"It Sucked and Then I Cried"

Getting There Part 1

We made it to the book signing of Heather Armstrong's book, "It Sucked and Then I Cried," last night with an hour to spare. However, there was a bit of collateral damage along the way.

One burned finger. Mine. I really should take off my shirt before I iron it, I suppose.

One threatening phone call.

Me: Where are you?

Stefan: I couldn't find Vinny, he wasn't where he was supposed to be......

Me: Save it. I'm leaving in five to 10 minutes, where are you? I ask again hoping he's close because I really don't want to go without him.

Stefan: Three minutes away.


Me: Good, followed by Click

Then I rush to put on my pants before he arrives. Yeah, all that whining and I wasn't even ready. But it wasn't as if he could see me through the phone. Yes, I was getting my grump on good.

One missed exit.

Our geographical challenge was mainly due to me being in charge of the directions. I detest maps, because well I'm retarded when it comes to reading them, so I didn't print the map out. I prefer a little bit of left here, right there, and so on.

I believe those are called directions. If Google's directions had been accurate, my directions wouldn't have been a problem.

Stefan's mantra for the entire night was, "I really should have looked at the map." He repeated his mantra the rest of the way up and all the way home, though I'm sure he wasn't focused on his breathing. I agreed.

The guy at the bookstore, didn't help either.

"Oh no, don't take that exit," says Bookstore Guy. Which, as it turns out, was the right exit.

I should have known he was, at least as geographically challenged as me, when he said, "wow, I really should know this," in response to me asking, "what exit do I take from northbound 101?"

Fortunately the second time I phoned the bookstore, I spoke to someone who knew the area.

At this point Stefan started to freak out, probably because he thought we had to be there in five minutes.

"No biggie, it's only 6 o'clock and Heather isn't scheduled to speak until 7:30 pm," I say without my grumpies.

"Oh," he says with relief. And surprise since I'm never an hour and a half early to anything. There's a direct connection between being inspired and being on time, for me, anyways.

We parked and Stefan only had to go back to the car twice for me. Once to take my sunglasses to the car, and a second time to retrieve the camera that kept taking blurry pictures.

"Not enough light, to get my zoom on," pleads the camera in defense. "Besides, she kept moving around."

What? You don't have a talking camera? I think my camera may even have it's own blog. I just haven't been able to find it. I hope it isn't posting naked pictures of me, or worse, on the Internet. Oh well, at least, they'll be blurry.

Tomorrow Part 2: Waiting for Heather Inside the Bookstore
Yes, that's right I'm going to drag this out, or break it up for the busy folks, depends on how you look at it. There's even going to be a part 3. I think. I may even post part 3 Saturday. But I do promise to post Part 2 tomorrow.