Dame Julie Andrews

On May 10, 2011 Julie Andrews came to NYC to do a book signing.  Now how cool is that.  When I found out that she was coming to the city I knew that I was going to go.  Even though I had no idea about the book she wrote it didn't really matter.  I figured I would find out what she wrote when I got there.

On the day of May 10, 2011 I went with my sister Brooke to the city early in the morning.  I think we arrived around 8:30 am at the Barnes and Nobles.  There were only 2 other people there while we waited for the store to open.  It was a beautiful day so it didn't matter that we had to wait a half hour outside.  The closer it got to the store opening more people had arrived.  Finally when it was 9am the doors opened and we all ran inside.  I think I ran ahead of my sister because I wanted to make sure I got a book for myself and of course my sister too.  I grabbed two books and I handed one to my sister.  Then we rushed to find out where the cashier was.  When we found it I ran for it as fast as I could.  In all honesty I think it was just the adrenaline pumping when I raced to the cashier because I really have no idea why I did it.  But all I know is that I got to be first on line and the first to purchase Julie Andrews book called The Very Fairy Princess Takes the Stage  of that day.  I felt like that was a good accomplishment for the day, so I was okay about how foolish I looked.

So after we purchased the book it was about 9:10 am, and the book signing wasn't until 7pm.  We had 10 hours to spend waiting for the book signing to start.  I have to say that really sucked.  Basically my sister and I left trying to find a place where Brooke could get a coffee and some breakfast.  We walked for about 20 minutes and gave up on trying to find a place, so we headed back to Barnes and Nobles because we knew they had a cafe in there.  My sister got a coffee and basically we sat in the cafe for about 2 and a half hours.  During that time I had found a book that looked interesting, so I decided to read it.  Brooke also found something to read so we sat at the table in the cafe reading.

When it was 12pm we decided to get some lunch.  We both didn't know the area quite well but we did know there a fast food place right next door, so we headed there after we purchased our books we were reading.  While we were eating Brooke and I made sure to eat as slow as we possible could.  We wanted to waste time because we still had seven long hours to wait.  We were able to waste an hour for lunch which was good but then we had nothing to do.  Brooke and I started to wander around outside and look at what stands were out on the streets. We found a few good stands I know my sister really liked.  My sister loves jewelry, and I could care less about it.  But every jewelry stand we passed my sister would always stop and stare.  At one stand I saw my sister was staring at this one necklace that she really liked but didn't want to buy it. So when she turned her head I bought her the necklace.  After we were done looking at the stands my sister wanted to go into stores.  I could careless I just wanted to be doing something.

After all the shopping it was about 3pm.  We still had 4 more hours until the book signing.  I didn't really mind because I noticed that the last 4 hours before a book signing isn't so bad.  This is when people start to line up and you get to meet some cool people to talk to.  We had just gotten into the Barnes and Nobles and we saw that no one was lining up, so we sat down near the area where they would be doing the book signing and took out our books and started to read.  I find it so funny that growing up it was torture to read especially for school, but when school has nothing to do with reading I start to read a lot more books.

Me trying to sleep

After about 2 hours of reading we were able to line up.  My sister and I got up and stood in line.  The line had to weave in and out of the bookshelves. I didn't mind it because as long as we were on line that was fine with me.  I started to get tired after waiting for so long, so I tried to take a nap.  Now for those who don't know my sister should know that she gets bored, and when she gets bored.  She finds something to do.  Now while I tried to sleep let me show you what my sister found entertaining to do.  As you can see, Brooke tried playing hair stylist.  Isn't she the greatest sister ever.  I really do love her but I wasn't feeling that much love for her when she was doing this.  But she seemed to enjoy it because she took a picture and posted it on facebook with out me knowing.  I found out later that day what exactly she had done because I woke up with my hair all tied up all over my head.

Finally it was down to the last hour of waiting.  Brooke and I started a conversation with two other people in the line.  As the hour started to pass we started to look at the books on the shelves and we started making jokes.  I don't remember the titles of the books, but I can tell you for sure that these were strange books.  The titles were hilarious and what was even better is that the genres were not comedy but  mystery.  I swear we couldn't stop laughing because it was just too funny.

Finally the line started to move and we were brought into a room filled with chairs.  I figured that there would be a discussion and a book signing.  I was wrong.  Julie Andrews was just signing books.  As Brooke and I got in our seats I took out my piece of paper I wanted to show Julie Andrews.  I started a group called Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews for GLEE when I heard Chris Colfer who was on Glee wanted to work with them.  I figured why not campaign for them to get on Glee.  Anne Hathaway was already cast for Glee so I decided to then try and get Julie Andrews to get on Glee.  I thought I might as well print it out and show Julie Andrews what I did.  When we got to the front of the line to get our books signed I was very excited and nervous.  I wasn't sure how she would react to what I had done.  So I when I got up to meet her I said "Hi.  I wanted to show you something, and if you don't like it then it was all her idea".  I was pointing to my sister  I'm not sure if Julie Andrews heard me because I think she was to busy reading the sheet.  She seemed to like it because she seemed pretty interested in it. She said " My friend Carol Burnett was on the show".   I said "Yea she played Sue Sylvester's mom who was a nazi hunter".  The fact that she said that Carol Burnett was her friend, and on Glee  I thought that was pretty cool.

After we got our books signed we walked out of the room and waited by the cafe.  This was right next to the room of the signing.  When I realized that I forgot to ask if she wanted to be on Glee I knew we should wait to ask.  I also wanted to know if I could get a picture with her.  So we waited for about another hour or so.  While we waited I decided to campaign for the group to get Julie Andrews to get on Glee.

Finally Julie Andrews was done with her book signing and she came out.  She had a few guards with her but it didn't stop us from trying to talk to her.  As she walked past us I got nervous that I couldn't speak, so my sister did the speaking for me.  She yelled out "Julie Andrews my sister started the group". Julie Andrews said that she knew that.  Then Brooke yells out "Would you want to be on Glee"? For a second she started to think about it and said "I think I would be interested in it".  I looked at my sister all excited and saying YAY!!!

Since Julie Andrews was leaving we figured we might as well go outside and say bye and still try to ask for a picture with her.  So we waited for about 5 minutes and then she came out.  I started yelling "WOO HOO, YAY".   I tried to ask for a picture but she couldn't because she was whisked away into a car.  So then we started to wave at her.  I even tried to the princess wave that she did in the movie Princess Diaries, I don't think I did the wave that great.  Still it was a lot of fun and a great ending to a long day.