so i must confess something. i was remiss in revealing an aspect of last weekend’s sunday funday when i composed its overview here.

you see, while yes, adventures in home decorating were made and gratuitous flowers were gifted, there was also a momentary case of creepiness demonstrated by yours truly.

i’m not gonna lie, i check instagram a lot. like a lot a lot (and my “checking” is by no means limited to accounts whose owners are real life friends, as in, oh hey, strangers, i just double-tapped your photo of your family vacation in italy from last summer, don’t worry about it). and prior to the invention and resulting obsession with the app of fun filters and clever hashtags, i also spent (and still spend) a good portion of my time lurking around in the blogosphere -perusing random people’s engagement/wedding photos i had found from a link on greenweddingshoes.com, discovering new style bloggers from their pins on pinterest, stumbling upon graphic designers’ personal pages from their guest contributions to my favorite home diy and miscellaneous design blogs, you know, the uje (short for usual, and yes, that’s how it’s spelled). so you know, between the two activities, i’ve made “fakelationships” (fake relationships) with some of the aliases i follow on a regular basis.

in other words, i talk about them as if i know them (because obviously i keep tabs on their life through their regular postings/instagram uploads) and yet we have never met. i get it, i’m creepy, it’s fine. but i must warn you, it’s about to get a whole lot creepier up in here…

now while most of these fakelationships exist with humans who (fortunately for them) live out of town, and even state, there are a few that actually call north county san diego home. as in, there is a high probability that i may, on one of my say, trips to trader joe’s, happen upon one said lady while doing my weekly food purchases for the week.

so when i spotted one of the objects of my blog/instagram account affection with her adorable daughter checking out the potted pines and poinsettias out in front of trader joe’s as i was leaving last sunday, i reacted similarly to when i had run into celebrities in the past.

i all but approached her as if our fakelationship was in fact, the real thing (just picture me waving aggressively while screaming a high pitched, “hiiiiiiiiiiiii”).

but obviously, before i could make a fool out of myself (don’t worry, that happens in a minute), i quickly reconsidered, told myself that i shouldn’t bother the sweet mother and daughter duo as they were out for an afternoon errand, and continued on my way back to the car. but then i reconsidered once more.

wait, i thought, okay, so what if the situation was reversed? what if by some act of God someone who just happened to follow my blog and/or instagram account spotted me out and about and came up to introduce themselves? wouldn’t i be so incredibly flattered (and not in the least bit creeped out) and grateful for their act of bravery?

yes, yes i would.

so i figured that if i felt this way in my hypothetical situation, then SURELY she would feel the same in this actual situation.

and in making the decision, i literally did a little pivot on the curb and headed back in her direction. so as not to startle her (because obviously i wasn’t doing that already), i approached her timidly, finally whispering “are you [so and so]?” when i was in earshot.

she looked up doe-eyed, a bit confused as to why a complete stranger was calling her by name (and rightly so). but even despite her trepidation at the fact that this crazy redhead had just interrupted her sunday visit to trader joe’s, she flashed a generous smile as i did my best to explain my momentary case of creepiness.

luckily, i had an arsenal of mutual acquaintances of which to point out as i awkwardly introduced myself. somehow i figured, if i could sprinkle in the fact that we shared a few common friends, i would appear less threatening. “i’m shawna,” i chimed, “i just want to tell you that i follow you on instagram and have seen your designs on various blogs and i just think you’re so talented.” another way to ease the threatening-meter? provide copious amounts of compliments. because compliments, creepy or not, are still compliments, right?

in all seriousness, she was nothing short of completely sweet and gracious in her response to me. she affirmed our mutual friends, thanked me for my compliment-showering, and even mentioned that she was glad i had reached out to make her acquaintance that day.

and i walked away from our moments together feeling satisfied that i had taken the leap to up my creep (game).

sure, objectively, it’s creepy to admit to someone who, unbeknownst to them, that you know many details about their life. but social media in general has kind of made that point all but moot now hasn’t it? so maybe instead of creepy, it should just be viewed as endearing?

at least that’s how i hope my new blog/instagram acquaintance took it. but like i said, if the situation had been in reverse, i would have totally welcomed a creeper.

and maybe that’s why i’m the worst offender of them all.