I'm across from the hat-peeker (black SK shirt).
Really awesome time yesterday. It also made it pretty stress-free that the church, Custom House, and our parking were on the same street. It was great meeting some new members and talking King (and, of course, Twilight Zone diner
). Like some others said, the church was pretty hot (we all felt pretty sweaty and gross), but I think about 95% of the stories and Owen-Stephen banter was stuff I hadn't heard before, which was nice: what it was like to collaborate, stories about the Kings' Halloweens, Owen's frozen GI Joe's, how Stephen manages to keep track of all his characters and not repeat (asked by Owen. He said they're all different, but Stephen modestly shook it off saying he was sure there were various archetypes he's used). Audience questions included: if they still deal with doubting themselves though they're successful, if they asked their wives for input for SB's female characters, who would play SK in a movie (Owen said Bill Hader from SNL, who does a great impression). I think it helped that neither needed to have anything "prepared" because they were really in conversation with each other. They both seemed pretty comfortable and I think they would've kept going had they not been cut off almost right on the 1-hour mark.
As for signed books...
We had plan A, B, and C, but they were all thwarted when we weren't allowed to pick from the stacks. I asked if I could but the girl told me no (a little too happily, like,
I know what you're trying to do). I had two tickets so got two books. I opened the first and it wasn't signed, then opened the second and it also wasn't signed...until I noticed a weird marking that I thought was part of the title page.
That's odd, I thought before realizing it was Owen's signature (I hadn't seen his in a while). And if
Owen signed it...
I scanned the page in a nanosecond before seeing Stephen's signature above...and commenced freaking out. Disappointment to resignation to joy/book collector high in a matter of seconds.
You could tell who got signed copies by the people squealing on the sidewalk and I felt like Charlie trying to keep down his excitement when he found the Golden Ticket because so many people wanted it.
Great night, great event, great member meet-up. Got home at 2:30am and went to bed at 3:00am. Got 4 hours of sleep (
and my alarm didn't go off for work, but thankfully I woke up without it) and am wondering how I'm still functioning.
EDIT: Found it, Becca. $16.99 w/ free shipping:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/My-Life-is-W...T1SmC0MFYLbyZA