Alicia's Brush With Greatness

Okay . . . not even 15 minutes of fame - more like 15 seconds, but it was fun and I'm still dreaming about it, so I'll share for what it's worth.

In January (1998) a friend and I went to Vancouver for a few days. One afternoon we went to the spa at the hotel we were staying at and did the pampering thing. I was chatting about The X-Files with the woman who was doing my nails, and she said that some of the cast hung out at the hotel bar in the evenings. As I was leaving, she also mentioned there was a gorgeous guy working out in the gym and that I should swing by there and check him out on my way to the elevators. I'm not totally stupid, so I took her advice. Imagine my pulse rate when I came face to face with Nick Lea! Actually, not quite face to face, since he was sitting on the floor of the exercise room, stretching (one leg stretched out, one bent at the knee). Thunk!

He was wearing shorts (standard boxer-type athletic shorts, I think) and a t-shirt, socks and athletic shoes. A gold hoop in at least one ear. I said I was sorry to bother him, but I knew a lot of people would be glad to see him back on the show, and he said "Thanks, that's sweet." And smiled. Thunk! Thunk! I suppose it's really pathetic that that teeny-tiny interaction is now engraved on my brain, but boy! Is he cute! He’s much better looking in person than he is on TV.

Later that evening, we saw Nick, Steven Williams (Mr. X) and Laurie Holden (Marita Covarrubias) in the bar. I'm sorry to admit I don't remember exactly what Nick was wearing - casual clothes, black, I think (I have mental images of a leather jacket and black jeans, but maybe I've just been reading too much fanfic!); Steven Williams had on a long black leather coat and a small dangle earring. I had dreams of Nick saying hello and inviting us to join them for drinks, but they remained just that - dreams. Which is probably just as well, since it undoubtedly saved me from humiliating myself by saying or doing something totally stupid.

I think that's probably more bandwidth than my leetle adventure deserved, but there you have it.


- Alicia



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