Books In The City

On Wednesday I went up to San Fransisco to see one of my favorite authors, Jen Lancaster. Her new book "Pretty In Plaid" is now out and she was signing books at Borders in SF so I HAD to go. The whole evening was quite interesting.

When I got to Borders it was about an hour before she was suppose to be there. They had a little system of how you were suppose to do things. First you buy your book, then you go get your wrist band, then you sit and wait. If you got a pink wrist band you were in the first group to get your book signed. I was pink. :)

The next step was waiting. I kind of wish I would have started reading my book (that would have been the logical thing to do), but my bionic ears were working overtime with all of the very "different" people who were there.

1. Girl up front: She was a young girl who had to "entertain the troops" as it were, before Jen came out. So, she read from "Would You Rather - Girls Edition" for just about an entire hour. It was amusing watching all the "geeked out" ladies laugh so loud over not so funny stuff.

2. Guy in front of me: The one guy in the chair section. He was there with his girlfriend and when she left to go to the restroom, he decided to open up to the lady in front of him about how his girlfriend became interested in these books. When the girlfriend came back, the lady in front of them said, "Well, now I know EVERYTHING about you." Boyfriend would have gotten a swift kick in the behind if I were girlfriend.

3. Lady sitting next to me: I kind of think she thought there were secret talent scouts peppered throughout the audience and that this was her chance to SHINE. Her regular conversation with her friend, turned into an extra loud, over dramatised stage presentation of why she had, "The worst memory EVER!!!" Oh, it was all very theatrical. I think if it was an interesting conversation that maybe I would have scootched my chair toward her and enjoyed the show. But. No.

4. Everyone in their "costumes": So many people dressed up to wow the author. I think she kind of expects it, but for some reason I was really glad to be among the few non-costumed. The costumed (80's wear, plaid and pearls) all seemed to have a crazed, geeked out look in their eye.

5. The yellow wrist-band ladies in line ahead of me: So, if you're going to plot a plan to get ahead of the "pinks" when you're "yellow", you might want to keep it on the D.L. and try and hide you band from everyone else. Of course I told these ladies what I tell all cutters, "I don't care if you cut behind me, but don't cut in front of me." They were behind me the rest of the way. RULE BREAKERS!!!!!

I kind of went out of order there. Oops! Anyway, a little after 7 Jen comes out. She was fabulous! She did a reading from her new book and then took questions (mostly geeked out, strange questions from people who think Jen is their next door neighbor). Then, book signing time. So, I finally get up to the front around 8:30ish.