Monday, July 11, 2005
Hugs, Kisses and Phone Calls

Today's event was, very possibly, the highlight of my year. Now I don't much appreciate blatant displays of fangirl-ness, but when I caught a glimpse of Neil Gaiman in flesh and blood I abandoned those principles entirely. I got luckier at Gateway this time (as lucky as anyone lined up in the 400+ part could be). I didn't much care for having my Sandmans signed, Victoria had a couple of them signed at Rockwell for me. I wouldn't have minded if he didn't sign anything for me, I just wanted to make contact with him.

One would think that skipping all my afternoon classes (including INTAC which only allows one cut) would be enough to guarantee me a decent spot in the line. If I’d known that getting there at 1.30 would’ve landed me in a premier spot - two floors down, outside - 10 feet from the door. I was able to make a handful of friends in line so it made the 7 hour wait bearable, pleasant even. There was Kash from UP Baguio who missed two days of school just for the signing, Anne and Odessa who both work and were nice enough to take pictures of me with Neil. And a bunch of nice people whose names I’ve forgotten. It was kind of like this support group to keep the insanity of it all at bay.

But back to the actual highlight. I was finally a few feet away from him, and what a lovely sight it was. He looked ruffled around the edges, but absolutely hot nevertheless. Despite all that, he was still charming and accommodating. You have to hand it to him, he’s a great writer and a great person and he’s handsome - that’s a rare specimen to come by these days. As I was saying, there were only three people between us when he up and decides to go to the loo. He asks the girl in front to make sure we don’t start a riot. He surveyed the crowd briefly, at which point we made eye contact. He has these nice green eyes… Er, yeah. So then it was finally my turn,

He glanced at my name, and went “Irish,” And I go - yes, indeed. I’m not even sure if we talked a bit more after that and if we did it was all a vague blur and all I could think was ‘I’m here. This is really happening.’ I had him sign Doll's House for me. He doodles eyes on the doll, writes my name, and adds a speech bubble that said “Boo!” All in silver ink. And I’m not about to let the opportunity to touch him pass me by so I blurt - Can I have a hug? And he pleasantly goes “Sure.” I lean in for my hug and I almost immediately pull back, but his arm is still snuggly over me and I lean back in. I think he started to pose for the camera but I was just conscious of his black curls brushing across my face. Before I completely pulled out of the hug, I bent in to give him a kiss, but sweet holy Jesus, he beats me to it and plants a kiss on my left cheek with a resounding “Mwah.”

That was happy moment #1.

Now happy moment #2 I wrote in a mad flurry. In case I become senile, I shall have this fragmented garble of statements to jog my memory.

I called Dawn to ask her if Neil was on his way, she freaked me out by saying that he was already there, right beside her. I asked if he was still eating, and yes he was, apparently. I said I’d call back in 15-30 mins and that she’d have to cue me. Finally, she texts and goes ‘he went to the loo, when he comes back, call.’ After a bit, she says to wait five minutes and I wait for 4 minutes and sum up enough nerve to dial Dawn again. The line opens and guess who goes “Hello, Irish,”? Now to some extent I suspected that it wasn’t impossible, but nevertheless - Neil Gaiman answered and I was completely thrown off guard. I breathe and reply, “Hello.” I didn’t expect him to talk so much, he was all nice and chatty. I didn’t remember every single thing he said (he said a lot) but we got to talk about how he couldn’t complain - although he was put through a lot, when he was being loved to death; I think it may have been before or after I went - I hope you didn’t have too hard a time with us. And I said something about sorry I’m bothering you but this is my last chance to say hi (stuttering a bit), and I don’t remember what e said to that but I think he said something. I was listening intently and committing the moment to memory at the same time. Then I go, “Are you enjoying your dinner?” And he’s all, yeah - we ate in this funky Chinese restaurant with weird fluorescent lighting. He proceeded to tell me what they had and that, yes, they were having a good time and that the table was already being cleared. He talked about the food and I remember clearly how he told me about the Lemon Chicken, which he said he suspected was glow-in-the-dark. I also asked him if Dawn had given him the Planet Bob brochure, and he goes, “no but here look, she’s handing it to me right now.” And I got “No! She was supposed to wait till after the call to give it to you.” And something about I’m sorry, this is so embarrassing and pathetic but we wanted him to take a piece of us with him. He proceeds to tell me that, it was all right and that he promised not to burn in - I will cherish it forever. He even reads - “Planet Bob, approved by Irish and Victoria.” We babble some more and he starts to go - okay I’m giving the phone to Dawn now, so I can sign some things for everyone. Either before or after that I pluck up the nerve to go “We love you Neil,” And he replies - “Why thank you. Well, we love you too. No wait a minute, I’m singular so I love you too,” I don’t remember clearly what was said after that the phone was passed to Dawn and I hear him in the background going “Cheers!” for me.
Thus spake Irish || 11:36 PM || 0 comments