Either way, AM said she was going up and that four kids
could ride up with here. There are six kids in the group, so we had to decide
who was going. This process was made easier when three of them couldn’t make
it, opening the door for N to jump in. He’s not an official part of the group,
but he has been joining in, and in a cool twist, read the book in anticipation
of the event. He even went to the library and put a hold on it so he could read
it. How cute is that?
We were supposed to meet at that library at 8:30 on the day
of the event, but plans got changed, and suddenly I was being asked to do the
driving and sit in on the meeting. I was going to go because AM was nice enough
to include N with the group, but I figured I’d drive N up, they’d go to the
event, and I could hang out in Montpelier in a coffee shop smoking Gauloise
while discussing existential poetry. No such luck.
I was now the man in charge. CH would usually be the person
to take the reigns in these situations, she always does, but due to extenuating
circumstances, she couldn’t do it. She did, however, offer the use of her van,
which was very cool. It would make the trip more fun and comfortable.
It was a rainy miserable day but we weren’t going to let it
dampen our spirits. We piled into the van, picked everyone up, and headed
north. It’s about an hour drive, but when kids are hanging together with
gadgets and the radio, it seems to pass fairly quickly, though there was some
heated discussion about what music we were going to listen to. CH had his GPS
so there was no chance that we were going to get lost (yeah, right). We arrived
early, which was a good thing, because the place was packed, and we scored some
good seats.
The presentation was actually really nice, even if I was probably the only adult in the place that wasn't a librarian, all of whom seemed to know one another. The author, Raina
Telgemeier, is a young, hip writer/illustrator from San Francisco who now lives
in NYC. What I liked about her talk was that she first went over her
inspirations and then talked at length about the writing process, which is
really fascinating when you’re talking about cartooning. It’s so different from
writing only prose. Plus, her drawings are fun and whimsical, though her style
seems fairly popular amongst the new generation of cartooners.
Afterward she fielded questions, and then everyone was
allowed to come up and meet her or take a picture with her. Of course I didn’t
bring the camera, but ES saved the day with her iPod, which has a camera.
Afterward our next big adventure was not only finding a pizza place in
Montpelier, but deciding what kind of pizza to get. At some point you have take
charge and just tell the kids this is how it’s going to be.
We then drove home after a long day. Believe me when I tell
you it was Miller Time. We did get to hang out at the H’s house and see their
new pup, who is really cool. Something about Lab pups that just melts your
heart, though in the presence of all these new faces, he did get a little
worked up.
We returned the van, got our car, and then headed home to do
two more things. I still had to make supper, and then N had lacrosse that
evening. How’s that for packing it in? Since we had little in the way of time,
I made spaghetti with meat sauce (now that we’re eating meat again), and then
we went to lacrosse. I saw DB at the field who once again asked me why A is not
playing on the girls team. I told him to ask her himself, it’s out of my hands
(more on this later).
During practice, we ran over to the store to get OJ, which
was on sale at Mac’s (what a score), then to Woodstock H&H to get cat liter
for all our paint waste.
Boy, what a day. You don’t realize it when you’re in the
midst of it, but afterward you look back and say to yourself, “I can’t believe
it’s not butter.”
Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to The Eggplant and mroach for the pics.
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