“Aghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! OMG. You’re Colleen Hoover!!!!!”

Soooooo…I had a fangirl moment over the weekend. I met THE Colleen Hoover. Can you believe it?!?!? It happened. I can’t even make this stuff up! I have to take a moment to explain something to you—in case you didn’t already know…Colleen is the coolest of the cool. True story. I’ll explain but let me tell you a little about accidentally meeting Colleen.

Who remembers me having a moment when these babies arrived in the mail a couple weeks ago?

Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! Colleen was finally coming to Chicago!!!! I was excited. Super. Duper. Excited. I had big plans to keep my fangirl under control. Big plans. Welp, the day finally arrived and I was excited but I was sure I’d be able to control myself. Yeah…that lasted until about the time we arrived at Hotel Chicago. If you haven’t been to or stayed at Hotel Chicago, you should really consider it next time you are in town. It’s really hip and funky and scary close to the House of Blues.

So it was all under control until we walked in and saw a sign indicating Colleen Hoover was in the house!!!!!…then I started to get really excited. Hmmmmm…4^th floor you say? We are early so let’s just go upstairs to see where it is so we will know where we’re going. As soon as we get off the elevator, we see this:

Cool, right!?!? So we were just standing there taking some pictures and the elevator dings and I turn just in time to scream like a little girl. It was an, “Aghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! OMG. You’re Colleen Hoover!!!!!” scream. The scream was also followed by an “OMG. You’re Colleen Hoover!!!!!” I did not expect that AT ALL. I thought Murphy would have her stashed at an undisclosed location away from the crazies like me!

So did Colleen run screaming in fear from that insanely loud greeting? No she did not. Do you think that’s because she is accustomed to fangirls reacting to her like that upon sight? She simply smiled and gave me a sweet “Hello” and a “Yes I am.” Holy crap. She then walked over and started helping take out all of her books she brought to sell. Whoa. She was right there. She clearly was busy and had a million things to do but I wanted to give her a gift before she got all crazy with the hundreds of readers who would be turning out so I walked up and asked her if I could give her something and she was the sweetest. My uber crafty friend who has endured my crazy since college made this for Colleen:

I told her I stalk (in a very harmless way, of course) her via Twitter and am still waiting for my #HolderBabies. She looked up and said, “Are you Dana? Are you @smuttastic?” Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!!!! She then came around the counter from where she was standing and gave me a hug. A Colleen Hoover hug!!!!!! Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! I then asked her if she would take a picture with my Flat Kat before we left her to get ready and she said yes!!! Look how cute she is:

Oh!!!! And as we were standing there, her AsSISTERnt, Murphy came up!!!! It’s funny because you see these people interacting on Instagram and Twitter so it’s like you know them but you don’t. Weird, right? Let me tell you what the coolest thing about Murphy is—she is a no BS kind of girl and I LOVE that. AND she had the coolest purple hair! Could she be any cooler? I think not. I know she is technically a Texas girl but she would make a kickass Chicagoan!!

So there’s the story of me meeting Colleen for the very first time. I am going to write more about the actual event and Colleen and Griffin and all of their collective awesomeness in my next post. Here’s a little hint: they are both even cooler in person!!!! More to come on that tomorrow.

xoxo