First: Hello all of you people who found your way here because of a super awesome blog post by a super awesome writer! I’m going to talk about that very thing in just a minute!

Before I write anything else though, can I just take a moment to talk about my awesome husband?

My awesome husband has spent the last three years both working full time and going to school full time. He has been studying Civil Engineering with emphasis (emphasisses? emphases?) in Structural and Transportation Engineering. There have been 23 hour days, weeks with no days off and even though there were times when I’m sure he felt like he was beating his head against a brick wall, he refused to give up. Yesterday was his very last class as an undergraduate student. He has one final due Monday. He has one final due Thursday and then? He is done. His graduation ceremony is on the 12th and his days as an undergraduate student are over. He will officially have his degree.

I am so so proud of him! I am so so proud of him that yesterday I got up at five in the morning so that I could go with him to school and watch him give his very last undergraduate presentation. They were presenting what is called a Capstone project which is a project that they work on in groups with different city planners and professionals to help better the city of Portland and its surrounding areas. The projects that they work on will actually come to fruition and impact different parts of the city. Cool huh? The presentations were open to the public so I grabbed a seat in back and…watched four hours of engineering presentations.

The presentations started at eight. Will’s presentation was at 8:40. He had to stay until noon and watch everyone else’s group present because he was, technically, in class. I stayed the whole time because I didn’t want to be rude and because I thought it would be cool to learn more about stuff happening in Portland. I like learning about my city and the projects that go into making it awesomer. Plus, I just like learning.  Except, as it turns out, if you do not actually understand engineering, listening to four hours of engineering presentations will not be as interesting as you hope it will. I understood Will’s presentation because I’ve listened to him talk about it for months. For the rest of them, even though I did my best, it was pretty hit or miss. I understood just about every word individually but when those words were put together to convey engineering ideas I got very very lost. But I did TRY to pay attention. I tried very hard not to check my e-mail, read blogs or look at Twitter. Which might be how I didn’t know about a certain very awesome blog posting until later.

After everything was done we went with one of Will’s friends, S, to get some rice pudding (there is a new place downtown called Pudding on the Rice that S loves). Will and S were talking about engineering stuff that I couldn’t make heads or tails of so I stopped trying to be polite (being amongst friends who don’t give a rat’s behind about my manners kind of has that effect) and decided to check my e-mail, which is when I saw it. In my e-mail there was a pending comment from someone named Megan (Hi new pal Megan!).  It’s up there on the W00tstock post. Go ahead and check it out.  I’ll wait…

Yeah!Intriguing!  I was standing there in the middle of Pudding on the Rice thinking “what has Wil Wheaton posted on his blog and why would it cause me to have some sort of reaction that might be bigger than my reaction at having gotten retweeted?”  (which was pretty big). So I opened up Google Reader on my phone to see if Wil’s latest blog post had been fed there yet and lo and behold…

“Holy Crap that’s ME! OH MY GOD!” I shouted loud enough to startle everyone in Pudding on the Rice and a few people walking by.

I would like to tell you that, after this (very eloquent) explosion, I was dignified and calm and acted like a normal person to whom this sort of thing happens all the time. I would like to tell you that I did not freak out. That I did not start bouncing all over the place like some kind of deranged clown doing a pee-pee-dance while hopping on a pogo stick. I would like to tell you that I did not shove my phone in front of Will’s face and say “LOOK! LOOK!” I would like to tell you all of these things but I would be lying.  And friends don’t do that to each other.

I’m not going to give you a play by play of the next few hours. If you follow me on Twitter you probably saw a whole bunch of reactions come out of me.  If not, well…why aren’t you following me on Twitter??

I am pretty sure that I don’t need to explain to you why this is awesome from a blogger/geek point of view. You all know how awesome Wil Wheaton is already. I don’t need to tell you again.

What’s funny is that both Will (husband Will…  This is going to be challenging) and I spent a good fifteen minutes trying to explain to S why this was such a big deal for me. Don’t even get me started on the not quite irony of me having to explain just how cool it all was when the very blog post I was referenced in was one that talks about how Wootstock is a place where geeks like me (us, really)  don’t have to explain themselves or defend the things they think are cool. It’s just too………yeah. You know? If I could raise one eyebrow, this would be the moment to do it.  But let’s get back to the story.

What you might not know is just how much this means for me personally.  I’ve been reading Wil Wheaton since early February 2004. I’ve never been that into Star Trek. I’d seen Stand By Me….when I was 9 or 10. I found Wil’s blog when I was looking for examples of blogs to read to help me figure out how to better approach my own. He’s the first blogger that I read regularly.  For me, Wil Wheaton has always been a writer. For a writer I admire to think enough of my work to point to it? Is…just…. I don’t have the right words for it so I’m not even going to try.  Suffice it to say that this is a huge deal.

Later yesterday evening,when Will (notice the double l there I’m not about to awkwardly segue into some creepy daydream) and I were telling one of the guys he works with about Wil’s blog post, the guy said “Oh my gosh! It’s like if Julia Child had written about the other Julie in that one movie!”

He pretty much hit it right on the head.

So. Thank you Wil Wheaton for liking my work enough to feature it on your site. I am honored. And Thank You for everything else you do as well. And Thank You to everyone who has clicked on that link and found themselves here. Welcome! I hope you will stick around!

And Contragulations to my husband Will (notice 2 L’s? Again: NOT going creepy stalker here) on his finishing his degree.  I am so so proud of you!