My husband and I invented the game “Celebrity Basketball.” We were at a Lakers Game when we got the idea, and it’s pretty basic. For every celeb sighting you get points: 2 points for a b-lister and 3 points for an A-lister, according to Joe’s rating system. But according to my version, the more obscure the celebrity, the more points you get. I mean, Jack Nicholson? Come on, who hasn’t seen him - two points. But Matthew Modine…he’s a three for sure.
“But that’s not Modine,” Joe told me after I pointed him out.
“It is. Pay up.”
“How do you know?”
“The bangs.”
“Cynthia, the fact that, a) you even know who Matthew Modine is, b) you can spot him across a stadium, and c) have analyzed his hairstyle should be a penalty. But here’s your damn quarter.”
The real reason I can spot Matthew Modine across a stadium, of course, is because he represents all I want to be and exactly who I’m not. He’s low profile enough to be cool, and popular enough to get third row seats at a Lakers game.
I am neither of those things.
Sure, there was that one time I was recognized in a Target bathroom with shit all over my hands as I changed Benji’s diaper, and then again by my dentist after I asked (cried) for a prescription for Xanax.
But not exactly third-row-seat status.
So when I received an invitation to the set of Jim Henson Company’s new PBS program Dinosaur Train – an invitation for my children to be included in one of their episodes, I accepted. Despite the fact that my kids are somehow in higher demand than I am and they don’t even like basketball.
But, hey - if they’re my train to Modine status, Toot, Toot. I’m aboard.
When we arrived to the set, Jim Henson’s daughter, Lisa – now the CEO of her late dad’s production company - greeted us. We were then introduced to the creator, the writer and, finally, Dr. Scott – the paleontologist whose purpose on the show is to get kids outside to learn, to explore and to grow.
It was a beautiful thing to see such commitment to our future generation, using science as a backdrop to their lives. Seriously, after yesterday, I’m convinced that the Jim Henson Company is a better mother than I am. And Dr. Scott is probably a better father than Joe. Every nanosecond of film they shot, animated, and voice-overed made my kids more informed human beings - more sensitive, more aware.
Look, I get unsolicited vibrators in the mail, personalized diaper bags, jewelry with my kids’ names on them, all with the hope of a little mention on here, which, of course, no one reads anyway (my web guy can substantiate this). As I think we’ve covered - on a scale of me to Matthew Modine, I am, well…nobody.
But despite my no-big-deal status, I’d like to think that I’m the real deal, so I’m here to tell you there’s a new team in town. And Dinosaur Train is all-star, all net and on all day September 7 on PBS.
All aboard or I’m calling Jack. 
