Close Encounter of the Best Kind

Any HGTV or TLC fans out there? You can appreciate this one if you have eyes and like men. Erik and I were flying home from a week in Key West (Lindsay and Dave's wedding). We were waiting at DTW for our flight to TVC, Traverse City. It was late at night and we were beat but my eyes perked up when I caught a glimpse of one of the other passengers. The poor guy. The poor tall, lean, dark haired, chiseled faced beauty of a young man just wanted to get to his hometown of Traverse City but some other guy kept trying to engage him in dull conversation. If I went to rescue him surely he would be grateful! No, I would just be another interruption in his quest for peace. I said, "Erik, that's Carter Oosterhouse!" "Who?" All that talent and beauty was lost on Erik. I wanted to meet this extraordinary television carpenter with his own show, Carter Can on HGTV. I've watched him since back in the early days of Trading Spaces on TLC.
I decided in the interest of giving Carter his space and trying to avoid the label of middle-aged-lady-who-watches-home-improvement-shows, I would just leave him alone. When it was our turn to board the plane we filed in and I slowly realized I would be (gasp!) sitting directly behind the carpenter of note!! I thought it through quickly: if I were to sit behind Carter, running my fingers through that beautiful wavy hair for an hour, I should at least introduce myself. He slid into his window seat, I walked past but as I moved in behind him I asked, (in a very cool and casual manner, of course) "Carter?" His dark eyes met mine and he said, "Yes." I resisted melting as not to embarass Erik standing right beside me. I held out my hand and said, "Hi. I'm Mary from Harbor Springs, and I just want you to know I really enjoy your work." He smiled that broad, toothy and genuine smile and shook my hand and thanked me and said it was nice to meet me. All very generic words for just another fan, but I'm quite certain he really WAS happy to meet me...
Erik and I took our seats and I was proud of myself that I didn't call any attention to Carter or myself... especially when the man next to him said, "Ok, I have to ask, what kind of work do you do?" Carter's reply, "Oh, I just build stuff." He slept the rest of the way.

yummy