my mumblings

you’re not supposed to talk to strangers … but here’s why i am.

the (hilarious) talking portion of the evening ended and flowed into the signing part. we stepped and shuffled and looked around trying to figure out where the line began. all i knew is that i was at the back of it. i left my bag guarded by G and settled in to wait.

librarian: oh, maggie, we have a signing table over here for you.

and just like that, the end of the line became the beginning and i was the third person handed a post-it note with my (first) name on it. being #3 was good (not a long wait) and bad (i only had two people in front of me to figure out what to say).

let me illustrate via tweets (read from the bottom up) what was roughly going through my brain at this moment:

okay, so, that was me 2 hours before the event and now THERE WAS ONLY ONE PERSON in front of me before it was my turn. i still hadn’t decided what to say! holy cow it was my turn! so fast! be calm, mumford. be cool, mumford. stop grinning like a lunatic, mumford. get your head in the game, mumford.

me: hi.

maggie: how are you?

me: i’m good and you? *sheesh, could i have BEEN any more boring?* *say what you meant to say*

maggie: thanks for coming tonight.

maggie: *looked at post-it note with name on it* wait, abby mumford?

me: *eyes widened* *tongue dangled out of mouth**crickets chirped* *somehow nodded*

maggie: i recognized your eyeballs.

me: *slightly confused because, look again at my avatar. me = sunglasses and this was the only way she could have known of me* *went with it* hmm, well, yes, they are out. no sunglasses at night for me.

maggie: *signed page*

me: *quickly changed subject because the line is long and i had to say this* thank you for writing THE SCORPIO RACES. that book! oh. that book. *there were too many things to say about it and all the words tried to come out at once* *mumbled some plus she knew my name!* *stopped talking*

maggie: oh, what’s your favorite part?

me: when sean comes over for dinner.

maggie: and he brings the bread. yes! when there’s that line “you’re my weakness,” my husband told me “that’s the money shot.”

me: oh, that was a good one! *wanted to say more* *peered at loooong line behind me* well, thank you, maggie!

p.s. if i want to get technical, i suppose this post should be named conversations with acquaintances #1.

p.p.s. i can’t stop smiling.

Tags: boston

This entry was posted on September 21, 2012 at 8:00 am and is filed under convos with strangers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.