Meeting my Idol, Jen Lancaster!!!

I love Jen Lancaster!! She has written five books (several listed on my blog page under great reads) and has the best blog site ever, Jennsylvania. I'm always recommending her books, and I love reading her blog - I have it linked on my blog (scroll down on your right and you'll see the link!).

She just released her newest book, "My Fair Lazy." I'm almost done reading it and then I'll post a review on here as well. It's great so far, I love reality shows and apparently so does Jen. She's trying to find some more class in her life, so she goes on these adventures to expand her horizons.

With her new book release comes a book tour. She came to the Barnes & Noble at Northwest Highway tonight. My friend Ashley (who I've made a Jen fan) and I decide to go down to the signing. We leave pretty early and get there. We find out we have to have tickets for the signing, we are group F (which is the sixth group of 25 to sign... yikes!!) We are able to get good seats and we wait for Jen.

She arrives at 7 on the dot - does a reading and answers some Q&A. She's just as witty and funny in person as she is in her books. One lady kept asking questions and she shut her down pretty quick!

While we were waiting for our turn, we got to meet "The Preppy Pink Twins" - they came in their pink polos and matching skirt/bermuda combo. Notice their cousin next to the them in the complimentary color ensemble. Apparently, Ashley and I did not give our wardrobe enough consideration.

Meet Nikki (left) and her friend _____. They met here last year at Jen's signing and became friends. Nikki is a hoot. I'm not sure I can even do her justice. She asked Jen which was her favorite VH1 programming was during the Q&A. Jen's answer: Rock of Love!! (Great question!)

Nikki wants to be a VH1 star. She's written to producers and even has recorded her own them song (she's way ahead of me, I've got a lot of ideas, but no action at all)! All I can say is.... if anyone from VH1 reads this blog, GIVE NIKKI A SHOW!! I would definitely watch it! (Ed.'s Note: Maybe she'd even let me be a sidekick on the show. Like my own 5-7 minutes of fame, ya know.)

Meet the Know-It-All Twins (below). They were sitting next to Ashley and I while we were waiting. Ashley went up to ask the Barnes and Noble employee some questions, when she got back and shared the answers, one of them said, "Jen ALWAYS says you can do that." So, what? Are you Jen's real friend? Because if you are, why are you in Group E to get your shit signed? I mean, if you are Jen's friend, wouldn't she just sign your stuff for the heck of it?

When they weren't making us feel bad for being virgins at the book signing, they were reading to each other Facebook statuses and playing Words with Friends. Wow - so impressive. I have an iPhone too.......

So after waiting for 2 hours, it's now our turn to get up to see Jen. I'm so nervous. I tell her that I love her blog and I have a blog too. I also tell her that Chris Harrison is my stepbrother. I wanted to sound so cool, but I'm sure I sounded like a total dumbass. She signed my book and it said, "Culture Up!"

After meeting the idol, we went to Cheesecake Factory and had dinner. As we were leaving at 10:45, it looked like Jen was still signing away. God bless her - she is good to her fans!!

So, Ashley and I learned some valuable lessons so that when Jen comes back in 2011, we can maximize our experience. Here goes our knowledge:

1. Send my Mom over during the day to pick up tickets, so we are in a higher group. We almost died of starvation waiting for Jen, but were too scared to leave in case we missed our group.
2. Charge the camera - Ashley at least had hers with her - I didn't. Too many great photo ops were lost because we weren't ready.
3. Bring all of my books - she'll sign any of her books - I just brought her most current book.
4. But witty comments on the stickies she uses to sign books - the lady in front of me wrote things like "To my BFF" and Jen actually wrote that with her signature! So I'm going to come up with all kinds of witty sayings too.
5. Facebook friend Nikki so that I can maximize my Nikki time - she is a treasure!

So... until May of 2011, Jen.........