The day all my wildest dreams and fantasy’s came true

It's been on my calendar for weeks. Nov. 11th. That's when I would finally get to meet Ina Garten. I was majorly geeking out about it. Majorly. I can honestly say that she is pretty much the only celebrity in the entire galaxy that I had any interest in meeting (I've been watching too much Star Wars.) I bought my first Barefoot Contessa book 11 years ago. I have been a die hard fan ever since. I am not going to lie; I was nervous (read: FREAKING OUT) about it. Hardly slept a wink! She was coming to my local Williams Sonoma for a book signing. I called the store to see if I could get any more details about it. They told me that last time Ina was there, over 1,200 people showed up. She was to be at WS from 1-3 p.m. I decided to go early. I left the house at 11. I stopped to get a frosty beverage (I did have a lot of waiting ahead of me) some gum and carmex (carmex?? I haven't seen that stuff since High School!) at my local sev. I drove up to the store at 11:30. THE LINE WAS ALREADY 150 people long. I couldn't believe it. I parked & got in line. What was I going to say?? This was my big moment after all. Chris had the kids at home so I could go but he was going to bring them to me at 1 so he could go to work. Henry & I talked about meeting Ina that morning and how completely amazing it was going to be. Maybe Ina would be so enamored with my cute kids that she'd ask me to her house in the Hamptons? The pressure was killing me!! And then it was time. Time to go in. I felt a little (read: A LOT) queasy. I passed my camera off to a Williams Sonoma employee. I wasn't sure how I felt (read: NOT GOOD) about having my backside photographed with my idol, but at this point, I'd take whatever I could get. We make it to the front. It's our turn. Clamy hands. Shortness of breath. Henry says, "Tell her that we watch her on T.V." "He wants me to tell you that we watch you on T.V." I say. And the rest…THE REST IS A COMPLETE BLUR! I have no memory of what happened next. Surely there was an "I love you!" thrown in there. All the excitement and adrenaline left the details fuzzy!! She signed our books. I tried to wrangle and keep all three kids close. Doesn't she look like she likes us? Like really likes us? Like maybe we could be her new best friends (she has the best!) That's her adoring Kate who is hiding on the other side of me. And just like that. It was OVER. I felt myself saying, "What just happened? It's already O-V-E-R???" It was. They don't mess around at Williams Sonoma, you know (I am a former employee as you may or may not know.) They were cooking up Ina's recipes & delivering them to us in line: I can't remember what that was. I didn't taste it– you know, the nerves. But this, this I tasted & the kids liked it, too: Chicken & CousCous. It was good. We loaded ourselves into the car and talked about it the whole way home. And speaking of chickens, this gave us a laugh on the way home: Thanks for the good times, Ina. It was worth every (blurry) second.