Dhani Tackles the Office: The Blog

Last Monday afternoon, I'm sitting in a "meeting" with a consultant at my desk when I see an e-mail ghost up in the corner of my computer screen from corporate communications with the subject line "Dhani Jones."  The e-mail said:

 

Dhani Jones, Bengals linebacker and Renaissance man who “Tackles the Globe” on the Travel Channel, will visit our office Wednesday afternoon. He will be available around 2:30 for a Meet and Greet in the Fun Room, where he will autograph photos and answer your questions. Plan to stop by and welcome Dhani.

 Wednesday was going to be a very exciting day, since we don't get celebrities in our office very much, even though we own the Food Network and Travel Channel. Ice cream sandwiches and cookies were provided that afternoon, because while not everyone is impressed with meeting a celebrity, everyone LOVES free snacks.

I'm trying to bring the jazz hand revolution to the mid-west and was totally doing jazz hands while he was signing his head shot for me. Unfortunately, the lady I had given my camera to take my picture isn't so good with candid shots. Fortunately, my friend and co-worker JM was there and she snapped a shot of half my jazz hands. 

Meeting a celebrity. He wanted all us married ladies to change our Facebook profile pictures to us with him.

Once everyone had gotten pictures and autographs, Dhani ate an ice cream sandwich then sat down in one of our Kermit-the-Frog skinned chairs for a little Question and Answer session. Here's the list




 of questions and the answers:

• Has he talked to Chad Ochocinco since Chad got kicked off of Dancing with the Stars? (Yes, this was actually the first question in the little Q&A session) Answer: No, he isn’t back in town yet. I guess they are not BFFFFFFs that talk daily.

• Would he ever do Dancing with the Stars? He would if the producers actively pursued HIM but he would not actively pursue it. He thinks it’s a great opportunity, blah blah blah, but he would rather go to Paris for the weekend rather than do dance training all weekend.

• Does he have a thing for boots?  Yes. He showed us his brand new boots then told us about how he had a custom made pair that looks like a pair of boots from Romeo and Juliet. He also has a pair of boots with big cats (Bengals) on the back.

• Does he like kitties, if so, what kind? Yes. Panthers and other big jungle cats....RAWR. (He really did give a RAWR!)

• Does he have any tattoos? No…but he wants one on his left side…he pointed to almost right under his armpit.

Notice how none of these questions are football related.  My manager did ask him if the Bengals were going to the Super Bowl this year. (His answer was "that is the plan.”) He didn't seem like he wanted to talk about the Bengals either. 


JM saw him as she was leaving for the day, and said he and his agent were just walking down the street. No limo. No mob of people. Just 2 regular dudes taking a stroll in downtown Cincinnati.

Have you ever met a celebrity? If so, what were they like?