On the trail of Origami Yoda

I felt like a complete groupie last Saturday. A really weird groupie.

Instead of a party for his birthday, Tigo wanted to go to the National Book Festival this past Saturday and see his favorite author Tom Angleberger speak. You know, those Origami Yoda books. Well, that is a request you never would have heard me ask for as a kid.... no party, just books. Not so much.

In my usual attempt to try to schedule a few too many things at the same time, I thought we could make a big adventure out of it. A wild goose chase is what really happened.

Waiting for the Metro.
And yes Azalea did spray her hair pink to match the pink ballroom gown she decided to wear, along with blue high heels.

Tigo, Azalea and I headed off for the metro, on our journey through the underground world for our first time in over three years. You know, back in the city, gotta get into the city life.

Not the glamour as I was hoping. Usually the metro is fairly empty on the weekend.... except when there is major repairs going on the line, not as many trains are running, there is a Nationals' baseball game, and a National Book Fair down on the mall in front of the Smithsonian. All that means, too many folks in my space.

This is actually a shot from the ride home. I wasn't capable of taking a pic on the way there.

We jam packed into our late running car and I prayed for dear life that I would not in anyway seperate from the kids in the crazy crowds. (Never let em see you sweat was not the motto on this stinky train.) There was absolutely no room to move, body odor was everywhere, I could barely move my arm to scratch my nose with out elbowing the 20 people that I had just become intimately involved with. And since I was mugged/ robbed on a subway train similar to this once in Spain, I was a little paranoid of my kids getting away. (I left out that detail with the kids when I was touting the greats of public transportation, and well, apparently I left out a lot.)

Tigo started reading while waiting in line.

Finally when we arrived much to late for my liking, but with still enough time we took the long escalator ride to the blue skies above. And of course the BOOK SALES tent was strategically placed so that no one could come or go with out seeing it immediately and being lured in. So we headed into the tent to get Tigo Tom Angleberger's latest book The Secret of the Fortune Wookie, so that we could get it signed. We also picked up a few other books from the presenting authors like Dominic Moceanu's new Winning Team which is a fictional gymnasatics book that Lola is now reading.

 

Olympic gymnast Dominic Moceanu talking about her new books.

So then we raced to the furthest tent away where Tom was to be speaking at 12:40 (I feel like I can call by his first name now, and it's ok). It was 12:35 and we (I) was a little bummed that we missed R.L. Stine, the author of the Goosebumps series, but Disney Jr's Choo Choo Soul was going to entertain us whether we liked it or not until the next author came on. 

Marc Brown free draws for a rowdy crowd of elementary aged kids.

So the next author was PBS's Arthur's Marc Brown. Who was absolutely fabulous, and fun and entertaining and he answered questions and drew pictures. But he was not Tom.

Waiting.... waiting.... interested, but not who we are looking for...

Then there was Choo Choo Soul again. Apparently they were the hosts of this stage. Then the next author was Jeff Kinney, the author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. And he was even better and super fun and interesting and full of good advice and personal naratives about his journey as an author and cartoonist. So good. But he still wasn't Tom Angleberger. (We went back to full names, as I was a little upset, and we use full names when people are getting into trouble.)

Tigo's in the red on the left, Jeff Kinney on stage.

So I asked a nice volunteer about what happen. Explaining that we were there before his time, he hasn't shown.... Wassup? Oh, he came on early. .... But it's your son's birthday, I'll see if I can grab him before he leaves for a special one on one. Awesome, you say.... Except, she never came back. If you ask me, that was a mean escape tactic to get away from a crazy mom. Hmmmm.

So apparently we missed him, he was already signing books on the other end of the festival. When Tigo realized that Tom Angleberger wasn't going to show up again. He was devastated. So I needed to vent. But I couldn't tell the kids how mad I was, but I didn't want to sound like a crazy on Facebook, so I tweeted. Yes, I went to twitter, and to my 2 followers. But hashtags fail me not. Social media pulled through and I saw an #origamiyoda tag that Tom Angleberger was speaking and signing books at Just One More Page Books in Arlington, in just one more little hour at. Heck yeah! We can do this thing.

 So I did what any lunatic mother would do and made my kids run down the gravelly path back to the metro so that we could cram alongside with our 20,000 closest strangers and beeline it to the Ballston metro where we parked at my dad's house and then drive to the book store and get into a seat where Mr. Angleberger (he is getting a little respect now that we finally see him) is about to speak in 3, 2, 1..... Origami Yoda time!!!

While the National Book Festival was lively, being here in close quarters was absolutely awesome.

Tom came out, started drawing pictures, totally messing with the kids. Making jokes, playing mind games, calling everyone Larry, giving away his drawings, having fun, making the the kids laugh, creating huge origami yodas, interacting and then signing books.

Luckily we had all our books with us for him to sign and we bought the others outside the series and had him sign those. Then Tigo presented him with about 5 of his own little origami creations that he got Tom to sign.

Then the line went through, and people left and Tigo hung around like a groupie and went back to talk with him and ask him more questions about the meaning of life. And Tigo showed him his own designs, trying to run his ideas with Tom to see if they were a good idea.

Here Tom is looking at a "house" that Tigo created for his origami wookie. You can tell by Tom's smile how thoroughly impressed he was.

Tom was super nice and fun with the kids. The only thing I need after all that was said and done was some good fish tacos and a margarita from Clare and Don's up the street.

I kind of like it when authors are like rock stars and you chase them around the city to meet them. It's cool when they are cool too.

Read on kids!