I’m going on a cruise early next year, and I’ve learned that Wil Wheaton will be in attendance as one of the performers/speakers/entertainers. Maybe he makes balloon animals?

When I was younger, I watched Star Trek: The Next Generation all the time, and I had a big crush on Wesley Crusher, because he was a geek. He was cute and stuff, which was not a bad thing in my pre-teen eyes, but he also managed to keep saving the Enterprise by being all smart and nerdy and that was what I loved. And he never got enough credit for it either. Patronizing, eye-rolling, “shut-up-Wesley-ing”adults never giving him any respect, those bastards. I could sympathize.

Then, I’m sorry to say, I grew up and left Wesley behind. I sure hope he got over it. He wasn’t on TV any more, and I had other things to do and other nerds and geeks to crush on. Many years later, in a fateful email, I was sent a link to a review of a Star Trek episode, written by Wil Wheaton. And so help me, I clicked it. I read the review. I devoured it. I looked for more. I laughed. I cried. Mostly just laughed. This guy, this Wil Wheaton dude – he could write! And I found out he’d been blogging and writing books and stories, and of course I had to investigate.

He’s talented. If you haven’t read any of his stuff, I encourage you to go check it out, because you won’t regret it. His writing is familiar and unaffected and real, and he should probably be getting more recognition for it. He’s just… this guy. And he does stuff, like real people do. And he writes about it. I’m not sure why that’s so amazing – TV people are people too – but it’s really great to see that this guy who played a nerdy kid and got a lot of shit for it has grown up into a talented and geeky adult with a huge fan base. And I absolutely love reading his blog and I get grumpy if he doesn’t post for a while.

So, when I found out he’s going to be on this cruise, I was really excited. Maybe I’ll get to meet him! Oh God, wait, that means I’ll have a chance to be a blubbering idiot fan-girl and make an ass of myself.

I will try not to giggle like an excited schoolgirl if I see him, and likely fail miserably, so when it happens I will turn to my husband and say “Why would the monkey even say that”! I will instruct him to laugh as well, to help with my cover. I guess we should probably come up with a joke that would have a rude talking monkey punch line, in case Wil is intrigued by our laughter and wants in on the joke. Why a monkey? It’s always a monkey.

Even if I don’t get a glimpse of him at a cruise event, or I do and then embarrass myself by being a twittery wreck, I’m looking forward to hearing him speak or read or perform in a jug band, or whatever his plans are to entertain the masses. It’ll be a little slice of geek heaven for me, and I can’t wait.