My Kaitlin Olson Story

In recognition of the new season of Always Sunny in Philadelphia (on FX Thurs. at 10/9c), here is my Kaitlin Olson story. About a year ago, I was traveling from Philly to Los Angeles on business. As I was walking to my seat on the plane, I immediately noticed Kaitlin Olson in first class. At the time, I had only just started watching the show. I recognized her right away but had no idea what her name was. When I got to my seat in coach, I started rapidly shooting emails to Tina, Laura and Huz. You'd think my story ends there, but it doesn't!

I was about to send the email that included tons of caps and exclamation points (to show my excitement of course) when a flight attendant comes up to me. She tells me that there is a first class seat available for me. Because I travel a lot for work, I sometimes get upgraded. I collected my things, and they showed me to my seat. I ended up right next to Kaitlin Olson! OMG! In quiet excitement, I emailed Tina, Laura and Huz about the turn of events.

Okay, I have never approached a celebrity before, except for Hal Sparks (love him!). So what do I say? What do I say?! These are the thoughts that ran through my head: Should I say hello now? But we will be on this flight for six hours. Would it be awkward for six whole hours if I say something now? What if she doesn't want to be bothered? What if she hates people?

So what did I end up doing? I took a nap. Haha. I was really sleepy...from all the thinking. But then I woke up a couple hours later. And she was still there. Really! So for the next hour, I tried to pretend to read my book while I was really

thinking about what to say. I knew I had to say something...anything. I just didn't know how to break the ice. Finally, three hours into the flight, after summoning all my courage (I am a big big wuss), I turn to her and say "I just wanted to say I love your show. I didn't say anything earlier because I didn't want to bother you. But I knew my friends would never forgive me if I didn't say something." I can assure you that this line was rehearsed repeatedly and silently in my head. She was so sweet and said that I should have said something earlier. Then we chatted for the next three hours. We talked about my family, her family, her new husband (her co-star btw) and my husband. I asked her what big celebrities she's met. She said Ed Norton. How cool is that? I asked her about Always Sunny. I noticed she was reading Twilight, so I asked her about that. She was soooo nice. It was awesome...no actually, it was awe quite a bit (think about that one). We totally became BFFs. Oh, and I got a picture with her!! Of course, I look terrible in it because we had been on the plane for six hours, but I don't care. It is definitely epic.

I haven't had many celebrity encounters in my life. One time, Laura and I went to a book signing by Stephenie Meyer. Laura could blog about that. My head hurts just thinking about that day. Four words. Lots of screaming tweens. Not fun.