I love to read! I also love free stuff - and really super cool experiences. Who doesn't, right?

Well..... in reading, and researching cool experiences, I'm able to find out awesome deals and events that maybe not everyone is aware of. Why am I blogging about this right now?

I think that it's very important to be well aware of things happening in and around your neighborhood - especially when complaining that there's never anything to do. I find contests, coupons, events - stuff that I get really excited about and try to involve my family and friends in.

One such experience happened a few months ago... and I thought that I would write about it tonight for your reading pleasure :)

Who hasn't heard of Cesar Milan? Mmmmm.... not many people in North America - especially dog lovers. I happen to be a very big fan of Mr. Milan, and what he does for our four legged friends.

What does this have to do with my love of reading and finding one-of-a-kind experiences? Well... I found out that Canadian Tire was having a kind of expo in Toronto and that.... guess who.... Cesar was going to be a guest! Not only was he going to talk and have a mini seminar there, but you could actually meet him. Wow.... basically a dream come true. Not just for me - my mother adores him and is a dog groomer. It became absolutely essential that we were present at this event.

On the day of, we woke up at 4:30 AM. Yes, this was on a Saturday - and yes, we did this voluntarily. We packed ourselves into my mom's jeep and headed for the GO station to get on the first available train that wouldn't make us look like Cesar Milan stalkers (6:20 AM). Barely able to keep our eyes open and sick from being excited for meeting one of our idols, we probably looked like quite the Motley crew.

Anyways, we made it to the event in one piece, and were third in line to enter the show. I also became a crazed fan when I saw Buddy, the cake boss, walking down the hall with his armed body guards... I actually jumped up and down when I saw him and yelled, "Hey!!!! BUDDY!!! HEY! BUDDY!" As if he doesn't know his own name.

Needless to say, I don't have much care for how I look when I get excited.

Either way, I avoided being taken into custody by Buddy's body guards and finally stood in line to meet Cesar. We were there.

Cesar then showed up and I became speechless. Apparently I have two ways to behave when I see a celebrity - completely insane or mute.

When it was my turn to meet the man, I lost all train of thought and started blubbering.... he had to grab me to get a picture where I was actually looking at the camera instead of the floor. So sad.

Either way - the mission was complete - I met Cesar, and even got a picture to show for it. Moral of the story? Well, take what you want from it - but my initial point was that if I hadn't researched stuff to do, I never would have been on Buddy's watch list. ;)