This has been one heck of a week here at the old Connecticut homestead. First of all, the temperature is around a million degrees with five thousand per cent humidity.
(Seriously. You ever have one of those showers that don’t “take”? Like, you get out and towel off and then you’re soaking again and you wonder, is that water I couldn’t reach or am I sweating again? And the answer is, you’re sweating, my friend. Gross sticky sweat that the strongest anti-perspirant can’t stop.))
((And a propos of nothing, when I lived in Brooklyn, I had very long hair but cut it all off because I couldn’t stand to blow it dry in the summer.))
(((That’s not completely true. I also kept tripping the circuit breaker with my stupid blow dryer and since the breaker box was in the basement where my landlady lived and she got totally annoyed whenever I asked her to flip the breaker back, I just gave up on looking good. It was too much of a pain in the butt.)))
So we’re driving around in my brother’s old Toyota (oh what a feeling!) with the AC blasting and the tunes cranking and the check engine light coming on which I have no idea what to do about and so I ignore it, and we stop at all these great stores all around the state. And all these wonderful people have been helping me (Head Honcho, my ninja webmaster, will post photos on the News site ASAP):
In Farmington, we stopped at Barnes and Noble where they put a copy of my book on the “autographed by author shelf” behind the counter. We also visited the Borders there where Chris helped us and offered to have us do an event when we come back.
In Manchester, Michelle helped us at B&N and Ben at Borders although Ben, friendly and funny as he was, didn’t want his picture taken. And at the Glastonbury B&N, where they had 6 copies of my book (!), Sharon was super helpful.
A day or two later, we went to the Danbury Borders where they were very nice but had the busiest information desk! So many kids wanting to fill their reading lists for summer (I was tempted to add Meg to them but chickened out…).
At the Meriden Borders, Theresa told us to come on back for an event but she didn’t want her picture taken (very shy). In Milford, at the B&N on Boston Post Road, it was Samuel and Leah who were so kind and at the Borders down the street, manager Mike and his staff, Kathy, Emily, and Erin told us about dressing up for Harry Potter. (I suggested wearing flip-flops and sunglasses to promote Meg but that was a no-go - too many boxes getting dropped on feet, I suppose.)
It’s been way fun and great preparation for the trip to New York City next week.
I’ve also been thinking about the event at RJ Julia’s next Tuesday and I think I want to change the passages I read to mix things up a bit. I can’t decide. If anyone has any opinions at all, let me know. For sure, there will be refreshments since that seems to go over well with guests and takes their minds off my stumbling and bumbling. (Food is a great distraction, I’ve learned.)
I’m off to the Glastonbury Antiques Show where it’s thirty million degrees - yowch!
Your sweaty Connecticut connection,
Leigh
