Cliches are usually true for a reason.

Like, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

Even when its cover is buff and tanned and appears to be totally “New Jersey Guido” at its finest.

Sometimes it is worth opening up that book and taking a peek inside, because you might just be surprised that the book is less A Shore Thing by Snooki and more a quirky and charming Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt.

So, I posted my Amazing Race re-cap and went about whoring it out promoting it like I do with all of my posts, a la, finding anyone and everyone who I thought might want to read it. I found Team Rocker/Soccer on Twitter and sent it to them, since I thought they might enjoy seeing the nice things I said about them and much to my delight, they both retweeted it. I then became Facebook friends with them and found Bopper and Mark (AKA Team Lifelong Friends) and sent it to them, because I figured they should see the LOVE I had for them. They both liked it, too. Yay, my plan for total world domination was working!

But then, the strangest thing happened. I put my children to bed and sat down at the computer and opened up Facebook. I had a new friend request waiting for me. It was from, and I am not even kidding here, y’all, Joey Fitness. Yes, that is right, Joey Fitness friended me. All I could think about was my favorite Adam Levine tweet from the Superbowl halftime show: What. Is. Happening.

I immediately wrote an email to my girlfriend Lisa that may have contained some expletives expressing my shock, she may have responded with something similar, we perhaps wrote back and forth trying to figure out if Joey had read the blog, not read the blog, basically how the world had gone mad on our watch. I am posting the email exchange here, with asterisks, but please know that Lisa and I are adults and do not actually type with asterisks…

From: Ashley
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 6:41 PM
To: ‘Lisa’
Subject: HOLY SH*T!!!
Sensitivity: Personal

GUESS WHO JUST SENT ME A FACEBOOK FRIEND REQUEST???????

THAT IS RIGHT, YOU HEARD ME, SENT IT TO ME, NOT ME TO HIM, HE REQUESTED TO BE FRIENDS WITH ME…..

PREPARE TO LAUGH OUT LOUD…..

JOEY FITNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From: Lisa
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 7:29 PM
To: ‘Ashley’
Subject: RE: HOLY SH*T!!!
Sensitivity: Personal

ZOMGIDON’TBELIEVEITTHISISAMAZINGYOUHAVETOBESHITT*NGME!!!!!!!

This either means that Joey Fitness has a kick a*s sense of humor about himself….or he saw you wrote something about AR and he didn’t read it.

I have a hard time thinking he has that good a sense of humor about himself, but I have a hard time believing he didn’t read it since he had to look up your name!!! ZOMG!!!!!

Do not TELL me we have to like Joey Fitness now??!!! But if he really thinks what you wrote is funny….then we HAVE TO!!!!

This is the best thing that has happened in FOREVER!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!

(Surely you did accept his friend request, right???)

 

It became quite clear to me the very next day that Joey Fitness did in fact read the blog and has an amazing sense of humor, when he quoted an entire section of it on Facebook and said flat out that he loved it. So, of course, I had to find out just how Danny, who I found out also has a nickname, “The Solution” felt about it. I friended him, he accepted, read the blog and also liked it. Seriously, y’all, I was blown away and totally realized that I had been wrong, wrong, wrong about these guys. They completely do not take themselves seriously, totally love the stuff being written about them and are willing to have the last laugh. I cannot say, if I were in their shoes, that I would take what I wrote so well and with such panache. I have to hand it to them, because some of their real-life friends called me out on Facebook for what I wrote, and it did kind of sting, as well as make me laugh and of course call Lisa to read it all to her. And to the one friend who suggested that I should probably get laid more often, I have no doubt that my husband fully agrees with you on that one! 😉

I had to go from a HELL NO on Team Joey Fitness to a HELL YES on Team NY (their preferred team name).

But, let me be clear here, I am still drawing the line at Team Border Patrol…they remain such a firm NO it ought to be illegal!

P.S. Since I started writing this entry, I have even started playing a game of Words With Friends with Joey Fitness. Who knew? Joey Fitness even likes word games…AND he is good at them! Not to toot my own horn, but I kind of fancy myself a word game person seeing as how I use words to write for a living and all, and he and I are within five points of each other! As if I needed more evidence, and I didn’t, I am never judging a book by its cover again….well, I mean, except for all the books with terrible covers.