There's a Top Chef in my neighbourhood!

You know me - I LOVES my Top Chef - except this Seattle season that's been kinda blah and don't even get me started on Josie being back...
Anyways - I loves my Top Chef.  I also love certain chef-testants - namely Top Chef o' my heart Ashley Merriman.  *le sigh*
BUT - we also might know I got major love for the chefs that rep the ATL like Richard Blais and Kevin Gillespie, to name a few.  And with as many times as I've been to FLiP, I never ran into Blais.  Ever.  So I kinda figured it was the curse of me: I can't ever seem to nonchalantly run into people I've seen on TV - until last night.
My old man and I were at our local Harry's Farmers Market WAAAAY OTP.  I was in a funk because, well, the whole Avid thing, right?  So I was moping around the store trying to figure out what was for dinner.  Then I remembered that this particular store was hosting Kevin Gillespie for one of their Salud! cooking classes that night.  I would've signed up but let's be real, I don't think I'd ever get the chance to cook pork belly (even if it is in Kevin's signature delicious style) on any given day with my domestic partner being Vegan and all...but it would've been cool to add to the list of fun and interesting things I've done this year.  I would've done it for that but it was $79.  It doesn't sound like much BUT Christmas is coming up and I feel like everyone is trying to take money outta my wallet.  And I just flat out forgot.  I've got a lot of shit going on, man.  Cut me some slack...
So imagine my surprise when we ended up at Harry's the same day as Kevin!  WHAT?!  I hoped to get a sneak peek of him teaching the class as we shopped so I creeped around to the window with the hopes to catch a glimpse of him.  But he wasn't there.  Aww.  So, very loudly, I said, "Where's Kevin?"  And here he comes walking past me looking like he was on a mission so I blurted out, "There's Kevin!"  He didn't hear me.  I didn't intend for him to either.  But there he was in all his glory!  Kevin Gillespie on a mission!  Wowzers!
I got extremely star-struck (which means super shy) all of a sudden and then I couldn't concentrate on what the hell we were doing for dinner.  I couldn't even find my freaking vitamins!  I was so preoccupied with how I was going to ask for a photo with Kevin that I forgot what we were even doing at Harry's!
So there we were, in line to check out.  I abandoned my items (and threw cash at my old man to cover my purchases) and went to look for Kevin.  He was hiding out in a little nook before the class officially started at 6:30p.  I went outside and waved at him through the doors.  When he saw me, I kindly mouthed, "Sorry to bother you, can I take a picture?" and held up my phone.  I thought he was going to pose for me between the glass - which would've been just fine - but instead,  he graciously waved me around to come back into the store and met me halfway.
Of course I gushed about how he was my favourite Top Chef contestant and how he should've won over those shitty Voltaggio brothers.  But he was super nice and gracious about the whole thing.  He said that the Voltaggio guys weren't that bad and I was like, "Well, the producers like jerks so that's why you didn't win.  You're too sweet!  But you should've won - you're way cooler!"  He was really nice about the whole thing.  I need to learn how to act around people I'm excited to meet.  At least with Sharon Needles I had a little liquid courage.  Last night, all I had was my burning rage about my job, which made me a bumbling fool.  But you know what?  Kevin was great.  For the 5 minutes I got to talk to him, he was a really cool guy and I'm seriously thinking about making my reservations to Woodfire Grill now for when my Dad gets back to the states in March.  Yes, you HAVE to reserve that far in advance!  A coworker went and she had to make her reservations 1 month in advance...

So - in short - I was having a bad day yesterday and BAM Kevin Gillespie made it all better!
Thank you Kevin!  I hope your class was awesome!