Six months prior: in_my_niteshirt suggested we go on a trip to meet Megan if the opportunity arose.

Two or three weeks before: The right opportunity presented itself--two appearances in two days, one of the appearances being a speaking engagement (You mean she talks TOO?). Except that to travel out there would be crazy and obsessive and actually going never seemed like a possibility to me. So I'm whining and moaning to the hublet because Megan's always showing up somewhere else and she's never going to come here and I'll never meet her and wah wah wah and the hublet finally says, "You should just go. It's not crazy, it's fun, and you should call up your friends and just do it." (have I mentioned that I love him forever and ever?) I hesitantly, but hopefully texted my neighbor, Michelle, thinking she'd say, "What now?" but she took it seriously and made the arrangements! WHAT? Then I sent a message to Rosie and Niteshirt; Niteshirt was on board immediately (YAY!) but OH NOES, Rosie already had plane tickets for a family trip and they couldn't be changed! HER AWESOME MOM CHANGED THEM ANYWAY and we were on our way! Two weeks of beaming and texting and messaging and and spontaneous crazy dancing ensued.

The day of, Monday April 26th: Niteshirt's husband drove us to the airport. There was waaaay too much grinning going on.

Rosie and Michelle



Me and Niteshirt


Yeah, just TRY and wipe the goofy grins off our faces. I dare ya.

We walked all over San Fransicso with the few sightseeing hours we had:
Fisherman's wharf (the waterfront and sailboats were charming, the wharf...not so much)



So we went off the beaten path for lunch (divey Thai food restaurants are the best!)



And through the North Beach Italian area to Chinatown (really cool walk with quality people watching)



Then up to Coit tower and back to our car. It was a steep climb with one loooong flight of stairs that elicited a poor but recognizable imitation of a goat (which is why everyone's laughing here). We're about halfway up the stairs in this picture and, boy, were we feelin' it by the top. Poor Irene.



And off to meet sgwordy for dinner in Albany. If only we could have mustered some excitement or enthusiasm.... Okay, STOP BEAMING, it's getting ridiculous!



And finally, the main event! We met up with drashizu and agh_4 and began group hyperventillating.



We were all milling around the middle school library, talking and gushing, when Megan walked in. She says she doesn't glow or float or anything like that, but she definitely has an aura of something (awesomeness...brilliance...nuclear radiation). We were freaking out and trying very hard to act normally and we did a pretty good job, I think. She came in and set up her laptop at the front



while I worked up the nerve to go sit on the front row. See that empty seat? Yeah, I took it. Go me!

And no worries, she asked for our Sounis names and totally knew who we were! Plus, she was extremely personable and easy-going and funny (really funny) and an absolute delight to talk to. She has great comic timing and an ability for subtle physical comedy that just makes her stories. I could tell you the same stories and they just wouldn't be as interesting or entertaining.

She talked about how when you're young, people often say, "Everybody has a gift!" usually as consolation right after you've bombed something that obviously is not your gift. And how you don't have to know what your gift is at age ten. She went on to talk about becoming a writer at well past age ten and a selection of events along the way, which were not only vastly entertaining, but pretty inspirational as well. I wish my children could have been there, particularly my daughters, to get the overall message.

Then she showed pictures off her laptop of some things that have inspired her. Such as her trip to Greece, including her sojourn down into the cistern of Mycenae with only her penlight to see (these are not Megan's pictures, I stole them off the internet, but they are very like hers). At the end of the story, she explained how maybe we could see similarities between that and when Gen steals Hamiathes's gift and we all went, "Ahhhhhh!"




She talked about what she thinks of when she pictures Attolia's palace. The exterior was inspired by the Musee de l'armee in Paris (but Megan had really specific shots from certain parts of the museum exterior and I couldn't find anything on the net that looked like what she showed so you can Google it, but it won't be what we saw). However, the interior of Attolia's palace looks something like this:

Which is our Library of Congress. At this point, we were all oohing and ahhing and picturing certain parts of the book and generally freaking out.

Then we had a question and answer period. One of the first questions came from a really interesting guy on the front row, who asked, "You're hardcore, can I worship you?" We pounced on him and his friends at the end and made them promise to look us up here at Sounis, but to finish the books first (at least through King of Attolia)!

There was a fair amount of "Not telling", but also some very interesting answers, including when Megan told us how much she likes Sophos and how "He's so cuuuuuute!"

She told us about when she wrote the King of Attolia, that the book the we have is only the first half of the story. She is now writing the second half.

Yes, you read that correctly, people.

And she gave us permission to tell you! She also showed us pictures of the catacombs of Paris and said something like that might make an appearance sometime in the future. Ooooooooooh.

Rosie and drashizu showed off their awesome t-shirts


Crazy Sounis socks


Megan signed books while we giggled and acted like idiots (I don't think she noticed, heh heh)


The next day was the signing at Kepler's books. There were fans of all ages! It was really interesting to hear serious questions from children as young as age five and to hear the way Megan answered them. She knows just what to say to each person. Sometimes the answer was "Not telling" and sometimes it was something else. Priceless!



Opening Agh's adorable little present!


Signing Michelle's books (and wearing the Attolian style earrings Michelle made for her which she put on immediately because she's so gracious and awesome!)


The Sounis crowd with Megan


This photo is obviously photoshopped; Megan would never do anything so juvenile!


Inside joke: The world's greatest book on diabetes which isn't eligible for the Newbery. Hee! Not really.


Dinner with the gang after. We lingered and lingered. We didn't want to part!


In closing:

The trip was SO WORTH IT. If you can manage to attend an appearance, you will experience things you can't experience anywhere else. Retelling the things Megan says simply isn't the same (you should have seen her impersonation of Gen whining!). She is truly an extraordinary person.

And meeting other fans is WONDERFUL. I can't tell you how much fun we had with sgwordy, agh, and drashizu. They are so awesome. I don't know that we'll ever meet again, but I will definitely never forget them.

And the best part of my trip


Awwwww.