high high #17

high high of the day week month - meeting aj jacobs.  he is every bit as awesome, funny and friendly in real life as you would imagine he is from his books.

me & aj jacobs!!!

it was all thanks to philip (of course), who discovered that the author would be at the tattered cover lodo to promote his new book, drop dead healthy.  i will admit that with the craziness of school, i haven't had time to do anything, let alone read books for fun.  but i've read all his other work, from articles (my favorite is my outsourced life!) to his books, such as the know it all and my absolutely favorite - the year of living biblically.  if you haven't read it and are looking for some summer reading, definitely check it out (since i started this blog there there have been links to purchase my favorite books from amazon under 'i pledge to read the written word').  his discussion was fantastic, and afterwards he stuck around to sign everyone's books, take pictures and chat about just about anything.

now why is aj jacbos so insane cool?  a few reasons.  first of all, he's one of the reasons i've flirted with judaism (more on that later).  second of all, after i finished the first book of his that i read, i looked him up online.  this was in my previous life.

in my previous life i wanted to be a writer.  badly.  i had the beginnings of a novel, the beginnings of a memoir and have penned a few short stories.  my first go-around in college was in the pursuit of a creative writing degree - although what you do with that i still have no idea.  i've written for magazines and websites, and for a short time did a good amount of freelance travel writing and sports writing as well, while i was living in brooklyn.  i wanted to be a writer and didn't know where to start if i didn't want to just be freelance.  so, i had just finished the year of living biblically.

i thought aj's book was great and he seemed so approachable, so i found his website and sent him an email.  for some reason i thought this was a good idea.  it was my first fan mail ever, at the age of 23.  i told him that his book raised some interesting questions in my own life on religion.  and then i asked for his advice, since i considered myself a struggling writer.  and you know what?

he emailed me back.  not just some generic, canned response either - he gave me the name of his friend at esquire in charge of internships, his direct line, and said to say that he referred me for an internship.  how awesome is that - this guy had no idea who i was but just figured he'd help me out.

now i ended up moving to denver, so in case you were wondering i was not an intern at esquire (but how amazing would that have been?).  i moved back to denver, did some serious soul-searching, and arrived at my current destination of student and dedicated OFA team leader.

so when i met aj and he signed my book, i reminded him about his email to me about the internship.  he said he remembered (who knows if he really did) and asked if i got the internship.  while he signed i told him (in brief) about my move to denver and change.  he thought it was great, and even said he supports obama.  we took a quick picture, and i left on cloud nine.  when i got home i peeked open my new book, and saw this:

now that is a good day.

til next time...