Random Excursions & Scary Russian Men

It's funny what happens when you take random excursions during a lunch break. Especially on a random Tuesday, which happened to be today.

My friend, we'll call A. until she can think of a nickname, needed to go to this place to buy an item associated with one of Will Ferrell's many characters. So we took our lunch break and made the drive over to said place. Now on a Tuesday at 12:30 PM this place was definitely NOT hoppin' with the trendy LA crowd because (a) we weren't actually IN LA and (b) I don't make enough money to hang out with the "trendy crowd." But I digress.

We took a turn into the awesome (read: shady) parking lot and made our way inside. As we walked in, I looked to my immediate right out of habit to scope out the scene and to my surprise, there was someone in there that wasn't an employee. (As you might have guessed this wasn't an eating establishment.) This person was standing there with his back to me and in my head I thought, "That... kinda... looks like Dustin Brown." I then took a couple of very conspicuous steps forward to get a better angle, and yes, and it was definitely Brownie.

I turn to my left to tell A. who the only other customer in the store was and we proceeded toward the merchandise. After spending some time perusing, she made the purchase and we walked toward the exit where Brownie was standing and all A. said was, "I'm gonna talk to him. Watch this." She walked right up to him and said, "Hello. I just want to say we're looking forward to next season and see you in Vegas." (Frozen Fury reference) His face turned into one gigantic smile and he said, "Thanks!" As we turned to walk out one employee said to him, "Next season? Do you play sports?" Whereupon he said, "Yeah, I play for the Kings."

Signed, sealed, delivered.

*****

Interestingly enough, I got back to work and immediately let my homie Cat know that I just saw my Power Forward at the store. About 30 minutes later, I get a text from her saying, "sergei zubov is at best buy. what do i do???" After much texting and waiting, I finally get her story, which is summed up quite nicely below.


What do you do when you see a totally awesome, very Russian, very frightening hockey player at Best Buy? I'll tell you what you do.

You run away.

I was at Best Buy today, heading to Geek Squad to get my iPod fixed. The line at Geek Squad was exceptionally long for a Tuesday afternoon at 4pm. I turn to look at the entrance (I'm one of those people that can't look in one direction for too long, I like familiarizing myself with my environment), and I see one Mr. Sergei Zubov step towards the carts, carrying...An iron? Okay, that's cool.

I spent some time meandering the store, debating on whether or not I could afford to purchase a 1TB external hard drive when I'm trying to save up for a trip, and also debating whether or not I want to walk up to Mr. Zubov and congratulate him on an incredible run this season. Connie had just told me about Dustin Brown, and right before I walked out the door I said "I hope I run into some Dallas Stars today to congratulate them!"

Yeah, I should have been more specific.

It could have been anyone else. Anyone else, I would have no fear walking up to them and congratulating them and thanking them. Sergei Zubov? Is too frightening. He seems like the kind of man who appreciates his privacy and the ability to walk around without people freaking out. I wanted to respect that, but I also wanted to respect him as a player and thank him for a wonderful playoff run.

I left Best Buy without an iPod (Geek Squad had to send it off for fixage), and sort of regretting not speaking to Mr. Zubov. Why couldn't it have been Marty Turco?

Cross-posted to A Queen Among Kings