See that picture, I actually kinda-sorta know the person who took it.  But we’ll get to that in a moment.  First I have to tell you about this blogger I love, that, basically, everyone loves, and she goes by the name of The Bloggess.  If you don’t know her you need to get to knowing her quick, because she’s just so damn funny.  She’s like my blogging hero.  Seriously, when I grow up, I wanna be a blogger just like her.  That’s how much I love her. 

So imagine my surprise when I logged onto her website and saw these AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL photographs taken by this photographer named Chookooloonks, AKA Karen Walrond, which is the exact same Karen Walrond who writes the column Through The Gadling Lens that’s featured on Gadling.com, which is the exact same travel web site that features my very own column, Galley Gossip, which means that I’m like kinda-sorta connected to my blogging hero!  Which is crazy.

Before I finished reading the post, I emailed Karen…OMG – YOU KNOW THE BLOGGESS!  I’M IMPRESSED, REALLY IMPRESSED – HOLY SHIT THAT’S HUGE!  BRING YOUR CAMERA TO CHICAGO BECAUSE YOU’RE PHOTOGRAPHING ME NEXT!

She is!  I’ll make sure of it.  And then I’ll use the photo for my author photo when I finally get that book deal. 

Ya see, Karen and I are going to be in Chicago next month at the same time.  She’s going to the Blogher conference and I’ll be at The Travel Blog Exchange conference where I’m actually supposed to be speaking on a panel with some pretty impressive travel writers, which is just totally weird, considering I’m not really an impressive travel writer, but that’s another story.  This story is about Karen and how she mentioned meeting for drinks in Chicago after we began emailing back and forth about who had the worst ex-boyfriend story.  Karen won.  Even though I shared the story about the UN Guy I briefly dated who had a baby mama in Iceland.   I’d tell you about Karen’s crazy ex, but it’s her story so I ought to let her tell it.

For whatever reason, Karen’s story reminded me of the time I had Tito Jackson on board a flight and how after the flight he left a voice mail on my answering machine.  He wanted to know if I’d like to go to a concert.  His three sons were in a band at the time and they were playing in New York that night.  I didn’t go.  I didn’t even return Tito’s call.  But I did save the message.  Karen seemed impressed.  I say this because it was after I brought up the whole Tito story she mentioned meeting for drinks in Chicago.  All I can say is thank god for Tito.         

Now back to the Bloggess, which means back to Karen, who wrote…That’s funny.  She’s a very close friend.  I’ll let her know you love her, which caused me to write, NO DON’T! And I meant it.  Because I’m shy about the people I love, which is what I told Karen, who wrote back, She’s actually very shy herself (despite how she writes!), and it will mean a lot.  Well I doubt that, but if it is true, it’s really cool, because that would mean not only am I connected to The Bloggess through Karen, we actually have a lot in common…being that we’re both shy and all.

Talk about a small world.