Like a lot of our family and friends, we celebrated pi day yesterday (3.14.15). We were up in Salt Lake City, visiting Sarah and her family, so we got to celebrate with cousins, which made things even better. We went to an old pizzeria near the U of U campus called, appropriately, pi (with the symbol). Dan and I ordered a thai style pizza which was very good--but made me realize that I prefer more traditional pizzas.
The kids devoured the breadstick pull-aparts we ordered for them, so everyone was happy but Andrew, who wanted his favorite (sausage and pineapple) despite the fact that no one else wanted to order that.
Later that afternoon, we had actual pies--store bought, but home cooked--and pot pies for dinner. (I remembered why we usually make our pot pies on the infrequent occasions we have them.)
Mostly, it was just fun to hang out with family. (And Dan was nice enough to let me disappear for an hour to go to a book launch I wanted to attend. I'm doing early research on what I like in book launches . . . )
To backtrack a little.
This week was our spring break, which meant that it mostly looked like any other day. Dan went in to work most days, the kids had school, and the only difference was I didn't have to teach my class. So how did I celebrate? By driving to Provo to visit a friend's creative writing class at BYU and talking to them about writing--my first official author visit! It was a lot of fun, and we had a yummy brunch at Kneaders afterward. Turns out, I *do* know a few things about the process of trying to get a book published. (Also, my mom and I went shopping the night before my presentation.)
Friday, we decided (or to be honest, I decided and Dan was a good sport about it) that we wanted to do something for the break, so we took the kids out of school and drove up to Provo. We hung out with my parents and my brother's three youngest kids that afternoon, and then Dan took Evelyn to a movie while Andrew and I drove up to Salt Lake to attend a huge book launch for Brandon Mull's newest book. Also present were Brandon Sanderson, Chad Morris, Christopher Paolini, and Richard Paul Evans. So, uh, no big deal.
We made a point to get there early--we arrived around 6, the doors opened around 6:30, and the show started a little after 7. I'm glad we did--there was still quite a line when we got there, but we were able to get a book for the signing (we'd already brought a huge stack with us) that got us a spot in Brandon Mull's line (#42).
I've never been to a book launch that was anything like this. They threw swag to the audience (T-shirts and glow sticks). They had a bunch of comedy sketches. My favorite had Christopher Paolini as the Bachelor, and his options were Katniss (Hunger Games), Bella Swann (Twilight), Eponine (Les Miserables) and Dora the Explorer. You can imagine how that played out: Katniss was terrifying and focused on survival, Bella was a bit vampire obsessed, Eponine was extremely co-dependent, and Dora was, well, Dora.
And then there was the book signing. There were hundreds of people there--I'm sure some of the lines must have lasted until midnight. We got in line to see Christopher Paolini first, since we had a numbered spot in Brandon Mull's line. Christopher was very gracious: he asked Andrew about his favorite scenes in the books, and then, when I mentioned we were going to be editor siblings (his editor is the one who bought my books), he got really excited and waxed rapturous about what a fantastic person she is--which was very nice to hear.
We got done with the signings about 9:30--and there was still a very long line behind us. It makes me happy to see so much enthusiasm for books, though realistically, I will never have a signing like that in my life! Still, something to dream about.
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