouse and it aired the morning after on Good Morning America. I kept hearing people mention the Producer, but I had no idea who they were referring to. Jerry Weintraub was there, but I had no idea what he looked like so I missed the chance to schmooze with him. It was sometime later when they exited the courthouse. Most people had left, but there was still a small crowd milling about. George came out and took a picture with some small children and then regrettably informed us that he couldn’t hold the President up. It was obvious he would have stayed as long as it took to please everyone. He was warm and receiving. He was also very handsome. After enduring my Mom telling me the whole trip down there not to be too disappointed when I saw him because celebrities never look the same as they do in the movies, I was pretty annoyed at how handsome he actually was. It is just not fair for one person to have all that personality and good looks to boot. I was also annoyed because the entire way home all Mom, the Ben Affleck girl, could talk about was how handsome George Clooney was. I haven’t asked, but I am pretty sure nonetheless, that my Mom is now the George Clooney girl.
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