...I know Paris Hilton

O.k. well kind of! Let me set up this amazing story.

I have been in Knoxville the past 11 days (stories and unfortunate pictures to follow) and left this a.m. from K-town at 9 a.m. (Yes, that means right now I'm up for 20 hours now) I connected in Atlanta which infected and effected every plane that got near that airport due to bad weather. So my flight was delayed and my power walking ninja speed was used to no real avail. I even considered jumping from one clogged escalator onto the other one and look awesome in the process. BUT if LA has taught me anything it's that you look super la, la, la if you hurry up just to wait and end up next to the people you nearly knocked down (or ran over) to get there. So I restrained myself and made it with plenty of time to the delayed flight.

I finally boarded and ended up sitting next to a very nice girl. We chatted for just second starting from her opening remark that she almost bought Steve Martin's new autobiography (self-corrected biography) but instead chose some novel that looked as if it involved gold, lawyers and a love triangle--potentially a love hexagon judging by the large size of it. She pretty much wanted to sleep so she did most of the 4:45 long trip.

Toward the end she remarked that she had another plane to catch that day and I gave her some advice and said she'd better hurry to make it to another airport to take off in time. She very graciously remarked that it was a private jet. NICE! She was off to Vegas for New Year's. NICE!

I kept digging because I am both nosy and...well I guess that's it really. Turns out this girl is pretty tight with a certain celebrity known as Paris Hilton. She never came out and said it but flashed me a candid picture of said star apparently relaxing by the window of the plane my (new) friend would be flying in and said, "we are good friends."

I had no reason to doubt this girl but I will say that 97% of people lease cars here. That says something. There is such pressure to maintain a facade that often times people forget reality. This girl seemed more down to earth BUT...ya know?!

Fast forward about 6 hours and we have landed and I've changed clothes and gone straight to work. Late tonight a girl walks in not 5 minutes after I'm telling this story and I'm thinking, "that looks like Paris Hilton." Now outside of LA you would see people and note their resemblance to some star and move on. I forgot that in LA that's probably the actual star and not a look-a-like. Sure enough, being sat at table 16 is Ms. Hilton and a guy I recognized but didn't know his name. My friend I was telling this story to said, "now's your chance to see if that girl from the plane was real or not."

So I greeted the table, took the order and delivered the food. I had run the scenarios a number of times on how I would begin this strange 'do you know' conversation, "I know your best friend," or "I don't know how to say this," or "do you want to hang out sometime." All seemed viable options but I chose to play it in the moment. I just went up to the table and told the same, but condensed, story from above. Sure enough--they do know each other. So Paris (we are on a first name basis now) texts her friend who sat next to me on the plane and she remembered me.

I was blown away by the most absolutely random connection that I had experienced in a matter of hours spanning from the Atlanta airport to table 16 at the restaurant. Global warming actually is real.

Pretty crazy that all that would happen within such a short time AND that I'd be working when she came in which anyone could only remember her being there one other time in the 5 years its been open.

So we are going running tomm at 10 a.m.

J slash K

I will say that she was so easy to talk to and her companion was very polite and nice as well. I have people who are a million times more demanding. She was very comfortable and relaxed and was open and approachable. I really appreciated that. So let that influence your view of her, at least a little bit.

That's what I got for now