snow can wait, i forgot my mittens
I have to tell you guys about the craziness that was the Neil Gaiman book signing on Tuesday! First of all, the event was supposed to start at 6:30, so Erin and I agreed to meet up at 6. I took the TTC and it didn't take me as long to get there as I expected, but when I got there at 5:30, there was already a line halfway down the block to get in. I joined the line and waited for Erin, who got there shortly after 6 and we went in and found our seats, second row from the back, but at least we weren't in the balcony! Around 6:45 or so, the event still hadn't started, but they'd made a couple announcements that they were waiting for everyone to get in, allowing for traffic and whatnot. Erin showed me on her phone that someone had tweeted at Neil Gaiman saying he was late, and he tweeted back that they were waiting for everyone in the audience and he couldn't go on until we were all sitting down. :p
He came on around 7 and read from his new book, which was fantastic to listen to, as expected. He has such a great voice and he's such an amazing storyteller. I told Erin that he's the kind of person who could read the phone book and it would sound interesting. Then there was a Q&A session with questions submitted by the audience, which was really funny. One of the first questions that Neil got asked was "if you could be any kind of supernatural creature, what would you be?" He basically responded that he wouldn't be a zombie because they're not very interesting, or a vampire because he'd be worried about his hair if he couldn't see it in the mirror, to which everyone laughed. His answer was that he'd want to be a creature with snakes for hair, because then you'd never be lonely and you'd always have company. Later on in the Q&A, he was asked what the cure for loneliness was, and he pointed at his head and said "Snakes." It was hilarious, as were many of his answers, but sadly I can't remember a lot of the questions now. Neil then read a passage from a children's book that's coming out next month, and finished speaking shortly after 8.
And then the waiting started. The event staff had to get the table and chair set up on stage for the signing, and organize the lottery system they were using to determine in what order the rows would get to line up. Erin and I were initially pleased with this idea, because we figured there was a better chance we'd get to go sooner than if they just went in alphabetical order, as we were in row Y. HA. They called the first row to line up at 8:30. Our row did not get called until 12:30 am and we did not actually get to the stage to get our stuff signed until almost 1:30 in the morning. FIVE HOURS of hellish waiting. It was miserable, especially because for awhile, we weren't sure we'd actually be able to stay indefinitely waiting for our row to get called. Erin had parked on a street where she could only park until midnight without risking a ticket or being towed, and since I had taken transit, I needed to be out of there before the last subway left, which we thought was around 1. As we watched more rows get called and it take forever for them to actually all get through, we started to despair that we might have to leave before our row was called and then have sat there waiting only to not actually get to meet Neil Gaiman and have him sign our books, which would have been incredibly disappointing. Fortunately, somewhere around 11 or so, Erin found out that we could leave and come back, as long as we got our hands stamped, so we went and grabbed some cheap food from the nearby McDonald's, then she moved her car to a street that didn't have the midnight restriction on parking. She also offered to drive me up to Finch, since she had to go almost that far north anyway, and then I'd be able to catch the Finch buses home since they run 24 hours.
Thus resolved, we camped out and continued to wait. And wait. We were both tired and somewhat grumpy by the time our row fiiiiinally got called, but we stuck it out and it was definitely worth it. By the time we were almost at the stage, I was giddy and excited again, and kept whispering things to Erin like, "Neil Gaiman is right there!" I tried to reign in my total fangirl when I actually got up to the table and just said that I was really excited to meet him even though I was sure he must be really tired by that point. He said that they were keeping him full of large quantities of tea, and that his hand did hurt a little, but was super nice the whole like thirty seconds I got to talk to him. I definitely had a moment after I said hi and he responded, where I was jumping up and down in my head going "Neil Gaiman just said hello to me!" Lol. So yes, the wait was excruciating, but it was totally worth it in the end. And I can't even imagine how dead his hand must have been by the time everyone was through the line; the signing easily went on for 6 hours total.
I know this one's really dark, but I think you can see that the line is still stretching all the way to the very back of the theater at this point, and that was at 1:30 when we were just getting to the stage. CRAZY.
Me and Erin, just after getting on to the stage, very excited that we were almost there!
NEIL GAIMAN!
I was thisclose to Neil Gaiman! :D
Neil Gaiman is signing my books! :D :D :D
I really did not know that I could make such a complete fangirl facial expression, but now it is captured for all to see! Still totally worth it.
Neil Gaiman!
Book signed! And he drew a heart! :D
Now I just have to go see Terry Pratchett speak and get him to sign this one, too. :)
There are a few more pictures up here if you're interested. It was an awesome evening, even despite having to wait for a very long time, and I'm really glad we got to go.
Brad and I have spent the past couple days watching Orange is the New Black on Netflix, and I'm really liking the show. I put the first episode on just as a sort of 'eh, there's nothing else to watch, let's try this' thing, but it was really good and we ended up watching 4 or 5 episodes in one day. We've only got 3 more episodes left, and I'm looking forward to next season as well. Anyone else watching?
Tomorrow, some of the girls and I are going down to the Toronto Islands for the day, which should be a lot of fun. (Actually, I should probably go to bed pretty soon because I'm going to have to get up early for that.) Then Monday is Brad's birthday, and Tuesday Gabe and I are hanging out. The following Sunday is Nicole's wedding, and the Friday after that is Erin's bachelorette party. So lots of fun stuff coming up, which definitely makes the summer more enjoyable.
He came on around 7 and read from his new book, which was fantastic to listen to, as expected. He has such a great voice and he's such an amazing storyteller. I told Erin that he's the kind of person who could read the phone book and it would sound interesting. Then there was a Q&A session with questions submitted by the audience, which was really funny. One of the first questions that Neil got asked was "if you could be any kind of supernatural creature, what would you be?" He basically responded that he wouldn't be a zombie because they're not very interesting, or a vampire because he'd be worried about his hair if he couldn't see it in the mirror, to which everyone laughed. His answer was that he'd want to be a creature with snakes for hair, because then you'd never be lonely and you'd always have company. Later on in the Q&A, he was asked what the cure for loneliness was, and he pointed at his head and said "Snakes." It was hilarious, as were many of his answers, but sadly I can't remember a lot of the questions now. Neil then read a passage from a children's book that's coming out next month, and finished speaking shortly after 8.
And then the waiting started. The event staff had to get the table and chair set up on stage for the signing, and organize the lottery system they were using to determine in what order the rows would get to line up. Erin and I were initially pleased with this idea, because we figured there was a better chance we'd get to go sooner than if they just went in alphabetical order, as we were in row Y. HA. They called the first row to line up at 8:30. Our row did not get called until 12:30 am and we did not actually get to the stage to get our stuff signed until almost 1:30 in the morning. FIVE HOURS of hellish waiting. It was miserable, especially because for awhile, we weren't sure we'd actually be able to stay indefinitely waiting for our row to get called. Erin had parked on a street where she could only park until midnight without risking a ticket or being towed, and since I had taken transit, I needed to be out of there before the last subway left, which we thought was around 1. As we watched more rows get called and it take forever for them to actually all get through, we started to despair that we might have to leave before our row was called and then have sat there waiting only to not actually get to meet Neil Gaiman and have him sign our books, which would have been incredibly disappointing. Fortunately, somewhere around 11 or so, Erin found out that we could leave and come back, as long as we got our hands stamped, so we went and grabbed some cheap food from the nearby McDonald's, then she moved her car to a street that didn't have the midnight restriction on parking. She also offered to drive me up to Finch, since she had to go almost that far north anyway, and then I'd be able to catch the Finch buses home since they run 24 hours.
Thus resolved, we camped out and continued to wait. And wait. We were both tired and somewhat grumpy by the time our row fiiiiinally got called, but we stuck it out and it was definitely worth it. By the time we were almost at the stage, I was giddy and excited again, and kept whispering things to Erin like, "Neil Gaiman is right there!" I tried to reign in my total fangirl when I actually got up to the table and just said that I was really excited to meet him even though I was sure he must be really tired by that point. He said that they were keeping him full of large quantities of tea, and that his hand did hurt a little, but was super nice the whole like thirty seconds I got to talk to him. I definitely had a moment after I said hi and he responded, where I was jumping up and down in my head going "Neil Gaiman just said hello to me!" Lol. So yes, the wait was excruciating, but it was totally worth it in the end. And I can't even imagine how dead his hand must have been by the time everyone was through the line; the signing easily went on for 6 hours total.
I know this one's really dark, but I think you can see that the line is still stretching all the way to the very back of the theater at this point, and that was at 1:30 when we were just getting to the stage. CRAZY.
Me and Erin, just after getting on to the stage, very excited that we were almost there!
NEIL GAIMAN!
I was thisclose to Neil Gaiman! :D
Neil Gaiman is signing my books! :D :D :D
I really did not know that I could make such a complete fangirl facial expression, but now it is captured for all to see! Still totally worth it.
Neil Gaiman!
Book signed! And he drew a heart! :D
Now I just have to go see Terry Pratchett speak and get him to sign this one, too. :)
There are a few more pictures up here if you're interested. It was an awesome evening, even despite having to wait for a very long time, and I'm really glad we got to go.
Brad and I have spent the past couple days watching Orange is the New Black on Netflix, and I'm really liking the show. I put the first episode on just as a sort of 'eh, there's nothing else to watch, let's try this' thing, but it was really good and we ended up watching 4 or 5 episodes in one day. We've only got 3 more episodes left, and I'm looking forward to next season as well. Anyone else watching?
Tomorrow, some of the girls and I are going down to the Toronto Islands for the day, which should be a lot of fun. (Actually, I should probably go to bed pretty soon because I'm going to have to get up early for that.) Then Monday is Brad's birthday, and Tuesday Gabe and I are hanging out. The following Sunday is Nicole's wedding, and the Friday after that is Erin's bachelorette party. So lots of fun stuff coming up, which definitely makes the summer more enjoyable.