"Have you ever been to Louisiana?”
I looked down at David Sedaris, unsure what I was supposed to say.
Which is silly, really. You should say what you have to say, and it shouldn’t matter that your favorite essayist is asking you. It shouldn’t matter that your chance to talk to a man who’s made you cry (oh, that damn parrot story) and laugh so hard you wish you’d done your Kegels, that chance is now being spent answering questions about which you have no interesting comments.
“No. Should I?” The fact that this is not witty in the slightest is softened by the essay David reads one hour later about his discomfort talking to strangers...his awkwardness and tendency to rely on a few stock stories makes me feel a tad better.
“I don’t know. It’s an ugly place, really. But the people are fun.”
Just yesterday afternoon, I had been frolicking in an aisle of Seattle’s Elliot Bay Books (the joy akin to Heidi traipsing through Austrian heather as it first blooms in Spring). I glanced up to notice a sign announcing that while the David Sedaris’s book signing and reading was sold out, there would be “standing room only” accommodations. I like the moments in life where serendipity brings about opportunities. And seeing David Sedaris would be a memorable moment, a highlight of our trip to Seattle.
Elliot Bay Books is the kind of bookstore you WANT to meet a favorite author in...brick walls, creaky wooden floors, and the signing down in the basement next to a coffee bar.
So tonight I went to the bookstore about 6:30 PM, in hopes of being able to see him. It turns out he was signing books BEFORE as well as after the reading, so I stood in line.
One book, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, was signed to Maddie and Matthew. He penned, “I’m so angry I missed ya!” And after asking me about Louisiana, he asked how I got there tonight. Again, no witty reparte on my part. We discussed his California visits, and how he’d never “found a bookstore that works for me in San Francisco.” We chatted up Book Passage for a moment, and he moved on.
The reading and question period was everything I’d hoped it to be. My view, by the way, was better than I expected by far.
Seattle has treated me very kindly.
