June 21.2001.3:30pm - Neil Gaiman is on a signing tour to promote his new book AMERICAN GODS, and he's going to be in Lexington, Kentucky, USA at Joseph-Beth Booksellers on June 23.  I'm going to go as Delirium.

   I have just bleached my hair for the third time, and if it isn't light enough...  I suppose I'll probably scream.

   A friend is supposed to be coming over to help me put pink, yellow, blue, and purple in my hair...  on a seperate note, we're going to go see Tomb Raider.

   I haven't managed to get coloured contacts, although I did find the perfect comic-book ones on a site somewhere...  might find the link, later.

   I've got a tie-dyed skirt and a shirt that I made, with chibi-Endless on it; I've decided to wear the shirt even though I don't really like the way it came out.  Maybe I'll ask Neil to sign it.

   I've got a Good Omens uncorrected proof and a copy of Brief Lives for him to sign...  and The Selected Works of Oscar Wilde from 1927 that I want to ask him to sign; maybe with something like 'Dearest MistaCat, thanks for the tea; I apologize for Bosie breaking the teapot--Oscar' and then on the next page or in the corner or something, 'This is a forgery signed by Nel Gurgle'...
 

11:16pm - I've put the dye on...  going to leave it for at least 24 hours, I think.

The following dyes were used:

June 22.2001.12:42pm - I managed to sleep!  Heh.  The dye has dried now.

June 22.2001.5:14pm - Dye is rinsed out...  waiting for it to dry.  If it looks like it's gonna wait until after dark to dry, I'll have to blow-dry it...  wanna get good, sunlit pics.

   I met a fellow Gaiman fan at Wal-Mart, of all places.  She complimented my clipped-up-covered-in-dye hair and said hers used to be pink...  I explained that I was going to be Del for a signing, and told her where the signing is...  ::bounce::  I hope she's there.

   ::waves::  Hihi, Nita.
 

June 22.2001.9:32pm - Hair is dry.  New pics.  Yay.  Hi, Libby.

June 23.2001.9:16am - Wow.

   The reading/signing was amazing.

   I have an account on my laptop, written during the ride home.  I'll have to post it later, and add to it, and take soundfiles from my tape.  Photos, too.  Whee...

   I gave Neil a little gift and a note, and the note had my url on it, so, Neil, if that's you...  hi:)
 

June 24.2001.12:22am - I'm quite tired...  I'll add some photos and then add the account from the ride home later, and the soundfiles...

June 24.2001.1:40pm - I'm sleepy.

Here's what I wrote on the way home...
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June 23-2001-4:23pm--Neil Gaiman hugged me!!

I'm on my way from the booksigning to my grandparents' house, listening to the tape I recorded of the reading, and the bit where he signed my books...  and I assume he's on his way to Ohio, now.

The funniest bit was when he said "fucked" and the microphone went dead.

He picked me to ask a question, which wasn't a question, it was a statement; "Say something about Strange Girls."  Knowing I'd forgotten a word in the title; he corrected me with "Strange Little Girls"...  and he went on to talk about Tori, and the album, and how wonderful it is, and how he's not going to say what it's about "because Tori hasn't said, and it's Tori's."

I'm in...  some little town, and we just passed one of those historical marker signs that said "Local Authoress" at the top...  ::looks up at a watertower::  Ah, it's Lancaster.  [this is the sort of note I make to myself-MistaCat]

I wandered around a lot and several people took photos of me.

Death was there, in the form of a girl with a band; I will provide a link to the band's site, and a pic of her, later.  When she walked in, I said, "Ohhh!!  I thought you wouldn't come!!"  And she smiled back and said, "Of course I came!"  And my mother looked boggled and said, "Who is that?"  And I said, "I dunno.  It was Death."  And she said, "Ohh."

There was a baby wearing a chibiEndless shirt.  His mother looked at me and said, "Look, she's wearing the same shirt as you!"  So I took a photo of the baby--whose name was Sean Patrick--and his mother took a photo of me.

I was amazed that no one else showed up as Del or Death...  and no one as Dream...

If you're ever in Lexington, KY, go to Joseph-Beth Booksellers and get tira mi su in the cafe.  It's amazing.

Death and the guy she was with were just ahead of me in the signing line, and she gave Neil a CD from her band.  Neil: Curiosity...  Magnajolt Lightningbolt...  which is the band?  Her: Curiosity.  Neil: Oh, good.  That's how I would have picked it.  ((Or words to that effect; it was very cool.))

Then it was my turn...  wow.  He signed two things over the limit...  American Gods, Brief Lives, Good Omens uncorrected proof ["--MistaCat-- Burn This (expensive proof) Ner Gul"; he said, "Terry will give you the punch line if you ever get him."; "Ner Gul" must be a sign of tired hands;)], the Selected Works of Oscar Wilde ["this was not written by Nerful"; he wouldn't sign it "Oscar Wilde"--maybe Pratchett will;  I think I'll ask every author I see to write something in it...], and my chibiEndless shirt.  He asked if he'd answered my Tori question, and I said yes, thank you, and I'm sorry I forgot the word.  And he said it was okay and that he only gave the full title for the people who didn't know.  And then went on about how wonderful the album is, and how all of his family, even the ones who don't like Tori, like this album.  And they're all mad at him for taking the album with him on tour.  He complimented my costume and my hair, using the word "magnificent", and then said, "Do you need to be in a picture?  You have the look of someone who desperately needs to be in a picture."

At my Gramma's, now, so I'll listen to the tape later and get an exact quote from the picture thing...
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   It was "Do you want to be in a photo or something?  You have the look about you of someone who desperately needs to be in a photo."

More later...
 

July 6.2001.3:51pm - Eep.

Soundfiles!  They're all RealAudio files, so you'll have to have RealPlayer to listen to them.

neiltori.ra
Neil: [arranging pens or books or something; can't remember]  That goes there, and this goes here...  so, did I answer your Tori question?
Me: Yes, thank you!
Neil: You're very welcome.
Me: I'm sorry I forgot the word, I, I knew I was forgetting one of the words.
Neil: S'okay, I knew what y'meant.
Me: [laughs]
Neil: The only reason I said it, said it in full--
Me: Yeah--
Neil: Is for those people who didn't know what... [indecipherable]
Me: Yeah.
Neil: It is *such* a cool album!  [indecipherable] And my family... some of my family like Tori, and some of them don't, and they aaalll wound up just sort of playing this over and over, and they all got really mad when I took it on tour with me.
Me: [laughs]

neilterry.ra
This is from the reading, so the quality isn't very good:(
"And he sends me messages...  people keep coming up to me on these signing tours and they say, 'I've got a message for you from Terry Pratchett.' [audience laughs; Neil makes a funny face and the audience laughs even more]  'What is it?'  And they say, 'Terry says . . . . "with a shade of green."' [audience laughs] To which I reply, 'Well, did he say what colour green?' [audience laughs]  And they say, 'No.'  'Useless.  Thank you.' [audience laughs]"

neilautopsy.ra
This is also from the reading.
"Jacquel ignored them.  He took a big scalpel and made a deep incision in a large V that began at both collarbones and met at the bottom of her breastbone, and then he turned the V into a Y, another deep incision that continued from her breastbone to her pubis.  He picked up what looked like a small, heavy chrome drill with a medallion-sized round saw blade at the business end.  He turned it on, and cut through the ribs at both sides of her breastbone.  The girl . . . opened . . . like a purse.  Shadow, suddenly, was aware of a mild but unpleasantly penetrating, pungent, meaty smell.  I'll skip the details of the autopsy... [audience laughs] I can't believe somebody went 'awwww'!"