Emily Henderson won HGTVs Design Star last night and it has me thinking: Great things do happen to great people. What comes around goes around. Karma.

Emily is a rare bird. We waited tables together at a place called Galaxy Diner, a restaurant right next to Irving Plaza in NYC, and became good friends for a minute there. We were working together when she waited on one of her favorite authors of all time. She didn’t know it until he handed her his credit card with his name on it. You could tell the writer, whose name I can’t remember (sorry), was not use to cute blond waitresses gushing over him. Emily was always making people’s day like that. She’d have flowers with her for a friend who was in a play opening that night or some hand-crafted item for someone’s birthday. She was (and obviously is) a ridiculously hard worker. She worked at the Galaxy restaurant, an upscale furniture showroom in Soho, AND bartended at a Lower East Side bar. When I needed cash she’d hook me up with her jobs too. I cocktailed at the bar (I think it was called Sixes and Eights), and tended bar for her showroom’s party. For my birthday she gave me three amazing vintage clutches that I still use AND brought tons of booze over. What a gal.

I’m not sure how we lost touch, but I am pretty sure it was my fault. No one of her coolness level could be blamed for such a thing – plus I never gave her awesome clutches. But as I sit here, pissed at my cable company for inexplicably going out of service when the show aired last night, I am so freakin proud of Emily. To me she is a reminder, an inspiration if you will, that there is something to that being a good person thing. That if you stick to who you are, and give people kindnesses, and work hard at finding a way to love what you’re doing…. Amazing things can happen. Maybe not like getting your own TV show amazing, but things to make life even better. Good job winning Design Star, Emily. I’m totally going to watch your show and use as many of your design tips as my condo will accommodate.

Not the best pic, but here we are: