My Neil Gaiman Moment
Before anything else, let me get this out of the way,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE JUAN! I can't wait for you to come home with your Xbox so I can watch you play Final Fantasy! I love you and see you soon!
(I'm not kidding, I really do enjoy watching other people play video games. Ask my brothers.)
Now that that's done, let's go to the real reason for this entry.
I MET NEIL GAIMAN YESTERDAY!!!
If you don't already know him, you probably won't understand all this hullaballoo. But if you've been a fan of a foreign artist or celebrity and have dreamt of meeting them someday, then maybe you'd still be able to relate.
I can already tell this is going to be a long and winded entry cause who knows what parts of my memory will fall out of my ears after I give birth (this has been known to happen before) so I want to preserve every little detail. Even if it means foisting my kababawan on all my readers. Hey, you don't have to read this if you don't like reading kababawan.
Let me start at the beginning.
He first came 5 years ago and I went but failed to meet him. I didn't really think I'd get another chance, but last month, I got an email from Fully Booked that Neil Gaiman was coming. He would be signing for MUCH LESS people and all I had to do to guarantee my getting to meet him was buy P2,000 worth of books he wrote. No problem! I've been meaning to buy several titles I don't own yet anyway, I just never got around to doing it. And if I buy them now, I get to meet him. Hooray! I went to Fully Booked the morning the promo started. My signing pass number was 0004.
Unfortunately, this number doesn't indicate your place at the signing line. You have to register at the signing day itself to get your number which determines your place in the signing line. Oh well, it's going to be in Powerplant, I figured I'd go there as soon as the mall opened to ensure my place in front of the line. Because not only do I hate lines, I am also 35 weeks pregnant. I am incapable of standing for too long. I needed to be in front.
A couple of days before the signing, Neil tweeted that he was on his way to Manila. And of course, I couldn't resist, I just had to reply:
And then I turned off my iPhone and thought nothing of it. Little did I know that HE ACTUALLY REPLIED!
A friend of mine even took the trouble to TEXT me that he replied! Isn't that the sweetest? I thought I would die of kilig!
Signing day came, yesterday March 18. It was Mike's birthday and my gift to him was he didn't have to wake up extra early to skype with me. I would be at the Neil Gaiman signing, having my birthday gift to him signed (hardbound copy of "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?") by the author. I put on my most buntisest looking blouse for maximum preggers effect. That blouse actually makes me look pregnant even when I'm not. Michelle offered to come with me (all my other would-be signing dates flaked). Thank God!
Registration was to start at 2PM. We arrived at around 1:30. The line was already quite long! So Michelle held a place at the end of the line while I went to the front desk to politely ask if I could NOT stand in line for many hours politely. The dude I talked to conferred with some others and I guess it wasn't their call to make, so he said no. But he offered to accompany me to the end of the line, ask the person ahead of me to please hold my place so that I could go off and wait while sitting down. I considered showing them Neil's tweet but that smacked of name dropping and I really really hate doing that. So I just declined and joined Michelle in line. I stood with her for as long as I could and then sat on a bench when I was too tired. I joined her again for the last 10 mins and my 3:00PM we had a number. 159. A decent number, I think. So we headed off to eat.
We ate burgers, and I ran errands, and Michelle worked (daw) and we had ice cream and met up with Erika, Alexei and Rey and at 5:00PM, he arrived! They called numbers 1-25. We headed for the food court to eat. Yes, again. And our friends were nice enough to check the progress of the numbers every 10 mins or so. By the time we finished eating, they were at 75-100. We went to a farther restaurant cause they wanted to drink. Namee arrived. Erika went to check the numbers at around 6:45 and they were still at 100-125. I figured I'd head over there at 7.
Conversation was fun, goodbyes, as always, took longer than expected, we left the resto at around 7:10 and by the time Michelle and I reached the stage, my number had just been called! And the rule was if you miss your number in line, you had to go to the back of the line! BUT they hadn't moved on to the next group yet (they were still at 150-175 and were just about to call 175-200). Maybe they saw how heavily preggers I was, or maybe they saw how Michelle was ready to fight the line marshal on my behalf, in anycase, no one complained when I headed to the front of the line, right next to the stage. The line marshal there stared at me not knowing what to do, but the guy who was next in line was kind enough to say, "Pagbigyan nyo na, buntis siya o." So he took my number and put me there right next to the stage.
And so a few minutes later, I was face to face with the man I've been waiting 5 years to meet. :-)
Note that this happened 24 hours ago, and I skipped some small talk. But this is the gist of what had happened:
And then he looked up.
Don't you just love how the British say "small" like it sounds "smoll"? Sigh! Anyway, at that point I wondered if he recognized me from Twitter? I do have a small picture that goes with each tweet I make. But then again, who knows how many tiny pregnant Filipina women tweet Neil Gaiman everyday?
Plus they sort of put me in the front of the line. Just then. It's not like I stood for hours either. But I didn't tell him that.
Michelle was yelling from the sidelines, my camera in hand. And she was joined by Erika and the rest of our friends. Dear God, buti na lang fans din sila ni Neil or else, weirdong weirdo na siguro sila sa akin.
Baka nga naman makahalik ako diba?
Honestly I wasn't hearing anything at this point, I guess I was too excited.
But it was really sweet how he insisted on giving special treatment to the preggers among us.
Pero nakangiti! Hahaha! I wonder if someone else got a picture of me and Neil? The official picture takers were there to hold on to peoples' cameras.
The money shot!
This is all for you babe!
He actually smiled at me!
JOKE! What he actually said was, "You're very welcome!" And then he made me beso on the cheek. One cheek only, very non-European. And his face was quite scraggly. I wasn't expecting him to beso me actually. And when he did I thought I was going to cry!
Or maybe Morpheus Juan? Pagtatawanan kaya siya sa school? Di naman siguro.
Epilogue:
As I managed to NOT fall off the stage, or spontaneously give birth, Michelle and our friends were all whooping for me. Everyone else who had been there, quietly waiting for hours, stared at us noisy people silently. And then, a few seconds later, an announcement came from the speakers: "Attention, all pregnant women, please come to the front of the line!" Yay! We cheered! "I'M PREGNANT!" Michelle yelled. But I bet the non pregnant people wanted to boo. Us in particular. Nevertheless, even if the whole Neil Gaiman moment lasted less than a minute, it was really very exciting and thriling for me.
I also doubt I will ever line up for anyone else's autograph ever again. Hahaha!
Thank you thank you thank you to Michelle for staying with me all day, keeping my place in line, carrying the camera, taking the pictures and bringing the cheering squad. You are the BEST SISTER-IN-LAW EVER! And I swear if Neil comes back, I'll do the same so you can have him kiss you too.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE JUAN! I can't wait for you to come home with your Xbox so I can watch you play Final Fantasy! I love you and see you soon!
(I'm not kidding, I really do enjoy watching other people play video games. Ask my brothers.)
Now that that's done, let's go to the real reason for this entry.
I MET NEIL GAIMAN YESTERDAY!!!
If you don't already know him, you probably won't understand all this hullaballoo. But if you've been a fan of a foreign artist or celebrity and have dreamt of meeting them someday, then maybe you'd still be able to relate.
I can already tell this is going to be a long and winded entry cause who knows what parts of my memory will fall out of my ears after I give birth (this has been known to happen before) so I want to preserve every little detail. Even if it means foisting my kababawan on all my readers. Hey, you don't have to read this if you don't like reading kababawan.
Let me start at the beginning.
He first came 5 years ago and I went but failed to meet him. I didn't really think I'd get another chance, but last month, I got an email from Fully Booked that Neil Gaiman was coming. He would be signing for MUCH LESS people and all I had to do to guarantee my getting to meet him was buy P2,000 worth of books he wrote. No problem! I've been meaning to buy several titles I don't own yet anyway, I just never got around to doing it. And if I buy them now, I get to meet him. Hooray! I went to Fully Booked the morning the promo started. My signing pass number was 0004.
Unfortunately, this number doesn't indicate your place at the signing line. You have to register at the signing day itself to get your number which determines your place in the signing line. Oh well, it's going to be in Powerplant, I figured I'd go there as soon as the mall opened to ensure my place in front of the line. Because not only do I hate lines, I am also 35 weeks pregnant. I am incapable of standing for too long. I needed to be in front.
A couple of days before the signing, Neil tweeted that he was on his way to Manila. And of course, I couldn't resist, I just had to reply:
And then I turned off my iPhone and thought nothing of it. Little did I know that HE ACTUALLY REPLIED!
A friend of mine even took the trouble to TEXT me that he replied! Isn't that the sweetest? I thought I would die of kilig!
Signing day came, yesterday March 18. It was Mike's birthday and my gift to him was he didn't have to wake up extra early to skype with me. I would be at the Neil Gaiman signing, having my birthday gift to him signed (hardbound copy of "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?") by the author. I put on my most buntisest looking blouse for maximum preggers effect. That blouse actually makes me look pregnant even when I'm not. Michelle offered to come with me (all my other would-be signing dates flaked). Thank God!
Registration was to start at 2PM. We arrived at around 1:30. The line was already quite long! So Michelle held a place at the end of the line while I went to the front desk to politely ask if I could NOT stand in line for many hours politely. The dude I talked to conferred with some others and I guess it wasn't their call to make, so he said no. But he offered to accompany me to the end of the line, ask the person ahead of me to please hold my place so that I could go off and wait while sitting down. I considered showing them Neil's tweet but that smacked of name dropping and I really really hate doing that. So I just declined and joined Michelle in line. I stood with her for as long as I could and then sat on a bench when I was too tired. I joined her again for the last 10 mins and my 3:00PM we had a number. 159. A decent number, I think. So we headed off to eat.
We ate burgers, and I ran errands, and Michelle worked (daw) and we had ice cream and met up with Erika, Alexei and Rey and at 5:00PM, he arrived! They called numbers 1-25. We headed for the food court to eat. Yes, again. And our friends were nice enough to check the progress of the numbers every 10 mins or so. By the time we finished eating, they were at 75-100. We went to a farther restaurant cause they wanted to drink. Namee arrived. Erika went to check the numbers at around 6:45 and they were still at 100-125. I figured I'd head over there at 7.
Conversation was fun, goodbyes, as always, took longer than expected, we left the resto at around 7:10 and by the time Michelle and I reached the stage, my number had just been called! And the rule was if you miss your number in line, you had to go to the back of the line! BUT they hadn't moved on to the next group yet (they were still at 150-175 and were just about to call 175-200). Maybe they saw how heavily preggers I was, or maybe they saw how Michelle was ready to fight the line marshal on my behalf, in anycase, no one complained when I headed to the front of the line, right next to the stage. The line marshal there stared at me not knowing what to do, but the guy who was next in line was kind enough to say, "Pagbigyan nyo na, buntis siya o." So he took my number and put me there right next to the stage.
And so a few minutes later, I was face to face with the man I've been waiting 5 years to meet. :-)
Note that this happened 24 hours ago, and I skipped some small talk. But this is the gist of what had happened:
And then he looked up.
Don't you just love how the British say "small" like it sounds "smoll"? Sigh! Anyway, at that point I wondered if he recognized me from Twitter? I do have a small picture that goes with each tweet I make. But then again, who knows how many tiny pregnant Filipina women tweet Neil Gaiman everyday?
Plus they sort of put me in the front of the line. Just then. It's not like I stood for hours either. But I didn't tell him that.
Michelle was yelling from the sidelines, my camera in hand. And she was joined by Erika and the rest of our friends. Dear God, buti na lang fans din sila ni Neil or else, weirdong weirdo na siguro sila sa akin.
Baka nga naman makahalik ako diba?
Honestly I wasn't hearing anything at this point, I guess I was too excited.
But it was really sweet how he insisted on giving special treatment to the preggers among us.
Pero nakangiti! Hahaha! I wonder if someone else got a picture of me and Neil? The official picture takers were there to hold on to peoples' cameras.
The money shot!
This is all for you babe!
He actually smiled at me!
JOKE! What he actually said was, "You're very welcome!" And then he made me beso on the cheek. One cheek only, very non-European. And his face was quite scraggly. I wasn't expecting him to beso me actually. And when he did I thought I was going to cry!
Or maybe Morpheus Juan? Pagtatawanan kaya siya sa school? Di naman siguro.
Epilogue:
As I managed to NOT fall off the stage, or spontaneously give birth, Michelle and our friends were all whooping for me. Everyone else who had been there, quietly waiting for hours, stared at us noisy people silently. And then, a few seconds later, an announcement came from the speakers: "Attention, all pregnant women, please come to the front of the line!" Yay! We cheered! "I'M PREGNANT!" Michelle yelled. But I bet the non pregnant people wanted to boo. Us in particular. Nevertheless, even if the whole Neil Gaiman moment lasted less than a minute, it was really very exciting and thriling for me.
I also doubt I will ever line up for anyone else's autograph ever again. Hahaha!
Thank you thank you thank you to Michelle for staying with me all day, keeping my place in line, carrying the camera, taking the pictures and bringing the cheering squad. You are the BEST SISTER-IN-LAW EVER! And I swear if Neil comes back, I'll do the same so you can have him kiss you too.