New York, New York!!: Dreams Do Come True!!

Of ALL the people, in ALL of the world...including singers, rockstars, movie stars, sports players, etc...the person I wanted to meet most, above all else, was

Augusten Burroughs.

And tonight, folks, that happened!!!!!!!!!

I can barely contain my excitement. Augusten is my all-time favorite author. He wrote Running With Scissors, Dry, A Wolf at the Table, Sellevision, Magical Thinking, A Christmas Story, oh and the list goes on! He inspires me to write more than any author ever.

Every book tour he's ever had never came to the city I was living in at the time. But a few months ago, I found out he was writing another book - which means, another book tour, and now that I live in NYC, my city was first on his tour!!!!! The excitement I felt when I learned this was unmatchable.

So tonight, I leave work & went directly to the book signing. I didn't really know what to expect or if I'd even get to catch a glimpse of him. So I showed up at the venue, Barnes and Nobles, purchased his book that came out today, and they told me because I bought the book I got to hang out in the roped off area.

This made me happy.

At 7pm he came on stage, did an amazing shpeal about life in general, then had a Q&A session with us in the audience. THEN, afterwards, he said he'd sign everyone's book!!!! It was this moment when I realized I may get to conversate with my idol.

I waited in line for a good 45 minutes before it was my turn (worth every second). When my turn arrived, I walked onto the stage, told him he's my favorite author of all time, and miles above any other author that I enjoy reading, and he thanked me very sincerely and told me it meant a lot to him. I assumed he heard this all the time, but his gratitude was still anything but transparent. :)

I was spontaneously prompted by curiosity to know who HIS favorite author is, so I asked. He said maybe Elizabeth Bird, maybe other people, stumbled over it for a few more seconds, and then concluded that he couldn't think at the moment to give me a concrete answer. He laughed, and said I caught him off guard. Jokingly, I told him he could just go ahead and say himself :) he laughed and said "Gawd no! Not me!"

What an endearing fellow.

I then asked if we could take a picture together, and he obliged, which lead to the documentation of my best day ever :)