This morning dawned with a glorious sun and nice warm temperatures. I woke from a great night's sleep, rolled over to face (already awake) C., and said, "Hey, I just remembered something! Today is the David Sedaris book signing! Maybe we should go." C. agreed. Over breakfast we drew up our game plan. The book signing was likely to be total pandemonium, so we planned to leave the house at 2:30 so that we could be there by 3:00. The actual signing was scheduled to start at 4:00. Plenty of time! We'll get there early!
Then, we tried to print a map to the place off the computer, and the printer choked.
Then, when C. said he could just remember how to get there instead of writing the directions down, I believed him.
So anyway, we arrived at the bookstore at 3:45. C. missed the exit by several miles, thereby taking us out of our way to someplace what we did not know where we were. One bright side to getting lost was finding this amazing Baptist church that had originally been a movie theater. It was built in that space-age '50's style. Super cool. I got pictures.
So like I said, we arrived at 3:45 to a bookstore filled with people. We tried several times to find any semblance of organization--Was there a line? If so, where was the end of it? Where was David Sedaris? What's happening? Who's in charge here?
After several infuriating minutes of plowing through the throng (did I mention I hate crowds?), we finally (almost literally) ran smack into David Sedaris. Wow. David was signing books at the corner of the front counter, and while that seemed kind of anti-climactic, we scrambled to find the end of the line to him and were successful. There was part of me that just wanted to walk up to him (since finding the actual man was so much easier than finding the end of the line), be a jerk and cut in front, but cooler heads prevailed (C.'s), and we got into the line to wait for our turn. Then suddenly, David was gone. Crap! Right then I gave up all hope to ever get our book signed. The crowd was just too big. Oh well, at least we got to see him...
David Sedaris and another writer named David Rackoff read some funny stuff for the folks. That was a bonus I hadn't expected. Pleasant surprise, especially since we thought we had zero chance of meeting David S. and getting him to sign our book. To get to hear him live was a real treat.
There was a brief question and answer session afterwards, and then some guy in drag (?) who worked at the bookstore got up and announced to the throng that the line for book signing was to begin right over there, pointing a short distance from where we were standing. C. sprang into action, and before I knew it we were stepping up to a brightly lit table with our book, and chit-chatting with Mr. Sedaris himself. I told him I was tempted to ask him to do his Billie Holiday impression during Q&A, and he thanked me for not doing so. C. and I offered our humble praise and all that, and then our time in the spotlight was over. David handed our book back, signed and all. We hightailed it back to the car.
It was a pretty good way to spend a couple of hours...even if it involved dealing with the masses...
Here are some links if you'd like to check out this fine writer and see why C. and I are such big fans. Just click on the pictures and witness the comedic genius:
And here.
And here!
