Day 3: "You don't have to give Leanna up for lent!"

Yesterday during a meeting at work, talk turned to Ashton Kutcher. Since it was a small meeting and I knew everyone well, I quickly piped up about my lenten promise. Everyone seemed to understand and we quickly moved back to business.

After work, I had a business meeting with a different group of colleagues to discuss some web videos we'll be producing with a new chef (for those who don't know, I work for Food Network -- a challenge all in itself since talking with and about celeb chefs is a part of my job!). One of the people at the meeting was a woman named Leanna, a producer we're using to shoot the clips. From the moment I saw her, she looked familiar. It wasn't until an hour into the meeting when I found out why. Leanna had spent a season on Saved By the Bell, a show I watched religiously in my pre-teen years.

Next thing I knew, our conversation turned from seasonal cooking to Zack Morris and Jessie Spano, two of my favorite characters on the show. We even found out that Leanna had gone to the prom with Kirk Cameron. For years, a framed poster of him hung from my bedroom wall.

It wasn't until I started telling everyone that Kirk is now married to Chelsea Noble, a woman who appeared with him on Growing Pains that I realized what I was doing. Gasping, I practically shouted, "I just cheated!"

Leanna assured me that while Kirk falls into the celeb category, she does not. But then she had to go and tell me that she and her identical sisters had starred together in The Parent Trap 3. Just what I needed to hear! I loved that movie as a kid and definitely remembered her from that. Slowly, she was seeming like a celebrity in my book.

My boss must have seen the Catholic guilt spread across. She leaned across the table and tried to comfort me by saying, "Honey, you don't have to give up Leanna for lent!" I knew she was right. This was a business meeting after all. But I was still pretty bummed that I couldn't search for Leanna and her sisters on IMBD the minute I got home, something I definitely would have done had this meeting happened before or after lent.

Soon we were all talking about celebrity addictions and why so many women are drawn to trashy magazines like Star and US Weekly. One woman said she likes to read them on airplanes to help her forget where she is and what she's doing. I told everyone about an upcoming pedicure appointment that just won't be the same without a stack of celeb mags to flip through. Sad, I know, but so very true.

When the subject switched to Heath Ledger's death and his relationship with Mary Kate Olsen, I covered my ears. Then I tried something new. I just sat there, let them talk and did not say a thing. And to be honest, it was wonderful. I didn't even feel the urge to chime in. So yes, while I did unintentionally cheat last night, I think I recovered pretty well in the end. You could call it progress, I guess?