The Dermatological Encounter
For a long while I was having problems with itchiness on my hands, particularly in the winter and even more so when I would wash my hands with hot water — or even just do the dishes with appropriately hot water. It unfortunately seemed cyclical, because despite the warning signs (the water was hot enough to get a little steam and my hands got painful red rashes) I did nothing to try to change things, until one day when it just got to be too much and I made an appointment to see a dermatologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in late 2017. I was a little biased in making the appointment there because I work in one of the administrative offices.
There I was filling out all the requisite paperwork when I suddenly saw a very familiar person walk in with his family. No, I thought to myself, no way could it be…
“Tracy Morgan,” he said — because he was Tracy Morgan and of course he would do that. He was with his wife and four year old daughter.
I debated taking a photo — they say if you don’t see it on the magical place called the internet… it may not have happened… but then I decided against it. The man has a doctor’s appointment, how rude would that be of me? Celebrities. They really are just like us.
He looked over at me and I asked, “How’s it going?” and he said he was doing alright. We then proceeded to have an actual conversation (he did speak a bit more but between us he’s the comedian) and then I was called in. I reached out my hand and said “It was nice meeting you” and he shook my hand, firm grip of course. Would you expect anything less from Tracy Morgan? “Don’t worry man, you’ll be alright,” he said as I headed into the office.
The person who took me to the examination room told me he had come before and he was easy going and cool about people asking for photos. I felt the fool for not asking. “He may still be out there when you leave.”
Before the doctor came in I sent my wife a few text messages about what had happened and how I had not wanted to even take my phone out of my pocket while we were talking for not wanting him to think I was just another person wanting to take a hundred photos and actually took him in as a fellow person with whom I could have a human interaction.
I had my appointment and the doctor prescribed me a couple of topical creams. Tracy was still sitting there when I left. He saw me and gave me a thumbs up. “I told you you’d be fine!” he said.
“That was very nice of you to wait for me,” I said.
I asked if he had anything coming up on Hulu or Netflix and he said no but he has a show coming out on TBS. The Last O.G., he said, and I told him that we would definitely watch it.
I mentioned that my three year old daughter loves the color pink — his daughter was dressed in pink from head to toe, pink Ugg boots that were actually okay looking.
I got bundled up and was about to leave and I turned him and said, “My wife and I are huge fans of yours… would it be okay if I asked for a photo?”
“You wanna do a selfie, man? Sure, let’s do a selfie.”
So I did. Excuse the potato quality of the photo. I’ve never until today met a celebrity who wanted to engage with me in an honest to G-d conversation.
