My Sister Met a Couple of My Heroes and I Didn't

So I'm pretty much living vicariously through my sister in meeting some of my Catholic heroes. Here's two examples.

My original home parish, St. Laurence in Sugar Land, TX, has a great speaker series. Last year they brought in Jennifer Fulwiler. I actually went to see her speak. Erika and I were supposed to go together but she had a rough day and wanted to stay home. Since she had such a rough day I left right after the talk. Lucky me, my sister was at the talk too. So, I texted her to buy a book and I'd pay her back. Well, this happened:

















So...SCORE! In all honesty, it's my fault I've never met her. She spoke at a conference in Denver and I was sitting in a hallway between talks and she walked by. I kept telling myself that she was just a regular person and I should just stop her and say hi but I chickened out and she walked right on by.

Monday night, Christopher West spoke at the speaker series. His teaching along with his books and my study of St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body has revolutionized not just the my life and my view but also express the truth of the Church's teaching of who we are and what we're made for. Well, I forgot he was coming, but I took the day off of work and decided I'd truly take it off since I was at work all weekend, and stay home. Well, my sister went and this happened:

Ok, so there's a story behind the autograph. If you didn't notice, this blog's title is included. If you go all the way back to one of my first, if not the first, blog I wrote I explained how I got the phrase vertical wildness from Christopher West's book Fill These Hearts: God, Sex, and the Universal Longing. Well before I used the title I actually emailed the contact email for Christopher West's Cor Project  to get permission to use his phrase. For some reason it really bugged me to use a phrase he coined without permission. Well, Christopher West personally replied, and this is how he did it:

"Dear Chris,
I appreciate you asking. I'll give you 30 days to come up with something different and if you don't, you'll be hearing from my lawyer.
JK. Feel free to use it. Happy if it blesses you and blesses others."

 Seriously?! What a guy. So here's to me hopefully meeting my next hero that comes to town. I'm looking at you Dr. Scott Hahn (I actually did speak with him once but it was for mere seconds because he was literally running by me because he was late for his plane.)