This is just a quick little post about the excitement I had at meeting my favorite childhood author - R. L. Stine! His "Goosebumps" series inspired my love for reading and all things scary/creepy. To this day I remember gobbling up every book my mother brought home for me. I hated reading for school assignments, but put one of these in front of me and I'd sit down for hours.

It all started with a Facebook post. I was scrolling through my newsfeed and saw a photo with a lot of "likes" and comments with the title proclaiming his name. It immediately drew my attention. I read further and discovered that he would be joining a group of authors at a book signing event on Sept 12th. I immediately messaged my friend saying I wanted to go as well. All throughout this past week we had been fangirling and discussing how excited we were. Oddly enough, my boyfriend had only barely heard of him and never heard of the Goosebumps series. I was in shock!

Well, that Saturday rolled around and I was getting nervous. I am extremely shy whenever I meet someone for the first time and mix that with the fact that he's famous and my childhood hero. I was doomed! So I convinced my cousin to go along with me (she's the silly one in the photos above). I had never been to a book signing before and had no idea what to expect. Turns out it was a giant event where the roads were blocked off, tents were everywhere and tons of authors from well known to just starting out were present. Strangely enough I turned into the leader and spotted the huge signs stating "book signing" so made a bee line there. We were 10th in line. However turns out R. L. Stine and the other authors were inside the Art Center giving speeches on new and upcoming books. I missed that, however I was pretty darn close to the front of the line to actually meet him. Skip to an hour later and I was next in line.

Looking back, I feel like a complete idiot. I had my one moment to gush and tell him I'm his biggest fan and how his books inspired my creativity, my love of the supernatural, and how his books got me to finally start reading. Well, of course that didn't happen. I walked up to him and simply outstretched my hand to give him my book to sign. (Side note, I went to several thrift stores trying to find one of his books). Well, at first he just stared at me with a smile on his face. I'm sure he was waiting for me to say something. So instead he asked, "Hi there, how are you?" My reflexes kicked in and I automatically replied with, "I'm good. How are you?" He lightly laughed and made some remark about being the center of attention so he was swell. I was so nervous I had the sweaty armpits thing going (sorry if TMI). He then took the book from me, signed it and paused. He looked at me again and waited. I didn't say anything. How embarrassing! He had pity on me and slide the book back across the table while pointing and saying "that's a creepy one". I smiled and agreed. After a couple seconds I simply said, "Thank you!" with a little more enthusiasm than I was feeling. I walked away. I walked away! AH! I'm such a moron! While in line I begged my cousin to "not leave me" however the second I stepped up to him at the table she veered off somewhere. I'm a strength in numbers kind of gal. How disappointing. I was so embarrassed, he probably thought I was mentally impaired, and my cousin ditched me. Oh well. Atleast I have a good story and his autograph.

After all of this I immediately started texting people that don't have Facebook or Instagram (because we all knew I blew social media up!) My mom was as excited as I was. She remembers me begging her to buy me more books and having those old school VHS movies with the super thick cases you normally see on Disney movies. I watched the movie versions of the books so many times I had them memorized. Oh, the good old days. Well, I digress. Have any of you met your childhood heroes?