Jessica and CosmoCon

Jessica is in New York City this weekend with about 60 other Cosmo Radio fans. It’s a pretty big deal. This is just my version of how Jessica got to where she is and how CosmoCon got started.

For as long as Jessica has had satellite radio in her car, she’s been a fan of the Cosmo Radio channel (yeah, just like the magazine). Over time, she grew to love two of the daily radio shows: Cocktails with Patrick, often abbreviated to “Cocks with P” and is mostly a show on a guys’ perspective on girly stuff; and then Wake Up! with Taylor, a morning show co-hosted by comedian Kenny Zimlinghaus. I think she’s been a Cocks with P listener for a lot longer, though. So for the past few years, she’s been a very regular listener, as well as in increasingly frequent caller.

I remember one late evening on the drive to Lubbock, she got me listening to Cocks with P on Cosmo Radio (yeah, so now I’m a dude who listens to a chick magazine radio show). If I remember right, the subject of that day’s show was something about guys and girls and salary, and how some dudes feel inferior if a woman makes more than him. It was very interesting to listen to the show and hear other callers’ opinions on how each side might feel. And you know what? There’s nothing wrong with a guy listening to Cosmo Radio — er, at least, listening to Patrick! Anyway, of all the calls and the host’s chatter about why guys might feel this way, I was a little surprised that everyone seemed to be missing one point, which I felt was the most obvious point. I was telling Jessica that I felt like guys have a somewhat natural instinct to be the provider of his family, and if a female companion makes more money, that he feels like he’s not doing a good enough job. She immediately picked up her phone and called in.

Anyway, that was two or three years ago. Over the past year, though, she’s not only been a regular listener and caller, but Patrick (and his producer, Lea) have come to know her by name. Actually, they know her by her Twitter handle, @xoxoJessicaxoxo, because the show encourages participation not only by calling in, but also by “tweeting” as they have a Twitter profile for the show. I can distinctly remember listening into a couple of shows where Patrick made the statement: “Is that hug-kiss? Okay, from now on, when hug-kiss calls in, she gets on the air. That’s the new rule here on Cocktails…” How ’bout that!

Note: when I originally published this entry, I had a nice picture of Jessica with Patrick, but apparently it’s some kind of big no-no to have his picture, so here’s Jessica with Lea, instead

Earlier this year, Patrick decided they should have a “CWP Clique”, and decided that Jessica should be the President. Yeah! So she had to decide who was “in”, and who was not. Jessica made an elaborate Excel spreadsheet that she used to keep track of all the names. Her criteria for being in the clique was that you had to be a hard-core fan, and had to prove it by passing some quizzes (which were simple if you were a loyal fan). It turned into a huge mess, because you know how people are. There were people coming from all over, begging Jessica to let them into the CWP Clique. Many got downright nasty about it. After the two or three-week ordeal, Patrick finally announced who was official “in” the CWP Clique: everyone. Yeah, it turned out to be a social experiment that Patrick wanted to use as an example of how nasty and unnecessary cliques could be, whether in high school, at work, or wherever.

Meanwhile, Jessica’s followers count on Twitter skyrocketed from maybe around 100-ish (I’m guessing) so several hundred over the course of of a couple weeks. Since then, she gains one or two new followers almost daily. Through all of this, she’s made a LOT of legitimate friends.

Well, as best as I can recall, Jessica and some of her closest “fakelife” friends decided they should meet somewhere in person just to hang out. Someone suggested New York earlier this year, and plans were beginning to be made. It wasn’t long after that when the meet n’ greet was extended outside of this circle of friends to other Cosmo Radio fans. As word spread about a meet-up in New York, Jessica began calling it “CosmoCon”, and the name stuck. In addition, someone else decide to have matching t-shirts made for the event, complete with Twitter handles and “FFF” (which is Cosmopolitan’s tag line, “Fun, Fearless Females”). Now here we are, several months later, and CosmoCon has turned into a big deal. By the way, I should mention that neither SiriusXM, Cosmo Radio, nor Cosmopilitan Magazine has had ANY involvement with this event — it was all put together by the fans, for the fans. Oh, and in case you’re wondering: no, Danielle couldn’t make it.

This weekend, all 60-some-odd fans are in New York. But they aren’t there to shop and sight-see — they’ve managed to get enough attention to receive a welcome reception Thursday night to meet Taylor Strecker and Kenny Zimlinghaus, hosts of the Wake Up! with Taylor morning show, along with Patrick and Lea. On top of that, they were all invited to the SiriusXM studio to hang out during Friday morning’s edition of Wake Up! with Taylor. I listened in Friday, mostly expecting to hear Jessica on the air, but it didn’t happen.

Anyway, I don’t know what all is going on this weekend, but what I’ve described is pretty much the bulk of it so far. I’m just real proud of Jessica for her involvement in something that turned out to be so big. Not to mention her dedication to these shows, and how the radio show hosts, producers, and fellow fans all know her by name. I mean, she’s kinda famous!

And so this marks the first annual CosmoCon. She’ll be back Monday, so she’s got plenty of time to rub elbows with the big people while having a good time with her “fakelife” friends (which, I think means they are no longer “fakelife” at this point).

Related posts:

1. About Jessica
2. Jessica said yes!
3. Happy birthday, Jessica!
4. Jessica’s birthday and dishwasher repair
5. Jessica got her toy