She Said It.

April, April, April.

Shake your head. And love her.

Really, that's all you can do.

For example (I'll give you three):

1) On Friday night, Apes and I joined some great friends and headed to the Birchmere to see Chely Wright perform songs off her new album, Lifted Off the Ground.

Yup. We were this close.

As expected, Chely took in the crowd, made us feel like we were hanging out in her living room and even offered to call Taylor Swift to see if she'd buy us all a beer. Pretty impressive given the last time I tried to get Taylor to buy me anything, all I got was a restraining order.

But I digress.

After Chely's set, she faced a line of hundreds of fans, meeting each individually to take pictures, hear how her book, Like Me, detailing her coming out process touched them to the core, and wrap them in warm bear hugs.

I've never seen anything like it.

I interned at RCA Records in Nashville and I'm here to tell you, this kind of fan access is nearly unheard of. I watched Chely's fans sit next to her, brimming with excitement, tears, anxiety and sharing some of their most personal experiences surrounding their own coming out.

Not once did she look bored, tired, irritated or in disgust at the line that never seemed to dwindle. No  handler decided when someone's time was up. Chely just listened. Really listened. I respected her as an artist, now I have nothing but respect for her as a person.

But once again, I digress. Back to Apes.

Because Chely took so much time with each fan (she stayed until one a.m. to see us all), we had quite the wait in line. Our friend Melissa forgot to bring her CD to the concert and was diving in her purse to see what she could offer Chely to sign.

Options included a wine cork, a wallet, her phone and a plastic Tic Tac box.

Before Melissa could even pull the box completely out of her bag, Apes snapped her fingers and said:

"That one! Give her that one. Tell her how refreshing she was and ask if she'll sign your Tic Tacs!"

I groaned, but the couple in front of us hee hawed, giving Apes more motivation to continue.

She turned to them, "That was good, wasn't it? You liked it, huh?"

When they nodded yes, she turned to me.

"See! SOMEONE appreciates my humor!"

Yes. SOMEONE does. Corn ball.

Needless to say, Melissa did not approach Chely with the breath freshening treat (Although, I'm certain Chely woulda signed it). Instead, she found some paper and approached Chely without April's one-liner.

As for Apes and I, we had our own sit down with Chely, had her sign our CD and shared a bit of our own story with her.

Ya'll, support Chely. She's amazing. Buy her book. Buy her CD. You won't be sorry.

2) Apes has been wanting to collaborate on a series of children's books for quiet some time now.

Work kept me from brainstorming with her all of last year, but it's on the agenda now and she's got a new idea percolating every day.

Yesterday morning she woke me up out of a dead sleep to tell me about a new idea that would inspire children to brush their teeth.

The fact my eyes weren't open and I was mumbling something like "write it down, we'll talk later, dreaming about pasta" meant nothing to her.

"Isn't it a good idea?!"

"Yes. (and it was). Can we talk about it later? Like,  in the daylight?"

"Okay, but you promise not to BRUSH me off? Get it?! BRUSH!"

Insert April's "proud laugh" here.

She was still laughing as I drifted back to sleep.

3) We were walking into the house and April started singing a Tim McGraw song.

You know it, Indian Outlaw.

She strutted a bit, and then got to the chorus.

"I'm an Indian Outlaaaaw, son of aaaaaaaaaaa Chuck-a-tawwwwww."

I turned toward her.

"Hey, Apes?"

"Yup." She continued to strut.

"It's....I'm an Indian Outlaw, half Cherokee and Choctaw...."

She actually tried to argue with me for a minute.

I thought I was going to have to prove there is no such thing as a Chuck-a-tawwwwww tribe.

Here's when I knew she knew she was wrong.

She said....

"You're gonna start blogging again, aren't you?"