If you don't know who Lindy West is, educate yourself. She is amazing and I love her.
She writes about a lot of political things and personal things, but I think my favourite headline of hers was My wedding was perfect - and I was fat as hell the whole time.
With all the crazy shit going on in the world right now, there are a lot of people with a lot of opinions and they just won't shut up. But as I said to Katr just yesterday morning, "I am SO TIRED of listening to people OPINE about things. ENOUGH with the OPINING. Except for Lindy West, I'd listen to her opine about anything."
Waaaay back in June of 2016, Lindy West came to Vancouver (!!!) to promote her book Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman and I was beside myself with glee.
I got two tickets to the reading because my friend Elai said she was interested in coming, not so much because she was a Lindy West fangrrrl, but because Lindy was doing a reading, a talkback AND a signing, and Elai is friends with the Globe and Mail's Marsha Lederman, who was moderating the talkback.
Elai: "Marsha's so nice. We can say hi to her after - maybe she'll introduce you to Lindy West!"
Me: ALL THE SCREAMS EVER.
A couple of weeks before the event, Elai texted with some bad news. She couldn't come to the reading, because her husband Doai's niece was "graduating from high school" or some bullshit milestone like that.
Me: But...isn't she going to graduate again from university in a few years anyway? Lindy West is only here one night!! And you know Marsha! Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!
Elai: Sorry!!
Me: quiet weeping
So I ended up going to the reading solo. It was TOTALLY packed and Lindy was hilarious and real and lovely and Elai's supposed "friend" Marsha was an excellent moderator and asked great questions. Afterwards, I bought two copies of the book and stood in line to get them signed.
I'm not going to lie. I got a little emotional. I might have had a little cry. "This must be how girls felt when they were meeting the Beatles," I thought to myself, as I dabbed at my dewy eyes with a bar napkin, "but Lindy West has WAAAAAY better hair."
To speed things along, one of the organizers of the event handed out post-it notes and pencils. You were supposed to just write your name out for Lindy West to copy into your book, so she wouldn't have to be all "How's it spelled? Got it. 'To Roko, my biggest fern' ". It was a long line, so I had some time to compose the bon mots I hoped Lindy West would agree to write into her book.
I got up to the front. It was my turn. I was no longer crying but my eye was twitching.
Me: "I'm so nervous!"
Lindy West: "You don't need to be nervous! I'm just a regular lady."
Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Lindy West was very kind. She signed my books as requested and laughed gamely at my nervous jokes. It was by far the loveliest fangrrrl experience I've ever had. Thank you, Lindy West, for living up to my completely unrealistic expectations.
Here is how Lindy West sign my & Kate's book:
As I mentioned, I bought a second book and that one was for Elai. I waited nearly six months before I gave it to her for Christmas.
Aaaaaand...SCENE.
