Fangirl Squee!!!!

I met The Bloggess y'all!  She's a total internet celebrity. From Texas. For those who haven't heard of her (!!!) start with this link. [Warning for language on all the links to her blog] It's her most famous. Or at least the one people talk about most often.  Then read this one.  It's epic.  No, make that EPIC.

Anyways, I met her because she was in Houston on tour promoting her book.  Which, by the way, is a NYT best seller (I'm almost done reading it and it's quite fantastic).  Awesome.  A gazillion more times awesome when you consider how hard it is for her to do any kind of public appearance.  Like the book's promotional video says, she deserves a medal.  Anyways, pictures!

How else would you display her books? This is at Blue Willow Bookstore, by the way. It's awesome and you should visit it if you're ever on the West side of Houston. Not far from the intersection of Hwy 6 and I-10.

So the evening started a bit early.  The description of the event stated that wrist bands would be given out starting at 6 pm.  I got there around 5 and hung out at a brand new bakery a couple stores down (more to follow) and grabbed coffee and a cupcake (more to follow).  At 5:30 I headed over to the bookstore and saw people were already purchasing books and gathering.  And taxidermy was being brought in and displayed. LOL! 

Just before 6 we were given colored tags indicating which group we'd be in for the signing. 

At 7, on-the-dot, the bookstore owner, Valerie, did a brief introduction and in walked Jenny Lawson, otherwise known as The Bloggess. She said hello and that she was nervous (understandably!!!) and she sat down and read a chapter from her book. Specifically the chapter titled The Psychopath on the Other Side of the Bathroom Door. It's messed up and hysterical all at the same time.  And you all should get her book to find out for yourself. The story starts on Page 201.

After the reading Mrs Lawson headed inside and we were all told the order in which things would happen and were invited to have some wine. Awesome.  Sadly I knew I had a 2 hour drive home so I didn't have any wine.  Ah well.  

Then it was time for my group to head inside.  After we told a helpful helper our names, she placed them on post-its inside our books and bookmarked the title pages.  Then we walked in and met...Juanita and Copernicus: two characters from The Bloggess' blog.

 

Juanita 

Copernicus, complete with coffin

And then it was my turn to get my book signed, briefly say "Thank You!" for her visiting Houston, and to give her a little gift I made.  Yup, zebra eggs. Or at least my interpretation of them. It was daemonnoire's idea and something I just kind of DID the night before.  Hey, the woman's a rock star on the blogosphere (LOL!) so she should get treated as such, ya know?

 

Yea, I'm totally a geek.

 

And these are the zebra eggs.  Those are ceramic duck and chicken eggs "painted" via Sharpie. That's zebra printed tissue paper at the bottom - no, I didn't print it myself, it comes like that.  And the bowl came with the sparklies, courtesy of Hobby Lobby. Yes, I'm a dork.

And because this is a Food Blog and all, how about I mention something food related?  Well, there's an awesome new bakery right next door to Blue Willow Bookstore.  I attempted to post its name and all to facebook, so I wouldn't forget.  BUT as luck would have it I had no bars. No bars meant failure to transmit. Failure to transmit meant I had a total brainfart and lost the info. And didn't think to switch on the wifi. Here's what I remember: French-borne owners/chefs, fantastic coffee, great service, gorgeous space, the strawberry cupcake was better than anything I've ever had from Sprinkles and it cost quite a bit less. Here's a pict of the interior:

 

I would totally go back if I was ever in the area.  Those cookies also look awesome.

I just wish I remembered the name of the place!

EDIT on 5/4/12: I found the name of the bakery. It's called Mabis Patisserie. Here's their website.