Book event

Last night I went to a book reading/author event at Third Place Books, Jen Lancaster reading from and talking about her new book, Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist's Quest To Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, Or Why Pie is Not The Answer.

So what does this have to do with running, you may ask? ***

Well, I did skip yoga to go to this. (I have also been known to skip yoga to go out to dinner, walk on the beach, or watch The Biggest Loser. I am an equal opportunity yoga skipper. Though I do love it! It's just easy to skip something that doesn't even start until 7:15 p.m.)

But really, here is where my fine runner's training and conditioning came into play. After the reading, speaking, and question & answer period (all of which were very entertaining and funny, as would be expected), we moved into the book signing portion of the evening.

Having past experience of waiting in line for an hour (while desperately needing the bathroom) to have a book signed by a very funny, popular and chatty author, I had no intention of letting that happen again. The minute the words "book signing" came out of Jen's mouth, I leaped to my feet for a mad dash to the other side of the store (leaving my empty latte cup and jacket in my mother's care). "I can beat these people, I run marathons," I thought as I sprinted through the store, leaping over the giant chess pieces on the floor game along the way. (Yes, I said "marathons," although I only actually do half marathons. Marathons has a better ring to it. Even in my head.)

I probably would have been at the front of the line if I hadn't drawn the line at actually elbowing people aside to get past them. So there were probably a dozen people ahead of me. But I only had to wait about 20 minutes, and I didn't need to go to the bathroom. So it all worked out fine.
(I haven't started reading the book yet, because I'm saving it for my trip to St. Louis next week. But I'm sure it will be as funny and enjoyable as her last two books. So I have no problem giving it a plug right here... to my non-existent audience. Buy the book!) (I, by the way, bought two copies at full price last night, thus supporting both the bookstore and the author. Kudos to me!)

***On a slightly more serious note, the book is in fact about Jen's efforts to lose some weight and get into better shape to improve her health. I believe (from her comments, though not having yet read the book, but having in fact met her, as evidenced in the picture above), that although she did not lose all that much weight on her parade of diets, she did improve her fitness and health a whole lot. So kudos to her too!