My New Favorite "Bestie"

Jen Lancaster is my new favorite author of all time. She does not write fiction, business books, serious books or even chic lit books. She writes about the crazy shit that happens to her in everyday life. She was my inspiration in creating this blog in the first place, I figured crazy shit happens to me all the time, why can't people think I am cool and interesting as well.



Why do I like Jen Lancaster so much? Well even the titles of her books are awesome - Bitter is the New Black; Bright Lights, Big Ass; Such a Pretty Fat; Pretty in Plaid and her newest My Fair Lazy. How can you not fall in love with these interesting book titles? Wendy, Fay and I recently had the opportunity to attend a Jen Lancaster book discussion and signing and let me tell you what a marathon event this was. It was not for the weak.

We were up at 6:30 AM for the 7:00 PM book discussion and signing. We were off armed with snacks, Starbuck's, folding chairs, umbrellas, books and the saying "It's Girl's Day Bitches." We arrived at 8:30 am at Borders which opened at 9 am (Sadly, a husband who works for Border's corporate is absolutely no help here) and quickly made friends with the girl's from Grand Rapids in the line in front of us.

All was fine until Clueless Cathy bypasses the line and stands by the door. I muttered "it is too early to go gangster, but I will if I have to" and our new blond friend from Grand Rapids added "I might be small but I am mean" as we were sure no one was going to get a coveted wristband BEFORE us. Finally, Clueless Cathy said "are you here for a book club?" WTF? Yes, we are standing outside a closed store on a weekday with NO children for a book club. Are you for real? We assessed she was not a threat to our wristbands so we did not open a can of whoop ass on her.

As we swarmed through the door and received our coveted silver wristbands, our new mantra of the day became "We are silver bitches!" Once in possession of the wristbands, it was off to spend the day wandering around rainy Birmingham. Yes, it rain the entire day, it never stopped! We had breakfast at Toast where we had Toast Juice. Who knew that White Grape Juice would be so enthralling? We had manis/pedis, did some shopping, had some more Starbuck's (like any of us needed to be more hopped on caffeine) and then off to the movies to escape the weather.

We headed back to Border's at 4:30 p.m. for the 7:00 p.m. discussion and were promptly greeted by Clueless II aka Ken. Ken looked at us incredibly that we were there 2 1/2 hours early but we were so late, we got 2nd row seats! We promptly compared our days with our Grand Rapids friends and made new Yankee friends behind us.

It took us 5 minutes into the book discussion to know the marathon day was worth it! Jen is hilarious! She answered all our questions, including mine on why did she hate the Kardashians when she loves reality TV and then we got in line for our autographs. Our coveted silver bracelets guaranteed us one of the 1st 50 signings, where over 250 people queued up. Poor Mindy had a blue bracelet and Murph was in the basement with a pink wristband never to be heard from again.

When we got up to meet Jen, we got our pictures taken, promptly told us we wanted to be her "bestie" (best friend) and told her to come visit Ann Arbor and us toute suite!

As we left Border's we did the adult thing, we went home instead of stalking the Yankees at their Birmingham hotel. We had had enough adventure for 1 day!