Stephenie Meyer

So...I just got back from seeing Stephenie Meyer and Justin Furstenfeld (the lead singer from Blue October). The entire event lasted a little less than an hour and we had to wait like another 2 hours (maybe less?) before we got our book signed by her.

First off, I should start with how the day started off.

Haley and I THOUGHT we were going to pick up Megan today at ORD around 9am, but she missed her flight and ended up not making it to the hotel till almost 6pm. Her flight was delayed, she took the train here, had to take the bus, and walk to the hotel. So Haley and I ended up coming to the hotel early, but we stopped at the grocery store first. Her grandmother insisted on paying for our food as her contribution to the whole thing, which we tried to talk her out of, but she she insisted. Both of Haley's grandparents were really hospitable and so incredibly nice! We ended up getting to the registration desk around 12:15pm (check-in time is at 3 pm and check-out is at 11am). We get all checked-in and he hands me the keys to our room (room 924). I was a bit confused since we didn't pay for early check-in and all that, but I figured we'd go check it out anyway. Sure 'nough, our room was all ready! So we got to check in early and we just hung out at the hotel.

Melissa texts me asking if we were at the hotel yet and we were so I told her the room and let her in. We also called to have a mini-'frige brought to our room so we have that to use while we're here. The three of us just hung out, rested, talked about Breaking Dawn, I was on my computer, and whatever else. Around 5 pm we decided we should head out and look for food. Megan still hadn't arrive and was still iffy at that time. We stopped at Cosi's and got sort of like sandwich type things. We went to Millennium Park then and ate our food. It's not really hot in Chicago, but the humidity is horrible so my clothes were sticking to me by then (a half hourish walk) and it was disgusting! After eating, we walked around Millennium Park for a little and then walked to the theater.

We ended up waiting till the VERY last minute for Megan to arrive. I mean, LAST minute. We sat down in our seats at 7:02 and the event started at 7:10. LoL We had pretty cool seats. We were on the floor, but they elevated the floor so we were in the back row of the first sloped part, so we had a nice view. Justin Furstenfeld came out and had his acoustic guitar and sang three songs based off of the series. They were good, but I'm not jazzed about fan music...Then Stephenie Meyer came out and answered some questions. This was the first time she was able to answer questions about Breaking Dawn so the questions were interesting, but nothing was like really "deep" and sometimes I felt let down by the answers she supplied. Then Justin came out with Stephenie and Stephenie would listen to Blue October while she was writing and some of the band's songs are songs that relate to the series or a certain character. So Stephenie talked about who the song related to and Justin would play the song on his guitar or just sang it. It was kind of neat because Justin would then tell some of the history behind the song too. The band is a rock band so it was kind of interesting hearing the songs with an acoustic guitar. In some ways, I liked him better with the acoustic guitar than the the hard rock (I should relisten to some of their music, though). He really put the feeling into the song better, I think. Anyway, after that they started letting people out to get books signed.

One of the publisher representatives were letting people out and doing trivia and then people started showing off their t-shirts and there was some smack! LoL It was kind of funny, but some of the shirts had some very STRONG innuendo in them and we (Megan, Haley, Shawna, and I) were just appalled! Then we were lamenting the fact we wished these were all Harry Potter fans than Twilight fans. We might have been acting a wee bit snobby in the literary department.... *innocent look* We got upset though because someone's shirt said something like how Albus Severus wished he had a name like Renesme or how Albus Severus has nothing on Renesme for a name. We were ready for the Harry Potter vs Twilight smack down. LoL Luckily, they stopped doing that. It was getting to be a smack down between the different fractions. :P Anyway, once we were line, it was much better. She just signed her name in the book with a sharpie and out we were! She did talk to us, though. LoL I don't think she was as nice as Jo, but I might be a little biased. LoL

We're back in the hotel now. I'm about to take a "get the sweat off me" shower since the humidity is just horrible here! Megan is out getting food with Shawna (she's not staying with us, but she's a Leaky person). Melissa went down to the hotel's bar or something to meet up with some more Leaky people. Tomorrow is wrock (better known as wizard rock). I have to buy a $20 ticket, but it should be good. That's ALL day with a 2 hour dinner break. We might go to the Shedd tomorrow, we might not. We're thinking of hitting the Rainforest Cafe that's closest to us for dinner, though!

On a sad note, my camera won't work properly outdoors. *sigh* It turns
all red (like it's overexposed). It works fine in a room, though. It's
a complete mystery to me since it worked when Chris and I went
tidepooling and at the Aquarium gala. I haven't dropped it or anything
either. NO clue. I also realized today that my camera is only 2
megapixels! LoL That says something about how old my camera is. Anyway,
I've been using Haley's camera to take pictures since she feels weird
taking pictures of a city she visits a lot. :P We'll try uploading
pictures everyday, if we can or think about it. I bought a 7-day
wireless pass for $60 at the hotel so I can use it 24/7 basically.
Might as well utilize that!

With that...I'm out.

The heartache...

It's been 3 days since the Belmont where Big Brown lost the Triple Crown. He didn't even really get to finish the race (he was eased up) and I think that's what causes me the most heartache. It hurts to even log onto Blood-Horse and read the other racing news! I mean...Curlin is racing this Saturday in the Stephen Foster (gr. I) and he's the reigning Horse of the Year in America and won the Dubai World Cup! Yet...I can't even get excited about that. I was pretty skeptical that Big Brown could win the TC, but I - of course - hoped he at least could! No one has won it in the last THIRTY years. If he didn't win, that's one thing. If he at least tried, I could handle that. If he at least battled for it, that I could handle the loss. His jockey eased him up (knowing he wasn't injured) and I just...it hurts! Steve Haskin wrote that Big Brown didn't even get to finish the race with any dignity and, in ways, that's how I feel. Apparently, from Haskin's article, Big Brown was a pretty angry horse when he got off the track and when he was finishing the race. I hate to blame the jockey, it's bad form, since he's the one who was riding and could tell what's going on with the horse better than an observer and there's just simply no reason for Kent Desormeaux (the jockey) to throw the race. There's just no amount of money that could have made him do that. Of all the TC potentials I've watched in the last 6 years, this is clearly the hardest. Even War Emblem losing it in 2002 wasn't that bad since he stumbled at the start of the gate. He finished the worst of any TC contestant (6th I think?), but, of course, Big Brown's name gets slapped to that title now.

I think of all TC contestants, Real Quiet's will always have that "what if?" attached to it. The horse lost on the wrong stride - by a nose. By the next stride, he'd taken over the winner. That had to have been a VERY painful year. So far, Big Brown's will be mine. I just hope he does well in the Travers in late August. If he wins there, the Belmont will always have that "what happened?" to it, but it won't be so painful to recall. At least it's been an exciting 5 weeks, but what a HUGE crash last Saturday. I won't even watch the race or look at any pictures from the Belmont. LoL

On a topic change, an 800-word prequel to the Harry Potter books (set about 3 years before PS/SS) sold for almost $49,000 today. The card, handwritten by JK Rowling, is going to be available to read on-line tomorrow and it's being printed in a book. Yet, the actual card STILL sells for almost $49,000. How nutty is that? I'm debating whether I want to purchase the book card-book from Waterstone's or not. All the auction proceeds and book proceeds go to two charities and, I think, 13 authors wrote these cards. So it'd be a neat collection to have. We'll see what the story is and I might decide to purchase the book with all the stories from Waterstone's. It's only $10, but the shipping is like $16. LoL

I also found out that Stephenie Meyer (the author of the Twilight series) will be in Chicago with a band called Blue October the day after I arrive in Chicago!! I'm tempted to go and get a book signed by her (I'm hoping I can somehow get a book by Tamora Pierce signed when I see her keynote speech at Terminus too). We'll see how much it costs and what the event actually entails, though.

So...Saturday, September 27th the California Academy of Sciences reopens again. I almost can't wait till it reopens it. The thing is set-up to be a Green building (it has a living roof!) and it's going to have a 4-story rainforest (with an underwater part) and the deepest coral reef in the world. Not to mention it's a natural history museum AND has a planetarium. It just looks SO cool all around. I've been reading about the building construction and it's pretty neat. A lot of money was shoveled out for this building, but it's going to be really great to visit. You can read all about it here.

With that...I'm off.