stories
Chuck Palahniuk is on tour for his book, Pygmy, and he was at Borders this Saturday. One of my friends from college really enjoyed his books and I didn't get around to reading Fight Club until relatively recently. When Jessica and I got to the bookstore around 4:30, all the seats were taken. Jessica commented that it might have been the most popular book event she'd attended. We forgot that Anderson Cooper's appearance was pretty crowded but we were also late. Fans were getting books signed and posing for pictures with Chuck holding a big trophy. He started off saying, "Tomorrow's Mother's Day," laughter from audience, "Do something." My friends and I were unimpressed but he is funny. Seemed like some of his fans are so in love that they will laugh at anything. I was really distracted by figuring out how to obtain an inflatable penguins (http://www.epartyunlimited.com/24-inch-inflatable-penguin.html) he threw out for games. Being in the back, the balled up penguins didn't fly very far. They were worth it and we certainly knew they were worth it when a 6 year old girl started touching Theresa's penguin. She'd been looking at it longingly when we sat down though.
One thing Chuck said was that journalists steal stories and journalists are culturally autistic so they use journalism to interact with the outside world.
My friend, Gary, gave me a ride from Dragon Boat Practice to Alexandria for the Trademark Expo. On the way there, he and his boyfriend, Kevin, told me about an argument they had in a restaurant because Kevin was complaining about how loud the teenagers nearby were being. Gary told him, "You just hate laughter!" Kevin responded by saying, "Well, you hate babies!" On King Street, Kevin said "Oh, there are chickens." Yes, there was a rooster and two chickens which I wouldn't have noticed. "At first, I thought that they were lawn ornaments but then the lawn ornament started moving and I realized they were alive." Yep, I don't expect to see chickens in Northern Virginia.