Meeting Jen Lancaster

Last night, I checked one thing off my Bucket List: Meet my favorite author.

For years now, I have been reading Jen Lancaster's memoirs Bitter is the New Black, Bright Lights Big Ass, Such a Pretty Fat, Pretty in Plaid, and My Fair Lazy. Yesterday marked her debut novel If You Were Here. To commemorate the book, she has set out on a month-long book tour. Her first stop? Well, right here to Washington, DC!!

For years, my friends and I have contemplated making a weekend trip out of somewhere she would be on tour. Chicago, New York, Houston, basically anywhere that Southwest flies. However, her schedule and ours never seemed to pan out. However, now that I live in a city that she not only comes to, but returns to, I HAD to make sure that I was there to see her in the polo, pearls, and Wayfarer glory.

I'm all ready for the reading and signing.

To meet Mrs. Fletch, I had to alter my work schedule so that I could go to Barnes & Noble at 8am to get my hard copy and wristband for the signing. I wasn't the only one there at 8am waiting to pound the doors down. There was a line of about 15 people doing the same thing. Naturally, I had to tweet about it and mention Jen. And to my surprise, Jen tweeted me back!! Proof:

anaosb Ana 

No joke. Line at Barnes & Noble to get wristbands for#IfYouWereHere and @altgeldshrugged. Before it opens.

23 hours ago 

in reply to ↑

@altgeldshruggedJen Lancaster

@anaosb - Holy. Crap! See you tonight! Promise to be full of inappropriate stories and covered in flop sweat! Swearing imminent!

I literally SQUEEEEEED in my office.

Not kidding. May have made the sharing-of-an-office dynamic a little awkward.

On the high from the tweetback, I was itching to get back to Barnes & Noble to get a seat for an awesome reading and Q&A from my fave. We managed to snare the last two seats with some switching and got SECOND ROW. Alright, by this time, I'm DIE. YING. DYING.

Jen was her tan, preptastic self with a Lacoste, Lilly, Yurman, Tiffany's, pearls, and Wayfarers.

Jen read an excerpt from If You Were Here with the inflections that I would have in my head. She also chose a passage that, if you read her books and blog, would realize that Mia, Mac, and Tracy are very close to Jen, Fletch, and Stacy (her BFF).

The Q&A portion was great because she was candid about writing, her life, and advice that people were seeking. The highlight of which was when someone said that she asked her writing teacher about making her life a fiction novel, she was shot down. Jen replied with you have to write what you know and maybe there's a reason that person is a teacher and not a novelist.

At the signing, I had already decided that I had to point out that it was me that she tweeted back and I've been so excited to meet her since she's my fave and I love her, blah blah blah. Nervous chatter, basically. I'm glad that I made it to the store when it opened because I got in the A group which meant that I didn't have to mill about Barnes & Noble while everyone else was meeting her.

As I walked up, she complimented me on my dress! (Kohl's) We chatted about how we like them. When she saw my name she asked me if I was the one that tweeted about the line. ME. She asked me. She's amazing. That? Right there? Made my night, week, and month. (I would say year, but the whole move to DC will probably trump all of that.)

Of course, I took a picture with her and it's now my profile picture on fb. I can't help it. I'm so freaking pumped.

The first thing people comment on is that we both have on our pearls. On a related note, I need a tan.

Do yourself a favor and get yourself a copy of If You Were Here. It's a great read and I look forward to more novels from Jen (and of course all of her memoirs).

p.s. This is posted on both Caffeine & Cocktails and Adventures in the District.