The Fonz is in the Building!!!!!!

July 13th, 2011 was the day that the Fonz would be in NEW YORK CITY having a book signing for his new book I've Never Met an Idiot on the River.  For those who don't know who the Fonz is his real name is Henry Winkler.  He played the Fonz in the show Happy Days.

Henry Winkler was going to the Barnes and Nobles in Union Square in the city.  The event was going to start at 7pm, but as always I went in hours before it started.  What can I say I just love sitting for hours at a time.  Alright that was a lie.  I just like to get a good seat and besides sometimes I get to meet people who are really big fans of Henry Winkler.  I arrived at the Barnes and Nobles it was 1:30pm.  I know at this Barnes and Nobles they don't let people line up until 4-5pm.  Still I know other people will arrive early too.  Well when I got there I went to go buy the book at the register.  Let me tell you this was the first time this ever happened, but they said they didn't have it and sent me to customer service.  It gets even better.  I went to customer service and they told me they didn't get the book yet.  I was thinking how do you not have the book.  There is an event meant for this one book and its author and they tell me its not in the store.  Customer service told me to go up to the 4th floor and to see if the biography section had it.  Luckily they did but only 2 or 3 copies left.  I didn't care I was just glad I got a copy.  There was no way I was going back in the heat to search for the book.  I found a few hours later that the book had been in boxes on the 4th floor and was going to be sold while everyone was lining up.

As I was waiting I started to read the book.  I really enjoyed his book because it was very inspirational.  It was almost like a biography but he spoke through his adventures of fly fishing.  I have to say I have never read a book like that.  It was just very interesting.  I do recommend this book to anyone because in the book you learn some of the difficulties Henry Winkler had to overcome in his life.  I finished the book with in an hour and a half.  While I was waiting I ran into someone I had met at a previous book signing.  At first I didn't know who she was but then she said I met her at La Toya Jackson's book signing and then I remembered who she was.  We started to talk for a little bit and then we went back to reading what we were reading.

Finally it was 4pm and I didn't see many people show up.  I was also wondering why we weren't lining up so I went up and asked someone.  They said they weren't going to start lining people up until 5pm.  I was like ughh.  My butt had been sore from sitting on the floor for hours.  The floor is not a comfortable place to sit.  I started to get a little bit bored because I really had nothing else to do.  I just when on my lap top and went on facebook to play games.  It was still pretty much boring.  I was thanking god when it was 5pm.  FINALLY they were letting us line up and we could then sit on chairs.  I was really happy about that as you could probably tell from reading this.

I still noticed that not many people were here for the event.  I was a bit shocked but then I remembered the advertising for this book signing was very limited.  It wasn't even on the Barnes and Nobles website that he was coming.  I really felt bad for Henry Winkler because if barely anyone showed up it doesn't look good.  At 6pm it started to look like more people were coming.  I was actually glad because Henry Winkler is a really great actor and his book is just great and people should read his book.

While I was waiting and was still a bit bored I noticed there was a kid and his dad sitting next to me.  I saw how the kid was getting a bit restless and wanted to walk around but his dad wanted to wait since it was close to the event starting.  I figured I would entertain the kid so the waiting wouldn't seem so bad for him.  I asked him if he wanted to play a game on my phone and he seemed pretty eager about it.  I knew exactly what game to let him play.  It was the toilet paper game.  For those who don't know this game basically all you do is try to roll the toilet paper until there is no more paper.  The faster you do it the better the score.  The kid was really enjoying it.  Then he wanted to play another game so I let him, but I thought it would be fun if I annoyed him in all good fun like he did to his father.  I would say "are you done yet".  "oh my god come on I wanna play".  He was enjoying it the entire time.

7pm finally came and a few minutes later everyone started to get up and applaud.  We all know what that means there was free food being given out.  If you haven't realized now I was trying to write a joke and it probably wasn't funny.  It would be nice to get free food.  Henry Winkler had arrived and he had to go give 30 seconds to the paparazzi.  I wrote on a piece of paper "Welcome Fly Fisher Ahoy".  I'm not sure if he knew what I wrote but he did wave to me.  He then got up on stage and the minute he did he kept on saying jokes like there was no tomorrow.  The best part was they were really funny.  I never realized how funny he was.  He had a slide show prepared to show some pictures from his book that he had taken.  For someone who just randomly takes picture not knowing if they would be good or not.  He takes great pictures.

Me and Henry Winkler

He spoke about for 10 minutes about his book and the pictures he took and then he asked if anyone had questions.  Of course a lot people in the audience had questions.  Some of them were entertaining such as one guy asked him where he got his tie?  I forgot the place he said he got it from but it was a nice looking tie.  After he answered a lot of questions it was time for him to start signing books.  I was in the front of the line so I didn't have to wait long.  Henry Winkler signed a few books at a time and then took a few pictures at a time.  When it was my time to take a picture with him I was about to ask him a question but never got to.  What happened was the kid who was sitting next to me went right up to Henry Winkler and said something like this "I don't know who you are but I can't wait to find out".  It was just one of those moments where you had to be there and see it happen because it was so random and hilarious.  Henry Winkler told the kid to get in the picture with me and him.  I think he thought me and the kid were related.  I thought it was kind of funny.  I didn't mind that I didn't get to say anything to Henry Winkler.

That was the end of my adventure for that day and it was a great one.

Back To The 80's with Rick Springfield

July 9, 2011 was a day that can be described as very long.  You would think that description is strange because that day I got to meet Rick Springfield at his book signing.

My day started at 2:30 am when I was driving to the Barnes and Nobles in Carle Place to wait until the book store opened to get a wrist band.  I wasn't to familiar with Rick Springfield so I didn't know how many people would show up or how early they would be there.  I can tell you that at 3am no one was there except for me and my dad.  He thought I shouldn't be going by myself to a book signing at 3am by myself. Lame right?  Okay maybe if your a parent you would agree with him but still I figured I could handle it on my own.  I came to accept him following me in his car because when I parked I went into his car and tried to fall asleep.  I have an old car so it really isn't comfortable to sleep in.  To my surprise my dad was the first one to fall asleep.  What sucked is that I felt like I had to stay awake and wait to see if anyone else was coming that wasn't so bad, but the part that really sucked was my dad's snoring.  I'm not going to lie it was annoying and after reading this I may get a small talking from my dad about why I wrote about this.  Well dad my response to that is you told me to start a blog about my adventures and this was part of it.  I would even try to put the radio on louder but even in his sleep he would reach for the dial and lower it.  Not cool dad!

After about 3 hours passed I eventually fell asleep.  I was kind of in a daze because I was exhausted so I really didn't know what time it was.  All I know I fell asleep for an hour or less and it was now 7am.  I saw my dad outside of the car and in front of the Barnes and Nobles talking to some people standing outside in front of the door.  I had no idea what my dad was doing but after the people walked into the store my dad started waving for me to come over.  I asked him what was going on.  He told me he spoke to some people who worked there and told them we had been sleeping in our car for about 4 hours waiting for a wrist band.  Let me tell you this has never happened and I never expect this to happen again, but a young lady walked out and handed me a wrist band.  I was shocked.  Normally they make you wait until the book store opens.  Still I was glad because this meant I could go home and back to my comfy bed for a few more hours of sleep.  I will be honest I really enjoyed those few hours of sleep.

Around 12:30pm I figured I should get to the bookstore a little bit early because the signing was at 2pm. I didn't care what spot in line I was in as long as I was on line that's all that matter.  I didn't arrive until 1pm and as I got out of the car I put on my wrist band.  This is when I noticed there was a number on the band.  I couldn't tell what number it was because it looked like 1 and 4.  I really didn't care at the time because I knew I had a spot on line because there were limited spots.  So I bought the book and headed upstairs to where they were lining up everybody.  I was walking trying to figure out where I was going to be in line and luckily I was walking toward the young lady who gave me the wrist band.  She put me in front of the line telling me I was first.  I had been first on lines before but this seemed different.  I got to cut people in line to be first.  Technically I didn't cut in line because we were all given a number but when you walk in front of people it kind of feels like you cut them in line.

The time really flew by fast.  I think this was the shortest amount of time I ever had to wait at a book signing because I got to go back home and get some sleep.  I did try and start off some conversations.  I was talking to a young girl and her mother. They were really nice to talk to.  I asked them what time they got on line to get their wrist bands.  They told me the line started around 7:40am.  I told them that I had been there 40 minutes before them.  I had told them I was waiting since 3am.  I think they thought I was crazy.  I didn't really mind.  I then started to talk to two other people in line Maggie and Katie.  They were cool people to talk to.  Finally 2pm had arrived and then an announcement over the loud speakers let everyone know that Rick Springfield was running late. What a SHOCKER! Not really.  Not all book signings start on time.  No one in the line was really that upset.  We then heard from some of the workers that Rick Springfield had just gotten off of the plane and was headed to the store.  I felt bad for him because you get off a plane and now you have to sign books.  If I were him I would be exhausted and would find it impossible to stay awake for the event.  I didn't know how long his flight was or where he was coming from but I figured it was at least a few hours on his flight.

Me and Rick Springfield

Me and Rick Springfield

At 2:30pm Rick Springfield had graced us with his presence.  What was really interesting is that instead of the paparazzi taking pictures first, he just sat on the table and started signing books on his lap.  In my book that is very cool.  I walked up to him and I said "You should be on Glee".  I don't think he heard me but I didn't mind.  Then I asked him for a picture and I got to take a picture with him.  He was a really nice guy.  After I took a picture with him I watched from the side lines for about a minute.  Then Katie and Maggie came up to meet and told me they had taken a picture while I was getting ready to take a picture on my phone with Rick Springfield.  I thought that was awesome.  They asked me if I wanted the picture and I said yes.  It is a really good picture too.  I'm glad they sent it to me.  Katie and Maggie if you are reading this thank you for the picture.

After that I decided that it was time to go.  After an early wake up and a good few hours rest it was a pretty good day.  I'm glad I didn't fall asleep while Rick Springfield signed my book.