When it was announced he was going to be at SDCC, I kind of
geeked out. Since Saturday was a disappointing day (more on that in a future
post) I didn’t know if I could get a raffle ticket. I knew logistically, I could not get in his
raffle line and still do WB and Fox. So he
was not on my radar.
After the WB and Fox lines were done, I headed downstairs to
get in James Dashner’s line. Since that signing went quick, I decided to be
greedy and see what was left in the raffle area. Surprisingly, Weird Al still had tickets available.
I even pulled a winning raffle ticket. So I figured they gave out a lot of
tickets.
When it was time to line up, I didn’t even bother. I went
and did some other stuff and came back 30 minutes later. The line had moved but still a lot of people
were still waiting. I sat and ate and then joined the line. Yes, I was at the
end but I was pretty confident he would not leave early or before everyone was
done.
The line moved slowly.
I played Words with Friends. In front of me were 2 children. They parents dropped
them off. The boy was 10 ish. The girl was 6 ish. They played their electronic
games and shared a little fold up chair. They were not obnoxious. They were not too
antsy. They did not mess with my calm.
The line still moved
slowly. I had been in line about 2 hours. When we were close to the front, Mom
and Dad came back. Maybe 20 people were in front of me. After leaving the kids unattended for 2 hours,
Dad joined the kids in line. I’m not going to nominate them for the Parents of
the Year Awards.
Dad started talking to the people around him. He was very
excited. He was an autograph collector but didn’t have time to stand in this
line as he had other work to do. I get that but these kids were young.
As Dad and the 2 kids get to the front of the line, just as
they are to buy a CD, the little girl stood up funny. She took a half step to
the side. Then I saw something drip. I thought
maybe she spilt her water. Then I saw a
puddle. It took a moment for all of this to sink in for the rest of the crowd. To
his credit, Dad was very nice. When he noticed, he asked if she was okay. The
girl started crying. Dad gave her a hug and said it was okay. He warned the crowd and he actually got some
paper towel to clean up.
The odd thing, the girl not mentioned needing to go the restroom.
She never did the pee-pee dance. She just stood and let go.
After a brief wait, I stepped over the toxic spill and
bought a CD and photo. There was a ton I wanted to say to Wield Al. Mostly I wanted to thank him for the hours of
entertain as the wife and I drove across country listening to his music.
Back before XM and iPods, there was a lot of static on the
radio as you drove long distances. The miles
between cities left the radio empty or with music that was too faint to hear or
too boring. At night, the talk radio was bizarre. Having Weird Al and other comedians’
tapes was a life saver. Those tapes helped pass the time in those dead zones.
He graciously signed. He thanked me for waiting and coming
out. All I could say was thanks. The words of appreciate for staying awake
after 20 hours on the road were left unsaid. But I can say it now. Thank you for getting me there safe and sound.
AH
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