October 24, 2012-More JT Book Signing Stuff

I really wish that Mike could have come with me into the city last week. I would have been much less tense and things would’ve worked out better, I’m sure. He seriously was planning on doing so until his dislocated shoulder injury occurred but even then it seemed like he was going to schedule his therapy appointment around JT Day. There’s no sense in dwelling on what could have been though.

   I told Sharon that I have a perfect picture of me and Regis Philbin from the mid-1980s but a not-so- great one of me with Mr. Taylor. Why can’t this be the opposite? I didn’t even want my picture taken with Regis; Dad is the one that made me do so which is majorly embarrassing.

   Maybe if I had moved a little closer to bassist guy then the picture would be fine despite my forgetting to take it off of zoom. Sharon said that camera guy should have known to do so and not to blame myself.

   Yikes, I was afraid to get any nearer to Mr. Taylor. Other people did; I saw those pics on DD’s FB page. I already felt like I was invading his personal space even where I was standing.

   Mike and Mom don’t seem to respect my personal space which is very irritating as is the fact that they always make it seem like I’m the weird one for wanting this. Sometimes she claims that she isn’t even close to me when she actually is- her spatial perception has been awful for years now.

    Either green sweater girl or her friend said that it looks okay and just to get it in TruPrint  which I usually do anyhow but even the Walgreens site has messed up some of my photos, like one of Anna at the 2008 Wellmont show and a few of Brad Paisley.

   I should be a thoughtful person and send Lori and Lana my JT pictures. They seem like nice girls. If I were normal I would probably like to have friends like these.

   I haven’t even touched my 2 JT books; they are still in the bags and on top of my tote. I want to just keep them in the bags even when I store them inside of one of these but part of me is wondering if doing so will mess them up somehow; I sure hope not. I’m too embarrassed to ask Amy or Sharon about this.

   I am pretty sure that green sweater girl said that Simon is her favorite. She told me that Kenny Rogers had also been at this bookstore but that he couldn’t do a signing because he has Carpal Tunnel Syndrome which I already knew about. Mom and her friend Pat saw him in concert in the mid-1980s. I was a little jealous of them, especially because Dolly Parton was there performing “Islands in a Stream” with him.

    I just remembered something else about that day in Ridgewood. A couple of the girls had gone to a nearby deli for takeout lunch and must have mentioned this event to the employees. One of them came over to the line and was taking people’s orders then delivering them.

  Mike is going to the Chiller Theatre Event next weekend. He will get to meet his Samantha Fox there. You have to pay extra to get your picture taken with the stars at that which I’m sure that he will do in this case. I bet that it will come out perfectly unlike the one of me and JT. I definitely will be jealous and beating myself up even more about that.

   He actually asked me what he should say to Samantha. You are asking the wrong person, brother. I did a very poor job of talking to bassist guy.

   I didn’t even ask him how he was doing; how rude of me. He was nice enough to ask me this at the NYC signing. And I really should have said “Enjoy the rest of your day” too. I’m so sorry, Mr. Taylor.

   I had that feeling of not belonging there amongst those diehard fans. Maybe many of them would have thought that I was kind of weird for not following them in the 80s. Wait; does this make it sound like they are part of a DD cult?

   One girl said that her husband used that cult reference a few times to her – this was either at the DD Megabash that I still can’t believe that I actually went to or one of the concerts; probably the former.

   A part of me does want to join that DD fan site again, not the more expensive membership though. But I never truly felt like I was a part of this “club” those 2 years when I was in it, just like when I was a Girl Scout, but it did feel a little good to be a member of both.

Ridgewood

NYC

1986

Samantha Fox- 1980s

Internet photo- Samantha Fox, from an article in the Guardian.

 

 

October 19, 2012- John Taylor Book Signings-Part 2

 

   I was feeling much more relaxed and happier at the signing in Ridgewood. I got there really early. I had cappuccino at Starbucks and intended on spending a couple of hours at the library after that but then I changed my plans and joined the small line that already had formed by the bookstore.

   That store was much smaller than I had imagined. I did wonder why stars would come here to do signings. I discovered that many have and would be. The lady in front of me got me a list of upcoming signings- Tony Bennett, who my Mom likes, was included on this.

   That lady was really nice. She was with her teenage daughter. They were from Maryland. She asked me where the Wawas were in this area. I told her that we only have Quick Checks and 7-11s in Northern Jersey. I said that I like Wawas too.

   The green sweater girl behind me was showing me some of her photos from recent DD concerts that she had been too. I was a little jealous that she had gotten so close to the stage.

   She or another girl asked the Maryland teen which star that she would be willing to wait in a long line for to meet. She said Leonardo DiCaprio.

    Maryland lady and I got to talking about how parents don’t discipline kids like they used to. I mentioned how my mother washed my mouth out with soap a few times after I cursed. She said that she had put hot sauce on her daughter’s tongue as punishment for that.

   She joked around that maybe John would do a private reading for us because there really wasn’t that big of a crowd yet. That was at around 2:00. The line did get longer as time went by. A few people had moved further back on it because they were feeling nervous about meeting John.

   John arrived about 20 minutes late. I think that it was because of traffic on Rt. 17. The crowd was cheering and screaming when his vehicle pulled into the parking lot. I said to Maryland woman “Calm down, he’s just a man, not a God”. She laughed about this.

   There are some devoted fans that do consider him a bass god though. I had read posts at the official fan site regarding this. I was only a member of that for two years- 2008 and 2009.

   I was still feeling nervous about meeting him again but I think that I did a better job of it this time. He had asked me if I started reading it yet. I said that it would take me a while because I am a slow reader. He said “That’s okay; take your time.”

   I did take photos of this event too; they were a little better than the NYC ones but still not that great. A nice girl, Lori, who I was talking to afterwards said that she would send me some of her shots. She had one of those really good cameras. I was so grateful to her.

   I actually got to be in JT’s presence a second time that night. Another girl, Lana, had just arrived at the store when I was at the register signing up to have the audio book mailed to me. She heard that my zip code was Linden and said that she originally came from that area. After I told her that I was taking the train home, she offered to drive me instead so I said yes.

   I waited on the line of about 60 people with her. The staff had been moving everyone through quickly the entire time. It felt like we were cattle that were being herded.

    I couldn’t remember if I had even thanked John for signing my book. I did so after he talked with Lana a bit. I did feel like a bit of a doofus for doing that then though.

   They were not doing personalizing of it like at B&N; that day our name was written on a sticky note to make the process go by quicker.

   I had been going to get my brother a cupcake from Crumbs after this event but there wasn’t an opportunity to do this now that I was getting a ride home. That was so kind of her. She also sent me some of her photos.

   I can’t believe that I was on that line for around 7 hours. I never ever thought that I would do something like this for any star. My brother would think that I am crazy if he knew about this.

   He would also flip out if he knew that I have not just two copies of this book but three; I didn’t want to mess up the signed ones so I got one to read. I really have been putting a lot of cash into the JT machine lately

   I was so excited when I saw doggies being walked in both locations- a Golden Retriever by a guy and 2 Soft Coated Wheaton terriers (I’m pretty sure that was their breed) by a girl in Ridgewood and an adorable cockapoo by someone in NYC. I pictured my brother teasing me by saying that I should just be excited about seeing John, not doggies. I like doggies a lot more than I do any celebrity.