On Thursday, November 12, I had an adventure. I drove Queen Elizabeth (my car, freshly vacuumed) to Boulder, to see fiction author Rainbow Rowell. It was awesome! And here is the proof that I’m not making up lies in my blog posts —

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rainbow was fabulous. The whole event was spectacular — author events are just WOW. SO fun!! I adore author events.

I was lucky that my sister was able to go with me, as well as my friend Adriana, and her daughter Marina. (We all rode together in my freshly vacuumed car.) Adriana was actually the reason the trip even happened — she was monitoring the book tour dates for Rainbow, and caught the announcement when the Boulder event was scheduled, and tickets went up for sale. Adriana also made sure we attended the reception as well as the author talk at the library. I slugged two huge servings of hot chocolate heaped with cream at this reception, which is the sugar equivalent of me boozing it up. That hot chocolate was YUM.

Here is a picture of Marina with Rainbow —

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know I took other photos of people with Rainbow (Laura and Adriana both posed with her, and I took a photograph of a really nice librarian named Denise, from Longmont, who we met at the event), but these were the only two pictures I nabbed with my own camera. (Also, I should point out that my camera is ancient — but you can probably tell by the mini-size of my blog photos that I’m not working with a smart phone here).

Because we attended the reception, we were the first folks to get our books signed —

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s a picture of Rainbow signing one of Adriana’s books. (If my photo was bigger, you could read her name on that title page.)

Meeting Rainbow in person was an effervescent experience — she is sweet, smart, funny. Super kind. Super witty. Her jokes are the joyful variety, the type of statements that prompt listeners to immediately think, “Yes!!” or “Me too!!” amid laughter.

She’s an author who bubbles with life. A person who exudes warmth and vitality. Even if she weren’t a bestselling author, Rainbow Rowell still has an essential charisma that’s wonderful to be around, made up in no small part by how incredibly gracious and humble she is.

After the event, my group and I spent the night in Boulder, and in the morning, we had breakfast with my friend Sandy, who lives there. I forgot to take a picture at breakfast though, so you’ll just have to trust me that this really happened. We dined at a place called the Walnut Cafe.

Then we visited the Barnes & Noble before leaving town, which I DID take a picture of —

 

 

 

 

 

 

Behold my party crew for this trip — my sister Laura, Marina, and Adriana (left to right). Bookstore lovers, Rainbow Rowell lovers, fellow weirdos who pose as normals in the real world — I couldn’t ask for a cooler group of lovelies to make this adventure with.

Before the reception on Thursday, we also took a stroll down Pearl Street, and visited the Boulder Book Store downtown. Which was super great, because I LOVE that bookstore. This Barnes & Noble wasn’t far from the Walnut Cafe, so it was a shopping trip of convenience as well as a fix for the ever-present book-lust writers suffer from.

In Barnes & Noble, I bought a book of poetry by Billy Collins, who writes such gorgeous poems, I get weepy.

At the Boulder Book Store, I bought a book for my sister, and some small presents for Rainbow. And Marina gave me a Totoro pen, which is like having a magic wand, only better.

Here is a picture of my new awesome pen, as well as my Billy Collins book, a copy of Fangirl my sister bought me (one of the best books EVER!!) and two sprites (which were not purchased during this trip, but what is life without sprites?) —

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another RAD aspect to making a trip with Marina is the fact she can play the Sailor Moon theme song on her phone, and everyone who knows the words can sing along to it really loud, and rock out with dance moves that are Epic Dork Level Ninety — and how can you beat that for thrill? Maybe other people go on wild trips to Vegas for fun, but for me, singing Sailor Moon in the car is Total Win.

On the way home, I had a chance to stay an extra night in Montrose, with my brother and his wife and their baby, and we went out to Denny’s for breakfast on Saturday morning (and here is the proof of my truthiness) —

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is my *super* cute nephew, Tommy. Erika is rocking her gorgeous leopard print shirt, and Lee is sporting his pink Colorado Love hat. He wears that hat everywhere, because he’s awesome like that.

And if you’ve never watched the Sailor Moon theme song before, then welcome to my 13-year-old self’s dream come true favorite anime cartoon (oh who am I kidding? this is STILL my favorite anime cartoon!) — Moon Prism Power!! I worship this show with all the love in my heart, it’s pure joy.