The Friday Wrap-up, posted on Monday.
Let's see…where to start? Wednesday was my book signing at Book
Soup in West Hollywood. It was quite exciting to have a real book signing at a
real venue like that, and did in fact make me feel like a "legit" author,
whatever that means. I was on the fence about how long to read– the Book Soup
woman (who was so nice) recommended 15-20 minutes, to which I would have done a
spit take if I'd been drinking something. 20 minutes? Of a person standing at
a podium reading their own book? I thought after 20 minutes I might be
throwing fruit even at myself, so I think I did 6 minutes and an amusing Q and A
during which I mentioned that I hear Mariah Carey likes to have puppies waiting
for her when she gets off the plane. Not her puppies– just puppies, ok? Who
doesn't like puppies? This was to illustrate my point about how a person can
start out "normal," and 20 years later, "normal" to them means puppies when they
get off the plane. You get it. Anyway, here is a picture of me reading, which
looks just like you'd think it would. Please take note of the Book Soup podium and the actual people in the audience. I've arrived!
Also, special thanks to all of
my lovely and supportive friends and readers who made it out to the reading!
Not only was it nice to see you, but it totally assuaged my fear of reading my
book aloud, all alone in an empty bookstore. I am looking forward to next
week's San Francisco signing, which I will post when it gets closer, and then
two more after that.
What else? I am frantically writing lecture after
lecture for this class I'm teaching at UCLA. You know when you look at your
calendar and go "wow, that's going to be a really busy couple of months," and
then you forget you said that, and then in the middle of that totally busy
period you're like "holy f#;ck I'm busy," and it's like you're surprised even
though you totally warned yourself?
Yeah, that's me, every day. I'm sure
if Stephan is super thrilled about hearing me in my office going "omigod, I'm
hyperventilating again. I am never going to finish all this work." And in fact, I have been working all weekend, and have only come up for air to post this because I didn't want it to seem like I forgot all about this blog.
Hopefully this will let up once…..oh, who am I
kidding? It never really lets up, does it? I'll probably just find something
else to throw myself into if I have five minutes of downtown someday. Maybe I
should just embrace this side of myself.
Right before I started the
reading, Stephan remarked how amusing it was that I was standing in front of a
display of someone else's book, the title of which was "I Hate People.". I don't
know the person who wrote that book, but I'd like them to know that they
provided me with a most appropriate and hilarious comic backdrop for the first
stop on Book Mini-Tour 2009. Ha!