Interlude: And Then We Went to a Book Signing

This intermission has been brought to you by Neil Gaiman.

Happy fan.

The master writer was in town a few days ago and my husband, myself and some friends were fortunate enough to have tickets to the sold out reading and book signing. Rather than attempt to recap the event when others such as Philip Harris and Jennie Ramstad have so aptly done so already, what I will comment on is this: the man is a marathon book signer. With more than 1,000 fans in attendance, many with copies of his new book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, but then others with back items as well (one back item per person only, please) it's not hard to imagine the many hours that lie ahead for that person who has promised to "sign until his hand falls off."

Not being the first stop on this tour, one volunteer at the event told us about how Mr. Gaiman had been icing his hand before the reading in Vancouver, and how they were holding ice in the back as well, just in case. Fans were called up according to randomly chosen row numbers; we were fortunate enough to only have waited about an hour however, it took others more than four hours. Four hours waiting! Can you imagine? But then, can you imagine four straight hours of book signing? 

If Neil Gaiman can sign books for his devoted fans, night after night, for more than four hours and still have a smile on his face, it makes me think that taking more than four hours to complete a training run or to finish a marathon is certainly something I can do as well. Guess it's just what people do when it's something they really love.

Today's run: skipped. Having had a late night for the book signing followed by an unintentional early morning (I still woke up at 5:30 am the next day without an alarm, ugh) really threw off my sleep pattern. Thought I'd treat myself by getting back on track before tomorrow's long run.

P.S. Before he left town, Mr. Gaiman stopped for a chat with Stephen Quinn at CBC Studio Q. For those interested, the interview can be found online here (0:24:13-0:46:15).