We found a parking spot several hours befoe the signing, that is no small feat at 5:30pm in Uptown.
I'm sure this will make Liv's blog so I might as well tell you myself.
I got out of the car and stepped in a hige whole in the ground and twisted my ankle which left me hanging onto the parking meter we just filled with more than our fair share of quarters and I hobbled along the sidewalk thinking two things:"
1. Mark's right, I do need to start wearing more sensible shoes.
2. I hope my night's not ruined from this!
We headed right over to the book store.
We weren't sure if we'd be the only two there for the signing or if 2,000 people were going to show up.
No idea at all.
The book had hit the NY Times Bestseller list the previous week.
The book store was near Lake Calhoun which is near where the wedding ad funeral took place in the book.
Since we were so early that the book store wasn't even set up for the signing we hit the Thai joint down the block. Hmmmm. . .not necessarily my thing but I was in a really good mood and figured the option of sitting down and having a very stiff cocktail would do wonders for my ankle.
One pomegranate martini did it!
I love this picture.
She kept messing the picture up.
Seriously, just smile.
I have a good one of her smiling -
but now I like this one better:-)
When we got back to the book store about half an hour before it was supposed to begin it was packed!
We got the last two chairs at all and they were off to the side and in the back.
For the next thirty minutes people poured in.
I would guess 200+ total.
The Mager and Quinn manager said it was the second biggest signing in their history.
A dude from MASH scored more people apparently.
There's Matt.
Yep, we're on a first name basis now.
We read a chapter out of his book while getting choked up ad the rest of us in the audiance wiped our tears.
Maddie was being helded by two sets of grandparents off to the side but when we was done reading he had her come up. It was cute. She's a typical three year old. Being silly and saying silly things.
As always, Liv was the leader and said let's get in line right after he walked off 'stage.'
Good call girl! That saved us about two hours of waiting. We were probably 10th in line or so to get our books autographed. He as very gracious and kind and made me forget that there was a very very long line behind me. The book store ran out of copies to sell.
After talking with Matt, who divulged info to Liv and myself that his book had just been picked up in Japanese too. He confided, "That's big bucks!" with a smile.
We stumbled around the book store not wanting to leave yet amazed and the nice things Matt just said and ran into Maddie who was scribbling people's books for them, just like daddy.
She did it to both of our books and someone was taking pictures.
Liv and I both landed in Matt's Flickr account.
I need to steal those pics and add them
here
When we walked back to the mini-van we noticed a lovely envelope on my windshield that had the distinct look of a parking ticket.
Hmmmm, had no idea what I'd done wrong.
I was cited for not putting enouh money in the meter.
Impossible, we put in more than it would even take. It was 6:10 pm when we walked away from the meter which meant we had four hrs. We came back in just over three and had been cited at just over 2.
That was $42 I was planning to fight.
**Sidenote - To fight a parking ticket in Hennepin County you leave a voicemail stating your case.
I did and it was dismissed a couple days later, defective mter.
I wonder if it's fixed or they just ticket the person who parks there every night.
We drove around Uptown for a bit and found a huge chair couple with a medium and small chairs.
We pulled over and had our very own photo op.
It was a very fun and memorable night.
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