Gold Medalists.

Well, if you haven’t heard by now, today we learned that we were named the Best Bakery in Columbia by the Inside Columbia Best of Columbia 2019 contest.

WE ARE HERE FOR IT. We just couldn’t be more honored by this title if we tried. Over 360,000 votes were cast this year, so that PJP was a common thread through it all is simply AHHHMAZING. Thank you so much if you voted for us. We can’t say it enough - we can’t be us without you. And Team PJP? They deserve all the accolades because their commitment to us and the World Pie Domination movement is unparalleled.

In all the excitement of our posts to Facebook and Instagram, it took me a bit to notice that New York Times award winning author Elin Hilderbrand commented that PJP is one of her favorite accounts to follow on Insta. OH MY GOODNESS. For some time now she has liked our posts and commented occasionally. And more than once, I’ve considered sending her a screenshot of all the Elin Hilderbrand books on my office bookshelves…but I just couldn’t be that awkward person. So I literally stewed around for a few hours today about how to answer her that showed I am a) a fan, and b) a relatively cool person that wasn’t going to make this all awkward. Four hours later, I drafted a response with the help of my excessively clever and astute 13 year old. We got it all down, but then had a throw down about whether or not adding a winky face emoji was too extra for the message. She felt it was, but I felt it worked. So then I sent it and immediately, Behind-The-Scenes Jason said “oh, I always think the winky emoji is sort of smarmy”. GREAT.

I turned to the only person I knew would be 100% on point about the use of the winky face emoji - Jaime B. Golden. If you aren’t familiar, Jaime is the co-host of The Popcast, which is my absolute favorite podcast EVER. She’s also my favorite person on Instagram. I don’t know Jaime, but I desperately want to be her friend because she is amazing and she has skin care secrets that are life changing. I sent her a DM and suggested The Popcast do an episode on the Nos of Emojis and explained my winky face regret. And then she sent me an audio message back, WHICH I DID NOT EVEN KNOW YOU COULD DO ON INSTAGRAM. She super liked the idea for the show, so even if Elin thinks I’m a freak because I used the winky face emoji, I still win. I think.

Insert winky face emoji here.