My friend Rachel picked me up from work and we headed to the Brookline Booksmith. Let me just say, as friendly as the staff are there, they really had no idea what they were in for. Half of them didn't know who The Bloggess was or what her blog is about (duh, taxidermied animals, the zombie apocalypse and fighting mental illness), but they also had no idea how popular she was, the size crowd to expect, or how to spell her name.
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| Her name as The Bloggess is actually written on the cover of her book. That they sell in this store. |
I'd called the week before to see if tickets were needed (they weren't) and then asked when I should arrive for seating/getting in line. The event started at 7 pm, so the clerk said they typically start seating between 6:30 and 6:45 pm. This sounds like a bit of insanity to me, so I made a note to suggest to Rachel we try getting there around 6 pm.
Rachel and I did some window shopping, got some food (followed by some ice cream) and then met her husband John who had come from work. We headed back to the bookstore to get seats. There were about 25 seats set up in a small area when Rachel and I first got there around 4 pm. When we came back at 6 pm, there were about 75 seats and the front rows were already filled. We grabbed seats for ourselves and saved one for Dave, who was coming from work later. We spent the next hour watching people trickle in, doing some serious people-watching in general and also being totally jealous of the woman who walked in carrying her own 3 foot replica of Beyonce.
The place got mobbed, but I must say the crowd (by and large) were friendly, nice and not stereotypical Boston-style irritating. (Note: I say by and large because later when we got in line for the signing the guy behind us was a total douche to his wife. But at least he wasn't being douchy to everyone else in line.)
Dave came in while people were standing in the aisles, sitting on the floor and mobbing the stairs (the room was in the basement level of the bookstore). The crowd was so nice they didn't even give him a glare when he took the seat I saved for him (and surprisingly, no one asked if they could sit there or gave me a hairy eyeball for saving it).
At one point I turned to Rachel and said I really had to pee and I kind of wanted to go to the bathroom to see if Jenny was hiding in there (she has anxiety and tells stories of how she'll often avoid crowds by hanging out in the bathroom all night). But then the moment came and Jenny made her way through the crowd to begin the reading.
She was totally adorable, humble, sweet and very, very funny. She read from the book (complete with side notes which were even more funny stories) and took questions from the audience. It was hilarious. I started to record a portion, but knew I wouldn't be able to keep the camera steady what with the buckled over laughs and wiping the tears from my eyes from laughing so hard.
There were easily over 150 people there and after all was said and done, we got in line for the signing. She was signing upstairs, so those of us with seats actually ended up in the back of the line and the people on the stairs got to go first. But it was still fabulous and then a manager announced that Jenny would stay until they closed to sign every last book or stuffed mouse, so a lot of people left the line and headed out to get food and whatnot, so that actually made the line move rather quickly.
Rachel, John and I waited (Dave went to get food--it was now past 8 and he hadn't had dinner), continued people watching and eventually wound our way to the front of the line where I got my book signed, a card for Amy (who had bought me the book in the first place), and got my picture taken with Jenny and Copernicus. It was so much fun.
And Jenny totally signed the card to Amy "Knock, knock, mofo."
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