Fan.  I hate that word.  The word fan originally came from the word “fanatic” and I don’t like thinking of anyone that way. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate those of you who support me and have given me words of encouragement and stories about how I may have impacted your life. But I don’t think of you as “fans.”  I think of you as friends I haven’t met who have incredible taste. ;)

With that said, I would like to ask you all a favor. If and when you ever see me in person, please come up and say hello. By all means, ask to take a picture with me.  I have said no to people on two occasions; I was leaving a funeral or I was coming home from a 4:30am workout. Otherwise, I have ALWAYS taken a picture with someone. I like doing it. It makes me happy to make you happy and I love seeing where you post our picture online and what you say about our encounter. I am a nice person but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a bitchy side. Trust me, I have one. If you ever want to see my bitchy side, see me out in public and try to take a picture of me, without asking, with your cell phone…preferably while I’m eating wings.

That’s what happened last night (and many times before then). I don’t know why people don’t realize that I know cell phones have cameras or why people don’t think I can tell when they are awkwardly holding their phone in my direction, but they do. In my opinion, there are few things more rude than trying to take a picture of someone without their knowledge. Especially when they are eating!

Last night I went to a restaurant/bar with my fiancé and we ordered delicious wings. Just when I was fully invested in them and had sauce all over my face and fingers, the guy sitting in front of us held up his camera and tried to take a picture of himself with me behind him (reverse camera view). I started ducking behind my fiancé so I could clean the effing chicken sauce off my face but he didn’t stop. He was waving his camera around like a mad man trying to find my face. When I had successfully cleaned my mug off, I went over to him and said “would you like to take a picture? I’d rather we do it now so that you can stop trying to take my picture without me knowing.” His response? “No. I didn’t want to take your picture.  I just wanted to know if it was you but didn’t want to be rude and keep turning around to look.” Riiiiiiiiiight. I don’t know about you but I call B.S. on that story.  Anyway, his friend wanted to take a pic so we did.  His curious friend was the one who took it.

There will be some people who call me ungrateful for this post. “You should just be happy people want to take your picture at all.” There really isn’t anything I can say to that because most people think that people wanting your autograph or picture must be the BEST feeling in the world. Truthfully, it might be right near the top.  But being treated like a respected human being, not a monkey in a cage at the zoo, feels ten times better. Moral of the story is that I will almost ALWAYS take a picture with you if you ask me. If you don’t ask me, I may call you out and complain about you on Tumblr someday. Either way, I still appreciate you.

Love,
Danielle