Last weekend was another whirlwind, of sorts. We decided to go to the Flea Market at the Rose Bowl on Sunday since my sis needed to find some stuff for her art. DH and I gave ourselves $50 each to buy whatever we wanted, so we walked around and saw what there was to find. It was only the 2nd or 3rd time I'd ever gone, but it is so much fun that I would love to go more often. Anyway, after walking through the "new" stuff, we finally made our way to the antiques--which is more our speed. I love the idea that something old can be new to you. We split up so that J could find the old boxes she was looking for, and we headed off to find some treasures. I was drawn to a lot of the furniture that many of the vendors had. Anything rusty and architectural. I picked up some old rusty iron things that I'm thinking of using in some jewelry pieces. C chose a key stamped "Germany" for a few bucks and he was happy as heck.
C found this awesome chair from the 1940's. It says "Art Dept." on it and had the perfect grunge-y finish to it. I wish we had someplace to put it, because I really loved it! Can you tell this was in the midst of a meltdown? We were planning to resurrect C's old stroller since he has a tendency to get cranky, mean, and whine-y when he is tired, but most unfortunately, we had left it at home.
On the upside, I picked up the awesomest (is that a word?) soap from Scott's Soaps. He had so many scents to choose from and after alternating whiffs of aromatic soaps and coffee grounds, I picked up three yummy bars: Country Spice (smells like cinnamon), Lavender Spearmint, and Lavender Rosemary. This. Soap. ROCKS. Seriously, it smells heavenly and had such a smooth and rich lather. It doesn't get you "squeaky (literally)" clean like some soaps which are drying, but rather it makes your skin so soft and the scent really lingers. I LOVE IT!!! Thank you, Scott!
While en route to the Rose Bowl, we drove by Vroman's and DH sees the sign up that Martha's got a book signing later that afternoon. He actually asked me if I wanted to go so I said HECK YEAH! :) I mean, don't get me wrong. I don't thinks she's the end-all, be-all, but she is Martha Stewart. She's famous. And infamous. And I wanted to buy her new book anyway . . .
I've never been to a book signing at Vroman's before, so I didn't know you get this ticket with a number on it--kind of insurance that it's first-come, first-served. Lucky me, I was #361. Great. I can only imagine how long this was gonna take.
Martha was signing her new book, Martha Stewart's Cooking School: Lessons and Recipes for the Home Cook. With book and ticket in hand, I found a little spot to sit and wait. And wait. And wait. The signing wasn't until 4pm and it was not even 3 yet. There were already about 50 people waiting outside for the line to form.
My sister finally joined me in the courtyard. Apparently, DH and C went on a "boys only" shopping spree around town while Mommy and Tita waited for Martha. Good thing, too (pun intended), because as more and more people arrived, I could tell this was going to take a looong time--especially when I saw that some of these crazy people had like 5 or 6 copies of the book to sign! Capitalizing on eBay, are we?! Around 3:30 we were all instructed by a John-McEnroe-in-his-earlier-years-look-alike to start lining up in number order. You HAD to be in line or you would lose your spot. Even if you were lucky #361.
As people were starting to file in line, we hedged further and further (or is it farther and farther?) away from the bookstore. Our lucky 361 planted us right in front of an optometry store, underneath street trees which were violently dropping their berries (ouch!). As this was going to take a while, I decided we deserved some coffee and picked some up at the coffee shop adjacent to the bookstore. I felt bad that DH and C were killing so much time waiting around that I bought some banana chocolate chip bread for them to enjoy a little later. (Upon ingestion of said banana chocolate chip bread, it was determined by the panel of two that Mommy's was far superior.) Here's are a couple shots of us waiting in line:
(Seriously, what a dork am I.)
Some shots of the line, which included a healthy mix of male and female fans:
We even had our own spectators from afar (view of the building across the street):
Only 5 days earlier, Obama became president-elect and the newsstands were hocking their wares, playing to the collectors at heart:
Night befell us pretty quickly and the street lights illuminated our path as we inched closer and closer. Almost there. Almost there.
FINALLY! We make it inside, up the stairs, and around the bend. It was weird, actually. From afar, it was like I was watching TV--she didn't even seem real. I've seen famous people before (it is L.A., after all), but never anyone as notorious as Ms. M. People were clicking away as they made their way to the front, myself included:
She looked like she was done. Like, spent. I mean wouldn't you be, too, if you had just signed your name 400 times? As stated, we weren't able to pose with Martha or have her personalize our inscriptions. We marked our half-title pages so she could immediately open the book to the right page and sign. All this time, J was practicing the back-button focusing on my Nikon and was getting nervous that she would screw up. I mean, we only had like seconds at the table and literally one shot at a good picture! I snapped this one as we were next at bat:
OMG! Finally! It was our turn! What was I going to say? Um, "Ms. Stewart, I enjoy your work tremendously", "Thank you so much for your time, Ms. Stewart", uh, "Thanks, Martha"--Hm. Nope. She's all about manners, so first names are out. AAHH!! So we approached the table. "Hello" we say to each other. She opens my book. I shoo my sis off to the side so she can take the pic. Martha notices me telling J to "come on, take the picture, take the PICTURE!" and comments, "My, everyone's got Nikons and Canons!". She pseudo-poses with a smile, as do I, and J takes one snap. "Thank you" I say to Queen M. And as quick as that, we parted ways. Sigh. I was so excited. Giddy like a freakin' school girl. I met Martha! THE Martha Stewart! Cool. And I have a picture to prove it. With my Nikon, too, not just my point and shoot. Awesome! Without further ado, I present to you.....The Curtain:
Wait for it.........
Wait for it........
Be patient........
It's coming........
Seriously........
(Drum roll, please......)
TA DA!!! :
Thanks, J. You're so lucky it's your birthday month.
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