I love her

It started simply with liking her as a singer. When she came out around the same time as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, I always liked her best.

Then, when she did “Newlyweds,” I fell in love. I loved her personality. I loved her honesty. I loved her humor. I loved her realness. I thought she was gorgeous. Then, I couldn’t resist anything she did, whether it was a movie, an interview on TV or an appearance in a magazine, I had to see it.

I defended her when people called her stupid or fat.

I even gave slimy John Mayer another chance when she dated him. He couldn’t be all that bad, right? Yes. Yes, he can.

Being a Dallas Cowboys fan, I don’t like Tony Romo (yes, you read that right: don’t like). She renewed my faith in him … for awhile. Now I like him even less.

I saw her in concert during her “fat, mom jeans” time. But that’s as close as I’ve been to her.

She clearly wasn’t fat.

Maybe I’m slightly obsessed. And maybe I shrieked like a little girl when I heard she’d be making at appearance at a local mall. (And maybe you are scared now. I don't blame you.)

So when I heard it was the Saturday before my half marathon on Sunday, it still didn’t deter me. I knew it would probably involve standing on my feet for hours (It did: 2.5 hours’ worth), and my choice of a heeled boot was probably not the wisest shoe choice. But, I had a chance to meet Jessica Simpson, and I wasn’t passing it up.

The deal: if you bought $50 worth of Jessica Simpson Collection merchandise from Dillard’s, you’d get a wristband to meet Jessica and Ashlee Simpson. They were appearing from 1-4 p.m. Saturday.

So I headed to Dillard’s early in the week to make my purchase and get the details. I bought some purple skinny jeans (LOVE them) and was told to return on Saturday to meet Jessica.

To further add to my not-smart-before-a-half-marathon routine, I didn’t eat anything before going on Saturday. My stomach was excited and nervous (due to both meeting Jessica and the race and wondering where my boyfriend was who said he’d be ready to go at noon and was nowhere to be seen) so food wasn’t an option.

We finally made it to Dillard’s, and I got my wristband and got in line close to 1 p.m. And waited. And waited. And waited. We stood in line for more than two hours. But, the moment finally arrived.

When it was my turn to go up to the stage to meet Jessica and Ashlee, I had to give up my purse, phone and camera. I’m not really sure why … maybe safety reasons? They didn’t let people know this in advance, so some people were really unhappy about this. I kind of was because I really wanted a close-up photo of her (and with her), but I was just happy to meet Jessica so I really didn’t care.

Here’s how my interaction with Jessica went down:

Normally, I wouldn't post a photo of my butt. This one shows
me with Jessica Simpson, though.

Jina: Hi.
Jessica: Hi. How is your day?
Jina: It is great now. (Yes, I think I really said that.)
Jessica: What is your name?
Jina: Jina. It’s J-I-N-A.
(Jessica and Ashlee sign photos for me.)

Jessica is listening carefully to my name. Ashlee is not.

I love this.

I knew she didn't listen!

Jessica: That purple looks gorgeous on you.
Jina: Thank you. You are both gorgeous.
Jessica and Ashlee: Aww, thank you!

It was short and sweet, but it rocked. My favorite celebrity said my favorite color looked gorgeous on me. I’m glad since 99.8% of my wardrobe is purple.

After taking massive amounts of photos, we left. I really wanted to stick it out until she left, and I probably could have. I figured my boyfriend suffered enough at this point, though.

As we ate sushi (my favorite pre-race meal), I looked through all of the photos and reminisced about my best day ever (of this year, anyway).

Fancy pants and sweaty runners

So, this happened a few weeks (um, almost a month) ago, but since I was behind on my posts at that point, I forgot to add this to my post when I caught up on all my posts (another reason to not fall behind on posts again).

Our running training group meets at Fit2Run, a running store at International Plaza. International Plaza is a spiffy place. So spiffy that I usually don’t shop there. It has nicknames like million-dollar mall, where rich people shop and fancy mall (OK, maybe I just made those up). It has stores that make me mad (I haven’t decided if this because I can’t afford them or because they really irritate me). I mean, if I had millions of dollars, would I feel the need to buy a Burberry jacket, Gucci hat and Louis Vuitton purse? I don’t think so. And, I think I’d still feel the prices were ridiculous, and I think they’d still make me mad. I think. I don’t know because I don’t have millions of dollars. If someone wants to give me millions of dollars, I’ll let you know if I still feel this way. Thanks.

Well, this particular Thursday, I noticed the parking lot was fuller than usual. People were pulling into the parking lot at an alarming rate. And everyone had their fancy pants on. People usually dress pretty well to go to this mall, but these people were a step up from usual. So, I really stood out in my running gear.

When I got to the door to the mall, a sign on the door stated that by entering the mall you are giving the property rights to use your image in promotional videos. Um, yeah. I don’t think they want an image of a girl in running clothes in their video. Since I really wasn’t concerned about being used in a video (and because I didn’t have a choice), I walked in … and onto a red carpet. Ah, lovely.

It was Fashion's Night Out at the mall.

I ducked into the store and found my running group. After waiting longer than usual to make sure that everyone had a chance to find a spot to park, we headed out.

After completing our run, our assistant coach let us know about events happening in their store and the mall. He said it was a big deal, and that Jessica Simpson was at the mall.

Eeeeeeek! Jessica Simpson?!?! I LOVE her!

I tried to ignore some of the other girls degrading comments about not finding a parking spot due to Jessica Simpson, and I tried to contain my excitement that Jessica Simpson was IN THE HOUSE (or the mall, as it may be).

After grabbing our post-run smoothie in the store, one girl asked if anyone wanted to try and hunt down Jessica Simpson. I, of course, said “Of course!”

So, we headed out into the crowd of fancy pants in sweaty runny gear.

We hit up Dillard’s, thinking since her clothing and shoe line is there, she’d probably be hanging out in the area. Even though I felt some disgusting glares from the fancy pants crowd, I didn’t care. I just wanted to see Jessica.

Dillard’s had a fashion show happening on the lower level in front of the store, and we searched for Jessica. No luck. We asked a Dillard’s employee. She said if Jessica was there, she’d be at the fashion show. Hmm … Since it was the last fashion show of the night, we figured we could have missed the lovely JS. I managed to hold back tears (OK, not really. Really, not really.), and we went back through all the fancy pants to get out of the mall.

Somewhat disappointed, I headed home. Then, I started thinking. I’m a big Jessica Simpson fan. Huge. I’m friends with her on Facebook. I’m on the Jessica Simpson Collection email list. I check her website. How could I miss her appearance in MY city?!? I couldn’t is the only answer.

After some research, I found out that a “designer from Jessica Simpson Collection” was at the mall. That doesn’t mean Jessica Simpson herself. Pesky assistant running coach got my hopes up!

So, I guess the moral of this story is … never be ashamed to go anywhere in your sweaty running gear. You ran. That’s more than those people in their fancy pants can say (well, maybe they ran earlier, but it's more fun to say they didn't). Oh, and Jessica Simpson rocks!