Crap.

When did this happen? When did I turn 24? Well —  technically it happened on April 26, 2013 — but I’m still having trouble accepting that I am living in a Cyberspace age like 2013, let alone that I’m 24. I’m the baby — how could I actually be this old and remember my past as recent history? Sometimes I feel like I should be sitting in a rocker telling tales of the “golden days” to the “kids” of today. But that doesn’t seem right either because I feel like these birthdays are just creeping on me without so much as a notice, and I must be actually much younger!

That’s what it is.

I thought that I’d get some sort of prepped notice every year reminding me of all the events that took place in the last year, so that when the time came to turn another year older, I would actually feel like I had lived an entire year. Somehow time isn’t that forgiving, and there is no friendly reminder — just birthdays that make you wonder where the time is really going.

So, now I’m 24. Don’t ask me how it happened, but little ol’ me, the baby of the family, reached her “mid 20s.” And taking a few minutes to actually reflect, I’m relieved to say that time didn’t just speed me through 365 days without teaching me at least a little something in return. I had 10 life lessons to share last year, but this past year has taught me some things that I’m hoping I can say have made me a year wiser. Here are a few:

1. You have to know when it’s time to stick up for yourself without letting your ego get in the way. When I find trying to take advantage of me or my time, my ego tends to want to speak for me (because how dare you treat me like this, right?), but that’s never a good idea. There’s a way to put your foot down without being flippant, and finding the balance is always the key.
2. Some people will never change, and you just have to change your expectations that they will. I’d banked on the hope that certain people or certain relationships would change, so that I could be happier. But in the end, all that investment only made me more unhappy and disappointed when things didn’t work out how I hoped. Some people have surprised me in the last year for the better, and that was a great feeling. For the rest, I’ve realized that I need to let what will be just be.
3. Irrational anger will just eat you up and feed that pesky ego again. Blowing up about being stuck in traffic? Complaining that someone bumped into you at a crowded place? Just idiotic and pointless. What’s even the point of being angry about something so small, when it means nothing at the end of the day? I’m no one special; it happens; get over it, and move on.
4. Most of my problems are maintained by me. Ever notice how easy it is to blame others for “making” you feel one way or another? Other people definitely contribute to trust issues, insecurities and hurt feelings, but no one can actually make you feel any other way than you want to feel. I can make everything worse if I want to, but I can also make them at least a bit better by just letting it roll off and moving on.
5. At some point, leaving the party early or turning down plans just to stay in and enjoy alone time is really, totally okay. I used to be afraid I’d be missing out on something if I said no, and sometimes I still feel like I need to do as much as possible because otherwise I’m denying myself some great memories — but sometimes it really is just best to stay in or be alone. Now, I try to do what feels right in the moment — without fear of regret — and then accept my decision, whatever it is.

Do you feel like you can say you learn a lot year by year? Share some of your learned wisdom with me!

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But seriously…sometimes I just want to ask a guy, “Did you just say that….out loud?”

I’m sure I heard some pretty crazy ridiculous things in college (because college guys are the best for saying the stupidest shit, let’s just be honest), but I feel the post-college guys have left a bigger impression. Maybe I’m just hearing a lot of ridiculous things back-to-back, or maybe guys are just getting worse at understanding that a simple “Hey, how are you?” is totally okay as an opening line, but why not take a look back at the best, most ridiculous things guys have said to me — at least in working memory — and reminisce a little…

Is That Really You?!

(Looking at my ID)

Him:  Wow, you’re so much hotter in person…

Me: …Um…yeah..I was 18 in that picture. I had some baby fat, I guess…

Him: No, but really…you look much hotter in person. It’s not just the baby fat. You just look much better in person.

Me: Thanks…

Dear God, do you just not know when to stop talking? I know some devil’s advocate out there wants to tell me, “The guy was trying to give you a compliment, give him a break.” I understand that that may have been the intent, but I’m not even really sure. This guy was so insistent on making sure to continue to point out that I just looked SO much better in person than I did in a picture that was six years old. When you’ve already said something that could so easily get misconstrued anyway, why are you going to keep repeating yourself as if it’s helping the case? Comparing a girl to her own self and telling her that one version is SO much better looking? That’s not a compliment, and now you sound like an ass…three times over.

Don’t Be So Uptight, Okay?

(Text before meeting up for the first time)

Him:  I’ve been having a hard work week, so you have to promise not to be uptight and be laid back.

Who, in his right mind, thinks this is a totally casual, perfectly okay text to send someone before meeting up for the first time? He followed this up by saying that I also had to let him pay for the bill without any arguments, so I took that he was trying to be nice in his own weird way? Still, asking someone to promise not to be uptight because you’ve had a hard work week…that’s a bit much, especially when you don’t know each other.

Where Are You From, Really?

(A guy talking to me and my [clearly] African-American friend)

Him: So, do you know where you’re from in Africa?

Us: *crickets*

My Friend: No…I’m not from Africa. 

Him: No, I know. But I had a friend named [some very African name] who was from Ghana.

(Did he even make a point?)

My Friend: Okay, but he was obviously actually from Africa. I’m not. My name is Jane Doe.

Him: No, I know, but I just thought that maybe you know where in Africa you’re from.

My Friend: I’m not from Africa…!!

Sadly, this conversation kept going on in circles like this for a couple of minutes with the guy still arguing his point that he had other Black friends who were actually from Africa, so maybe my friend knew her “origins.” (Come on, way to be so stereotypically racist.) His other friends, just so you know, had actually recently emigrated from Africa and had ethnic ties to their respective countries, not just a shared genetic pool with other “Africans.” Yet another instance when I just can’t help but wonder why someone would continue going on and on when the first attempt to say something that could totally go hit-or-miss OBVIOUSLY missed.

Oh, the ridiculous guys things say…

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 (Photo credit: sitmonkeysupreme)

Ahh, Facebook. How it has completely changed the way people interact and have expectations for “normal” social behavior. We now have rules for things that didn’t even exist less than a decade ago. What’s appropriate to say in a status update? Is it okay to post a million selfies of yourself? Should I be “friends” with my parents and bosses? Answers to questions like this are completely new additions to the Handbook of Good Social Behavior, and it’s kind of extraordinary that this generation is almost creating a new etiquette for this era.

I’ve found that one of the most controversial and debated Facebook social behavior topics on what’s “appropriate” is the friending and ‘unfriending’  of friends. (The Facebook-born word itself is a great example of these guidelines.) Being friends with someone in real life and being friends with someone on Facebook shouldn’t be mutually exclusive, but with some people, it definitely is. You know what I’m talking about.

I know Facebook isn’t meant for you to stay in touch with your closest friends — although it helps. But I find that more and more it’s not even about staying in touch anymore. Facebook is now just a social media platform with an ego-centric formula built right in, made so you can broadcast your own life to your “friends.” Think about it.

It’s not a blanket statement, and it’s not a criticism;  it’s just an observation that you can’t deny has some truth to it. We use Facebook to talk about ourselves.

So, now to the topic of all those so-called friends. Now, you may find me hypocritical when I make my next point considering this is a public blog that I do broadcast on my Facebook profile, but just hear me out. I’m not publishing my life on my blog, only select ideas and thoughts that are meant to reach an audience. You also aren’t bound to see this — it was your conscious decision to read me rant on. I use my Facebook with caution of who will see what.

Frankly, I just don’t have over 700 friends in my life who I want seeing pictures of my weekend shenanigans, complaints about the cold NYC weather and how I felt about The Walking Dead finale. My philosophy about sharing has always been that if you wouldn’t tell someone something in person then don’t tell them on Facebook. You can see the problem this presents when you have almost 1,000 “friends” and maybe 200 actual people you talk to (if that). Either you don’t share or you don’t friend.

Now I still don’t think you should be using your Facebook like a journal or a therapist. But I am really likely to care even less about your already boring trip to the grocery store if we are barely friends to begin with. It’s nothing against you, but we barely know each other! Maybe we were closer once upon a time, or perhaps there was a window of time when we could have become better acquainted, and it’s now passed. Whatever it is, I’m probably going to unfriend you now. I might not even like you (or I know you don’t like me — let’s just be honest grown-ups here — high school and college is over now. No need for that unnecessary pretending.) so what’s the use in our being privy to one another’s lives only to gossip?

I’m still not in contact with a lot of my current friends, but there are those who make an effort to leave a comment here and like a post there. To those just stalking quietly — or worse — just getting annoyed at my posts, what’s the point?

So, don’t be offended if I’ve unfriended you. It most likely wasn’t anything personal. I just want to be able to share things with people I actually talk to — even if it is just on Facebook. There’s no need for any middle school drama because there’s no offense intended. But really…sorry, I’m not sorry for unfriending you.

Graftobian Hi Def Glamour Creme

I have acne. Still. I’ll be 24 next month, and there has only been two short periods of time since I hit puberty oh-so-many years ago that I have not had a blemish on my face. There are times when I don’t break out in extremes, but I assure you — my skin always has a few zits on it.

With that said, I’ve been on the hunt for a perfect foundation for years. The problem is that when I’m not breaking out in extreme amounts, I am dealing with the inflamed scars that it leaves behind, which are usually just as hard to cover up.

I’ve tried a lot of different type of makeup with a lot of different methods. Everything is usually OKAY but never just fabulous. If you have acne, you know that there’s usually a trade-off with finding a heavy coverage foundation. It usually makes you break out more — and we’re back to square one. Light coverage foundations are for you lucky gals, who wear makeup to — what’s the saying? — “even out your skin tone.”

But to women like me and those blessed with better skin, alike, I present to you a dream foundation that truly has defied the odds of what regular foundations can do. Call it the prescription drug that’s sold over-the-counter — it is A-MAZ-ING.

My cousin, who has the most dewy, flawless skin you’ll ever find, is a foundation fiend. She loves finding that “perfect” foundation even though she could wear tinted moisturizer and be on her way. She’s well-aware of my foundation troubles and last time I saw her, she introduced me to the Graftobian makeup line. It’s not sold in drugstores, and it’s not sold in Sephora. It’s a line of stage makeup that’s frequently used in theatrical and TV productions. She had ordered their sampler palette, but none of the colors matched her so she gave it to me.

Wow.

The consistency of the Gratobian Hi Def Glamour Creme foundation is smooth, light and creamy — three qualities that are usually mutually exclusive in foundations. If you were wipe your finger across, you’d never think it was a heavy coverage foundation. And yet, once it’s on, there’s nothing left to see but an “even skin tone.”

E.l.f Studio High Definition Powder

I’ve found that with another dream product, the E.l.f. Studio High Definition Powder, I have truly found the answer to my foundation problems. This setting powder is the perfect complement to the Graftobian Hi Def Glamour Creme nd not only sets it but also gives you a poreless, super-matte canvas for the rest of your makeup.

You’re probably thinking there’s a definite catch to these products — they must be super pricy. Again, prepare yourself to be astonished. Both products TOGETHER total a cool $25.00. The foundation pot (which comes in a very generous amount considering how much you’ll even need to use per application) runs for $19.00 and the powder for $6.00.

Now, I couldn’t just rave on and on about these products by showing you them at work. So, I took a few photos so you could judge for yourself. As they say, the proof is in the pictures. I took all these pictures with the same camera, so not one of them has the benefit of “better quality.”

You might still have some questions about both products, so I’ll try my best to answer what you’re probably wondering.

Q: Does the Graftobian foundation cause oiliness?

A: I’ve found that it makes me considerably less oily than a lot of other foundations and definitely less so from any other liquid or cream-based foundation I’ve tried. Mineral foundation has been the best contender — but again — it didn’t cover as well. I really find that the E.l.f. setting powder makes the biggest impact here to prevent oiliness.

Q: Where can I buy the products?

A: Both products are available on their company’s sites, but E.l.f. sells its products in Target and Kmart stores as well. (Target has the biggest selection.) You can buy the Graftobian foundation on other sites like Amazon or eBay, but I highly recommend you find a stage or theater makeup store who sells the product. They have a huge range of colors that vary in cool, neutral and warm undertones (another secret to why it’s so awesome), and their colors tend to be much lighter on the skin than what it looks like in the pot. I wear Buttermilk but Enchantress was a close second. Both were warm undertone-based, but the latter was a bit more reddish in overall tone. Try it on in the store first!

Q: Do they last all day?

A: These products definitely do a great job of lasting through the day or night. I use a primer before the foundation (helps a lot for it to go on smoothly!) and a setting spray to keep everything matte and set. I think think the setting spray also helps keep the oil at bay.

I’d be happy to answer any more questions you have about the products or how I use them. Just leave me a comment below, and let me know if you end up trying them!

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What’s better than a sale? Something that’s free, of course! Right now, if you sign up through Facebook, you can get a free $5.00 to spend on your first purchase. Plus, you can refer your friends and every time one of them signs up — you get another $5.00! You might think this is a gimmick because most companies who give out free credit usually have outrageous prices, rendering the credit virtually useless. However, to prove you wrong (and to show you why this site will eventually be the end of me), I’ve pulled five awesome accessories that you can get absolutely free with your $5.00 signup credit. Behold the wonder, my friends — and please sign up!

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Collect: Photo a Day

I’m a blogger. Obviously.  So, it goes without saying that I enjoy the art of chronicling something — my thoughts, the happenings of the world around me, ideas and other things that collect in my head My blog is more of the public side of me that I’m willing to share, but I also keep a private journal that goes deeper into my thoughts and feelings. Both kind of have the same idea behind them though, and it’s always a trip down memory lane when I pull up/out a blog post or a journal entry and go back in time. What was going on then? What were the things I was into? What was happening in the world? It’s a surreal feeling, and it’s [almost] always pretty fun.

So, when I got word of a photo-journal app that was on sale (for free) yesterday, my interest unsurprisingly piqued. Collect is a super cool photo app that that doubles as a beautiful photo journal of your entire year — with one memory from every day. Take a picture, write a caption and chronicle it in the calendar. Simple as that.

What makes the app extra special is the ability to create multiple albums, or multiple calendars. Make an album for your meals everyday or your outfits. Get creative and make an album for one interesting or new thing you see everyday. Have kids? Start a separate album for each one, and have a keepsake that will take you zooming back through those days “that went by so fast.”  The surprise extra-bonus? Collect is an awesome way for snap-happy people to find a reason to take pictures of their beautiful shoes or awesome weight-loss progress without having to share every little thing with the world. Win-win! Search for it as “Collect: Photo a Day” in the iTunes store and start snapping!

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Welcome to the Future

Wow, is it really 2013 today? When I was younger, growing up in the 90′s (the good old days), I used to refer to the far-away future by saying something like “…yeah, maybe in 2013″ as if it was unimaginable to even think I’d be alive to see a year that far away. Realistically, it wasn’t that far away because I’m only still in my early 20′s, but it still feels pretty futuristic to be living in a year like 2013. But here it is: 2-0-1-3.

People always put pressure on what they’ll be doing at midnight every New Year’s Eve, and it’s a bit silly when you think about it. Time is ongoing, cyclical — and the beginning of a new year is more symbolic than anything else. Still, it’s a memorable time — to remember exactly what you were doing and where you were at the beginning of a new chapter.

12:00 a.m., January 1, 2013 for me was already memorable because I was in my favorite city: New York City. Not the friendliest to the passerby, but a soulmate to those living here, NYC had given me some great memories in the last year. I was spending New Year’s with a few friends at one of their apartments in the city, and the night was expected to be a great time ringing in 2013 with drinks, foods and general merriment. The hilarity and memorable ridiculousness that ensued wasn’t anything that we thought would happen, but it will definitely stay in my mind as one of the most memorable New Year’s I’ve had so far.

I was with just a few friends having snacks, playing drinking games and enjoying each other’s company on New Year’s Eve. We had a great view of the New York City skyline from the apartment we were in, and we had been debating for over an hour whether to head up to the rooftop to make an attempt to the see the fireworks that would be going off all around the city at midnight. Finally at 11:58, we decided to make a dash for it. There seemed to be an issue communicating to half of the 5 of us to walk out of the apartment and get into the elevator quickly before we missed midnight altogether. By the time we all made it in, there was less than 30 secs left before the stroke of midnight…

Then the elevator got stuck.

The rooftop had been closed off so the elevator made an attempt to go back down the 3 floors it needed to for us to be back on our floor. With 10 seconds left, we couldn’t believe our ridiculous predicament and resolved to begin the countdown. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

Happy New Year!

In all our vain to make our New Year’s spectacular with fireworks and an amazing view, we had missed everything altogether. We didn’t see the ball drop; we didn’t see any fireworks — we just spent it together laughing at the superb mess and perfect ridiculousness stuck in an elevator.

A minute later, we realized our elevator doors were only opening a few inches and closing up again. We really were stuck.

One of the brave in our party decided to try and pry the doors open, hoping the censors would kick in simultaneously. We got the drama we had wanted of beginning the New Year with something to remember as we literally scrambled out of the elevator hoping we wouldn’t be crushed by the steel doors.

And back in the apartment we went, only a few minutes after we had left. So, the first moment of 2013 was spent stuck in an elevator of a very nice apartment building in one of the most wonderful cities in the world. Not quite what I expected, but memorable it was nonetheless. Perhaps it was just the beginning of many circumstances this year that will play out in the same wonderful chaos into something better than expected?  Who knows!

Happy 2013 to you all, and may this year finally bring us what 2012 didn’t and more of what it did.

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Now, immediately, you might read the title of this post and think: What life lessons does someone who hasn’t even reached a quarter of a century have to teach someone else? And to you  I’d say: I don’t blame you for thinking that. But didn’t a wise person once say that age wasn’t about  the number — or something like that? Most of you won’t know more than 5 things about me (and a lot of them were probably learned from this blog), but you should know that I’ve been both fortunate (and sometimes unfortunate) enough to experience more than some people  who are twice my age (all the good, bad and ugly). And through it all, I’ve come to at least learn a few things, even if they didn’t hit me immediately.

Most of my life experiences were pre-made and boxed, just waiting for me to come upon them at some point — that is, if I tell you that I don’t believe in some sort of alternate destiny, where the decisions I’ve made at every fork in the road have led me to those experiences. It’s hard to tell. On the other hand, there are many instances in my short life when it’s been easier to see a cause and effect of a decision I made, myself. Whatever the case, I’ve learned a lot and am still unraveling these clues to living wisely that were so cleverly wrapped up in an experience.

Sometimes the thing you think you’ve learned is not always the bigger picture. Maybe in 10 more years, I won’t have these same lessons to pass on — even when I look back at the same experiences. But for now, these are the 10 life lessons from a 23-year-old:

1. You can never make someone love you — ever. No amount of guilt, kicking and screaming or mind-games can ever change that. If someone loves you, they just do.
2. Being jealous or angry of what someone else has is completely pointless. Your lives are entirely unrelated, and what one of you has nothing to do with what the other person does or doesn’t.
3. Relish your time alone. That overwhelming sense of feeling everything you’re feeling is often the best time to make sense of it all.
4. Putting yourself out of your comfort zone over and over will only help you to understand what you want in life and what you don’t. Plus — it gets less scary each time.
5. Keep a journal. It’s the closest you’ll ever get to time-travel (pictures aren’t the same at all), and there’s nothing like hearing from yourself during the happiest, saddest, most tumultuous and ridiculous times of your life.
6. Have fun. Lots of it. Every opportunity you get to enjoy life, do it. Why would you pass up such precious time?
7. Make peace with death — with your own and the ones you’ll experience. As soon as you stop seeing it as a tragedy, you can accept it as just another transition.
8. Work on having faith — in people, yourself, love and life in general. It’s probably the single, most difficult thing to possess, but also the most powerful.
9. Learn how to properly use they’re, their, there and you’re, your — please! People will and do (rightfully) judge you.
10. The proper way to sneeze when you don’t have a tissue at hand is into your shoulder — not your hands! Stop the spread of germs, people!!

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Ryan and I at Anderson Live

So, it happened again: I met another one of my idols today — and it was nuts! It all started when I came across a website a couple of weeks ago that listed  live shows that taped in NYC with free tickets. Since I moved here in May, I’ve wanted to take more advantage of the amazing things that go on in this city everyday — a lot of things that some people might call “touristy.” I’ve realized that I forget I live in New York City sometimes, and as much as being a local is great, it makes you kind of lazy. Sometimes, I just get the urge to live like a tourist because they’re doing things that are really…cool — for the lack of a better word. Getting tickets and standing in line to see someone like Anderson Cooper might not be something every New Yorker wants to do, but I was ready in a heartbeat.

I’ve been an Anderson Cooper fan for years and started watching his talk show last year when I was living at home in Texas. I had completely forgotten his show filmed here, and getting tickets was as simple as filling out a form and choosing a date. Voila — I had my ticket in a couple of hours! Originally, I had decided I would just go on my own because my schedule is more flexible, and I knew most people couldn’t just take off a day of work to go. Then I enlisted a fellow UT Journalism grad friend and Anderson Cooper fan, Ryan, who recently moved to New York himself. We both got our tickets really easily and were counting down the days until we’d be in the audience of Anderson Live!

This morning, all I could think to myself was: I have got to talk to him or meet him. After what happened 2 years ago at Oprah’s show — I figured nothing was impossible, and I could feel the crazy in me starting to unleash itself (Ryan was forewarned). We arrive promptly at 10:30 for the 11:00 call-time and stood outside for a while before we were checked through security and escorted to the waiting room. Surprisingly, they didn’t take our phones or cameras. I was approached to see if I’d like to ask the guest on the show that day (who I can’t talk about) a question, and I said of course! I was told there might not even be time for questions, but they took my name down and the question I’d ask ahead of time just in case. About half an hour later, a couple of small groups of people including Ryan and me were escorted to the studio first. If Oprah’s studio was small, Anderson’s was tiny (much smaller than it looks on TV!) The studio was set up in mostly long benches on the ground floor and then individual seats that tiered up. Lo and behold, I got the aisle seat right in the middle (and on the last ground floor row) because I was supposed to ask my question.  Needless to say, flashbacks of Oprah’s show were coming back to me. I was so excited thinking that Anderson might be walking by me to the stage. Unfortunately he didn’t (yet), and we just saw him pop up on the set from another entrance. Before he came out, the audience team got the audience pumped and excited for the show. The lady walked over to where I was sitting and told the audience that Anderson really liked to hang out there when talking to the audience (!!!) so, just to know that he would probably coming by.

A little later, Anderson came over to greet the audience — he stood less than 3 feet in front of me and the rush of blood just took over. He took questions from the audience, which I had no idea would happen, so I started frantically thinking of what I could say to him. Without thinking, I raised my hand and because he was standing right in front of me, he looked at me right away and called on me….!

My first reaction was that of a 5-year-old girl’s who just met Prince Charming: I shrank down, giggled and blushed with my heart pounding. Oh my gosh, what do I say?! He and the whole audience laughed (although he didn’t do his famous giggle), and he graciously came closer to shake my hand and ask me how I was. (He added, “Hi, I’m Anderson.” with a big smile on his face — swoon!) I took a big breath, introduced myself and told him that I was a journalist, had moved here in May and meeting him has been my main goal since coming here. (Partially true) I told him embarrassingly that I always looked for him when walking around in NYC (to which he said “Oh I’m all over!”). I told him I tweeted him all the time too and he actually asked what my Twitter handle was (as if he would recognize it?). Again, slightly embarrassing when I told him it was “IamFoprah.” He replied, “I am Foprah?” and I explained to him that I met Oprah a couple of years ago because I told her my nickname was Foprah (full circle or what?), and she actually told me that great things like this would happen to me if I just let them. I told him that I felt like that’s why I was sitting there and I was so excited! He then asked me where I had moved from and I told him, following it up by asking how he liked Texas. Anderson said he really liked it — mentioning Houston and Dallas and only Austin when I asked him about it (bummer). He said he really liked Austin too and mentioned the new 85 mph speed limit, and how he really wanted to go down there and just speed like crazy down the road haha!

And that was my chat with Anderson. He didn’t give me amazing insight or ask me backstage, but we had a small conversation (and he subconsciously knows my Twitter handle…). My friend, Ryan, was no less lucky.

The audience team lady had called on him prior to this and asked him about himself. When she realized how nervous and embarrassed he got being called on (by the different colors his face kept turning), she kept picking on him during the commercial breaks. At one point she jokingly said, “I wonder how many more colors your face can change.” to which I told her to bring Anderson over and see. Halfway through the show, during another commercial break — she did it. She brought Anderson over to meet Ryan on the pretense of trying to see his face change color (it did), and they met and shook hands, too.

After the show, Anderson took more questions and he stood inches from me the entire time. All I could think was, how do I get him to take us backstage?! Alas, it didn’t happen — but the experience was just amazing. Truthfully, he is a really funny and down-to-earth person that I couldn’t respect more. He spoke about his love for reporting and storytelling and how staying neutral in his work helped him to connect with people he interviewed. The audience clapped when he said he felt that sometimes people are their best in tragedies, and he had seen it firsthand during situations like Hurricane Katrina when total strangers helped each other. What he had to say about journalism was really admirable, and when people ask me why I’m so in love with Anderson Cooper, I say because I respect him and his work. Anderson Cooper as a person and professional is truly great — and okay, he’s gorgeous and extremely charming in person, too!

Sigh, what a fantastic day! Anderson, I sincerely hope we meet again very soonnnn!