The Coolest Thing that Happened to Me Today

Note: This is one of those stories (and I have a million of them) that is incredibly exciting to me but will be of interest to approx. 0.5% of the population at large.

It's Friday, and for some of us, that means a Two Martini Lunch, but in Cupcake Land, we decided to make it a two cupcake lunch. So I headed over to the Buttercup Bakeshop, just blocks from my office. I ordered a Golden Buttercup with Chocolate Icing, a Devil Dog Cupcake, and a small chocolate milk "to stay". So I settled in at a little table, and dug my paperback out of my bag. I just started reading Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis, which I happily picked up for Five bucks at The Strand a few weeks ago.

A woman walked by my table, pointed to Word Freak and said, "Hey, that's a great book."
"Yeah," I said, looking up. "Hey! You're the cupcake lady!" (I couldn't remember her name).
"Yes I am," she said.
"I was just looking at the Buttercup Bakeshop website the other day and I recognize you from the photo. Congratulations! Very yummy cupcakes."
"Thank you," she said. I'm guessing she doesn't often get recognized and treated like a celebrity, even within her own shop. Let me here point out that this woman, Jennifer Appel, is indeed famous. Co-founder of the famous Magnolia Bakery in Soho, she left Magnolia to open Buttercup in Midtown and is now in the process of franchising the company. Hey, if I had 400k I'd buy a franchise and open one in Brooklyn, adding the Match-Making component and thus realizing my dream of a Cup Cake/Date Bar in Brooklyn that I first began proposing last summer, to the derision of many friends (MommyCakes, I'm looking in your direction ... L'Ingenue, I seem to recall you were skeptical as well...). Also, Jennifer Appel has been on the Today Show, and if that's not fame, I don't know what is.

So, my new friend Jen says, "I met Stefan Fatsis. He's great."
"Really?"
"Yes, I'm good friends with one of the guys in the book. I went with him to a premiere of Word Wars, the new documentary about Scrabble. Stefan Fatsis was there with a bunch of the guys from the book, Matt Graham, [some others I forget now]."
'That's so cool. Who's your friend?"
"Jeremey Franks, he's just mentioned a couple of times. He's not a major character."
Anyway, this riveting discussion continued. I thought about asking her, now that we're friends, to spot me 400G to open a franchise, but maybe I'll wait until next time to run into her. Let's recap: I had a conversation with a low-level celebrity who hangs out with other low-level celebrities and Scrabble Freaks. Yes, you can touch me but it will cost you five bucks. How else am I going to raise 400k?