The saga continues...

Brace yourselves...this is a long one. As you may have already read, my friend Karine and I took a little road trip to Portland last week to see Stephenie Meyer. No kids, no husbands, just us girls. As you can imagine, this was a welcomed trip on many different levels.

The book signing sold out over a month ago, so we were lucky to get tickets when we did (luck was the name of the game on this trip). Karine's sister-in-law was also planning on going, but was unable to go at the last minute and had to sell her ticket. We found a poor soul on Craig's List, who was willing to sell her life away, and we gladly took her up on her offer. That was our second stroke of luck; we thought the tickets were assigned seating, but as it turned out, it was just general admission and a line was already forming at 10 a.m. (the event started at 7 p.m.). We talked the girl into saving us a place in line, and in exchange we dropped the price of her ticket.

Our third stroke of luck happened when we finally got to the book signing 10 minutes before the doors opened (after getting lost a few times in one of the most confusing cities ever, and starving to death because we were in such a hurry to get there). The girl was happily waiting for us, almost at the front of the line, which meant we got pretty good seats, and we got through the signing line pretty fast. I think we were there a total of two hours.


We decided to be true fan-girls and make some classy t-shirts. It was pretty entertaining to watch people try to read our shirts after they caught the word "virgin." I can't help it, my heart belongs to Edward. He is my Virgin Vegan. (Vegan because he abstains from eating humans, and well, the virgin part is self-explanatory. I love that SM created moral vampires.) When Stephenie saw Karine's shirt, she let out a little snort and said, "that's good."

The theater was extremely dark (and I'm not a very good photographer), but I managed to get a few shots and couple of very poor videos.

Stephenie talked a little bit about The Host and answered some Twilight saga related questions. She is really down-to-earth. She seems very humble and very connected to her readers. She doesn't act like a person who is taking over the book world. She's just your regular (Mormon) mom, who loves to write for herself, and happened to strike it big.

The book signing was by far the best part. I was really excited and nervous to meet her. I wanted to say something, but I didn't want to say something dumb. Here's the conversation that transpired:

SM: Hi, Sarah.

Me: Hi, Stephenie. (Nervous pause.) Thank you for awakening emotions in me that I forgot I had. (Me, hovering over the table, big dorky grin on my face, probably invading her personal space).

SM: You're welcome. You know, writing my books has awakened emotions in me that I forgot I had, as well. (Big smile back.)

Me: Can we be best friends? (It's probably good I didn't really say that.)

Fourth stroke of luck: Stephenie said she would sign two of the Twilight saga books, in addition to the copy of The Host, which was included in the ticket price, and she would only personalize The Host. I only brought Twilight and New Moon with me, so my poor copy of Eclipse was left at home; but, she arrived to the bookstore early that day and signed copies of all of her books, so I was able to buy a signed copy of Eclipse, too. Now I just have to figure out how to get Breaking Dawn signed. I know, I sound obsessed. Don't judge me.

Well, at this point, our starvation went into overdrive (as you can see, we look like blood-thirsty "Newborn Vampires" here. It was a long day!), but we made it to The Melting Pot just before they closed (fifth stroke of luck). Karine opened my taste buds to a whole new world that is fondue. We got the works: cheese; shrimp; salmon; veggies; and for dessert--S'mores fondue. I can't even describe the scrumptious-ness. I'm pretty sure I gained five pounds just in that one dining experience.

Well, if you’ve made it this far in the post, you might as well know that we spent the night in Portland, shopped the next day, and then drove home. It was a short trip, but oh-so-fun! I will most definitely be taking more "girls only" trips in the future, and every one is invited (as long as you are a girl).