Calvin was my childhood hero (along with Andy from the "Just ____!" books by Andy Griffiths). I wanted to be just like him. Sometimes I said lines from Calvin and Hobbes in the hopes that people would reply the way they did in the comic and I would outwit them or prove my weirdness like Calvin. Turns out that since other people aren't trying to be the other C&H characters, it doesn't really work.
@albedo I'm putting the story here because it fits better Spoiler: That one time I met Scott Lynch So Scott Lynch was going to be at a bookstore in Cambridge, and I had decided that I was going to be there no matter what I had to do to get there. I asked my parents if they could take me to the train station. They said no way. I said, fine. I posted on tumblr that I was going to meet Scott Lynch and nothing was going to stop me. My mind was set. The next morning, I had to do things. I forget what. But as soon as I was done with whatever it was, I walked to the train station. It's a forty minute walk almost down to the second, and I was mostly feeling up to it but a. this was during the end of the snowpocalypse, so the sidewalks were covered and the roads were icy as fuck and b. I had given myself massive blisters walking to the train station the week before. I made it to my train despite this, and went on my way to Boston. I got to Cambridge several hours early and hung out with a friend for a while (we probably played Russian Solitaire for like two hours straight) and then I headed over to the bookstore. What I had forgotten, in my excitement, was that not only was Scott Lynch there, but also Elizabeth Bear and Charles Stross (who had gotten snowed out when he was supposed to do a signing the previous Monday). So there was not one but THREE authors there and my brain exploded because of happiness. This was about 6:30 pm and I had decided to leave at 8:30 in order to catch a decent train, because I was pretty certain I'd have to walk home and I didn't want to do it after midnight. So I'm constantly checking my phone for the time throughout all of this. The three of them talked a lot about writing and characters and plot and there's an argument about the cat from the GB series, and a great discussion about Bear's Karen Memory which I hadn't yet read. So basically it was awesome, and it lasted a long time. During this, I decided to buy a copy of Lynch's Republic of Thieves, because if I walked away without a signed book I would never forgive myself. I was sad because I only had enough money for one book and I wanted to get something by Bear or Stross too, but I had come for one author and the rest were a bonus. It was getting pretty late and I was scared that I'd have to leave before they started signing, but eventually they stopped talking and told us to get in line for getting books signed, copies of books were on the table in the back, etc etc. I got in line, ate some free cookies, and waited. And then I got to the front of the line. Scott Lynch said hello, and asked me if I wanted my book signed to a specific person. I said, well, my name's Bel. "Bel? From tumblr? Who said they were going to be here?" Which is approximately when my jaw dropped and I stood there like an idiot for far too long. "Uh. Yes?" "Awesome, I'm glad you made it!" He signs the book and I thank him and walk away and I don't stop smiling until several hours later, even though my train got delayed and then cancelled and then the next train got delayed and so on and so forth...... Because holy shit Scott Lynch knew who I was. AND THEN the next day I examined the signed page, and I quote: "All your art will always be infinitely better than mine!" and HOLY FUCK Scott Lynch has seen my art and liked it. Holy fucking shit. And that's why I died of happiness a few months ago. ((the reason this is so long and detailed is to make you forget the relevant details at the beginning, because I did and it's part of the story in and of itself.)) Do you know how many times I accidentally typed Scott Lunch? Too many.
Spoiler: that time my mom met Freddie Mercury This must have been before she met my dad, but my mom once met Freddie Mercury. Sort of. She was in a hotel, and she was trying to get into the elevator to get back up to her room. She noticed that the lobby of the hotel was completely mobbed with people, mostly young women, and she thought it was odd but didn't really think anything else. And they seemed to be crowding her particular elevator that she was in. And then from across the way there's Freddie Mercury just rolling his eyes and smiling and shit. He got off within a few floors and my mom was just stood there trying to remember how to breathe.
@Bel Capricorn Oh my god. That's fantastic. I've been fansqueeing over all three of their books for a good long while, and it's always awesome when the actual people turn out to be cool too.
