While recovering from triple bypass, open heart surgery a few years ago, I found out that Rachel Ray was going to be making an appearance at a local book store for a book signing. This was good news, because I was a big fan.

Yeah, I’m a guy and I like to cook. I’m also a single guy who needs to know how to cook, because I don’t want family members coming to my apartment and finding me huddled over a plate of gray linguine. It was necessary for me to learn how to cook and Rachel’s recipes are easy to make and not very time consuming.

So, when I heard she was coming to town, I had to meet her. After all, I watched all of her cooking shows, traveling shows, talk shows, game shows and, if she had a show that explained the Pythagorean Theorem, I would have watched that, too.

Let’s face it, for a single guy, she’s the perfect girl. She’s cute, she’s perky, she’s smart, she’s funny and she can cook. What guy wouldn’t want a woman like that?

It was a chilly April afternoon and when I got to the bookstore two hours early, the line to meet my future wife, was out the door and spilling into the parking lot. Apparently, “Rach” had more fans than I imagined. So, I waited. And I waited. Soon, the sun set and the evening got a little more chilly.

She was due to arrive at seven, so at about six, I asked someone to hold my spot in line, while I went to the Starbucks located inside the bookstore. I gave the cashier the title to my car in exchange for a beverage. Actually, it was a half-decaf-caf-caf-caf-heffer-caf-cocoa.

When I returned to the line, the person holding my spot informed me that Rachel was running about a half hour late and that a bookstore employee had handed out color coded stubs for us to get in. Apparently, the color stub we held represented that we fell into the 300-400 number of people waiting. I didn’t care. It was to meet my Rachel.

I had bought her latest book, “30 Ways to Cook 30 Kinds of Endangered Species in 30 Minutes for Under 30 Dollars in 30 Languages As Told to 30 People From 30 Countries.” I would have bought her book if it was titled, “30 Ways to Circumcise Your Cat.” After all, it was Rachel.