Meeting the Yarn Harlot

What is it about meeting famous people that you admire that causes one to come across like an idiot?
I should back up.

I met the Yarn Harlot today. She was at BookPeople on tour promoting her new book All Wound Up*.

She was as funny as you would want her to be and sweet and self deprecating and I really liked her. And since I've started writing this I've thought more and more about how I would love to make my life about writing and yarn and yoga and how awesome that would be and here is this woman who as done it** and I would love to grow up to be her. And I didn't even really know who she was a year ago.

So I'm in line to get my book signed and I've come up with a grandiose thing to get her to sign: to me, "the next great knit blogger." It's my turn, she thinks it's funny, I tell her about my blog, and I take a picture of her...

...and she takes a picture of me holding socks and I'm feeling great.

I walk out of BookPeople on top of the world thinking I might have made an impression (I know she's met a lot of people), and even a good one. And then as I'm driving home it occurs to me, she had to walk here and it's still pretty hot. I wonder if she has a ride back to the hotel? I should offer her a ride. No, I shouldn't that will seem creepy and kind of like a stalker. But wait a minute, if she wasn't famous and she'd said she had to walk here and we'd talked for a bit, I'd have offered her a ride back to her hotel. Why should I act any different because she is famous? I shouldn't. So I do a u-turn and go back. I walk up the stairs to the line where she is still signing.

Do I wait in line again, or not? I don't really want to hang around if she doesn't need one, I just thought I should offer. So I go up to the front and as quickly as I can I ask if she needs a ride. She was very polite turning me down, but I felt like I'd broken some book signing rule.

And I guess I had, I cut the line, and took up more time of an already tired author. I had the best intentions, I wanted to be friendly and helpful but I ended up acting like a fan girl.  Not like when I got something signed by Neil Gaiman and couldn't speak except to say my name and that I loved his work, but a fan girl none the less.

So by trying to not be a fan girl, by trying to act towards her like I would anyone else, I ended up acting like a fan girl. Darn.

But it's not the end of the world. I am sure there have been way worse fan girl moments for the Yarn Harlot. And while I felt embarrassed at being one, it was still really cool to have met her.


*If you have an independent bookstore near you, you should buy it there.
** Ok so I'm not sure about the yoga part but the rest of it.