In January, I had the grueling assignment of going to Los Angeles for the Xena convention, where I got to interview Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor. Photographer and Renee fan KT Jorgensen came with me, and took some great shots of Lucy and Renee backstage, and also at Lucy’s concert at the Roxy.

So, I was feeling really good because interviewing Lucy and Renee was basically my life's goal as a journalist. In fact, I was supremely happy — until KT called me last weekend and said she was, at that very moment, hanging out with Renee at the Burn Foundation Relay Run in L.A. And then I was supremely jealous.

KT took some beautiful photos of Renee, and also chatted with her about her fans, life and — yes, really — AfterEllen. Renee said she loved spending time with the AfterEllen crew at the Dinah in Palm Springs (OK, now I have to hate all of you who were there, too) and is looking forward to working with AfterEllen again.

I would like to point out that Renee also said she’d enjoyed meeting me when I interviewed her at the Xena convention. Or maybe KT just made that up to stop me from whimpering, since I was actually supposed to go to L.A. with her for the relay and couldn’t get away at the last minute.

The Burn Foundation is a charity near and dear to Renee’s heart, and thus to the hearts of all lesbians Xena fans everywhere. At the relay, the Renee O’Connor Fan Club donated more than $850, plus a car expected to fetch around $1200 at auction. Renee praised her fans, and said it wouldn’t be the same without them. (Us. Whatever. Sorry, just typing about Renee makes me all giddy.)

Renee signed stuff and chatted with her fans and gave them presents.

And she posed for a photo with KT, who said Renee was lovely and gracious — and then I think she went "neener neener neener."