I got to meet Baker Mayfield yesterday! So many things had to go right for that to happen, so this is that story.
Kendall and I are in Austin this week/weekend for a PRSSA trip. We are staying with my aunt DeeDee and uncle Paul at their house, instead of at the hotel with the rest of the group (saving $$$ and also I just love my aunt and uncle a lot.)
Last night the rest of our group was going out to eat, but since they were staying a little outside of Austin, Kendall and I decided to forego the group dinner at a Mongolian restaurant and eat somewhere closer instead. Lucky twist #1: Kendall and I decided to do something different from the rest of the group. We chose The Grove, a wine bar with two locations: one downtown and one closer to my aunt and uncles house. Kendall and I initially didn’t want to go out yesterday since she had to do some research summaries for her psychology class. Lucky twist #2: Kendall dropped her psychology class yesterday, so suddenly we were free to go out last night. Lucky twist #3: we chose The Grove downtown location so we would be closer to the night life scene of downtown Austin, even though the other location was technically closer to home.
Dinner was good! We spilt a frosé and had a good time. Kendall decided she wanted dessert at the end, and even though I wasn’t hungry, I didn’t want to be left out. So I ordered dessert, too. (Side note: my slice of cake ended up being $9 and was definitely overpriced. But in the grand scheme of things, I’m gonna let it slide.) Because lucky twist #4: our dessert delayed our leaving The Grove. We had looked up bars on Yelp but nothing looked super great, tbh. As we were leaving just to meander down 6th Street, we saw a man sitting at a Grove table on the patio with a really cute puppy. He saw us staring at the cute dog, so he invited us over to pet him. We found out that he lived nearby and asked for a bar recommendation, and he gave us one. Lucky twist #5: we took a bar recommendation from a stranger with a really cute dog.
I am not really a bar person, so the whole experience was pretty unfamiliar to me. Kendall and I saw two open seats initially but for some reason felt compelled to pass them up (lucky twist #6) and sat at two other empty ones a little further down the bar. Kendall is engaged (woo my first friend getting married!) so she told me to take the chair next to the guys at the bar because I was “the single one.” Since I just wanted a fruity cocktail and wasn’t in the mood to be flirted with, I didn’t look at who I was sitting next to.
The bartender had a Baker Mayfield shirt on. I own shirts from Baker Mayfield’s brand so I recognized it, and complimented him on it. (Lucky twist #7?) Little did I know…
About five minutes later and half a drink in, Kendall turns to me and says “the guy next to you kinda looks like Baker Mayfield. Actually, a lot like Baker Mayfield.” I turn and look. Realization starts to hit me. I slowly turn back to Kendall. I look at Baker. I look at Kendall. We’re star struck.
I tap Baker on the shoulder. “We’re from OU! Can we get a picture with you?” I wasn’t going to let this pass me by. “Sure!” he says. He was very patient and let us take multiple each, with flash and without flash. A homie.
We were still sitting next to each other at the bar, so I took my chance and asked him some of the questions I had always wanted to know.
“Do you think Jalen will win the Heisman?” “I sure hope so.”
“Does the band play ‘Boomer’ too much?” “Yeah. It should only be played for celebrations.”
“What’s your Norman bar recommendation?” “Logie’s, for sure.”
He was so cool! He also talked to Kendall about her upcoming wedding and his engagement since they happened around the same time. He was there with his brother Matt, so I showed them the selfie I took with Matt at the Rose Bowl (the borderline weirdest thing I did, admittedly.) They were both so cool and didn’t mind talking to us about random things we thought to ask them.
After about an hour we decided we shouldn’t press our luck anymore and decided to leave (we had agency visits starting at 10 am this morning anyways.) So we said bye, and that it was such a pleasure to meet him, and took an Uber ride back home.
We are planning on going to 6th Street again tonight, but I feel like it’ll just be a disappointment. Baker Mayfield probably won’t be sitting next to me at every bar.
The biggest takeaway my mom got from this whole scenario? “Sometimes, you just need to order dessert.”
Selfies & OOTDs 